Last Day of Our Trip

Unfortunately, today is the last day of our trip. We started again with an amazing breakfast at the hotel. We had to get up pretty early today, because we left for Alcatraz. Once we arrived, we got separated in groups of seven and left for Alcatraz on a boat.  On the island, we got showed around with an audio tour. It was really scary but cool seeing all the cells, especially the isolation cells.

 When we got off the island, we walked back to Pier 39 to eat lunch, which was delicious.
In the afternoon, we got to see the world famous Golden Gate Bridge, which is one of the places many people have on their bucket lists. It is pretty amazing that we got to see it at this very young age.  Well, we didn’t only get to see it; we walked over it, too. It was an amazing view over the San Francisco Bay from the middle of the bridge.  

Tonight, we’re having dinner at the hotel and a good-bye party. It’s always sad leaving friends, considering that two weeks ago we didn’t even know each other, and now we are best friends… isn’t that crazy??
Well, we all had a ton of fun on this trip, made a lot of new friends, and got to see the best places of the American West-Coast. To all future exchange students out there: If you have the opportunity to go on this 
trip, DO IT!

Max and Earl

Left Our Hearts in San Francisco

Monday June 16

Today San Francisco stole our hearts. We started our day with the cool morning breeze at the cable cars. It took a lot of cable cars to get the entire Belo group to The Union Station, but we all had a great time. The ride really showed us how unique the city is. You are constantly going up and down the huge hills. We all thought it was a great way to see the city instead of just walking around.

In the early afternoon, we spent time shopping in the big fashionable stores - some of us left with our wallets much emptier than we started. We were amazed by the city's open minded heart, everyone had their personal style, the gay parade was very present with the flags outlining the streets, and in general there was room for everyone. 

We had the opportunity to have a personal tour guide in each of the busses. We made a couple of stops, and everyone's favorite seemed to be the amazing panorama view from the the top of the hill outside the city - you could see everything!

When the tour was over, we headed to Chinatown, which was lit up by lanterns as far as the eye could reach. We spent time observing the culture, that was clearly different than the rest of the city. We finally went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant, where they served us food enough for days. We always feel a little bad for the people who are around our big group - we are not exactly quiet...

We are now at the hotel, realizing that this amazing trip has almost come to an end. It's incredible how close you can get to people in less than two weeks. We all feel so lucky to have met each other, and we know that some of these friendships will last for years to come. Wherever we will go in the world, we will have a friend waiting there for us.

Michelle Sand Mogensen (Denmark) & Delphine Rivier (Switzerland)

San Francisco!

Sunday 15/6/14 San Fran

We have an amazing day. We saw everything, we went from Yosemite to San Francisco and coming in to SF was beautiful we could see Alcatraz from far away, it was an amazing view but only for a short time because we came down town.

Down town we went to the de young, a museum of modern arts, it was very funny with the "right" perspective of things, the perspective that most young people might have so it will be fun for you as well

Loke

Sunday 15 San Francisco 

Today was fantastic after have seen the young museum and have coffee in the garden we took the bus and we went to pier 39 a little mall/port full of shops restaurants and a lot of chocolate shops! In pier 39 we have the chance to see sea lions and eat at the famous bubba gump the restaurant take the inspiration from the famous movie forest gump, where shrimp are made in hundred ways! After a fabulous dinner we went to the hotel and we have the last fun moments berfore go to bed, waiting for a new and exiting adventure the day after!

Carmen

Yosemite!

Today we left for a new amazing adventure, YOSEMITE. After spending some time in the bus with crazy music and crazy friends, we arrived at the Yosemite national park. First, we hiked up to the top of the Vernal Falls.

 It was pretty hard, but worth it. Not only because of the great company of our new friends, but also because we experienced a unique trip in the first national park in the United States. The beauty of the nature and the spectacular waterfall were breathless and stunning. After a quick lunch in the shade, we had a wonderful time discovering the park from the river. We rafted in boats of four people through the valley and everyone got wet at some point, either intentionally or by accident.  The water was freezing. In the beginning we were paddling really hard racing other boats like a competition, but later we just laid back and relaxed while the water was carrying us!

 After a few hours, we did it and we got dinner all together in the park. The way back to the hotel was hilarious. Probably because everybody is overtired and we easily get crazy and happy. At this point of the trip in the west coast we made really strong friendships and we are like a big family. Now we are looking forward for the last couple of days in San Francisco. It's gonna be amazing even if nobody wants to leave the coast and the new international friends. 

Veronica (Italy), Jana (Germany) and Laurent (Germany) ! 

