This is not goodbye this is see you later!

Dear Belo,

What a great week! We miss each and everyone of you already! 

We would like to thank you for making this an amazing week. You were all so wonderful. We are very excited to hear about your bright futures. You have lots of great things ahead of you. 

Stay in touch and see you soon! 

Sincerely yours,

Belo Staff

Tici, Rosalia, Gwen & Maddy

BelOscars

This morning we woke up early. We are going to Alcatraz an old prison on an island in San Francisco. After a big breakfast we got on the buses and began the drive into San Francisco from our Hotel in Oakland. Once at Pier 33 we got on a ferry and began our boat ride to Alcaraz Island. The security to get on the island was strict we couldn't bring food, markers, or wear shoes with wheels! Haha The sun was shinning as we went aboard the ferry. We went to the top floor of the ferry so we could get the best pictures of the island, Pacific Ocean, and San Francisco city behind us. 

Once on the island we walked up the curvey steep hill to the the buildinging where the prisoners where kept. We all got head sets and took an audio tour of the prison. We could pick from many different languages but most of us choose English. We learned a lot about the life and times of the prisoners and employees of Alcatraz. There was even a school and market on the island. One thing that was really interesting was the escape that two prisoners made from the prison. They used spoons to dig there way out through the prison walls. It took them many years but they were able to dig themselves out through the heating vents. They made fake heads to trick the guards that they were sleeping. It was reported that the men had been studying Spanish. Perhaps they escaped to South America. The water surrounding the island is very cold and had dangerous tides. It is also pososble that the men died trying to escape but no one knows and they were never seen again. 

At the end of the tour there was an ex prisoner who wrote a book about his time at Alcatraz. He was signing his book and many of us purchase it so we could read more about the place we had visited. 

We left Alcatraz island got aboard the ferry once again and headed back to main land. Once there we has time to get lunch and enjoy the sunshine and shop. 

With our full stomaches we got on the buses and headed for the Golden Gate Bridge. It was the perfect day to walk the 1.73 miles across. The sun was shining the sky was as blue and the Pacific Ocean. The bridge was so high up and gave an amazing view of the city. 

After the beauty walk we went back to the bus and headed to our hotel. Some of us took a nap... 

And some of us talked with each other and sang songs. 

Once back at the hotel we got ready for the fairwell dinner and dance party. What a fun time! We ate and after dinner we had our own version if the Belo-Oscars "BelOscars". The winners were: 

Friendliest: Bjarni 

Best laugh: Ai

Best Smile: Sho

Best English: Eva

Funniest: Sid

Most likly to travel all continents: Quentin

Best tan: Manuel

Most likely to get a star on Hollywood walk of fame: Chris. G

Most likly to move into Disney castle: Marta

Most likely to be inprisoned in Alcatraz: Kerrin

Most likely to work at Universal Studios as a character: Nada

Most likely to be a cable car driver: Niels

Most likely to lose luggage on the way home: Mao

Best exchange student: Antonia H

After the BelOscars the music began to play and we danced and danced and danced some more. We danced so much some of us were sweating. The DJ played all of our favorite songs and even had glow sticks, disco ball, and crazy decorations. We did the limbo and sang at the top of our lungs. The last song of the night was "Say Something" by The Great Big World. We all sang arm and arm to this song in a big circle. It was the perfect way to end out adventure. Some of us cried happy tears because we would be leaving our new friends behind but we were happy to have met them and will stay friends forever.

In keeping with the Belo tradition, we did not say "goodbye" tonight we said "see you later!"  

-Jelena Ivanovic, Serbia & Montenegro

Exploring San Francisco, CA

This morning we woke up in a new hotel, a Hilton in the wonderful city of San Francisco! We had an incredible breakfast to energize us for the rest of the day, as it had a busy schedule and many unforgettable experiences to offer. There were so many options for breakfast. We could even make our own waffles, and some of us even made them with Oreos!

After, we went on the bus, and the pop music was beating in the speakers to get us pumped up for our day exploring San Fran.

Our first stop was at Pier 39, where we saw the famous San Francisco sea lions, or according to one of our German students, "the dog mermaids",. The dog mermaids made many funny noises and everyone seemed to have a blast imitating them and watching them play. 

After we walked to the cable car station, where we hopped on and drove into downtown San Francisco. As we all were standing in line, something unexpectied happened....An escape artist, put on a show. He had 2 of us exchange students tie him up in a straight jacket and chain him to a streetlight with an iron chain and a lock. Exactly like the famous escape artist Houdini did in his time, this guy managed to twist his body in all kinds of directions and get free. He got a large applause from all the students, who absolutely loved the magical show.

