June 20, 2009 Phoenix

Post By: Francisco Jimenez and Mariagiulia de Maria

In the morning after a quick breakfast, we checked out ready to get on our way to Phoenix. Then we got on the bus and everybody was sleepy, we watched a movie and the trip was not as long as the other, it was just 3 hours. Once we were in Phoenix we went to the mall to have some lunch and maybe some shopping. After lunch we got into the bus again to take a tour with a tour guide, who explained to us some history about Phoenix Arizona. We made some stops to take some pictures and to get some good information from the guides, and unfortunately for us the temperature was a little too high, something like 104 degree which was insane for most of us, after all those stops we finally went to the hotel.

For dinner we ate in one of the best restaurants in the US, Hard Rock Café, where we took so many pictures and ate so well that the weather didn’t even bothered us, and of course a good last chance to do some MORE shopping!

Once done with dinner we went back to the hotel to have one of the best nights of this trip, some speeches, talent shows and superlatives were some of the activities made that night. The talent show included Indian dancing, belly dancing, instruments, singing and some others like rap or beat boxing! Afterwards there was music for people to dance that was unfortunately stopped because of the smoke that made the fire alarm to ring, some other people instead of dancing were just chilling in the pool or in the lobby. This morning is the time to say good bye, and to keep some good memories forever and ever!

June 19, 2009 Grand Canyon

Post By: Marie Czech, Simone Linsi, Theresa Tschulik, Luca Simmendinger and Lissi Kraus

WOW! Today was one of the most impressive days we had so far in our trip along the West Coast. After breakfast our awesome bus drivers Scotty and Johnny took us to the amazing Grand Canyon. First we hiked a mile and a half down the Bright Angel Trail by around 80 degrees Fahrenheit. We all took gorgeous pictures of the overwhelming beauty of the nature. The Grand Canyon is one of the most powerful landscapes-overwhelmed in world nature. It is the first national park in the United States established in 1908 and the Americans are really proud of it’s history. Although we did not go all the way down to the Colorado river and just saw a tiny part of the canyon, it still amazed us very much. After visiting Las Vegas, which is all man made, it was nice to see something naturally made that had equal beauty in a different way. On the way down we saw mules and we smelt their left overs. On the way back up the canyon we were so exhausted and drank so much water. Once to the top we ate lunch and took lots of pictures. Some of us went on the shuttles to see the different vista points. Tomorrow we go to Phoenix; It’s our last bus ride :( we are very sad. But we will "party" tonight at the hotel!

June 18, 2009 Vegas to Grand Canyon

Post By: Amma Aboah

Wow I can't believe we only have two full days left. OMG its gone by so so fast!! We went shopping at the outlet in Vegas this morning...and trust me I dont think there is enough space for anything in any of our suitcases...lol...We have been shopping so much on this trip and I love that! We feel bad for our parents sometimes(you know financially) because we shop so much!! The students who went to the show last night got to go up to the Stratosphere and see the city! So after lunch at the mall,we had a 5 hour bus ride to arizona where we will visit the Grand Canyon tomorrow! On the way we watched p.s. i love you and step brothers: amazing movies and then we got to our hotel...which surprisingly turned out to be AMAZING!...We can play volleyball, tennis, basketball hang out at the pool! I can't believe it's a little colder here than i expected!! I think we are all excited to go hiking in the beautiful Grand Canyon tomorrow! Also there is going to be a dance at our hotel tomorrow night!!woot woot!!!I love this trip...please can it never end!?

June 17, 2009 Las Vegas

Post By: Robert Schlieker and Isabela Levcovitz

This hott day started for us with a three hour exploration in Las Vegas! We went downtown, walked around on the strip and can you believe it, more shopping! We got to see the marvelous city and it was amazing! After that we went back to the hotel, and we had free time at the hotel. We just enjoyed hanging around and swimming in the pool. It was really good that we got to relax. Around 5 o'clock we went to the Stratosphere where we got to eat at a casino buffet for dinner. So much food and it was really good! Some people choose to go see cirque du soeil and went to the show after dinner while the rest of us went up to the top of the Stratosphere. What a great view of the city! There were three rides on top of the building and some of us went on them! It was SO crazy and scary! After all the fun and pictures we headed back to see the lights down the strip again. We also got to watch the water show at the Belagio! It is such an amazing thing to see! Vegas is so beautiful at night!

June 16, 2009 Las Vegas

Hello from Las Vegas!

This is Carleigh writing, I am a monitor on this non-stop exciting west coast trip! We have been so busy and last night especially! We left LA but before we did we stopped to see Beverly Hills and do some light but potentially expensive shopping! Once we got on the road to Las Vegas the students were already so enthusiastic about their night out on the town. They have been busy taking journals, watching movies and getting to know eachother on our bus rides from city to city. Our arrival to our hotel to Vegas was quick and we were off to dinner at Buca di Beppo! YUM! No one left hungry, especially after our cookie and cheesecake dessert. Shortly after we were off to our city hummer limo tour! Wow! The students were so excited to see the town at night with all the lights and night life! We stopped at the Vegas sign, Bellagio and Freemont Street. We all enjoyed the bright lights of the lively city but most of all I think they enjoyed the rides in the hummer limos: loud music, dancing and hundreds of pictures! There is no doubt in my mind they will never forgot our night out! More Las Vegas tomorrow!

June 15, 2009 Newport Beach

Post By: Rebekka Salmela und Jannik Erlat (From the South)

Hello y'all!! Roll tide Alabama! Go Gators!!