On the Road!

After a long and exciting day at Disneyland, we had a shorter night, because we went to our next adventure so we checked out at the hotel after breakfast and drove to the famous Hollywood sign to take some pictures. The biggest disappointment was probably the Hollywood sign. We all imagine a HUGE sign but this was not the case. 

After the Hollywood sign we went to Beverly Hills where all the celebrities live. We took our group picture in front of the little and beautiful lake with the sign in the background. In the hills we had a break where we could get some food and enjoy the area. A big difference between the Walk of Fame and Beverly is that Beverly Hills is so much cleaner. You can see all the fancy and expensive stores. In some of those stores they just looked at your credit card and then decided if you can shop in this store or not. It was a little disappointing that we didn't see someone famous. Some people saw Kanye West in his car though! 

After a long and nice lunch, we left Los Angeles, and took the bus to our next hotel. During the ride Belo took good care about our entertainment. We watched two movies and the time went by pretty fast. Now we are all at the hotel and relaxing in the pool, and looking forward for tomorrow. 

Annemarie and Jessica from Germany

Disneyland!!!

After a longer sleep and a delicious breakfast a hundred happy and excited white t-shirts left the hotel to spent an amazing day at Disneyland!

Everybody had a great time, screaming on roller coasters, enjoying the good weather, meeting cartoons like Mickey Mouse, Goofy, etc.  and just having fun with new from friends from all over the world.

Our favorite ride was  definitely " Indiana Jones", where they brought us in  an excited and scary adventure!  For lunch we got the chance to eat a delicious burger while we were watching a show about  a Jedi training.

 But the best part was the end when we watched awesome fireworks appearing behind the Disney castle. The music, lights and the fireworks were so amazing! Everybody was amused and the hardest part was to leave the world of magic and happiness! What good day!

Magdalena (Austria) and Francesco (Italy)

Hollywood Stars!

Today was definitely a special day for everyone... because we were superstars at HOLLYWOOD!!! This whole morning we walked on red carpet and took many snapshots with our chased-after celebrities at Madame Tussauds.
Don't forget that we met the real Joan Rivers yesterday at Universal Studios and got to be a part of her filming while we took the studio tour! We saw the statue of her today.

 

Also, we saw The Chinese Theatre on the "Walk of Fame" and there was a graduation ceremony taking place in front of the theatre as well. How cool was that! 

After the moment of fame in Hollywood, let's go to the beach, let's go get a wave! We headed out to Huntington Beach; the city of surfing. And before we began our time under the sea and sand, my friends and I fed our hunger at the awesome seafood restaurant with a great sea view; Duke's. You can't believe how much we fell in love with their deliciously marvelous food!!!  

And finally, it's time for the beach!  FYI, this is the FIRST time for quite a bit of Thai girls to wear bikini, including me! And this was also the first time for a lot of students to swim in the Pacific ocean. There were a lot of first times!! It was really hard for a lot of us to get into the water first, because it was pretty cold and very windy. But as we went in, it was a lot of fun jumping up and down with the big waves. And of course, we did shopping! Along the Huntington Beach area there were a lot of shops. So some of us who did not want to hang out in the beach area went spending some more money! Thanks parents ;) 

*for some people who doesn't know, FYI = For Your Information

 

After this exciting day at the beach and Hollywood we went to the famous Italian "Buca di Beppo" restaurant. It is a very neat restaurant with a lot of pictures as a decoration, which brings the Italian vibe to it. And of course it was delicious! We had two sorts of salads, two sorts of spaghetti dishes, a chicken dish, a lot of different soft drinks, a brownie cake for dessert and of course a lot of bread which was eaten in about 5 minutes ;)

When we got back to the hotel at around some of us were not to tired, so they went to the pool for having some more fun! 

Today was such an awesome day. And behold, we are going to awesome Disneyland tomorrow!

(Cute) Writers & pictures

Ming - Thailand

Laura - Switzerland 

 

 

L.A. Here We Come!

 

Early in the morning we had to get up and leave fabulous Las Vegas. We are going to miss this crazy never sleeping city, that just seems like an amusement park. We had a long bus drive ahead of us which took us to one of the most famous cities in the world, L.A. Hollywood. Our first amazing stop was the Universal studios.

 After another beautiful group picture, all of us took a tour through the studios. We saw famous movie set ups and breathtaking special  effects. They showed us how they make the desired movie weather and we experienced a crazy 3D ride through the King Kong jungle.

