June 13 (Saturday)

Today we had an early start. We got on the bus at 7:15 this morning to go to Alcatraz Island. It was rather cold and windy, but with a cup of coffee and great company we managed to keep up the good spirit while we waited for the ferry. Alcatraz was really cool! It is an old prison on an island about 1.5 miles outside San Francisco. We took and audio tour as we were walking around. The tour was guided by old prisoners and employees, which gave a better and more capturing experience. Especially the story about three men who escaped and was never found was interesting.

Alcatraz

We took the ferry back to Pier 33 and had free time for lunch and shopping at pier 39.

Afterwards we went to the famous Golden Gate Bridge where we took lots of pictures before heading out onto the bridge. It was super windy on the bridge and a lot of pictures ended up with hair flying all over the place (for many of the girls at least). We walked all the way across the bridge. On the other side the bus was waiting to take us back to the hotel.

A cloudy day on the Golden Gate

me and Clara on the bridge

Tonight we are having dinner followed by a party with a DJ, which we are all super excited about. Tonight is also the last night of our trip, and tomorrow is departure day.. So sad! The memories and friends we have made here are unforgettable, and we could not imagine a better way to end our year!

-- Nanna, Denmark and Clara, Denmark

Friday (June 14) started out like any other day. Wake up, eat breakfast and jump on the bus. This was probably the best breakfast so far. They had a huge variety to choose from. Something for everybody! When breakfast was consumed, we took the bus to downtown San Francisco, where a cable car was waiting. This was an amazing experience, something which can only be experienced in this beautiful city.

Riding in style!

A San Francisco icon

After the  cable car we had time to do some shopping or check out some of the more exotic parts of the city like Chinatown and Little Italy. Chinatown was quite an experience. It was like stepping into a whole new country. With just one step you were in a completely new environment. The smell, the people and the shops were all what made it so different from the rest of the city.

When we return to the place where the cable car dropped us off we got on the bus. This time a tour guide showed us the most interesting parts of San Francisco. She took us to the city hall and Twin Peaks. Here we had an incredible view of the city. Everybody wanted to have their picture taken on top of the peak which rose high over the city skyline.

Beautiful San Francisco!

Now it was about time for dinner. Therefore we returned to Chinatown. We had about 30 minutes before dinner to enjoy this beautiful place and purchase a few souvenirs. Dinner was being enjoyed at one of the many restaurants in Chinatown. The food was really good and the variety was big.

After dinner we were heading home. But half way we stopped to enjoy the sunset. Now we are about to go to bed. See you tomorrow where another big day is waiting.

Day 11 (June 13)

     San Francisco, here we come!! Today, we got to sleep in a little bit. We left Los Angeles and started heading to San Francisco at 10. We stopped for a lunch. All of us only had a limited time to eat because we needed to be on time for the schedule. We arrived at the 'de Young' art museum around 3. The museum was really interesting because it did not only have portraits, it also had a lot of ancient objects and statues from places all over the world such as, Greenland and Mexico. There was a picture that had the name of all the countries in the world. It took us a while to find Thailand in it. We really had fun at the museum but sadly, we didn't have enough time to look around everything in the museum.

At the museum

     After that, we went to the famous 'Pier 39' for the dinner at the 'Bubba Gum Shrimp co.'. A lot of you might have heard about this restaurant before. Yes! It's from the movie 'Forrest Gump' which we were watching along the way on the bus to San Francisco. Before dinner, we had a free time to shop for souvenirs and look around the pier. Surprisingly, the prices of the souvenirs were not as bad as we thought. In fact, they were pretty cheap. We also saw big black creatures hanging around the pier, sea lions!!! They were really adorable. That is why they were famous around here.

The sea lions

Candy, Muk, Chris, Dave and me at the pier

    Today was absolutely an amazing day for us because we got to experience a lot of new and interesting things we have never experienced before. This was only the beginning of the trip in San Francisco and we already loved it! See you tomorrow for more fun San Francisco!!

-- Dear, Thailand, Candy, Thailand, Tho, Thailand and Dave, Thailand

Let's climb these mountains, bears!

Early alarms settled and a fast breakfast and we were pumped for adventure in one of the most surprising places of the trip: Yosemite national park!

Our first look at the park: Yosemite Falls

After an hour drive, that many used to get ready for the day, hills and mountains surrounded us and everybody jumped off the seat to take the first incredible pictures. We got to see the El  Capitan, one of the most famous rock for climbers and mountains lovers.

We were introduced to the park by the professional rangers who also gave us useful hints for surviving in the wildness. Something that we kept well in mind was not to feed a wild animals and stand up screaming if you see a bear.

Our bear talk!

All excited to see a bear we started our hike to one of the biggest waterfalls of Yosemite Park. We stopped several times to take pictures and admire the beauty of the nature. You could hear the fresh water running down the mist surrounded by old trees and curious squirrels. After one hour walking we arrived at the bottom of the waterfall. All our exhaustion was forgotten. An amazing few allowed us to take many pictures and make life memories.

