It's not goodbye, It's "See You Later"

When we stepped out of the hotel early in the morning the weather was like our mood, foggy and sad. It was hard to believe that this would be our last day together. After all of the adventures and great experiences we had, one day in San Francisco was left. But we had great plans for this day. Starting out at Alcatraz, the small island in front of San Francisco which had been a prison for a long time. We heard stories about highly dangerous criminals and saw furnished cells. The audio guide with voices of real former inmates made the stony fort come alive in our minds.
After having lunch at Pier 39 for the last time, we were heading to the second part of our program for the day, the Golden Gate Bridge - probably San Francisco’s most famous monument. Finally we did what most of us were waiting for since we arrived in the beautiful city. We saw it, we touched it, we took pictures of it and we walked it. 1.7 miles of bridge and  amazing view of the city. The sun that had finally come out even woke up the last sleepy people and so we said “Goodbye” to the city.
Back in our buses, the awakeness changed again. One could see the impacts of the travel. After two weeks of excitement and continuous program, the time in bus was one of the only times to relax. So, instead of partying, everybody was taking a nap. But we knew the day was not over yet. We would have time for a big party.
At dinner time, the final event started. Everybody was dressed up and eager to have a good last evening. We had pretty yummy food, some nice, touching speeches of students and staff and then we were rocking the dance floor to some more or less good songs only interrupted by the giving away of the awards. All exchange students had voted on categories such as “best english” or “most likely to own a donkey farm at the ground of the grand canyon.” Pictures of the award winners were taken and of course more dancing and more dancing.                    
But in the end, everything that is good has once come to an end. So we started our farewells. It was hard to imagine that we would not see each other anymore after two weeks of intense travel. I think everybody can understand that this goodbye was not an easy one because we all had so much fun with the great help of our Belo staff and the YFU chaperones. We had adventures together, learned new things, saw spectacular nature and man-made places, and got to know new cultures. It is no wonder that something as great as that ends with some tears.

I hope everybody enjoyed the travel as much as I did and I am sure we will see each other again, somewhere in the world. Good luck to everyone and a safe trip home.
I love you all :)  


Lea S. - Germany

Our boat to take us to Alcatraz!

The weather made the perfect setting!

The beautiful Golden Gate Bridge!

Dancing the night away!

San Francisco Stylin'

Our first stop in San Francisco, the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition!

Gorgeous gardens across the way!

360-degree view of the city

Pier 39!

The Sea Lions relaxing in the afternoon sun

Alcatraz

Nom Nom! Spinach-Artichoke dip at Bubba Gumps restaurant

Linda (GER) won prizes for answering Forest Gump questions correctly!

Chocolate cake for dessert :)

     After a wonderful night of sleep, we woke up for an exciting second day in San Francisco!  We left at 9 am and head over back to pier 39 to walk over to the cable car station. The moment that we get our nose out of the bus we felt the cold of SF during the summer. Some of us, even when we were warn about that weren't prepared. But the nice walk over to the cable car warm us up a little bit so we could enjoy the morning. After a short but fun ride we walk down the very famous Lombard Street in SF because of how steep and curved it is. Around launch time we walk around places like little Italy, Chinatown to finally meet in Union square. When we got there we met our tour guides for a very interesting tour around San Francisco. We went to amazing places with the best views of the city, beach, etc. We also solve the mystery about the bathroom that Bernardo told us the first night here, it was just a bathroom that it clean itself. Not a big deal. To end the day we had a family style dinner in Chinatown. After dinner we came back to the hotel to spend the rest of our evening having fun with the wonderful people that we've met during this trip.

Lucia - Uruguay

Yearning for Yosemite

             I don't know if you are a Disney movie fan, but I am for sure; and yesterday it occurred to me that one of our monitors said "This looks exactly like the beginning-shot of Beauty and The Beast". I know it sounds strange - a place that shines with so much magic that it is comparable to one of the greatest fairytales in history; but it exists! Yosemite National Park is without any doubt one of the most beautiful and sacred places on the globe. The power of massive grey rocks combined with the vitality of the fresh green grass and the rainbows under the sparkling waterfalls leads every tourist into thoughts of fairies, goblins and dwarfs. Well, if they exist somewhere then for sure in Yosemite. But since nobody is so sure about that let us focus on the wonderful creatures that are really allowed to call this peace of heaven their home: Black bears, Mountain-lions, squirrels, a ton of birds and many more fascinating creatures. Black bears are the pride of Yosemite and so the first part of our adventure was a talk about those majestic creatures. For sure we all hoped to see one or two of them but the bears did not seem that social on Tuesdays. Oh well, instead of bears we got to see something even more majestic; but therefore we first had to hike a trail through the forest. This trail included an innumerable amount of stairs and rocks to climb. But it was worth it! Halfway through the hike you could see it: A gorgeous waterfall, splashing over rocks and painting a rainbow into the water of its river. In front of us lay a moving painting by one of the greatest artists ever: Nature. The waterfalls of Yosemite wake the longing for freedom, they let you forget about the problems of our earth. As I said before: It is a purely sacred and peaceful place.
              Anyhow, we climbed the stairs, we reached the top of the waterfall - We lived the adventure! But it was not over yet. Arriving back in the little village at the foot of the rock-formations we had two options: Biking through the park or going rafting. Most students decided for rafting and had the chance to feel like Huckleberry Finn for a moment. Even though the river was a level 1 rafting tour, most of us had problems to not hit some stones or keep the raft straight the whole time. This challenge tested our team-work skills as well as out arm muscles. But, oh my - what kind of view we got from the river: Huge mountains surrounding us, embracing the forest and its wild life with their giant arms of stone, like a mother protecting her baby. There was no single cloud at the sky and you could see the sun looking over the mountain-tops. People got off their boats at the little beaches that framed the river to swim in the clear but ice-cold water. Alright, some also used the opportunity to splash water at their friends who were still in the boats - Good thing that we all had a change of clothes with!
After eating dinner in the park our busses started heading home - Time for us to look out of the window and reflect on what we had seen that day. While the rocks and mountains softly vanished and became one with the horizon of california the sunset painted the sky orange and then handed the paintbrush over to the night who colored the sky dark blue. And suddenly there were words for what Yosemite really was: A strain of music in the night. I understand now, why Bernardo, our coordinator, said, that Yosemite was his favorite place on this trip. Las Vegas and LA are impressive - but they are just illusions built by human hands - scars on the face of the world. Yosemite is a natural wonder that was not deformed by the people. It is not a scar - it is an eye of the world.