 Following this tour, we split up into smaller groups to explore the park so that everyone got the chance to see their favorite movie scenes. Our list included a terrifying house of horrors, an exciting water show, and fun rides through the worlds of Transformers, Minions, Jurassic Park, The Simpsons, and into a pyramid of  ancient Egypt. As a perfect way to end this memorable day we went out to dinner to the Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood. We ate outside where we enjoyed the beautiful view.


 Already late in the day we got on the way to our hotel with a huge pool and a really nice jacuzzi, which will be our home for the next three days. We still can't believe how amazing this trip is and how many world famous places and cities we see every day. We are already excited for tomorrow. 

Good Night west coast! 

Teresa Beyer (Germany)& Pilar Diaz-Usechi (Spain)

Sunny Day in Las Vegas!

What a busy day! This morning we went to the Strip, the biggest street in Vegas and got to spend 4 hours walking around. It was insane! Everything is so huge, and everybody so.... Crazy! Vegas is something else. There are lights and music and people walking everywhere. I really feel like this place never stops. There's this "mile long" mall: a mile of stores..... Sounds awesome doesn't it???

 There's this casino that looks like a princess castle from Disneyland it's pretty funny to see! We saw the pyramid, the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower ( home sweet home! ) and SO MANY CASINOS. I wish I could have recorded everything, It was amazing. 

Then we headed back to the hotel, chilled at the pool and got ready to go out. We went to the stratosphere, which is the giant tower that you can on the top ( obviously the first floor is.... A casino. Surprising isn't it? ).  You can see the whole city from the top

On the top they have rides. Yes rides like Disneyland. There were three of them. It's kinda of hard to explain but in short, they throw you in the air above Vegas so you have an amazing view of the city. It was SO scary, but also breath taking.

 We went for dinner and then separated in two groups, one groups went to the show " e cirque du soleil " and the second one went to the Strip one more time. After a while over there we went back to the hotel and we're now enjoying the pool waiting for the other group to come back after their show.

Charlotte, France 

Vegas Baby!!!

Early in the morning we had a very cool yoga class (it was not mandatory), it really woke me up. After breakfast we checked out and we went on our way to Fabulous Las Vegas!! We did a few stops at Route 66, which I really enjoyed; everything was so retro and you felt frozen in time, and I took some really cool pictures!! We did one more stop to get something to eat/drink before having lunch in a mall Where People basically bought something nice clothes to wear that night. 

After that we arrived at the hotel and had some free time. I went to the pool, almost everybody was there. Then me and my roommates got ready for the limo tour! Everybody looked handsome!! Before the limos came we had dinner at a casino/restaurant where the food was international so you got to eat whatever you liked the most. I took Asian food and it was great. 

After dinner the limos arrived! We were separated by groups and I was in the yellow group, our limo was white and we where pretty excited. We danced all the time during the tour. In our first stop we watched a light show and there was a country concert which was so much fun!! We danced a lot and people in Vegas are fun, there was a couple that just got married there! Our second stop  was at the Bellagio, one of Vegas' most famous Casinos where we saw the water show and took a walk around it, everything is so fancy in Vegas. Finally our last stop was at the "welcome to fabulous las vegas" sign. Where we took a group picture and then went back to the hotel. It was an amazing night.

Eloise Pérez Carrión, Spain

Grand Canyon Day!!!

Dear blog readers!

We are Vilde from Norway and Luca (Lutza) from Hungary, two girls traveling the West Coast with BELO.

Today we went on an adventure to the Grand Canyon. It was beautiful. Some of us wanted to cry from happiness and for those who had never seen mountains before, it was a magical experience.

First, we separated into two main groups: a group that stayed on the top and enjoyed the view, and another that hiked down the canyon to see what’s at the bottom. The ones that decided not to hike took millions of pictures from the top of the canyon. The hikers also took millions of pictures, not from the top, but from different levels and angles, which made the walk stop in every second minute. We were so excited about taking pictures at the beginning that the hike down to the bottom took longer than the way up, even though it was much easier. At the end we ran out of breath. It made all of us realize that we are totally out of shape.

But the hard and exhausting hike was worth it: the amazing canyon stole our hearts; strangers became friends; the group got closer; cameras ran out of battery. We really had a great time.

After the hike we all went in different directions. Everybody had lunch on their own, some went crazy for shopping, some kept hiking (the fit ones) others just chilled and enjoyed the wonder that surrounded us.

Some of us decided to watch an Indian-show, with Native –American dance, music and clothes. The fact that we were listening to this wonderful music right by the canyon made the experience unforgettable. We even took pictures with some of the dancers.

