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

Today is Saturday 8th.

In the early morning we had to wake up because California was waiting for us!

So after a big breakfast, we headed to the bus and we said "goodbye" to the beautiful Las Vegas. The bus ride was a little bit more than 5 hours and we stopped to grab some lunch on our way. Like usual, the back of the bus is full of crazy exchange students that danced for most of the ride (at least we had fun!!) and we also watched two movies.

Finally we arrived to the Universal Studios in the amazing LA, around 1:30 pm. The first thing we did together was to go to the studio tour in the universal studios. At this tour, we could see different places where famous people make movies. It was a great tour. After this everybody went their different ways to go to the attractions. 

Group shot at Universal!

Clara (Denmark), Kaktus (Denmark), Esra (Germany), Karoline (Denmark),
me (Domincan Republic), Rebecka (Sweden) and Joakim  (Norway) posing with Despicable Me 2!

Everybody took lots of pictures and enjoyed to the maximum level at the park. In the night we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. We had a delicious dinner together. Then we had some free time to take more pictures and to go shopping if we want to do it. After our great night at Universal Studios and at Hard Rock Cafe we went to the hotel to keep having fun with everybody together at the pool and just hang out. 

Shrek 4D with Marco (Italy), Rebecka (Sweden), me (Domincan Republic)
and Joakim (Norway)

Exploring City Walk after dinner!

me and Rebecka 

So tomorrow is going be another great day and we are so excited to enjoy it!

-- Nicole, Domincan Republic and Rebecka, Sweden

      Good plans for today (June 7th), we were really excited to know a little bit more about Las Vegas. We had good breakfast in the morning (which is no surprise in a hotel!).  Las Vegas is huge, which showed us that the adventure was just beginning. For the adventurers, it was worth to go 1 hour away from where we arrived on the strip to get to know the “New York New York” stores, as well as the huge and amazing roller coaster. I was lucky ‘cause I was part of this group and I could enjoy all of that right before we left. I hope other people enjoyed it as much as I did!

Imitating the girls on the escalators 

        Time for a quick lunch (or we had to run for lunch, I should say); we were too late so we just ate while we were in a hurry on the tram. We all got home really excited to get in the pool, too bad for us, because the pool was closed until 4pm for cleaning (the same time we would be leaving again). Thus, that was free time for us to do whatever we wanted to. Some of us decided to take a nap, other ones just walked around and there were even those who decided to be the first ones to laundry (but the hotel didn’t even has washing machines hahaha). At 4, everyone got really excited to visit the tallest building of Las Vegas: The Stratosphere Tower. Nice and scary rides and panoramic views were the reason of excitement, also a huge dinner with unlimited desserts was waiting for us (huuummmm..).

Ready for the Big Shot

So fun!

"Insanity" overlooking all of Las Vegas

          Later, most of the exchange students went to the Cirque du Soleil show, I didn’t go ‘cause it’s really not my thing, but I know they all had a good time, and I’m glad for that. We finished the day with no issues. We did well today, tomorrow is going to be even better, L.A, here we go…

-- João Paulo, Brazil

Yesterday morning we left our hotel on the Grand Canyon at 8 in the morning to go to LAS VEGAS! It was a 5 hours bus trip which we interrupted to stop at the world famous Route 66, where we took pictures and bought souvenirs for friends and family. After like 30 minutes we left to head to Vegas and watched some typical Nevada movies like “Cars” and “What Happens in Vegas.” We arrived in Las Vegas around noon and stopped in an outlet mall, where we had the chance to do some last minute shopping!

When we got to the hotel we had some time to relax and hang out in our rooms and then we had enough time to get ready for our night out. All the girls dressed up in nice dresses and skirts and even the guys put on some nice clothes.

At 7 we left to go to a really nice restaurant attached to a casino so we could see a casino from the inside in Las Vegas for the first time in our life! In the restaurant, we had food of all the different countries and it was amazing!

Dressed to impress!

After we finished dinner we took pictures and went outside to wait for our 3 luxurious limos! (we had white, red and pink) And when they came we were all just freaking about because we couldn’t wait to get in and ride in these limos through the streets of Las Vegas, so we took some more pictures in front of the limos and then we finally got in and started our limo trip.

Camilla (Italy), Marco (Italy), Costi (Italy), me (Germany), Laura (Belgium),
Valeria (Italy) and Roberta (Italy) waiting for the limo

Our first stop was Freemont Street where they had a free concert that we stayed for an hour and we rocked this concert! We were dancing and singing and it was so much fun. All the people around us where starring at us but we had a blast!

Rebecka (Sweden), Nicole (Dominican Republic), me (Germany)
and Laura (Belgium) on Freemont St. 

Group shot!

