See you later, Hawaii.

Aloha everyone!

Today was a semi-early day; we had to leave at the whopping time 8:30! It was well worth it! After the breakfast we went to Hanauma Bay, located on the western shore of the island. Hanauma Bay is notorious for its diverse wildlife, here you can find everything from small shrimps to humongous fish of any color imaginable, and if you are very lucky, like some of us were, you might even see the endangered sea turtle. I was that lucky, me and my friends swam with the turtle for several minutes, it was probably a “once in a lifetime” experience!

After spending the first half of the day on the beach, we headed home, and by now, most of our exchange friends had found at least one sun burn on their pale bodies.

The remaining time of our day was spent at a Luau, a traditional Hawai’ian party!

A Luau can be held for almost every occasion you can imagine! A wedding, a funeral, graduation etc. your mind is the limit! The Luau was everything I could imagine, and more! They had a great party arranged. At the party we learned a variety of things; how to hula, how to open a coconut, how to fish with a fishing net, and much more! Skills we will use at least once every decade! J

After the show, the food arrived, and we ate! A lot! The pig was cooked in a traditional Hawai’ian way; they even showed us how it was cooked, very fascinating stuff! It is amazing to see and learn through practice how the Polynesians did everyday stuff many hundred years ago! This is not classroom material guys, this is the real deal! During the feast, they put on a mind-blowing hula show. They did their own thing, and they included the audience, it was all in all a very cool show!

The bus ride home was probably the best and last bus ride so far. Our amazing bus driver, Rhonda, aka. Disc Jockey played some amazing tunes for us. It really got us going!

When we, unfortunately, arrived at the hotel, we sat down around Emily<3, Diana<3 and Brianna<3, the amazing staff members assigned to keep us in line for the week! We were briefed about departure times and then all three of them told us we were a special group.

Right now I am sitting on the couch writing the entry with two amazing friends, friends I am probably never going to forget. Around us, there are people with smiles on their faces and some with tired faces, but one thing is certain, they will all miss this place, and this will most likely be one of the most memorable weeks of their lives. Markus out.

P.S. I love you mom and dad, I miss you both so much!

- Markus (Norway) (Main writer)

                - Ann Theres (Germany) (Secondary writer)

                - Keita (Japan) (Secondary writer)

- Rikke (Denmark) (Proof reader)

Visiting Pearl Harbor

Aloha guys,

Today is Thursday and our Hawaii Expedition is almost over!

This morning we had to get up really early to get our bus at 8 heading to Pearl Harbor! At first to the USS Missouri and after that to the USS Arizona Memorial! During the bus ride we already learned a lot about Pearl Harbor.  For you folks who don’t know the significance about Pearl Harbor; Pearl Harbor is a Naval Base of the United States Army and during World War 2 the biggest part of the Pacific fleet was stationed in Pearl Harbor! In the early morning of December 7^th, 1941 the Empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and destroyed or damaged most of the American Fleet! Over 2500 people died… Shipman, Officers, Pilots and Civilians! This day is still a day to remember and day which united the United States! On December 8, President Roosevelt declared war against the Empire of Japan!

At first we headed to Ford Island to the USS Missouri. There we split our group into two smaller groups, one group started with a tour through the battleship, while the other group did social work on board of the ship! As social service we swept the deck of the Missouri.    

The tour showed us areas normal visitors are not allowed to visit. The tour was really interesting and the learned about the history of the ship. On the board the USS Missouri the representatives of the Allie countries and Japan signed on September 2^nd the treaty to end the war in the pacific!

After our visit there we went to the USS Arizona Memorial. There we had time to eat a snack before we watched a video about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Then we headed with a boat to the memorial which is over the sunken battleship. We walked over the memorial and saw parts of the sunken ship, which was really interesting. The USS Arizona is still the grave of over 1500 men, who served on the battleship.

After that we headed to the hotel and stopped at food court of the Pearl Harbor Mall to eat lunch! Back at the hotel we had free time and went to the beach, to the pool or shopping in Waikiki!

To finish the day we had dinner at the 21^st floor of the hotel with an amazing view over Honolulu, Waikiki, the sea and Diamond Head. We took a lot of pictures up there and really enjoyed eating there. Afterwards then had free time again to do more shopping or just to hang out at the hotel!

