OUR LAST DAY!!!!

THE Golden Gate Bridge!!! Right before we began our 1.7 mile walk across it!

Pause for a photo moment during the walk.... Max, Max (Germany), Levi (Hungary) and David (Slovakia)

The group at the half-way point of the bridge!

The "Rock"

The view of the Golden Gate Bridge from Alcatraz!

The beautiful day made it easy to see the city, as well :)

PART I: GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE!

So today we woke up and ate our yummy waffles and bacon and fresh fruit in preparation for a long day! Because in the morning, we walked over the Golden Gate Bridge! Some of us expected it to be long and tiring, but it was actually a lot of fun! Our group walked slow, but we enjoyed the view and it was super amazing. Nobody seemed to want to leave San Francisco. And the weather was so nice and sunny that some of us even got a little sun on our faces! :) We took tons of pictures and it was so much fun! :)

And it felt like we finished pretty fast! On the way we saw a lot of people who were riding bicycles and it seems like a cool thing to do. After we walked through Golden Gate Bridge we went to Pier 39- that became almost a home for us. There we had lunch and bought our last souvenirs. Some of us tried the famous sourdough bread and soups from Boudin, and others went to the West Coast favorite In & Out Burger, which is was very good for a fast food place, where a few of us enjoyed hamburgers and cheeseburgers, french fries and awesome milkshakes! :)

Aysa- Russia

PART II: ALCATRAZ!

We all met at the Hard Rock Cafe after lunch and walked from Pier 39 to Pier 33, where we would board our Alcatraz cruise... We waited in line and listened to an orientation before we could board the ferry, but soon we were on our way to Alcatraz Island- the "Rock"... We had an awesome view of the Golden Gate ridge and the city from the Island and we only took about 10 minutes to go the 1.25 miles over there.

The island was really cool and was, of course, full of tourists ;) We split up into small groups when we got there so we could all enjoy an audio tour without staying together in a huge group. We had a great time going around with our friends, walking, learning the secrets of the Prison and enjoying the view of the city and the bay. The audio tour was interesting because it was narrated by actual inmates and prison guards and there were lots of sound effects, so it made everything seem more real...

PART III: DINNER AND PARTY TIME!

After the tour, we met back up and took the short ferry ride back to the mainland of San Francisco. We boarded the bus and went straight to the hotel to organize our things, get ourselves ready (dress up or dress down) to PARTY because we were going to dinner and a dance party :) "Yayyyyee!" (Makena quote).

So we all boarded the bus one more time to go to a nearby hotel with a big room for us to get our dance on. We ate our dinner (lasagna!) and then we voted on the best photo from LA and San Francisco that people uploaded on facebook. The winners got yummy chocolate :)

Then it was time to get on our personal dance floor and listen to our personal DJ, have dance contests, play with hula hoops and try to limbo... It was awesome! We created some of our own dance moves- the "Kayak", "Canoe", "Chain saw", "Playing cards"- and just had a blast!!!

After the fun dance party, we went back to the hotel and had a quiet and respectful- but very fun- t-shirt signing post-party in the hotel lobby. We all passed our trip t-shirts around and everyone wrote and drew on them so we could have a nice memory of the amazing friends we made this week!

Thanks to everyone for coming and being so fun and thank you Belo USA for making this possible! It was the trip of a lifetime!!!

Michal- Czech Republic

Getting to Know San Francisco!

We started in the Fisherman's Wharf where we began our Cable Car tour...

The Cable Car took us to Union Square, where Mona and Barbara (Germany) are posing in front of a painted heart :)

Then we stopped at Lombard St (the most crooked street in the world)...

Yulia (Ukraine), Nina (Ger), Aysa (Rus), Mona (Ger), Liza (Rus), Barbara (Ger), Laura (Netherlands) & Michal (CzR)

Our next stop was City Hall in the Civic Center (Ampam, Chrisi & Aysa)

Then we passed by Alamo Square & the Full House house!!!

Can't forget to mention the beautiful view from Twin Peaks!

And we finished our day in Chinatown for dinner....

Our first full day in San Francisco began with a fabulous breakfast at the hotel! We could make our own Belgian waffles, and we ate fresh fruit, oatmeal, bagels and much more....

