Day Twelve: San Francisco to Denver

This is the end. Today we travel home from San Francisco to Denver.  The end of 12 awesome days, 12 days full of happiness and joy. We met people that will always be in our heart, we will always remember each individual because we are a big international family. Even if it's sad don't worry it's not a "good bye" but a " see you later ".

Blog Contributors:  Albane Richards, France

Thank you Rotary for being such a wonderful group of students!  It has been an absolute joy getting to know all of you the last two weeks.  Have a wonderful journey home!

-TiCi and Daniella

Anna and Michella

Isabella, Oscar, Carlos, Bea

Stephanie

Leticia, Rasmus, Max, Caitlyn

Day Eleven: San Fracisco Day Tour and Alcatraz

 Today we started the day off early, with a trip to the Alcatraz Jail. Alcatraz Jail was the home to many dangerous criminals such as Al Capone.

It was super interesting to hear about their lives in prison. We listened to a story via headphones while we were guided around Alcatraz. We heard about how they tried to escape in many different and smart ways. There were three guys who escaped and no one ever found them, but they think the escapers went to South America. We sailed back to San Francisco and ate lunch at Pier 39.

After that we hopped on the bus and drove to The Golden Gate Bridge. We walked The Golden Gate Bridge. Some of us power walked and some walked slow and took lots of pictures.  The city views were amazing! It wasn't foggy like most people said it was so we not only saw all of San Francisco but different bridges and Alcatraz.  Then everyone was back on the bus after the walk, we drove to the hotel where we all had some time to go to the pool, take a nap or do whatever else we wanted to do. In the evening we went to the Hilton hotel to have our goodbye party with a delicious buffet. We all voted for The Belo Oscar winners. We found out the winners after dinner, and further down you can see the different categories and winners listed. After the Oscar winners we had a party with a DJ. Tomorrow we will leave on the airplane early in the morning, so this has been our last day of the bus trip.

1. Friendliest: Isabella from Austria
2. Best smile: Letìcia from Brazil
3. Best laugh: Cadu from Brazil
4. Funniest: Sander from Belgium
5. Best English: Caitlin from Australia
6. Most likely to travel to every continent: Anna from Denmark
7. Best tan: Manassas from Kenya
8. Most likely to get a star on the Hollywood walk of fame: Sam from Belgium
9. Most likely to buy a donkey farm at the bottom of The Grand Canyon: Bautista from Argentina
10. Most likely to move to the beach and become a California surfer: Rasmus from Denmark
11. Most likely to work at Disneyland as a character: Luiz from Brazil
12. Most likely to hit a jackpot in Las Vegas: Emma from France
13. Most likely to lose luggage on the way home: Hunaid from India.

Blogged contributors are

Caitlin Catine, Australia
Anna Fogh Gransoe, Denmark

Boat to Alcatraz Island

Tired students, Ille, Bautista, Michella, Albane

Alcatraz

Inside of Alcatraz

Inside of prison cell

View of San Francisco

Group before trek across the Golden Gate Bridge

TiCi and Leticia at Belo Oscar awards

Carlos at Belo Oscar Awards

Manasses and TiCi at Belo Oscar Awards

Day Ten: San Francisco City Tour

 So today we were able to sleep in a little bit, which was awesome, because we traveled a lot yesterday and we all were super tired!!! Today we took a lovely tour of the sights of San Francisco. Our tour included : Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf and the famous cable cars. 

We started with the cable car! We took the Powell line to the very end past Union Square.  The cable cars were run by a single man called the grip man.  Some of us were sitting the seats while others had I hold on to the sides.  Some of them were even able to high five others in a passing cable car!

After the awesome cable car ride, we had a little bit of free time to explore the city, walk around, and have lunch but what lots of us did was watch the World Cup game. In the afternoon, we took the bus around many parts of San Francisco.  The sites we saw included city hall, the deYoung museum, china town, the Golden Gate Bridge, twin peaks and much more! We learned a lot with the awesome comments of our guide : Barbara.

At the end of our tour we went to china town and we also had a little bit of free time to walk around, visit some shops, and have fun. After all that we had dinner at the china town restaurant. We all had a lot of good food.  It was served family style and different plates kept coming out! Food such as fried rice, noodles, pot stickers, curry chicken and others I do not know.

 It was once again an amazing day with amazing people and we all are really sad because the trip is almost over and we created a really good relationship with each other. We are a family, and we will never forget about the moments that we had together.


