March 19 2011 Hanauma Bay and Luau at Paradise Cove

The fire dancer amazed us!

Dancing hula on stage!

Showing off for the crowd!

The deep blue Pacific with the bright setting sun.

Bright smiles to match the sunset!

The guy dancers were very popular!

All tattooed up with matching flowers!

You can never have enough pictures on your exchange trip!

All Hawaiian with the bright flowers in their hair!

Pretty girls at the luau at Paradise Cove.

Another breath taking view of Hanauma Bay.

Ready to see the colorful fish and sea turtles!

The beautiful Hanauma Bay.

Snorkeling is the best!

One of the most colorful fish in Hanauma bay!

Hello again!

We ate a lovely breakfast at Lulu's (as usual) and that Stuffed French Toast was still amazing... But then it started raining. And we totally freaked out! BUT then, the sun came out and the day became beautiful again... All at breakfast!

We were then free to ride off to Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling! The bay was made from a volcanic crater that was flooded and eroded into the ocean. A beautiful reef formed over time and the water is shallow and SUPER clear there! All that came between us and the reef was a short video about the reef rules. "Don't step on me, Under the sea..." (Little Mermaid tune) This started our wonderful underwater adventure.

We walked down into the crater and we put on our SUNSCREEN ;) and super cute equipment and got really happy because the time was finally here to go find some fishes! And we sure did find some colorful, exotic fish! Some of us were very very lucky and saw sea turtles!!! During our time at the bay, we also had a photo shoot, sunbathed, and just enjoyed our final moments in such a beautiful place! Eventually (and unfortunately) we had to pack up and leave the beach.

We ate some lunch in Waikiki, shopped, hung out a little bit at the pool and then got ready for the big LUAU (feast/party/celebration) at Paradise Cove! We showed up looking our most Hawaiian. When we arrived, we were welcomed by typical (cute!) Hawaiians, who gave us shelled leis (necklaces) and tropical drinks. Before dinner, we got to do different Hawaiian cultural activities, like lei-making, hula dancing, spear-throwing and we saw the Huki Lau ceremony. We even saw how they prepare the famous Kalua Pork! Then we ate dinner and had yummy dessert! Very Hawaiian.

After dinner came the best part: Learning to dance hula from the the extremely good looking and beautiful dancers. We enjoyed the show with dancing and fire-knife dancing (!!!) performances. Luca and Biancia (Italians represent!) were brave enough to go on stage with the Tahitian dancers and try to dance like pros! It was fun for everyone!

The show finally ended with "Mahalo and Aloha" and we slowly made our way back to the bus. We quickly started realizing that this is our last night together and that the time has passed so fast! We made such good friends in only a week and experienced so many amazing things here in Hawaii!

We will never forget this trip and we agree that it was one of the best trips in our entire lives!!! We not only got to know about Hawaii, but about cultures from all over the world. We are all OHANA and "cousins" and will be forever!

We are so Hawaiian now that we even made our own word: "MALOHA" to you (Mahalo + Aloha, or Thanks and goodbye- for now)

Thank you to Belo USA for the wonderful opportunity to be here!

Shaka! (~hang loose~)

Bianca from Italy

Elisa from Italy

Karolina from Czech Republic

Christin from Germany

Mar 17, 2011 Pearl Harbor and Waimanalo beach

At Waimanalo Beach

Enjoying the Pacific ocean!

The water calls us to it!

Gotta cool off!

We love our bus!

Best friends forever, ever!

The blow hole with a rainbow!

Looking at the USS Arizona beneath the water.

An overwhelming monument.

The massive USS Missouri!

Inside one of the communication rooms.

Getting some insight of the battleship.

Our Brazilian helpers!

In front of the USS Missouri.

Raphael and almost half of the boys!

Aloha ahiahi ia oukou! (Good evening to all of you!)

Happy St Patrick's day everybody!

The weatherforecast for today was 80°F, partly cloudy and 30% chance of rain” as always...