Today we started up with the amazing breakfast. Then we were heading to the Newport Beach(The O.C.!). The weather was chilly, but then it turned out to be a beautiful day. Many people started out with farmer's tans, but soon were tan all over. The waves were huge, the bruises were big. In our freetime we were shopping in the Balboa area where the beach was at. People were playing football and taking a lot of pictures where we stayed at the beach. Later in the day we left the beach and headed back to the hotel to refresh and change for Hollywood! We shopped again and saw the Hollywood walk of fame and we all had a lot of fun down in the busy toursit area. After many pictures we were off to our restaurant Sizzler where we got to eat buffet style and try lots of different foods. Tomorrow we are gonna say goodbye to California and head up Las Vegas, Nevada!

June 14, 2009 Disneyland

Post By: Marcela Zanini, Emilia Pimentel and Michelle Meyer

Welcome to Disneyland! Where all dreams come true! ;)

After an amazing breakfast at the hotel, we all went to one of the most anticipated places of the whole trip... DISNEYLAND!

When we got to the park we took a tram from the parking lot and we had free time to roam around the park. A large group went over to Tomorrowland and rode Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear and Star Tours. Then we all split up into different groups. Some of our favorite rides were Space Mountain, Pirates of the Carribean, Haunted Mansion and Indiana Jones. We were surprised to see how well Disney decorated all of its rides. In the Haunted Mansion there were holograms of ghosts dancing around a ball room but they looked so real! In the Pirates ride, so many of us thought that the manniquian that depicted Jack Sparrow was a real person. We all kept looking back to see if he was real or not! In Indiana Jones, we rode jeeps around a track and at one point it looked like the giant stone ball from the movie was going to crush us.

There were a few shows as well. We watched a parade go down Main Street with all the characters. Some people were able to take pictures with the characters. There was also a show called Fantasmic that happened on the river that ran through the park. At the end of the night we all got to watch fireworks erupt over the castle. It was so amazing!!! The fireworks were all set to Disney music from the classic movies. At the end of the fireworks there was confetti that shot out onto those of us that were standing on Main Street. The confetti was even shapped like Micky Mouse!

Tomorrow, we are going to spend beautiful day at Newport Beach! And afterwards we will have a Hollywood Tour and visit the 'Walk of Fame' and Beverly Hills! We are very excited for another amazing day to come!!

June 13, 2009 Universal Studios

Post By: Nora Farkas
Today was the day everybody was waiting for. After a long bus ride, what actually was full of fun and we watched a bunch of movies, we arrived to Los Angeles and we went straight to Universal Studios. It was AMAZING! Really… I’m speechless… I don’t think I could describe how all we felt after this day. You have to be there to feel this. We could try lots of different rides like Jurassic Park, Simpsons, Mummy explore movie effects and try some effect as a volunteer (some students were sound effect volunteers) We ate at Bubba Gump, where we could eat a bunch of food again! We eat a lot of food as exchange students. We really enjoyed the place because we could be loud and they would just ask us to be louder! The food was great and the decorations were cool. One lucky student had an 18th birthday so she heard the birthday song in like 6 different languages sung by 200 students! What an exciting and fun day! Then, as if we have not spent enough time and money shopping, we went out into the outside mall next to Universal Studios and shopped some more!
Mickey is waiting for us tomorrow and we are sooo excited to see him and have our dreams come true at Disney! :)

June 12, 2009 Yosemite

Post By: Michael Bro

Today was the most beautiful day of the trip so far! Hiking, riding bikes and rafting were some of the days activities and my favorite was the rafting! I thought it was hilarious when we were rafting and went in circles all the time because some of the students were paddling more and more and getting no where. We hiked to the Vernal waterfall and had some of the most beautiful views of the park! Everyone took sooo many pictures. After lunch at the park most people went rafting and some others went biking. It was a beautiful day to spend so much time enjoying the calming nature. For dinner we ate at a local pizza place in Mariposa. There was so much food and we had boxes of left overs! Who knew there would be so much left overs with so many people eating?!

PS...We are all so excited for Universal Studios tomorrow!

The trip is only getting better!

...and better...and better

June 11, 2009 Yosemite

Post By: Vat Tanprasertsupa

Today was another fun day that I would never forget!We woke up early to head to Yosemite National Park. We said goodbye to San Francisco and headed to Yosemite National Park. It takes around 5 hours to get there. The view along the way was amazing it is very beautiful... I looked out at the road and I was wondering: how in the world can the driver be driving our big bus along these narrow roads, but our drivers are good at their job. When we arrived at the park we ate lunch and listened to a park ranger talk about black bears and other things about the park! She even had a bear skin and skull! It was crazy. After spending time looking around Yosemite we had a BBQ cookout for dinner. It was pretty good! Well, tomorrow is our big day at the park so that is all for tonight! :)

June 10, 2009 San Francisco

Post By: Eda Sarman and Dani Theissing

Our wonderful day started at the Golden Gate Bridge. We first took a group picture and walked across the bridge which was a really looong walk but the view was impressive. After that we went back to Pier 39 and got to try some local foods! Then we walked to the harbor where the Alcatraz ship departed. On the cold and windy ship ride we were able to take some great pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge. Alcatraz was awesome and a kind of scary! We all went on the audio tour and the escape stories were captivating. We drove through the beautiful Golden Gate Park and saw it's mass of beauty. On our way to Outback Steakhouse we drove through the Golden Gate Park which was really beautiful. AND we saw the beach! Finally we got to eat dinner which was delicious. We hope all days are going to be so much fun.