By Ali Bohrer

We started our morning off with a quick stop at the famous ‘Welcome to Las Vegas” sign for a group photo before beginning our ride to Los Angeles. Along the way we stopped at Peggy Sue’s ‘50s Diner. Everything was 1950s-themed and it had a pretty unique gift shop. To finish off our ride to Los Angeles, we watched the movie “Crash.” Besides being a great movie, it explored such issues as immigration and racism which we have, and will be, discussing throughout California and our entire journey.

Once in LA, we went to City Hall to meet with Jose Cornejo and Sulma Hernendez, the Chief and Asst. Chief of Staff for City Councilmember Tony Cardenas. They discussed the boycott that the city of Los Angeles has passed on Arizona due to that state’s passing of bill SB-1070, which is about asking people suspected of being illegal immigrants for their identification. Yesterday, in Las Vegas, we discussed the benefits of this bill when met with members of the Tea Party. So today it was our opportunity to hear the downsides of the law and discuss the benefits of immigration on our society.

After the meeting we had some free time for dinner and shopping at a huge farmer’s market before going to what, for me, was one of the highlights of this trip so far, the poetry slam. This was the part of the journey that I had been looking forward to most and I was not disappointed.  We watched about 15 poets pour their hearts out on stage and truly lighten up our faces. From topics like love, to fighting, to racism, we saw everything and I am sure I can say that this was an experience that none of us will ever forget. Many of us are now inspired to write our own poetry, and I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few years our fellow Etgarians are the ones performing on that stage. It was definitely a long and exciting day for everyone.