We set off an hour earlier than usual to go to the one of the most famous military bases in the world – Pearl Harbor, After a breakfast as delicious as always. After lunch we headed to a special beach on the east side of the island, where there weren't many people. We had the beach almost for ourselves! We ended our day with a real Hawaiian dinner at a hotel next to ours, plus some shopping afterwards.

In order to even get into the Pearl Harbor area, we first had to get a pass and our bus was getting checked. Also we weren't allowed to take any pictures on the bus until we got to the museum part – military rules! Once we got to the USS Missouri battleship, we were allowed to take pictures, but first we volunteered to clean (dust and swipe) the “deepest rooms” on the ship. After half an hour of “hard work”, we got a special tour throughout the entire ship, where we learned many things about how a everyday life on board was. They even had a bakery and a barber shop for the marines. As we were done, we left the USS Missouri and took the bus to the USS Arizona Memorial Theater and watched a short movie about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7^th 1941. The film explained what happened on that day and to the USS Arizona, the battleship where we went next. A ferry took us out the memorial, which was right above the sunken ship. The USS Arizona was bombed in the attack, sank, and took 1,177 men with it. It was really cool but sobering to see.

From Pearl Harbor we left to grab lunch. After delicious fast food lunch we stopped at an outlook with a beautiful view over the ocean on the other side of Oahu. There was a hole in the rocks down below, from which water splashed up in the air as the waves came in. We took a couple of nice group pictures and moved on to the Waimanalo beach. We spent the afternoon swimming and playing volleyball, football and soccer at the gorgeous, white sandy beach where we were practically alone.

On our way home Rapha gave us one of his funny yet wise and interesting speeches about life and being an exchange student. He got into being patriotic and had us all sing our national anthems. That was so much fun! We discovered new American Idols, and also those who couldn't remember their nation's song...haha!

Our hawaiian dinner was amazing and we all left satisfied for either a little more shopping or just relaxing in our rooms until we had a short meeting with the wonderful Belo staff. After hundreds of questions got answered about tomorrow, we went to bed and slept happily until the next morning when we woke up for our very last “real” day in Hawaii...

Aloha Beautiful People!

Greetings from Hawaii to all of our families and hostfamilies who had to stay home...

Nina from Germany

Karin from Sweden

and Anika from Germany

Mar 16, 2011 Diamond Head, Ala Moana Mall and Bubba Gump Shrimp

We love Bubba Gump Shrimp!

Excited to try some seafood!

All smiles while waiting for dinner.

Great friends!

Happy to reach the top of Diamond Head!

Two of our lovely blondes enjoying the breeze!

Bianca and Fuka with the endless Pacific background.

Belgium!

We love Hawaii!

Aloha!

So we woke up and went on a walk this morning before breakfast. Little did we know that after breakfast we would be walking a lot! Oh, well…it was fun! The breakfast was really good, as always! Then, we started to walk…again! We stopped to warm up before making our way to Diamond Head. On the way we had a lot of time to have conversations with the other exchange students. It was nice to be able to talk with each other and laugh about our stories. We all can say we feel more mature since we started our exchange.

Our destination seemed to never arrive! We all were sweating from the long walk, but the breeze in the tunnel we went through was really refreshing! Then we saw the top, the tip top where we were going. Then we walked some more. Once we arrived to the top we realized all the walking was worth it. It was the most beautiful view of our lives. From the top you can see all of Honolulu, Waikiki, the Pacific ocean and a lot more of the island of Oahu. We had a Brazilian flag and got some beautiful pictures of us with the flag. It was sooo windy up there but it felt so good after the long walk. Everyone took so many pictures.

On the way back down the walking went by much more quickly. We walked back to the hotel and free time for lunch. Everyone went to the restaurant Dukes. It was really good food and it had a great view of the beach and ocean. We ate some fish from the buffet and it was what we were searching for while here on our trip. After that we went to have some ice cream with the other Brazilian girl. We had such a good time laughing together!