At the bridge on our hike

Our destination: Vernal Falls

After a fast way back many of us went to eat lunch and check out the souvenir stores. After lunch we all were ready for another adventure: rafting down one of the Yosemite rivers. For many of us it was the first time rafting. The water was cold but the brave ones tired to swim and hang out at some of the beaches. The rafting was a lot of fun!

After rafting we went to hang out at one of the lunch places and change for dinner. At six we all met at the restaurant. We were all very hungry after a long day outside. After dinner and getting everybody together we went to the bus and headed to the hotel. Just seated many of us fell asleep after a beautiful and exciting day in the nature.

Leo, Germany/Arkansas and Betta, Italy / Missouri

                                                                                                                    (June 11)
BEVERLY HILLS, that's where I wanna be! 

On the notes of the famous tune, we got into our last day in Los Angeles. After we checked out from the hotel, we hopped on our beloved "party bus" off to see the Hollywood sign and the neighborhood of Beverly Hills. 

me and Laura (Belgium) in Hollywood!

To have a great view of the sign, we went to the Griffith Observatory, where we all took pictures with the sign as our background and let the landscape of the city of LA sink in our eyes for the last time. 

The lovely Los Angeles

And then off to glamour! Rodeo Drive with all its fabulous stores certainly fascinated most of us. 

Hello, Beverly Hills!

In the early afternoon it was time for another long trip, off to the wonders of the Yosemite National Park. The drive was long, because of some technical problems we had to the change bus as we left Beverly Hills. Waiting and waiting, a new bus joined the awesome Belo crew, ready for new adventures, places to see and things to do! In the late evening we finally got to Merced, really tired and looking forward to a night of short but good sleep!

Camilla, Italy 

Disneyland (June 10)-  The happiest place in the World

Today we had the amazing opportunity to visit one of the best amusement parks in America, Disneyland in Los Angeles, California. First of all we all enjoyed an extra hour of sleep that gave us energy to seize this day.

When we got to the park we all could feel the magic in the air. Everything was so happy and full of joy, it was impossible to resist the temptation of following that vibe. The park was full of people, so as you can imagine the lines were really long, but we all found a way to enjoy that waiting time by sharing with each other our stories and experiences of this year.

Ready for the "happiest place on earth!"

To make this day even better we had the chance to visit not one but two parks. Across the street from Disneyland we had the Disney California Adventure park. We spent the first part of this day on Disneyland where we started by going on the least popular rides but not the least amusing, such as Pirates of Caribbean and Haunted House. The weather got warmer so we all wanted to get a little splash, so we decided to go on one of the most well known rides of the park: the Splash Mountain, it was really fun and we got completely wet! We still had some time to go to another rides on this park before lunch, for example the Mad Tea Party, Indiana Jones and Space Mountain.

Excited for the Mad Tea Cups!

After lunch we head up to the other park, where some amazing roller coaster was waiting for us. One of our favorite rides was definitely the Hollywood Tower of Terror, that actually was pretty scary, but still a lot of fun!

Tower of Terror

We found some other Belo adventurers and decided to joined them and enjoy the  many rides that the park still had to offer together, such as California Screamin’, a huge roller coaster that made us scream louder than we knew we could, and Grizzly River Run, another water roller coaster that made us even more wet than the other one.

Mickey loves us!

Finally at 9:30 we watched the firework show, it was unbelievable, all the music, lights and magic made this the most incredible firework show we have ever seen. Disneyland is for sure a magical place!

-- Joana, Portugal and Laura, Belgium

After a fresh but small breakfast this morning we left at about 9 o'clock for the Hollywood Boulevard, to visit Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. Two hours and about 2000 pictures with all kinds of sometimes surprisingly famous humans, manufactured in hundreds of hours later, it was time for shopping and picture taking with literal stars at the world famous walk of fame.

Me and the guys from Star Trek

Walk of Fame!

Many L.A. traffic minutes later, we were standing at Huntington Beach—the City of Surf. Three and a half hours of free time were to spend. Some of us went straight to the beach and enjoyed the clouds and the cold waves, some went shopping, some people such as myself enjoyed a late lunch at one of the various (fast food) restaurants, and some of us found hot surfer guys you might find in Baywatch or one of the many other TV shows about and around the two coasts of the US of A. I personally enjoyed the conversation between two of our girls and one of these well trained surfer "athletes" where I heard such hilarious quotes as "Stay tuned for my model career!" or "I can show you what L.A. is all about". But my absolute favorite was the help this, apparently attractive surfer asked for to stretch his muscles.

Later this scene was repeated by me and one of the girls. The only two things I want to say to about this are: 1. She called me sweet, and 2. I asked her if she could stretch my muscles.

Yes, it happened.

While the day was quite American, the supper was Italian or maybe better Italian-American.  With a lot of salad and (of course) spaghetti (yay, finally something I haven't eaten like 3 times before on this trip), and a strawberry-ish cheesecake (sooooo Italian) the supper was complete. The supper was super delicious, but it had a clearly American influence, just like every other foreign food here and other exchange students will know what I am talking about.

So if I would have to match this day with a song it would be “In Too Deep” by Sum 41. Simply because we were in L.A. so deep today, relaxed but still had amazing, funny, and foolish moments.

-- Max, Germany