Our Last Day & Lu'au!

Hiking up the world famous Diamond Head crater!

We all made it to the top!

Viktoria (Jungary) enjoys the beautiful view...

We did it!!!

We got dressed up Hawaiian style for the Paradise Cove lu'au

Lu'au "shower of flowers"... One of many events

The girls hanging out at the lu'au before sunset...

Some of us got tattoos! (Don't worry, they are temporary!)

Jonas and Luis got tribal tattoos...

We are ready to hula!

We learned the "Huki Lau" hula dance...

...And got Hula Certified!

Pearl Harbor!

We learned how to salute at the USS Missouri...

...And we did the wave :)

Then we swept the deck of the battleship...

And got a free tour in exchange for our efforts!

On the ferry ride to the Memorial, a few of us got to drive...

The USS Arizona Memorial is floating on top of the sunken battleship!

Visiting the Memorial...

A group picture with the Memorial in the background

Some students looking over a map of the island of O'ahu

We got an amazing trip to pearl harbor.  We went to museums on the area and saw an interesting, but also very sad film about the drama of 1941. After the movie we went by boat to the USS 'Arizona' Memorial, directly over the sunken ship! That was sad, and impressing at the same time, because you just stood over many dead people, who still are down in the water, and never taken up. Back on the mainland, we could buy some souvenirs and we had the possibility of talking to a survivor of the Pearl Harbor Attack. 

After lunch we went to the next station, the battle ship Missouri. First we did our volunteer cleaning work and afterwords we got a nice tour around the ship. We had to broom most of the deck, and that in 75 Degrees. But at least we could also talk to a navy guy, who told us a lot about living on a ship, and working in the navy. That was really interesting to hear, all this from a person, who actually experienced living on such a big ship, and cruising around the world with it. And in the Tour, we could see all the rooms to control the ship, and the weapons as well.  But the ship isn't used anymore, only for Tourist activities, because it would Cost more money to reactivate it for those modern days, then just building a new one.

Before having had an amazing dinner in the 21st floor of our hotel, with a bombastic view over Honolulu and Waikiki beach, we had free time to do some last minute shopping.

We also got a birthday girl today, Jacky! We sang 'happy birthday' in all different languages, then all together in English and in Hawaiian.

And again HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACKY !!!

We hope you enjoyed your unique birthday in Hawaii !!

Luisa, Svea, Sebastian and Suzie !!

A Snorkel, A Hike & A Huge Mall!

Hanauma Bay (was a volcano, then a crater, now a beautiful reef)

Let's go snorkeling!!!

And jumping!

And swimming...

Our blogger (Otto) and friends at dinner at Bubba Gump 

Hang loose, guys...

Enjoying their shrimp and pasta...

Yum... The food is delicious :)

Today was another great day in Paradise! We were spread to two groups, one was going hiking to the Diamond Head Crater and second went snorkeling in beautiful blue waters.

We left to snorkeling and had the chance to see lots of unique fishes what was only saw at Hawaii. Snorkeling was fun we saw fishes and somebody saw turtles...and adventure for sure! We also learned about how to protect the coral so everyone can enjoy this great place.

 We snorkeled about four hours and went to hotel where we had free time three hours to go beach, relax at pool and and get ready for the night.

Five o'clock we went to mall to shop and eat dinner at Bubba Gump shrimp restaurant. Theme of restaurant was Forest Gump movie and there was some items from actual movie. After dinner we had about our to shop and then we went back to hotel.

We are going to Pearl Harbor tomorrow so and we have to leave pretty early to get there on time.

Otto from Finland

Until tomorrow...

Mahalo!

Beautiful Views & Amazing Beach Day

Breakfast on the beach...

...Great way to start the day!

Nu'uanu Pali ("Highest Cliff)

What an amazing view!!!

...Check it out for yourself

Jennifer (YFU Chaperone) admiring the scenery with some of the students

Our FIRST rainbow sighting!

We had a beautiful day at the beach together...

And stopped along the coast to see some whales out in the ocean!

This beach had the first on-screen kiss in a movie called 

"From Here to Eternity"

Today Tuesday February fifth, we had an awesome day.
First we woke up to a delicious breakfast on the beach, and then we took a bus to a beautiful viewpoint, Pali Lookout to take pictures of the palms, blue sea and sky high mountains.