We then arrived downtown with the cable car, and had free time for exploring downtown, eating and shopping. After we got our very own private tour guides that would introduce us to many of the landmarks of San Francisco. We saw Golden Gate Park, the Golden Gate Bridge, and we saw all the different  neighborhoods of San Francisco. One really colorful interesting neighborhood we saw was the famous Haight-Ashbury street where the hippy movement started in the 60’s. We also had a stop at City Hall, where we could take pictures. Also we made a stop at the famous Young Museum art. After all of these awesome things we went to Chinatown, which is the biggest Chinatown in the US, bigger than the one in New York City! We had time to explore these Chinese streets and after we had a great dinner at a Chinese restaurant, together. The food was very good and it seemed like it came in an unlimited supply. Our bellies full and our bodies exhausted we went back to the Hilton. Some students went to bed, some went to play frisbee outside or fuss ball in the game room.

This day was an amazing day, that was so packed with experiences, that we will remember forever.

Our Italian exchange student, Giovanni Serusi said a nice sentence today, that we thought had to be included in this blog post. He said "This trip was so unique and fun because we are all from different cultures. If we were all from the same culture it would not have been as fun. It was so unique and fun to experience California with exchange students from all over the world. wouldn’t be the same without people from  all over the world” 

Joanna Rosengarten, Germany

Bjarni Rasmussen, Faroe Islands

Giovanni Serusi, Italy

North on Highway 101

After our last day in LA we woke up and had a yummy breakfast before leaving the hotel and loading on the buses to head to San Francisco!
Today we leave LA and head to San Francisco!!!!

We headed on Highway 101 North. We caught gorgeous glimpses of the Pacific Ocean, California's coastal hills and the rolling green vineyards.

For lunch we stopped at an outlet mall with so many of our favorite stores! There were so many sales.  A lot of us at lunch on the outdoor patio in the glorious California sunshine.

We took another break at the Madonna Inn an old fashioned very decorates inn. It was very fancy and seemed almost like a palace. Once back on the buses we took turns singing our national anthems. It was so cool to hear. So many new languages. Everyone is proud of there countries.

We entered beautiful San Francisco at sun down and admired the sparkling Bay Bridge.

We had dinner at Bubba Gump which was great because we watched Forest Gump on the bus ride. Dinner was so good! We sang happy birthday to Tici and Bjarni. We also played a group game of Forest Gump trivia and won prizes!

We headed back to the hotel got settled in our rooms and were so excited to explore more of San Francisco tomorrow.

Good night San Francisco

Disney, the Ultimate Dream!!!!!

Today was so awesome! We had a big breakfast at the hotel in preparation for our big day at Disney land and California Adventure! I can't believe I had the opportunity to go to Disney. It was so amazing and awesome. We went on almost every ride. They were all so fun. We liked the amusement ride , Space mountain and the California screaming Roller Coaster.  The Cars ride was one of the belo groups favorite. We all got fast passes to be sure we could go on it. The cars looked so real! We also got fast passes for the world of color show.I loved the World of the color show. It started at night when the park was about to close.  Disney movies were shown on fountain mist. There was music and lights and it looked really cool. This was the first time a a lot of us had seen something like it our lives.

After the world of color show we came back to the hotel, swam in the pool, sat in the hot tub and had sweets out at the pool that we bought from the store. It was fun we had all
sorts of cookies.

 We loved Los Angeles. It is the best city some of us have ever been to in our life, the beautiful city with the perfect weather. We are sad to leave LA but we are now very excited to go San Francisco tomorrow :D

Por, Thailand

Hollywood

For today's events were to go to Hollywood Boulevard, Madame Tussauds and to check out the stores in Hollywood and the Walk of Fame, where the Oscars were held last night. Then we went to Beverly Hills to see Rodeo Drive and finally headed to Santa Monica Beach.

After we had breakfast we hopped on our busses and spent the first few hours on Hollywood Boulevard, starting at Madame Tussauds. We had lots of fun taking pictures with the famous wax figures, I know that most of us uploaded them on Instagram and Facebook only minutes after leaving Madame Tussauds.

 Rodeo Drive!

 Madame Tussauds 

 Hollywood after the Oscars' party last night

 Rodeo Drive 

 Santa Monica 

 Playing soccer at Santa Monica Beach

 group picture in Beverly Hills

 the Soccer-Pyramide

 Madame Tussauds

 the view from the balcony

 Santa Monica Beach 

& the Walk of Fame!

After that, we had free time to spend in Hollywood in little groups. Most of us went to a big mall to check out the balcony on the highest level to get the amazing view of the Hollywood sign. We had lunch in our groups, and then met again at the bus to head to Beverly Hills!
We took a quick group picture in front of the "Beverly Hills" sign and then had plenty of time to walk down Rodeo Drive. Rodeo Drive is full of stores like LV, Chanel and Porsche Design.
Then we went to Santa Monica Beach, a beach with a little amusement park next to it.

At the beach, we had a lot of fun. Some of us went shopping and some of us played soccer. The soccer game was fun, and at the end of the game, those who played soccer created a shape which they called a "pyramid" which didn't look like a pyramid, yet it was fun. After watching the beautiful sunset, all of us headed to Buca di Beppo restaurant. At the restaurant, we threw a small birthday party for one of our friends which was also fun. The so-called Italian food was good. That was our last station before heading back to the hotel. We all had such a great day.

by Jana Honczek, Germany & Ibrahim Saqer, Palestine