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Hello my name is Manuel Reyes and I am in professor Ximena Hernandez English 101 class, This quarter has been fascinating because we have started to learn about the Los Angeles River. The Los Angeles River was something I was not really familiar with until I actually got to read and hear about it. The only thing I have known Los Angeles for is its graffiti art, dodger stadium, and tall skyscrapers. I did not know that Los Angeles had some nature. This class has gave me and my classmates the opportunity to experience nature In Los Angeles by attending a clean up project by FOLAR. As headed to the event I noticed that I passed some bridges that were empty and dry like it was mentioned in the readings it seem like a "cemented slope". As we got to the event I noticed that it looked different because their seem to be some nature. As they handed us bags to start the task of picking up trash I noticed families with kids working together to make a difference. As we started I felt that there was not much trash to pick up because all the trash that has been littered was not seen but as me and my friends started looking more deep we found more and more trash in branches and above the rocks. After filling up our bags with trash we decided to go get a drink and take our trash to the trucks.  On our way their we noticed that a shopping cart was pulled out of the river which made me think how it got there? Next, my friends and I decided to explore the Los Angeles River a little more, our exploration got us curious of what the other sides of the Los Angeles Rivers would look like. As we walked we started seeing a change from the place we started which was dry and to the destination we were in , their started to be more water, we seen ducks and  more green nature. Surely we knew that we ended up in East Los Angeles. On our way back we bumped into some art done by a famous artist named Brett Goldstone. He does art for the La River his art consist of welded fences in the form of an image of nature. It was really cool to bump into his art, Overall volunteering and cleaning up the Los Angeles river was a great experience because my contribution and the contribution of others made me feel like we made an impact in the community and to the environment.