Then we boarded the bus and rode through downtown to get dropped off at Pier 39 to say hello to our sea lion friends. Then we walked through the Fisherman's Wharf district to the Cable Car stop, where we all got onto a world famous Cable Car and rode into downtown. It was shaky, but fun. Some of us rode on the sides and hung onto a pole... It made us feel kind of like residents of the city because a lot of people here actually ride the Cable Cars around town or to work!

We got off at Union Square- right downtown- and we had time to eat lunch, visit the art walk and other galleries around town. The Thai students enjoyed authentic Thai food, which they loved! A few of us checked out some of our favorite stores (Prada, D&G, Burberry, etc) :P and then went to eat pizza at an Italian restaurant. Others went shopping and then grabbed fast food.

We greeted our amazing Dutch tour guide at Union Square after lunch and she took us all around the city... She told us a lot about the history of San Francisco and took us to the important areas of the city....

Then near the end of the tour we drove up Twin Peaks to get an IMPRESSIVE view of the whole city and bay area. We could see Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge (which made us super excited about tomorrow!)

After the tour, we went down to Chinatown (the biggest Chinatown outside of China) and had time to walk around there, shop, snack and just look around at all the interesting shops with all the Chinese writing. Eventually, we met for dinner and were served a TON of yummy Chinese food, which even Coco (the Chinese student) liked! They gae us some wonderful ice cream and- of course- a fortune cookie!

Now we are back at the hotel and happy to be relaxing in the hot tub before we go to bed! We love it here and we don't want to leave... We have really become a family and it is so nice to hang out with everyone in these awesome cities!

<3 from the Paris of the West

Chrisi- Germany

Habib- Oman

GOODBYE L.A, HELLO SAN FRANCISCO!!!

It was a nice ride from L.A. to San Francisco...

Dominik (Czech Republic), David (Slovakia), Hon, Pop (Thailand) & Michal (Czech Republic) hang out at Pier 39 before dinner...

Lots of us checked out the famous sea lions at Pier 39

The students and Laura are being entertained by the sea lions at the pier

The group in front of Hard Rock San Francisco!!!

A group of girls waiting anxiously for their food at Hard Rock

Today was a good day as usual!

At first we had a fun, loooong trip on the bus with our nice driver Marcel. We watched a funny movie- the Hangover, listened to some music, had lunch on the way, enjoyed the nice view through the window… (by the way, the north is even more hilly, than LA)

When we arrived to San Fransisco (WOOHOO!!!), we went off for free time at Pier 39 to shop and look around, which was really fun. For example we saw the sea lions. They were kinda stinky, but very cute! It was so entertaining to stand and watch them on the docks. Some “lucky” students got pooped on by the seagulls while we were hanging out on the pier (whoops!) From the pier, we could easily see the Alcatraz prison, which we are all very excited to visit! Hopefully nobody will ever have to go there ;)

Also, along the street there are a lot of things to do for fun. We found this rocking store, which has a “crazy caps” section on the back, where you can try on the craziest and the funniest hats ever. We had lots of fun there. :D

After everybody was done with shopping, we met at the famous Hard Rock café. We took group pictures, and were ready to have some food. When we walked in, everybody was like WOW!- it smells DELICIOUS in there. They offer several kinds of yummy sandwiches, hamburger or salad, which we all ate with pleasure. The café is made in the rock n roll style. Lots of musical instruments, pictures, and clothes of famous people were on the walls.

Finally we went to our hotel. Everybody got their room keys, and got excited about the pool! It was crowded, but people still went to check it out and relax there. It was a long day, and we are all excited to learn more about this awesome city, San Francisco, tomorrow!

P.S.: BELO is super cool, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done, Makena and Laura are the best… And we really DO love them. <3 Thank you!

Alena (Losha)- Russia

DISNEYLAND & CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE EXPERIENCE

We finally made it! Disneyland, California!!!

The characters were all there to greet us!

We met Mickey!!!

(Chrisi-Germany, Makena, Nina-Germany, Lena-Russia, Laura-Germany, Aysa-Russia)

We decided to go together to ride Space Mountain! (Anni- Finland, Ampam, Aom, Champoon- Thailand, Yue- China, Gaeun- South Korea)

Habib (Oman), Mona, Lisa and Kathleen (Germany) on the huge

Ferris Wheel at California Adventure!