After that we got back to the limo and our next stop was the Bellagio. When we got there we were allowed to go in the hotel and look at the beautiful reception and take pictures and go in the chocolate store and outside one of the best things was the water show right in front of the hotel, they played music and had lights and it was really beautiful. We even saw a couple getting married there, one of the best things you can possibly do in Vegas.

Our last stop was the famous “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign where we took some last pictures and we even met a guy dressed up like Elvis there and after that we were happy to go back to the hotel and back in our beds because it was already really late.

Welcome to Las Vegas!!!

All in all, we had a great night out in Vegas and got the chance to be a celebrity driving around in a limo for one night and it was AWESOME!

--- Kim, Germany and Costi, Italy

The Grand Canyon- our first glimpse of Arizona’s breathtaking scenery

On our official second day we left our hotel early in the morning to see one of the seven wonders of the world- the Grand Canyon. We visited the Grand Canyon National Park which is one of the first and the most famous national park in the United States.

We had with us a lot of water, our hiking shoes and a hat and not to forget a lot of sunscreen so the blaring sun did not burn us. Once we arrived, we were all amazed by the beautiful scenery. Everybody took out their cameras and made their first shots of the fantastic view. We had a few minutes to fill our water bottles because it was really important to stay hydrated and then we started our 3 mile long hike.  

Me (Austria), Cami (Belgium) and Laura (Belgium)

West Coast Trip '13!!!

We all were really excited to see from different spots in the Grand Canyon.  It took us like half an hour to walk to halfway down.  We stopped for a little bit but we were not that exhausted as we were after the whole hike.  On our way down the canyon we listened to music, joked around or just told each other stories or chatted.  After another half an hour we finally arrived at the lookout point. It was an indescribable view. Everybody was able to take an individual photo on a big rock which looked really, really cool. Afterwards we took a group photo.

We made it! Pure happiness.

Now was the time for the last restroom and fill our water bottles before we hiked up. The Belo staff told us that it will take us twice as long as to walk up. Everybody could take their own speed and can take as many stops as they want. Which I thought was cool because there was no stress or hurry. It was really, really, really warm and since we walked upwards it was way more exhausting than walking down. At the beginning, it was not bad for me, but after half an hour hiking I felt the heat. We made twice as many stops going up which was really necessary.

After like an hour and 40 minutes my group arrived where we started. Everybody had their own speed but it took us between one hour and a half to three hours where the last person arrived. Afterwards we all had free time where we could go for lunch and take a shuttle bus which took us to a lot of different spots. The photos which I personally took were amazing! The scenery from the Grand Canyon was AMAZING!

We all met up at 6pm for dinner and after dinner we finished a funny movie in the bus and ‘’slapped our air-bass!’’ We arrived at the hotel and relaxed in the pool or the hot tub after an amazing, exciting and breathtaking day.

-- Pauline, Austria 

First day in Arizona!

We started the day off by leaving our hotel at 9am for a city tour of Phoenix! We spent an hour there, some looking around the building and others taking pictures with cactuses, since we are in the Home of the Cactus! Then we got back on the bus, touring Phoenix, seeing the University of Arizona, saw the Gammage Auditorium designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and then we drove to Papago Park and hiked up to a view of Phoenix and the rest of the park. 

City Hall in Phoenix 

The Music Building at the University of Arizona (we thought it was cool looking!)

After that, we drove to a gigantic mall in Scottsdale where we had a chance to buy the last necessities before we are headed to the Grand Canyon tomorrow!

After lunch and shopping at the mall, we drove for about one and half hours to Sedona where we had an hour to look around the small shops, eat some ice cream and enjoy the amazing view!

Jumping pic in Sedona! (me, Esra and Clara) 

Group picture in Sedona!

Now, after 2 more hours in the bus, we are at a resort in Williams (about an hour drive from the Grand Canyon). We have had a good dinner and then played a name game to try to learn all of the 50 students names before we continue our trip. We are right now sitting by the pool under the stars, all very excited to hike down the Grand Canyon tomorrow!

Personally, we think the short stop in Sedona was the best part about our first day, we loved all the little gift shops and the view was breathtaking!

It was surely a great way to start our West Coast Trip!

--Karoline Gronert, Denmark and Esra Otto, Germany

Today we finally arrived in the West Coast and we were welcomed by the best weather and awesome new friends! The trip is going to be awesome according to how it started!!!

Students have been arriving all day and had to do a brief check in, just to be safe, you know! We jumped in the pool as soon as possible and hung out with our fellow exchange students! As everybody arrived there was a bigger international welcome group! We told our stories and shared our experiences, ready to make a new one together!

Follow our blog EVERY DAY because we are going to share our awesome experience DAY by DAY!!

Signed,
Ila from Chicago - Milan