We then headed down to the most amazing beach I personally have ever seen, to eat picnic. We played Football, Volleyball and had fun in the enormous waves. We then were so lucky to have a Belo staff who is a yoga teacher and showed us some basic moves. Trust me, it “looks” (I didn’t participate) funny to see 90 girls doing yoga in in 20 square meters!

We then went back to the hotel for about an hour of free time, to change clothes, shower and relax before dinner. We then walked to the restaurant and got some pizza.

After the dinner we went out to the city to check out the street dancers, and other performances on the street, and of course to go shopping in all the stores until the night time.  We then walk back the hotel for a quick briefing about tomorrow’s program. When people got the needed information we went to get some after-sun, water and whatever else we needed for tomorrow.

Excited for another great day tomorrow!

Jacob from Denmark and Grigoriy from Russia

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ALOHA cousins!

As usual, we woke up early today and had some awesome doughnuts at our breakfast at the beach.

Going on with the daily activities-- we went sightseeing at Pali Lookout, which turned out to be one of the prettiest places we’ve been in Hawaii so far; it was definitively the windiest one, too! All the girls’ hair was flying everywhere… The pictures were fun.

The day continued and we shopping for our lunch and headed to the “Sherwood Beach”. It’s a really pretty beach attended by local people. We played volleyball, football, and practiced yoga but the funniest part was going into the water. The waves are so big and the current is so strong that it was hard to keep your bathing suit on! But it was so much fun catching the waves and body surfing like Barack Obama likes to do.

 On our way back to the Hotel, we stopped at the “Blowhole” and saw Sandy Beach… And we also got a glimpse of some whales, which come here from Alaska to mate. At the sightseeing place it is also possible to see the “From now to Eternity” beach. This last beach is, particularly, the most gorgeous place we’ve seen in Hawaii so far.

In the hotel some of the people went to the pool and the rest of us got ready earlier to go have some pizza! After some good Hawaiian pizza, which included pineapple, of course, we had some free time. Some ice creams, a lot of shopping, and just being around friends later, we went back to our rooms to sleep and got ready to hike Diamond Head + snorkeling tomorrow.

Gigi (Brazil)

Jacqueline (Switzerland)

Judith (Germany)

Sidsel (Denmark)

Exploring the North Shore and Polynesia!

Our first group photo! In front of one of the US's only palaces

ALOHA!

The morning started with a breakfast on the beach for some and coffee at Starbucks for some. After that we all jumped into our buses and started today's trip. The first stop was at a palace not too far from the hotel - one of the two palaces in the state, as our fantastic bus driver Rhonda told us. She also taught us Hawaiian; aloha means both "love" and "hello", mahalo means "thank you" and aloha kakkahiakka means "good morning". 

  Our next stop was Dole pineapple farm. We had the chance to get our hawaiian names engraved in a bracelet and to enjoy a variety of fresh, delicious fruits. Turns out, fresh coconut is weird but amazingly tasty. The pineapple ice cream they sold at the farm will also most likely be in the dreams of those who tasted it for years.

   After fruit tasting we stopped in a small town that looked exactly how I imagined small Hawaiian towns before I saw one. It had its surf shops and small restaurants that had pineapple available for every item on the menu. We had lunch and dessert there and then hopped back on the bus for a scenic drive along the shoreline. We saw a couple of beaches and we stopped at Sunset Beach, where Baywatch was filmed. It was a literal paradise and all that was missing was David Hasselhoff.

   Our final destination was a polynesian cultural center where we saw a bunch of shows about different islands in the pacific, featuring  and even watched a Samoan who made a fire with two pieces of wood. That's right, like in comics. Didn't even know that was actually possible.

  Our day ended with a dinner buffet at the culture center and a play-like show "hā -  the breath of life" in which men in grass skirts put out fires by sitting on them. Bus ride home is currently ongoing, and we're listening to music, chatting about the day with our friends, watching a movie or just generally zoning out. A day like this is a great way to produce a tired yet happy bunch of exchange students. I'm so ready for a shower and sleep, and I imagine the others feel about the same.

Liida, Finland