We met up to watch the amazing firework show at Disneyland (Where dreams come true!)

We hope to have a chance to come back one day....

The land of children's dreams! The day my dream came true… When I was little I always wanted to go to the Disneyland! It was so amazing and cool! We tried everything there!!! And we have so much fun!

From the beginning we were so excited!!!

So we arrived and decided to get tickets for both parks! (Disneyland and California Adventure!) because it would be more fun that way! We were so excited that we thought we would try Space Mountain all together and it was so amazing!:) It was a ride in the dark and it was scary and cool in the same time.

Then we went to other roller coaster rides and it was so interesting. Lines were not so bad so it was awesome!

The best place in the world!!! We did so many things! We were freaking out all day long about how awesome this place is :) Some of us thought that the most amazing park was the California Adventure but others liked Disneyland because it was the classic park where all the traditional rides were. One girl even cried at California Adventure in the Soarin' parasailing ride, because it was so so so beautiful and makes you feel like you are flying over California.

Makena was with us (Laura, Nina, Maria, Aysa, Chrisi, Hannah and Lena) and we had twice as much fun!

The day was going so fast, but we were trying our best to do everything. Our feet began to hurt so bad, but it was fun anyway :) We rode the Indiana Jones ride, the Tower of Terror, Soarin', Grizzly River Rapids, It's a Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean….and many more….

And at 9pm, we met up and saw fireworks together and it was like in fairy tales! There were Tinker Bell and a whole performance. And a few lucky people got Thai massages-- for free! Which is very cool :) After the fireworks, we had some more time to play and then we went back to the hotel…exhausted, but happy!

SO the day was one of the most amazing days! I'm so glad that i'm here and that I met so many cool and awesome people!!:)

Yay! I <3 BELO USA! :)

Aysa- Russia

GRIFFITH OBSERVATORY & UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

The view of the Hollywood sign from Griffith Observatory!

We tried, tried, and tried again.... This is our jumping picture with the Griffith Observatory in the background!!!

Pop, Hon, (Thailand) Yulia and Liza (Russia) enjoy the view of downtown LA!

Welcome to Universal Studios, Hollywood!!!

LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION! Universal Studios, California!

The backlot of Universal Studios, where many famous Hollywood movies are filmed!

We got to see some pretty cool special effects!

Mona, David and Aysa met the Simpsons family after they rode the virtual roller coaster

...And got to meet characters from our favorite movies after riding some awesome rides- like the Mummy roller coaster! (Gaeun-South Korea)

Lena (France) and Nina (Germany) had fun posing in front of a backdrop!

Aysa, Mona, Lena, Chrisi, Lena, Nina and Laura with an actor from the Waterworld special effects show

We finished the day at the yummy Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.!

We woke up extra early today! Because we wanted to go to the Griffith Observatory before Universal Studios. The day started out beautiful and warm and stayed that way all day :) There, we had a great view of the city and of the Hollywood Sign, which looks pretty small, but it's actual really big! (107m/350ft tall!!!) The view was amazing because the sun was shining and the sky was pretty clear!

After some pictures at the Observatory, we left and went ot Universal Studios. We got a group picture at the Universal Studios revolving globe and then everyone went into the park, split up and went on to have one of the best days of our lives! There were rides like the Mummy roller coaster and the Simpson's Ride- a virtual ride that makes you think you're flying over Springfield! We also saw shows like Shrek 4D and Waterworld, and some of us dared to walk though the House of Horrors! Jurassic Park was a fun water ride, too.... Then after lunch, we all met up as a group and went on the famous Backstage Tour! We go to pass by Wisteria Lane while they were actually filming Desperate Housewives! The tour took us into a stage where we watched the new King Kong 360 3D film clip, which was pretty cool! The shuttle also took up to a scene from Jaws, we saw a Hollywood-style flash flood, and even experienced an "earthquake"... One cool set was War of the Worlds, which had a huge plane completely destroyed and housed without roofs! Something interesting was a lake with a huge blue screen behind it and they used this as an ocean set for the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie! After the group tour, we went off on our own to ride more rides and see more shows. some people went to City Walk to shop before meeting the group when the park closed.