Blog Contributors: Carlos Curado, Brazil

                       Humberto Tuyama, Brazil

Cable Car Line

View from the Fort

Art work from de Young Museum

Max, Manasses, Carlos

Day Eight: Universal Studios and Downtown L.A.

Yesterday we left the hotel in the morning and we went to Madame Tussaud's in Hollywood. It was creepy and yet very cool.  There were many of us who were surprised that a wax museum could be pretty neat to walk through.  The minute we got to the third floor we were surrounded by current stars such as Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Mario Lopez and many more.  There was another room for classic stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley.  One other room that existed was a room  for athletic individuals such as Mohammed Ali and Tony Hawk.  While in the museum we were able to touch the wax figures and take photos as if we were really near them.  There was even props to use for our photos.  We were able to stand on a skateboard next to Tony Hawk or put on boxing gloves and pretend to fight Muhammad. There was also a section that showed us how they put together a wax figure which was kinda neat.

 After that we went on the walk of fame. We met a bunch of rappers that gave us "free" cd's for donations.  When we listened to some of  the music later, it wasn't half bad.  Some of the girls were determined to find certain stars names on the Walk of Fame such as Will Smith.  As well we were able to see where some actors and actresses had put their hand prints in the cement in front of the Chinese Theater.  Then we went to In-N-Out Burger which is the best fast food burger I have ever had!  Some people got their fries animal style which means its just smothered with some sauce and veggies.

 After that we went to Universal Studios. Over there we went on the tour of the studios.  During the tour we saw King Kong as a group and they had the nugget 3-D simulation in the world. After that we had free time in the park, so we divided ourselves in small groups and went to the rides we wanted.  Some of the rides included a Simpsons ride, the Mummy Returns and many other cool ones. It was awesome, they had great 3-D and 4-D animations.  As well they had tons of shows for us to go watch such as Water World and The Blues Brothers.

 Later, We went to eat at Hard Rock Cafe. By the end of the day we just has some free time to chill and talk about our day with our friends.

Blog Contributors: Luiz Nunes, Brazil
                                Max Gasser, Switzerland

Judy Garland

Marilyn Monroe

Hand prints in front of Kodak/Chinese theater

Universal Studios Theme Park Entrance

Day Nine: Los Angeles to San Francisco

Today was another travel day, this time from Los Angeles to San Francisco!  For some people it might sound ridiculous, but travel days, are in my opinion, awesome. After all that fun stuff we do, it is a chance for everyone to get some rest.  If my friends didn't rest they were watching soccer or just talking! Everyone was really getting into the soccer game! The energy was exciting for the soccer game because of all the nationalities represented. All the guys have been taking the games seriously.

Along the road we had three stops: two for stretching and one for lunch. After the bus ride we got to San Francisco. TiCi made some of her interesting jokes, again, and gave us some information about the city. She told us about how the Gold Rush in 1849 affected the city, and how the earthquake of 1906 destroyed the eastern part of the city! The earthquake caused much damage not only because of the quake but because it started fires that were difficult to put out!  

After all that talking finally TiCi let us go. We spent some time on Pier 39 and get some new goodies.  Pier 39 had some beautiful views of the bay.  It had some good photo opportunities with all the sea lions and the small islands in the Bay Area.  The shopping at Pier 39 had some of your typical shops but what really got us was the smell of delicious food coming from everywhere! We were getting hungry!

 For dinner we met at Bubba Gump, and had an awesome dinner. Dinner started with some spinach and artichoke dip which was ok, but my burger and chocolate cake were delicious! Others at my table had chicken scampi or fried shrimp!  

After dinner we left for the bus! Everyone thought it was freezing! So much colder than the previous cities we had been in! We got to our hotel in Oakland and were ready for day two in San Francisco!


Blog Contributor: Gokalp Ergenekon, Turkey

Sea Lion on Pier 39

Fishermans Wharf

City View

Day Seven: Disney Land and California Adventure

Today was amusement park day! We got a full day pass to not only Disney Land but California Adventure as well.  My favorite of the two parks was Disney Land, it might have had something to do with the awesome rides or maybe it just had to do with my love of Disney movies.


 Thankfully we had fast passes so if you planned just right you could skip almost a whole line, which was really nice when it said that it would take 70 minutes wait to get on a certain ride. The really popular rides were Cars in California Adventure, Splash Mountain in the Disney Land park and Indian Jones in Disney Land as well. The group I was in really liked Splash Mountain, even though you got a bit soaked. The reason you got soaked was because you were sitting in a log that was floating on the water, and dropped down a waterfall... Really fun! 