Since we had free time, with some adventurous ones we went to explore. We jumped on a bus not knowing where we were going, but knowing that we’re going to have fun there. We had hours of sunshine, pictures and laughter. While we were wondering around, climbing as we were born to climb, some of us faced their biggest fears: acrophobia. Being afraid of heights can be annoying when you want to send cool pictures back home as you’re standing on a rock in 2000 feet high. Well, since cool pictures won’t take themselves, we had to go after them. We (Vilde and Luca) literally had to hold Arthur’s (from Brazil) hand to walk to the edge, let him go for 10 seconds so that he could take a picture for la familia back home. We are very-very proud of him, with shaking body, he forced a smile without looking down to the 2117 feet deep valley. Hopefully la familia will like it.

Today we all got closer, we faced our fears, we laughed (a lot) and most importantly we all became a little bit more of ourselves. It really was an adventure, and Grand Canyon will always be remembered.

P.S:  Quote of the day: “I love you Mom!” (As we were hiking down the canyon in a huge group, amazed by the unbelievable view, one boy all of sudden yelled “I LOVE YOU MOM!”. We just looked at each other, when another person else yelled “I LOVE YOU MOM!” and then another and another… And then we did it too, yelling I love you Mom, I love you Dad to the canyon, to the deep valley, wishing they could hear us. So here we just want to say a little “thank you” for all the Moms and Dads from all over the World, for supporting us, for letting us see the World, because without parents we could have not seen those places that changed us forever.)

Travelling Arizona!

After waking up in the comfortable hotel rooms, we had a very good breakfast at the hotel. They offered French toast, bacon, scrambled eggs and much more. Then we had to hurry to catch our bus to the Capitol House of Phoenix. There we took many pictures and also saw the famous Saguaro Cactus and the sculptures in front of the capitol.

 Then we went back to the bus and drove to the Hole in the Rock. We took a small walk to the top of the mountain, where we had a great view and, again, took many pictures.

We took another stop at the Fashion Square Mall in Phoenix where we had time to shop and eat. We had so much fun shopping at all the different stores. For lunch we had amazing food like Panda Express, Five Guys and many others. Of course we also spend a lot of money there for cloths…

Afterwards we took a bus ride to Sedona during which we watched Ocean’s Eleven. This gave us many ideas for what we can see in Las Vegas. In Sedona we first went to the viewpoint to take more pictures of the red rock mountains. Later we had another stop to eat ice cream or Starbucks and buy souvenirs. Sedona was a really beautiful town and we really enjoyed the stay.

Eventually we arrived at our next hotel the Mountain Ranch Hotel near the Grand Canyon. There we got time to relax in the pool and then went to dinner. It was a great day!

By Anna S. and Carolin D. from Germany

Starting our West Coast Trip!!

God we made it to Phoenix! And it is only the beginning!!!!

Everybody here is super excited for the trip and we can’t wait to hop on the bus and visit all these different places that Belo planned for us!! Everyday sounds more exciting than the other!! A lot of natural places to see as well as big cities and lights!!

I (Basma) traveled here from Fort Collins, Colorado to PHX. It was a short flight just an hour. I was welcomed at Sky Harbor Airport by great Belo staff and was taken to the hotel by them. Then we jumped to the pool. It was hot and fun.

I (Caroline) came from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Phoenix. I still had to go to school though to take my finals. I took a plane and arrived after 4 hours at Phoenix. We arrived pretty late at the hotel and that kinda sucked because we couldn’t jump into the pool to get refreshed.

But then we had an amazing dinner and ate well. After that we had a funny/friendly/informative/advisable orientation and learned how the trip will work. 

The Orientation was done and we had still time to hang out in the lobby and get to know more people, because we are 95 (!!!!!!!!) exchange students from all over the world. At the end of the night, everybody returned to their rooms and tried to keep quiet and get ready to rock n’ roll tomorrow!!!!

Caroline (left) Germany, Basma (right) Egypt. Webcam picture in the lobby. Nailed it.

Here it is,

THE WEST COAST TRIP! 

Get ready to take in the best of the West: historical Mesa Verde, the amazing Grand Canyon, fabulous Las Vegas, glamorous Los Angeles, and funky San Francisco! It's going to be 12 days of adventure, excitement and friendship...we hope you are as excited as we are!

This blog will be our journal of all the fun things we'll be doing. Every day, we'll be posting our stories and our pictures so our families and friends can experience the trip along with us. It's going to be a wonderful time, so get ready...IT'S FINALLY HERE!!!