Tatjana and Moritz from Germany

 

 

WOW! We have two blog posts today! Enjoy...

Today I went to the Pearl Harbor. When I heard that we were going to go there, I was so excited and couldn’t wait till today! Because I am so interested in history, and actually I learned about WW2 about a week ago. I found all of America state flag right there, USS MISSOURI. I found my state flag and I felt glad about it, because we don’t have state flag in Korea and it is one of awesome thing that I have seen in America.

After that, we went to USS ARIZONA which was attacked by Japanese military at 1941,December 7. That was the starting point of WW2. For some people who didn’t know about WW2, we saw a short film about it. It explained everything so that people can understand what WW2 was. Right after that, we went to some place which has all victim of this war on the wall. It remained me how many people died during this war. I couldn’t express how I felt by any words. That was so impressed to me and I will never forget that.

I could think about world peace from this experience. It also brought me attention about Korean War. Because Korea is still on the War and its being a huge issue nowadays.

Actually I didn’t treat it heavy issue, but since I saw all those thing today, It became a huge thing in my life. I hope we make Korean War over as soon as we can. We better never forget about it and respect people who died at the WW2.

South Korea- Hyeon Jung

Hiking Diamond Head - What a View!

Aloha!

Today was an awesome day, we went hiking! 9:30 am everybody was ready in their tennis shoes to walk all the way to the top of Diamond Head. The way to the hiking trail was longer than expected, so everyone was already exhausted when we were at the base of the mountain. Luckily, we got to take a short break before venturing deeper into the mountain range!

 So we started to walk through the trail, with Alain running way up ahead because of his running challenge. The path became more rough and harder to travel the longer we walked, so the last few parts were really curvy and hard to proceed through. This added a cool feeling to the hike though, it felt like we were actually real hikers. When we finally got to the top after the tiring road, we got the chance to take some awesome photos and spent a good while at the top and enjoyed the view. After that we walked the same path down again and took a longer break when we got down.

Many of us bought shaved ice or smoothies for refreshment. So everyone was bracing themselves for the long walk back to the hotel, but we were surprised by a bus that would take us back to the hotel!!!! So we got back to the hotel and almost everyone went to chill by the hotel pool. It was really fun to talk to everyone during that time and the sun was still shining really well, so it was an ideal place to be. Later during the evening we went to a mall with the bus, shopped for about an hour before going to eat in the Bubba Gump. The food was really good!

After the hour we grouped up and headed back to the hotel, we recapped what we are going to do on Thursday in Pearl Harbor and ended the day, it was a fun one!

By: Ville from Finland and Erica from Norway (Clemens was there for mental support)



A Perfect Day in Hawaii!

Aloha guys!

Today was another awesome day for us in Hawaii! After a lot of us had breakfast at the beach again, we all made it to the bus on time and went to the Nu’Uanu Pali Lookout. We got some awesome views of the Hawaiian coast and also learned a little bit about History, as the Pali lookout was the location for one of the most important battles of Hawaii.

After getting tons of delicious food at whole foods we went to Waimanalo beach. The water was amazingly blue and the waves were so much fun. We spent most of the day there relaxing in the sun, swimming, diving and having a great time. Also we finally did our awesome Hawaiian version of the “Harlem Shake” video – or how we call it “the Hawaiian Shake”. Another beautiful place we got to see today was the Blowhole Lookout. Although we didn’t see any whales we were amazed by the beautiful scenery.

On our way back to the hotel we enjoyed the bus ride with a lot of singing and dancing and back home we got ready for an awesome dinner at the Hard Rock Café in Honolulu. Surrounded by a lot of guitars and   a rock star atmosphere we ate our burgers and salads and we even entertained the whole restaurant as we all felt like singing with the music and later even some songs from our home countries on stage. At the end of the day we added a short shopping tour in the streets of Waikiki to the list of activities of the day.

As you can see we had a great day and we are already looking forward to tomorrow!

-Tatjana and Mareike from Germany

Exploring Polynesia!

Our Monday was more of a cultural experience than a normal beach day, in fact, we hardly spent any time at beaches but explored the Hawaiian places and areas instead. The morning started normally with all the usual stuff at the hotel including breakfast and stuff.