After we all left the park, we had a little bit of free time in City Walk (at Universal Studios) to go shopping and then we went to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. to eat whatever we wanted to eat. A lot of us ate shrimp! (Surprise!)

We then went back to the hotel and some people got in the hot tub :) Now we are tired and excited to go to Disneyland tomorrow!!!

Kathleen- Germany

Michal- Czech Republic

Habib- Oman

Famous sites around LOS ANGELES!

Our first California group photo-- in Hollywood!!!

Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum (Maria-Spain, Anni-Finland, Barbara & Vici-Germany with Eddie Murphy)

Madame Tussaud's Hollywood took Michel (Czech Republic) to the Stone Age!

Only in Hollywood will you find Jack Sparrow in conversation with Elvis Presley!

Max (Germany) poses with one of our favorite stars (Michael Jackson) on the Walk of Fame!

Vici (Germany) at Hollywood's famous Mann's Chinese Theater

The beautiful group in front of the Beverly Hills sign (above)

and Venice Beach-- the Pacific Ocean! (below)

Max & Max (Germany), Levi (Hungary) and Liza (Russia) on Venice Beach

Who's that picking up David (Slovakia)?

It's a famous street act on the 3rd St. Promenade in Santa Monica!

We were entertained both inside and outside the shops in Santa Monica!

The famous Santa Monica Pier!!!

We watched the sunset on the West Coast over the mountains!

Hello everyone!

We woke up and saw that the ground was wet from the rain during the night and we all freaked out, thinking it might be cold and rainy today (which would mean no California SUN and shorts and sun dresses!) But we went outside and the weather was fine!

Breakfast at the hotel was great! Just like yesterday's delicious buffet dinner....

We left the hotel at 9am and ate Easter candy and sang Happy Birthday to Denise- who turned 18 yesterday! We went straight through downtown LA to Hollywood! The first thing we did was go visit Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, where we posed with tons of "celebrities" like Michael Jackson, Madonna, Charlie Chaplin, Will Smith, Lady Gaga and Johnny Depp! Then we had time on Hollywood Boulevard to check out the all the stars on the Walk of Fame. We were on a mission to find Johnny Depp, the Beatles and Bob Marley, among many others... We also saw the Kodak Theater and Mann's Chinese Theater and saw all the handprints and autographs on the street out front. We went shopping around Hollywood and had a glimpse of the Hollywood Sign!!!

After we had lunch in Hollywood, we left to take some photos and walk around Beverly Hills! We saw rodeo Drive and the famous Beverly Hills sign, and the streets lined with tall palm trees, with super expensive sports cars parked there... We see it on TV a lot, so being there was strange....

We continued our tour of LA by riding over to Venice Beach- this place is very "California"- beach town with graffiti walls and lots of skateboarders and people riding bikes or playing basketball. The beach there was awesome! We got to touch the Pacific Ocean! Some of us got pictures of the lifeguard stand and even with the lifeguards. The beach was windy, so we got our photos and our feet wet and then went walking around the boardwalk and lots of us bought new sunglasses because the day was sunny and beautiful!

From Venice Beach, we went up to Santa Monica- the famous pier there has a roller coaster and a ferris wheel, and the whole coast has a nice view of the mountains! More shopping on the 3rd Street Promenade! Yay! We walked around the outdoor shopping area and then walked over toward the pier to watch the sunset over the mountains! It was very bright and beautiful, but when it was over we were happy to walk over to Buca di Beppo to enjoy our Italian dinner because the warm day went away with the sun!

The food was delicious... We had several courses and choices. The dessert- raspberry cheesecake- was really nice! And the dinner wasn't the only good thing... The walls of the restaurant were covered with photos and banners and advertisements and it was fun to look at them all while we were eating.

By the time we finished eating and got in the bus, we were super tired, so a lot of us slept on the way back to the hotel. Some people got in the jacuzzi to relax before bed, and others went straight to sleep when we got back.

It was a great day, but we are ready for more! Can't wait for tomorrow!!! We're waking up early to go see more of this cool city so look for the blog tomorrow night!

Maria- Spain

Vici- Germany