Feb 10th 2011 - Arizona Memorial and USS Missouri... Pearl Harbor!

Pearl Harbor - even though we are not American it was still impressive and sad at the same time. We went to the visitor center where we got some information from a guide and could walk around the museum for some time. In Germany we didn't learn anything on Pearl Harbor so here I finally learnt what it was all about and understood more. It was very interesting. Afterwards we watched a film on the attack and its background and went on a boat that would take us to the actual USS Arizona memorial but due to construction work we weren't able to go on it what was kind of disappointing. We came as close to the shipwreck as it was allowed, going actually on the memorial would have been cooler though.

Back at the visitor center something made absolutely up for it: we met a surviver from Pearl Harbor. The man was a crew member on the USS Nevada that tried to escape from the harbor but didn't make it. He only signed Anna's and my newspapers and he suggested to take a picture. Of course we said yes when he asked us if we also wanted to meet his girlfriend who is also a surviver. She told us that she thought that those Japanese planes looked so pretty and that she was surprised when they started to attack them. We had a nice conversation with them (he was born in the town I live in Ohio) and it was.. what can I say?! AMAZING

After a quick lunch we came back to Pearl Harbor to go on the USS Missouri and help them. Our job? We were cleaning the ship and she looked beautiful afterwards. When we were all done with the cleaning we had a guided tour around the battleship and then it was unfortunately already time to go back to the hotel.

In the evening we had a delicious buffet at a restaurant called Tiki's and when we were finally all stuffed, we had free time that most of us used to go shopping in downtown Waikiki. At the International Market we bought some souvenirs for our host families and at around 9 pm we watched fireworks that they have every week according to one of the shop owners. Must be nice to live here.

By now I am seriously thinking about moving here - it is paradise!

Esther from Germany

Fire works in the water and the view from our hotel!

Explanation on board of USS MISSOURI by the place where the surrender was signed.

Check the Battle ship.

Inside the command room...

Helping cleaning the ship.

Yellow Hibiscus - Hawaiian state flower

Arizona Memorial

Arizona Memorial

Students at the visitor center at Arizona Memorial.

Feb 9th 2011 - Catamaran, Surf lessons and shopping... beautiful day!!!

Aloha!

We started our day by eating another wonderful breakfast. The food is great at Lulu's! From there we walked down Waikiki's main road to the beach where we would be spending the day. The name is not important because this beach was absolutely beautiful (Kaiho Beach)! The water here is incredibly blue and clear so it was perfect. We then had a surf lesson on the beach (coolest thing yet!) And by the time we got in the water, we were looking like pros! The conceit was the same for everyone, but the results varied. Everyone stood up and caught a good Hawaiian wave or two and we all hadso much fun. W also learned an important lesson in health, which was protecting our skin.... A few of us learned the hard way.

While one group was surfing, another was sailing on a huge catamaran! It was so much fun to dance, relax, see marine life like whales!, dolphins, and swim near sea turtles and colorful fish.

In the afternoon, we had the chance to go shopping in Ala Moana, one of the biggest outdoor shopping malls in the US. After shopping, we had dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. It was great! The waitress even quizzed us on Forrest Gump trivia and have out prizes. After dinner, we.had free time and then we all slept like babies after our fun day in the sun!

Written by Hunter (USA) and Moritz (Germany)

Group at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. for dinner.

Catamaran

Jacob and Max

Surf Lessons

Feb 8th 2011 - SUUUUNNNNN!!!! KAILUA BEACH... What a beautiful day!

ALOHA!!!

To make it really American I will start with an OH MY GOSH!!!!! Okay everybody, this day was amazing, in many many ways.

First, because it was the first Hawaiian day that was actually sunny! And second because it was the first day that we would officially spend at a Hawaiian beach.

Im Milagros Couto Perkins, or way easier, Mili, from Argentina. Today I get the opportunity to write the blog, and that is cool because everyone gets to read what an amazing time we are having!

My roommates and me woke up around 7 30, after a good night of sleep and headed down to have breakfast at the surfer restaurant we have attached to our hotel. We enjoyed a super good breakfast there, several options and its fun to seat with your friends and just talk.

After that we all got ready to leave the hotel and jump into the busses! Today the yellow group switched to the other bus so we got a new driver, Jane, instead of Rhonda. They teach us so many words in Hawaiian while we ride, its very hard but funny, you should all see the 40 foreign repeating like parrots after her those impossible words! Its like that fish, the state fish, Humuhumunukunukuapua’a.. ha ha i know right? Impossible.

The first place had lots of history about Hawaii, Pali Lookout, were the king KAMEHAMEHA, the one that united all the Hawaiian islands, won the last battle. The Hawaiians say the place is coursed, cause its there were lots of natives died, and some people believe their spirits still remain there.

After taking some pictures, we left towards the beach we would be spending the day: KAILUA.

The place is paradise. Literally, I’ve never been in such a beautiful water before, the color was awesome. So we arrived and there was a plan, some would stay there just chilling all day and the rest would go Kayaking! Being such a lazy person, that enjoys some leisure time, i decided to stay, so did Ella my Finnish friend Ingvild from Norway and Maite from Germany, also a couple other students stayed too.

Aaaaaall the other students went on kayaks to one of the top 10 beaches in the world. It was a long day for them apparently, they all came tired but really happy, it seemed that the effort was totally worth it!

My roommate Terese told me the best part of rowing was probably when they saw some ”stones” under their kayak that later turned out to be sea turtles!!

From my perspective, this was everything I expect from a Hawaiian sunny day, as they would say here, very ‘hang lose’. We first laid under the sun for a while, and then went into the ocean and out several times. Then we took some pictures

When the kayak troop came back and we all got together at the beach. An hour later we went on the buses and came back ‘home’, at Waikiki.

The bus ride was fun, we had a quiz with prizes about everything we learned on all our days here and then we listened to some music.

Back here we had a while to take a shower and get ready to have dinner at the Hard Rock Café of Honolulu!

So the super cool part of the dinner happened when this waiter started dancing with the song “I got a feeling”, and suddenly all of us were up dancing in the restaurant.

In our table, we were talking about the day and we all agreed that this day is in the top 10 of the best days of our life

I’m having the time of my life!

We’ll keep you posted.

Mili - Argentina

PS. On the 8th its my host moms birthday so I would love to say happy bday to her.

Hard Rock Cafe...

Let's party at Hard Rock!

Mokulua Island... What a place!!!

Kayak surfing...

Ooopss... They did it!

Jonas being held by the strong girls!

Hunter (USA), Henrik (Finland) and Anthea (Switzerland)

Jump!

Jump!!! Who did better?

Getting ready for the kayak.

Milagros (Argentina) checking the view Pali Look!

Pali Lookout... what a cliff...

Feb 7th 2011 -City Tour, Haleiwa, Sunset Beaches and Polynesian Cultural Center...

lll