We saw the Capitol of Hawaii and continued the trip to the north shore after some sightseeing in the Capitol. The palace of the king and the statues were awesome and so was the tree everyone liked to hug. We also took a group photo there. In the bus our bus driver told us many things about Hawaii and it's customs while we were observing amazing scenery and listening to the mainstream pop they play 24/7 on Energy and other similar radio channels... And i thought they would have something different  on Hawaii... 

Our bus driver knew many things about hawaii though. We stopped at the dole plantation on the way and got the chance to buy some souvenirs and taste the great pineapple ice cream thingy which was delicious. We could also engrave our Hawaiian names on a leather bracelet! There was also a big maze which we were not allowed to enter because of the chance that we would get lost...  It looked really cool though. After dole's we continued towards Haleiwa, a big surfer town. Along the way we got to see some huge waves in the popular beaches, it was funny to watch how everyone jumped to the other side of the bus at the same time to take photos! We also stopped on one of the beaches to take a closer look at the magnificent waves, I really wanted to try swimming in them too. After arriving to Haleiwa, we went through numerous jobs and I feel like many people bought something in the end, or at least I did. The place was famous for it's shaved ice which was indeed really sweet, almost too sweet. After eating and shopping and whatnot we continued to our final destination, the polynesian cultural center. 

Anyway, the place itself was really unique with different islands separating different activities while everything was still kind of connected with rivers and canoeing routes. The place was really great and we explored many islands. We saw a ton of different shows which were all fantastic and humorous, the hosts really knew how to pull a good show together! We spent a good while between the shows just looking around on our own and grouping up occasionally to do something, like learning to hula dance with everyone! Although I feel like I don't remember any moves tomorrow anymore. When the sun was starting to set we feasted in a nice buffet restaurant with a huge amount of different food dishes to try out. All were really good actually. At this point after eating the sun had pretty much set already and the wind was blowing, those people who brought extra clothes were probably happy and the one's that didn't probably less so. 

We wrapped the day with the final event which took a place in a big outdoors theater hall. The name of the play was the breath of life, telling the life story of a person called Mana. The choreography of the actors was insane, I can't imagine how long it took for them to get that all together, especially when there were about 10-20 people doing the moves at almost all the time. The already epic show ended with a spectacular torch trick part where few people spun double flamed torches with blinding speed. And the funny/crazy thing was how long they did that without taking a break, I'm pretty sure that takes years of practice to pull of without failing. After the deafening applauds we departed back to the hotel with a new bus! I think everyone was dead tired around this time so I bet it was a nice time for everyone to head back home. And actually we are still in the bus where I am currently writing this. You might wonder at this point how the heck would anyone write a wall of text like this willingly, well, just to let you all know we were on a bus, so not much to do and the day really was worth for. This was a great second day and we had a bunch of free time too. We'll see if the next days will be as great as the first two!

By: Ville  (Finland 4ever)



Fun in the Sun! Day One.

We had an amazing first day in Hawaii today!

Our day started with ‘Breakfast on the Beach’ which is amazing! Sitting next to the ocean, with the warm air is so nice.

After this amazing breakfast, we headed to the beach to go surfing and sailing on a catamaran! It was just…so much fun.

When we arrived to the beach, we decided to have a sand castle building contest before we went sailing. The competition was INTENSE and we all think we won…heh!

Next up, was the catamaran cruise. Once we got out into the open water, we had a chance to jump in the ocean for a swim with fish and sea turtles! We got so close to them, it was just amazing.

After we got back on the boat…and went for a wild ride sailing the waves of the Pacific!

We got really wet and had a great time laughing thru it all!

After a break for lunch, it was time to go surfing! Surfing was amazing, but wow are we tired! After a lesson on land, we paddled out to the waves, and this was so tiring.

Finally though, all the paddling was worth it when you finally catch some waves! Surfing is just so fun and you can’t believe you’re really doing it, it’s like out of a movie!

We hung out at the beach for a while longer before heading back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. A cool thing was going on in the streets of Waikiki – a huge parade, with hula dancers!

After a great dinner at a pizza place, we had free time to do some shopping…and watched amazing fireworks over the ocean, too!  We are so lucky to have seen this, just a little bit more Hawaii magic for us J

We are so tired after a really long, really good day – but excited for tomorrow to learn more about Hawaii!

Goodnight, world!

Moritz, Tatjana, Gina, Marisa from Germany

Signe from Denmark