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Washington LEAF intern Tiana Cruz. Photo © TNC

Tiana Cruz, 16, from Queens.

Day 10

After more than a week together in Washington, the girls have nicknames for each other. Tiana, 16, is “Ramen.” It’s a reference to her favorite food back in Queens, which she’s been craving big-time.

She got to try some local soup today in downtown Seattle, where the girls were also treated to a tour of The University of Washington. This tour comes at a relevant time, since Tiana has been thinking a lot about where she wants to attend school. She writes:

On this day we were able to visit Seattle, a city that differs from New York City. In Seattle, the buildings aren’t as big and it isn’t as rushed as New York (not to mention the people have time to smile and wave here). First we stopped at The Nature Conservancy office in Seattle where we met the awesome staff that works there. We had stopped to play catch with their big blow-up globe, singing “We have the whole world in our hands.”

Afterward we decided to check out the Seattle Aquarium. We saw some beautiful and funny-looking fish. We were also able to see an octopus and some marine mammals. My favorite was the sea otters, who were sleeping at the time.

After leaving the Aquarium, we met up with the Conservancy staff for lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant where the soup (pho) is delicious. Unfortunately we couldn’t stay long because we had a college visit at The University of Washington. We got lost on the way, because the campus is just huge, and had to give ourselves our own tour. After looking at the beautiful, yet big campus, we ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant with Ailena and headed home for another early morning the next day. —Tiana

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About This Blog

Tiffany Smith, Tiana Cruz and Khadijah Michael are spending three weeks in Washington as part of The Nature Conservancy’s LEAF program, which provides paid internships to high school youth. You can read about their adventures in this daily updated blog.