SNORKELING & GOODBYE

The votes are in and it is TIME FOR THE SUPERLATIVES: You are all amazing in different ways, but these are the people you thought would be best in these categories....

Friendliest: KEENAN (USA)

Best Smile: NICOLE (Germany)

Best Laugh: NATHIDA (PANGJEE) (Thailand)

Funniest: NIELS (Netherlands)

Best English: JULIE (Norway)

Best Tan: DAVID (Germany)

Most Likely to Travel to Every Continent: ELENI (Greece)

Most Spirit: DAVID (Germany)  

Most Likely to Surf the Pipeline: STINE (Denmark)

Best Hula: TAEHYUN (Japan)

Most Likely to Become an Islander: FELIPE & VICTOR (Brazil)

Most Likely to Work at Dole Plantation: LEA, ZACY & GESA. At least you can work with friends!

Most Likely to Lose Luggage: NIELS (Netherlands)

Best Exchange Student: MORITZ & LASSI (tied)

Thank you from all of us at Belo USA for an amazing week full of dance, song, party, rain, football and adventure around the island! Best of luck to all of you during your exchange and in the future!

ALOHA and MAHALO!

-Makena and Emily

Pearl Harbor and the Beach!

Aloha!!! Today was a early day with a lot to do.  First of all we had to go up at 6 am to get ready for pearl harbor. So we ate breakfast and got on the bus, got stuck in traffic on the way to pearl harbor but we got there finally after a while, wasn’t too bad because we had karaoke in the bus.  When we got to the memorial we first went to the USS Missouri where the Japanese surrended on the 2^nd o f September in 1945. It was really interesting and we also got a guided tour of the battleship. After that we had to run and get the shuffle to the USS Arizona Memorial. This ship sank when pearl harbor was attacked on December 7^th in 1941. It was a cool experience to see that, even though it is really sad to think about all the people that died on that day. 

After lunch we went to a beautiful beach but it was windy and cold so we didn’t stay long. But we stayed for a while and some guys opened a coconut.  Also on the way to pearl harbor we saw douple rainbows and also the end of the rainbow!!!!!!!!! Later in the afternoon we went to the beach and swam in the waves, fun fun!

For dinner we ate Hawaiian BBQ, mash potatoes, salad and a lot of cake at the hotel. Then we went shopping and bought some souvenirs for our host family and friends until 10 pm we went back to the hotel and talked about the plan for tomorrow.

Mahalo, Aloha from Elin (Sweden) and Pangjee (Thailand)

Hiking, Beach & Sunshine!!!

Our awesome trip is now half-way done. For the first time in these parts we woke up to the weird feeling of actual sunlight. What a great and almost surreal way to start the day. That's what we came for! The first objective of the day was to climb the high side of the volcanic cone of Diamond Head. When we arrived by the mountain, Makena and Emily decided to start a competition, for those who wanted to get in better shape and for those who were stupid enough to run a mile on a steep hill in 80 degree weather... Most of them, competitive boys wanting to impress the girls - which hopefully succeeded!- got to the top in only 7 minutes and could enjoy the view longer! We could see all of Waikiki, some beautiful mountains, and the huge blue Pacific Ocean from the top of the crater.... We ended the hiking trip with shaved ice and a lovely yellow bus to take us home. 

Finally, beach time! Our previous visits to various beaches had been strongly affected by the rain, but were still fun - what else do you expect when YFU students are involved? We always start a party. At the beach there was time to play, swim, and heal the epidemic of pale skin that has hit most of us this winter. We were challenged by locals to both beach volleyball and football games. Yes, foreigners playing American football. Some, especially the extremely white Scandinavians, got a bit sunburned, which will lead to pain tonight and tomorrow. That is part of what made it a successful beach day. 

Dinner was set at Bubba-Gump's Shrimp Company, which was a true insight in American culture. Then we had more time for guess what...shopping! Some of us have messed up our credit balances by now. The bus got us home and it gave us some time for chilling around and socializing with all the other awesome foreigners. We´re starting to have a good connection- really feel like a group. Just look at our performance on the stage yesterday, at Hard Rock Café. Now some of us are trying to lay comfortable in the bed with our red backs and get some beauty sleep so we're ready for Pearl harbor tomorrow - we're excited to see the place where some important American history took place. Hawaii is still a terrific place and most of us can agree, that staying here wouldn't be difficult at all! 

Goodnight, gutennacht, godnat, hyvaa yota, グッドナイ, welterusten, god natt, boa noite and selamat malam to everybody and thanks for a great day.

Regards,

The Danes and the other blond dude

SImon, Mads, Jacob, and the blond dude from Finland. 

Beach, Shopping & Hard Rock Cafe!!!

Today we left at 8.45am to go to the Pali lookout. It was raining the whole time but the beach we saw from the viewpoint was totally worth it. When we left it started getting more cloudy. 
Our next stop was Kailua beach. It was so rainy but the two Swiss girls decided to go swim anyway. So everybody joined them and everybody had a lot of fun swimming in the rain. Some people played volleyball, others took jumping pictures. 
After the ride in our Karaoke bus we had time to shower and at 1.30pm we handed to the mall. Three hours of shopping... Yes!

For dinner we went to one of the newest Hard Rock Cafes on earth. But before we had dinner everybody sang happy birthday to Sarah  (Switzerland), who celebrated her 18th birthday today. 
All the exchange students have a shirt from Hard Rock Cafe Honolulu now.

After dinner everybody had time to explore Waikiki and see a little bit more of Honolulu.
We came back to the hotel and after going over the plans for tomorrow we went to bed!

by Sarah & Nathalie (Switzerland) and Caroline (Danmark)

Our Day on the North Shore!

We woke up to the sound of the rain pouring down. But because of the amazing breakfast, we got the smile back on our face. We drove through downtown Honolulu, where our bus driver guided us and told all the important history. We saw the capital building and the famous Indian  Banyan trees. Then we made our way to Dole pineapple plantation. We tasted the popular pineapple whip and saw all kinds of pineapple stuff and got bracelets with our Hawaiian names! We had a great time.

Next stop was the North Shore. Famous for surfing competitions in the winter. We ate lunch and spend time walking through a little surf town. We tasted shaved ice, which was really delicious. Then we drove along the cost and saw huge waves and stopped to take pictures at sunset beach. The sun shortly showed its face, which everyone loved.

our last stop was at the Polynesian cultural center. A really interesting place. We went hula dancing, tasted coconut bread, visit Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti and  of course Hawaii. A lot of funny shows and great entertainment. About dinner time, it was raining cats and dogs. We ran into the enormous restaurant where a great buffet was ready for us. Ono(means delicious) food such as sushi, pasta, all kinds of meat and a great dessert table was there and everybody enjoyed the supper.

We ended the day with a fantastic show, is was a story about a boy who was raised in the different cultures. A lot of fire, dancing and singing took place. After the show, everyone were tired and it was raining hard. Everybody got wet. In spite the gloomy weather we had an amazing day!

Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow.  Either way, we will make the best of our amazing time here in paradise!

ALOHA

- Natasha and Stine