Time went by so fast. As always. I didn't even realize that my summer internship started a month ago, while still reminiscing the great things that happened in June.

Sunset at Baker Beach

I was so thankful to become an Apple WWDC Scholarship winner for the second time. And this time, I was no longer traveling alone – there were several others winning the scholarship from London.

Prior to my departure, I expected this trip would be very much different than the previous two, as I got my driving license. I was daydreaming about driving down to Cupertino to meet Tim Cook (actually he was too busy to meet anybody). Of course, I was also thinking of exploring more and having some fun.

Me and the rented Dodge Charger

It's been four years since the first time I ever visited San Francisco. So I decided to go back to some places I went in 2012. Golden Gate Bridge, the Red and White Fleet cruise, Union Square... Good memories. We rented a car and drove around the Bay Area. We visited Stanford, Facebook, Google and Apple, which are all in different towns. It was kinda crazy as it was my first time driving without an instructor or another driver, especially when we almost got bumped into by a coach in front of Facebook...

On the way back to SF we decided to visit Battery Spencer, featuring panoramic views of Golden Gate & the city. It was already midnight, I expected this to be epic but when we were actually there... it was just so breathtaking, just like in a wildest dream.

So the epic part of this trip is over, now it's time for the even more epic story. Let's talk about WWDC. This year there were 350 student scholarships were given to student and STEM teachers from all over the world. Also I'd say that this year's scholarship events were much more well-organized than last year. Each of us got a NFC badge, a free Apple TV developer kit, lots of free food and drinks, ANNND selfies with Tim Cook & his friends. I still remember when Tim showed up, everyone just rushed towards him. I couldn't be more patient to stay there and tell people "patient is a virtue". I guess you just can’t beat the kids when you’re a bit older ¯\(ツ)/¯

The whole conference week was so packed that we only had a little time to socialize. I was so delighted to talk to strangers, make connections and sometimes just stay with friends. I feel that the "learn, build and share" spirit is everywhere: we built apps to win the scholarship and attend the conference in person; we learned so much from people from different places in the world; we shared our stories with each other. Then it just came back to building – to build life-long friendships. This positive loop just goes on and on…

Scholarship Orientation

Bill Graham Civic Auditorium

Selfie with Tim Cook

Developing Life-long Friendships

I’m just gonna pick some phrases from the background to summarize this trip: "golden gate done", "friends added", "making Mom proud".

Now the story finished. It's time to come back to normal life.

Sounds sad isn't it? Well, I'm always looking forward to my next crazy summer.