selfies with a turtle

We picked our buddies for the day and we got into the bus to go to snorkeling. When we got there the driver gave us our gear and we went to watch a short video. While the movie was playing we said "we want to see a turtle". After we walked down a huge hill. The view was paradise! We didn't wait for anyone. We were in the water for 1.5 hours. We looked around at all the fish. We were getting cold and tired. We said " nah we will stay". Not even two minutes later we saw a turtle! We decided to take selfies with the green sea turtle. And the turtle started swimming toward me! It was so cool. We swam with him for 5 minutes. So we bought turtle dolls. Then when we got back to the hotel we laid down and bragged about the turtle. We had time to get ready for the Luau! We are so excited for the Hawaiian food and party.

We Dont want to go home! This is the best week. I wish we could stay here forever. We will miss our ohana!

Mahalo
Praewa Sirithanachai (pear-thailand)
Seraina Liebi (Switzerland)

Pearl Harbor

This morning we were headed for Pearl Harbor, which was a great for everyone and the feeling on the Memorial was unique as well. In detail, putting yourself in the position of somebody from that time was very easy and made the trip intense. We were asked to remain silent while in the cemetery, some people cried and all in all this was a remarkable experience that no history book could ever tell you.

At lunch everyone spilt up and enjoyed different kinds of food. Like most days people ate a variety of food, for example I and four others had Korean, which brings me to another point: all in all this whole trip has been a crucial extension to all our exchange years. Not only that we meet 14 different cultures, but also that we get to enjoy the “hawaiian way of life” makes this trip so amazing!
After lunch we spend the rest of the day at the beach, playing volleyball and tanning in the sun.
From my perspective the best part of the day was the party at the beach tonight, we feel so close to each other right now ,and nobody wants to hear that this is going to end in two days. The Party continues tomorrow night when we are going to end the week with a traditional “Luau”.

Mahalo

JoeyJoey

Beautiful day

Aloha! Today was another chance for surfers who felt like they didn't get enough surfing on monday to surf again this morning. We had to leave the hotel so early an surf on the 'tsunami' from Chile. The weather was perfect. Then we had to hustle back to the hotel, get breakfast, get in the shower, and get dressed in the last 30 minutes before the time we leave.

We were walking about a mile or so to the Diamond head trail-the extinct volcano in Honolulu- for hiking. We stopped at the park for warming up and took turns to count, representing each country. After walking under the strong sun and putting on sunscreen over and over, we finally arrived at the Diamond head trail. There were 3 people who volunteered to run up trying to break the record of 7 minutes. None of them did it.  We wearily crawled up the trail. Everyone was exhausted. But when we reached the top of the mountain, the perspective from the top of the Diamond head was just breathtaking and totally refreshed us. After a lot of selfies, everyone hustled back down to get a sweet, cold shaved ice. I got lime and passion fruit flavored ice. 

Then we headed back to the hotel, had some free time for lunch. I went to the Cheese Cake Factory. Some of us went to play volleyball at the beach, some went shopping, some just hang out at the hotel and did nothing because they were too tired.

At 5PM, we left the hotel for Ala Mona shopping mall. We had an awesome dinner at Bubba Gump shrimp. Ala mona just blew my mind because it had tons of sweet stuff that I love. We spent about 4 hours there wandering around and shopping. To be honest, this trip ripped me off. I'm just done with shopping for the rest of the trip. Some of us even spent more than $200 just for tonight!! But we were satisfied because YOLO! Mahalo! Aloha!

by Pluem (aAwesomeland aka Thailand)

Let's go to the beach!

Aloha!

We woke up this morning and ate breakfast. I had fruit loops. I love fruit loops. We also had amazing chocolate muffins and pineapple juice. 

We left the hotel and had a sitting dance party with Rhonda our bus driver. We went to Pali lookout. It was very beautiful. It was so windy! We took pictures with our flags. Some of us took pictures titanic style. 

Next we went yo took lots of selfies on the bus! We had people passing I phones taking videos of us dancing on the bus!

We stopped for food to take to the beach. We bought sandwiches at Whole foods. A lot of people went to subway. 

Then we went yo a private beach. The was a beautiful paradise. Big waves, turquoise water. We had brought our own lifeguard to watch us in the water. He showed us a Portuguese jellyfish. We surfed the big waves. We played football. I (max) got sunburned even though I said I never burn. We were alone on the beach. There wasn't really anyone there. It was like our own secluded beach. The water was so warm.

We then went to the blow hole. Where they filmed starship and the locals go whale watching. We took lots of photos. It was so beautiful. Sadly we didn't see any whales. We sang starship so loud!

We came back to the hotel and swim a little in the pool and hot tub then got all dressed up to go to Hard Rock Cafe. We had bacon cheeseburger. It was delious. Our waitress was very nice and from Tennessee. It was nice because we all sat by people we didn't really talk to before and got to know other people a little better. We bought Honolulu Hard Rock Cafe t-shirts

After dinner we walked around the stores and boughts lots of things for yourselves and our families. 

We are so excited to be able to surf tomorrow and go hiking!! So excited to go to Bubba Bump!

Mahalo!

Max- Italy

Tom- Germany

day 2

[ ] We started the day by taking the bus to see the monarchy palace. We took a little stop to take pictures. In front of the buildings, there were hundreds of tiny, shiny windmills. The girls took pictures with the queen statue while the guys got theirs with the king statue. 
[ ] Next stop was at Dole plantatation where pineapples are grown. Just when we got out of the bus, we encountered with some cool looking trees. Their trunks were naturally colored, which was really cool. Then inside, a lot of us got bracelets with our Hawaiian names. We also enjoyed the pineapple ice cream they were selling. 
[ ] We stopped to eat lunch and walk around to buy some souvenirs. We all got different lunches, some of us got Thai food, hot dogs, sushi, tacos etc. Once we were done eating, we stopped at a beautiful beach on the north shore. The beach we stopped at, was used to film some scenes in the movie The Pirates of the Caribbean. 
[ ] The rest of the day we spent at the Polynesian culture center. We began with seeing a very entertaining show. Two of our students were pulled up to dance. Later another student of ours volunteered and played the drums and showed his Hawaiian singing skills. It was hilarious and we laughed so hard that it made us cry. Next show we saw was Samoa culture. We learned how to make fire with woods, how to make coconut milk, and saw two men climb up the palm tree. We also got to learn how to hula dance. Each of the moves represents an emotion/feeling. Then we met at the Imax volcano to see a movie about the Hawaiian nature. It was absolutely beautiful. In between these shows, we got some free time to do whatever we wanted. Some went canoeing, some of us got tattoos and more. We ate at a buffet restaurant where we ate A LOT. We ended the day by seeing an amazing show "Ha: Breath of life". We saw different Hawaiian dances which were incredible. The most fascinating part of the show was how they played with fire. They were throwing and spinning the fire sticks around very professionally. 
[ ] We are all exhaused after a long day, but we for sure had   a wonderful time!
[ ] Sincerely, 
[ ] Bjork Thoroddsen (Iceland/Norway) and Prinrasar Mongkolkul (Thailand)