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