Once our free time was up we came back to get ready to go shopping! We all took the bus to the mall. The mall, Ala Moana, is awesome! It is so big! The Victoria’s Secret store is insane. It was so nice to be able to shop together. We had dinner later at Bubba Gump Shrimp! At the restaurant they did trivia from the movie with us! They gave out prizes and I (Thais) won one of the prizes! The food was really really good! (We had fish again)

The days was a pretty awesome day, we are kind of sad that it is over. We got to see a great view of Hawaii. We had a lot of laughs together. We accomplished a lot of shopping! What else could we ask for in Hawaii!?

LOVE and MISS you Brazil!

Thais and Gabriella - Brazil

Mar 15 2011 - Pali Lookout, Kailua, Hard Rock Cafe... What a beautiful day!!!

Aloha cousins!

We awoke from dreams to an even better dream... After a delicious Hawaiian breakfast, we went (in our super fun bus) to a place where Oahu's two volcanos met. We found cool and breezy cliffs, wild chickens and a view that blasted though our expectations. The wind up there was so strong that we were glad we gained weight so far this year, because the skinny people blew away! Not really... From the top of Nu'uanu Pali we could see Kailua, the beach where we would kayak! We could also see the rest of the east coastline...The view-- Oh my gosh! It was one of the most amazing things we have ever seen!

We then rode on to Kailua, singing and dancing in our seats on the way. When we arrived there, our jaws dropped it was so gorgeous with the turquoise water and soft white sand. Then we got ready and went to learn how to kayak. We all loved the kayak instructors... They taught us well... And they were cute... The water was so clear and the waves were impressive! We launched and we rode through the waves, one kayak after the other. Some of us were lucky enough to see sea turtles!!! But we were too busy playing "bumper kayaks" on the way to the island to notice them. When we arrived to Moku Lua ("Island #2") we decided that we would love to stay there forever with the birds and live like mermaids on the volcanic rock. The waves looked so beautiful crashing over the island rocks and the view from the island was spectacular! We could see different beaches and other islands as we ate our lunch! We even jumped from the rocks around the island into the water and a few people even saw whales in the distance...It was just-- wow! We also learned the meaning of "kayak surfing" -- you find a big wave and then catch the wave on the kayak. It was a very different experience... A bit like a roller coaster in the ocean! The Hawaiians said that they do this a lot on their free time, so it was really nice to get a taste of local life! After spending time on the island for a while, we let the waves take us out back into the ocean and we drifted over to a BEAUTIFUL (top 10 beach in the WORLD) beach called Lanikai (Heavenly waters) and had time to spend just hanging out, swimming, running around, taking photos and being simply happy in each other's company.

After we left Lanikai, it was back to Kailua and all its beauty...We were exhausted, but it was such a great experience. The ones who didn't kayak hung out, played volleyball and ate calamari at a local restaurant...

We left Kailua in the late afternoon and had time to cool down, shower and get ready for another adventure-- Hard Rock Cafe Honolulu! This place was so cool inside... The lights and the music were perfect to start a dance party in the middle of the restaurant!!! And that's what we did! They turned the lights down low and cranked up the sound for us to dance to "I've Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas. Tonight really was a great night.

After dinner, some people went shopping, others went back to the hotel and a few just strolled through breezy Waikiki and relaxed. We're all ready for another awesome and exciting day tomorrow full of new and fun experiences and island views :) But for now, we're just ready for bed!

Aloha (love) to our families,

Elsa from Denmark/Iceland

Martha from Denmark

Maria from Germany

Alejandra from Chile

Beautiful view from Lanikai (means... Heavenly Ocean Water)...

After our short hike at mokolua... stop at Queens Bath.

Our Kayak crew.

Pedro (Brazil), Levi (Switzerland) and Ewoud (The Netherlands)

Beautiful view.

Kayak Surfing!

Who jumped better, guys or girls?

Attention on the safety explanation.

Pali Lookout.

Students at the top of the Pali Lookout.