Our last day on Oahu!

Aloha everyone!

Today was our seventh and last day in paradise. As on Wednesday, we were divided into two groups - blue and yellow went hiking on Diamond Head, and red and green went snorkeling in Hanauma Bay.

Our group went hiking. We started off with some stretching for a warm-up, and then we headed towards Diamond Head. It was about an hour walk to the mountain, and then half an hour uphill to get to the top. Five of the students just had waaayyy too much energy, so they ran all the way up (However, they didn’t look like they thought it was such a good idea when they finally reached the top – the weather was amazing, but there were barely any clouds, so the sun was extremely strong. And there were stairs; LOTS of stairs)!!

Whenever the students had reached the top, and taken photos of everything and everyone, they went down again. Many of them got a shave ice, which is a specialty here in Hawai’i – and it was very delicious too!

After the hike and the snorkeling, the students had some free time in Waikiki to get lunch, go to the beach, do some last minute shopping, and just enjoy Hawai’i.

At four o’clock we all got in the busses, and this time our destination was the west side of the island, where we would attend a traditional Hawaiian luau. There we were served traditional Hawaiian food, there was an amazing show with hula dancing, fire tricks, and Hawaiian music. Also there were a lot of different activities including body painting and lei-making.  Three of our students were chosen to dance with some of the dancers on stage. Also our leader Nathalia had to dance. They all did a great job. Before we left we could take pictures with the dancers of the show. On the bus we were singing and we were enjoying our last bus ride. Back in the hotel we met in our breakfast room to talk about departure day and the trip in general. As a souvenir most of the students wanted signatures and little phrases written on our trip shirt.

Thanks to the amazing Belo staff for organizing such a great trip, and making sure that we all had an amazing time. We have made new friends from all over the world and learned a lot about the Hawaiian culture and spirit, as well as American culture in general. We will never forget this trip and all the things we experienced here. MAHALO! 

Amalie Dam - Denmark

Dina Mikkelsen - Norway

Our visit to Pearl Harbor

Today was a wonderful day!!! It was not the sunniest day on Hawaii, but we went to Pearl Harbor. We visited a lot of interesting, historical and important places. First of all we traveled to the Missouri Battleship- a 58.000 tons heavy length of 4 football field long ship, from the attack at Pearl Harbor. After this we had lunch at different restaurants in our small groups, we ate something from taco bell! At 4 P.M. we went to the Pearl Harbor memorial, in honor of the soldiers who died during the attack on the Arizona ship. It was very sad. The most fun part was the ride back to the hotel in the bus, because every student sang their own national anthem. When we arrived at the hotel we had free time and we went to the Waikiki City or Beach to get some sun. After the delicious dinner at Mac 24/7 we hung out at the beach to go swimming at night time and to listen to music. We played the limbo too but we lost! It was another awesome day in paradise!!!

Jonathan and Nils from Germany

Day 5 in our Hawaiian Paradise!

Aloha everybody!
Today was a little bit different. We were separated into two groups. One of groups went hiking, and the other one went snorkeling. We were in the snorkeling group. It was so much fun! We had to leave at 7 in the morning and that was very challenging! Drivers dropped us off, gave us snorkeling equipment and told us some interesting facts about Hanauma Bay. We watched a video about the Bay and then we were free to go and explore the beauties of the ocean. We got ready, turned our GoPro camera on and the adventure started right there! The water was freezing!! It took us a while to get used to it but after a couple of minutes we finally got into water. We saw HUMUHUMUNUKUNUKUAPUA’A, a typical Hawaiian fish that has name harder to pronounce than to pass 15 levels in Candy Crush! The ocean was incredible even though we had some issues with going through corals. We got minor cuts and scratches but it was worth it. After we spent all day at the Hanauma Bay, we headed back to the hotel. Everyone could choose their option what to do so we spent a while in the hotel’s swimming pool and hot tub. Later on we went to grab lunch and of course Starbucks!
We left the hotel at 5 o’clock to go eat dinner at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. We had a wonderful time there. Food was delicious, atmosphere was nice and the service was friendly and fast. After the dinner we had some time to shop in the second largest outdoor shopping mall in ‘MERICA haha! After our evening at the mall we headed back to the hotel where we picked up our surfing pictures. YAY! Exciting!! And now, while writing this blog, we are looking forward to having another great day in HAWAII!!
Aloha nui loa
Karolina Sandalova, Dominika Soltesova, Barbora Novomeska, Marek Murarik (Slovakia)

Pali Lookout and a Picnic on the Beach!!

Aloha fellow friends!

After two extreme days in Oahu we finally found ourselves in paradise and oblivious to the rest of the world. God finally showed himself to us. 

The sun strokes awoke us from sleeping in a California king size bed at approximately 7:40 in our majestic hotel, named after the world’s biggest ocean, Pacific Beach Hotel. We were served the choice of fruit from the local fruit trees on the mountains and cereal. The crew of the 2014 Belo USA met us down stairs to get ready for another day of exploring the outrageous Hawaiian beaches. 

The exchange students from all over the world who are a part of this extraordinary adventure got the opportunity to see one of the best beaches in the world, called Waimanalo. The students had the chance to buy lunch on the way to this beach so we could have a picnic together as a unit. Many chose Whole Foods as their main resource to energize and prepare for a long day full of swimming, sports, dancing and not to forget, lots of fun!

The Norwegians felt obligated to at least give it a try to participate in the dance contest. Of course they managed to seal the victory!

When dinner time arrived, Belo took us to the famous Hard Rock café of Honolulu. After some food and cookies for dessert, we had a good time on the sunset boulevard of Honolulu.

And with this we would like to thank our readers and the gorgeous Belo staff for teaching us about Hawaii and its culture in such a fun way.

Aloha nui loa,

Vegard, Anders , Siamak from Norway, and Patrick – the Dane.

Big waves and the Polynesian Islands!!

Aloha! Today was an amazing day! We all were kind of sore from surfing but we had fun anyway. The first thing we did was get ready and have breakfast, later on we got in the busses and headed to the city and visited the Capital building and the Iolani Palace. The Belo staff told us about the story of the monarchy of Hawaii. All the girls took a picture with the statue of the queen and the boys with the statue of the king.
After that we went to the dole plantation and we had free time to buy pineapple whip, a bracelet with your Hawaiian name, get temporary tattoos or just relax. 
Then we went to a little town on the north shore called Haleiwa and had lunch in a Hawaiian burger place where you could get a really good pineapple burger. We had more free time to see the stores and walk around.
Later we drove to the famous Sunset beach which has huge waves and took some pictures. After that we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center and watch two shows, both of them were really funny! We watched a movie in an i-max theater with chairs that moved. We had free time and we went on a canoe tour and the last thing was the big show where they showed the story of a man named Mana. The show had a lot of difference dances from the different Polynesian islands and guys that juggled with fire. 
The whole day was a lot of fun. Now we are in the bus on our way to the hotel and half of the people are sleeping- it was a really intense day. We are really excited for tomorrow when we will relax on a beautiful Hawaiian beach!

Julia Ruiz-Spain