Larissa Sander - Germany

The ranger gives us a talk about protecting their bears!

GORGEOUS scenery on our hike to Verna Falls 

rafting!

The students set sail on their journey down the river

Sunny Los Angeles

Sleepy students relax on the bus headed to LA!

Universal!!! The students hang out in front of the infamous globe

Wisteria Lane (Desperate Housewives) - on the Universal Studio Tour

The set for Christmas!

That's a real guy! On the studio tour!

This is the largest outdoor green screen in the world!

Dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe

Happy Birthday Lisa and Miz!

Hard Rock by night in the downtown area

          Today is the day that we have to leave Las Vegas and get ready to go to  California. We went straight to Universal Studios Hollywood. Everybody was excited! We start our tour there by taking a group picture at the famous globe outside the park. I started my tour of the park by going to the haunted house. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, but it was cool.Then we went to the Shrek 4D virtual experience. It was pretty cool .For the thrill rides, I went to the Transformer which is the newest ride in Universal Studios. The ride is kind of a combination of a roller coaster and a 3D experience. Also it included many special effects. It was awesome and exciting! Now it was time for us to get wet. We went to the ride called Jurassic Park River adventure. This ride was like a boat tour along the river and had many dinosaurs from the movie ''Jurassic Park'' It was pretty fun and we were wet afterwards. The thing that I like most about Universal  Studios was the Studio Tour . For the Studio Tour we went on the trolley and we got to see many scenes from the movies that we love such as The Mummy, Jaws and the other movies from Universal productions.

              In the evenng we all were tired and hungry, We went to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe on the City walk in front of the park.T he food was petty good and then we end our day at the city walk by enjoying the music fromthe stage DJ!


Golf (THA)

A group of girls outside Madame Tussauds!

Chinese Theater!

Welcome to the Beach!!

Massages on the beach

When we arrived at beach, the first thing I noticed was music playing at the strip. There were a few groups of people playing live music along the street. The beach looked warm and comfortable under the sunny sky. I was worried it would be too cold to go in the water, so shopping was a good option. While walking at the strip, I could smell spicy chili, at the local chili festival hear the music, and look at jewerly and clothes. It was hard to choose a good restaurant because there were so many. But my Greek pasta was the awesome! With the time, the weather became really nice and I decided to use the opportunity to swim at the other side of the Pacific ocean, instead of where I come from, South Korea. The waves were tall and big. I had so much fun with my friends. Then we were playing Fressbee on the warm sand and making fun of students trying to do Liz's yoga. When we went to the bus again, we were all pretty tired and some had cool sunburn patterns on their skin.

The dinner at Sizzlers was awesome, especially the steak. In my room, we had a girl pajama party with my roommates. Friends on facebook werre making fun of our face mask pictures. It was an amaizing day!


Kelly Kim (KOR)

Welcome to Disney!!

Artem (RUS) and Nico (GER) with staff on a trolly ride inside the park

The entire group outside the castle!

Hollywood sign (Look closely!)

Beverly Hils!

When we first arrived at the park everybody was really excited for a day in Disneyland and all the
adventurous rides. In our blue, matching west coast trip-shirts we represented a cool group of people,
ready to rock the park. We started with one of our favorite rides, Space Mountain. It was a fast inside-
rollercoaster in the dark. Most of the people spent their time in the morning in Disneyland, exploring
all different kinds of rides and enjoying their time. In the afternoon we all met for a big group picture in
front of the world famous Disney castle.

Tanked with new energy after lunch, most of the people went to California Adventure land with our
awesome hopper pass which included both parks. According to most of the kids, California land was
definitely more thrilling and exciting. While trying out a lot of roller-coaster we were also excited to get
a fast pass for one of our favorite rides: the grizzly bear. We got our fast passes goin’ and wanted to hit
that ride after the biggest rollercoaster, which even had a loop, but unfortunately the water ride was
broken. After that disappointment we pushed ourselves all the way back to Disneyland, to enjoy a free
dinner. We got Mexican food and ice cream.

After that we went back to the Grizzly Bear Ride. Luckily it was open now and we went in there. The first
minute was a lot of fun, even if we got really wet. In the middle of the ride we suddenly stopped and
nothing moved anymore. Apparently some idiot jumped out of a raft, so the whole ride got shut down.
We were stuck for more than 20 minutes, and almost missed the most amazing part of the whole day:
The firework.

Overall it was a great day and everybody had a lot of fun.

By Olivia Rau (GER) & Justin Rodd (GER)