 When we all got together at the Disney Castle located in the very center of the park we got our dinner vouchers which allowed us to eat anywhere in the park.  This was great because we were able to choose exactly what we wanted to eat!  We also took a group photo while at the castle!  We were told that the castle at Disney Land was smaller than the castle at Disney World in Orlando because this castle was "Snow Whites castle" and the castle at Disney World was "Cinderellas castle".  But who knows for sure! 

Our group photo was at the perfect timing because shortly after we met the Disney parade began.  All the princesses such as Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Belle, Tatiana and Jasmine were in the parade!  As well we saw Mary Poppins, Mickey Mouse and his whole gang of friends.  They came down the Disney streets singing and dancing!

We continued riding on different rides and at the end of the night the parks offered three different night time shows. The shows that were available for us to watch was Fantasmic, World of Colors and the traditional Firework Display over the Disney castle.  My group choose to watch the firework display that I would definitely recommend for people to watch, fantastic!  Nobody in the group went to Fantasmic but those who went to the World of Colors also said that it was Amazing.  The World of Colors was apparently a laser and water show, sounds interesting.

After the shows were done we had a little bit of time left in order to ride maybe one last ride together if we really wanted!  We rode the tram back to the bus,we didn't get back to the hotel around 11 and everybody was really glad for their beds.

Blog Contributor: Lovisa Lidfors, Sweden

Disney Parade, Aladdin

Disney Parade, Mary Poppins

Disney Firework Show

Disney cars ride

Day Six: Las Vegas to Los Angeles

The day was a travel day, which is always a bittersweet feeling.  Excited to continue on our adventure but wanting to still explore the current city.   In the morning we left our hotel in Vegas. 

From Las Vegas to Los Angeles we had a 5 hour drive which was about average for our trips from city to city.  Its funny to think that we are getting used to these long stretches of driving. 


Our first stop was right in the middle of L.A. First we took some pictures with the Beverly Hills sign. After that we walked around in this really nice neighborhood, we not only learned where Marilyn Monroe lived but were even able to drive by Marilyn Monroe's house where she used to live.  It was pretty sweet seeing where such a huge Hollywood icon once used to reside.


Then we had free time to eat lunch.  We were let off the bus on Rodeo Drive!  Which is where a scene from the movie Pretty Women takes place, starring Julia Roberts.  On Rodeo Drive there was plenty of options not only to eat but to shop high end retail if we wanted.  There were stores such as Versace, Louie Vuitton and names of brands that we had just learned of.


After our free time on Rodeo drive we got back on the bus and headed to the Santa Monica beach. Some people were tanning in the hot sun, some went swimming in the ocean and others were playing games like soccer, volleyball or football.  There was also the Santa Monica Pier which had rides and some shopping if we would like.
 
From there, we walked to an Italian restaurant close to the beach.  The restaurant was called Bucca De Beppo.   We all had bread, salad both cesar and another kind, fettuccine, spaghetti and chicken. Than for dessert we had a delicious brownie!  

Everything was extremely  delicious. The bus picked us up from the restaurant & dropped us off at our hotel.  The hotel was different from the others we had been to.  It had an outside area filled with trees and the outdoor pool area.  It was a nice place for us all to relax after a great day.

Blog Contributors: Milla Alavoutunki, Finland
                                Flourence Sollberger, Switzerland

 Santa Monica Beach

 Beverly Hills Sign

 Rodeo Drive

 Santa Monica Beach

 Santa Monica Beach

Bugatti parked in front of House of Bijan Boutique on Rodeo Drive

Day Five: Las Vegas

It was the last day in Vegas. Everyone was looking forward to the royalty feeling that Vegas had to offer and today was that day. It started with a good breakfast to our tummies and then we were able to walk all day long and have the best time of our life.

Here we are on the strip of Vegas starting with Bellagio. We walked through the streets, through some gorgeous malls and saw this amazing Rolls Royce covered in completely in crystals.Then heading towards New York, New York we went to the Hershey's store and even saw some of the casino. The roller coaster ride at the New York, New York hotel was awesome.  It had huge drops, tons of loops and lasted longer than most rides any of us were used to.  Then we all went to other places like Coca Cola, M&M's, Hard Rock Cafe and some of the other hotels such as Cesar's Palace and the Venitian. Then walked back to Bellagio parking to have some rest and get ready for a amazing night.

Heading back to the hotel we all went to pool to relax, have fun and get a nice tan started. It was nice and cool after the hot and toasty day. Everyone started getting ready after some rest and refreshment. Girls all looking pretty and guys all handsome. After we were ready we headed to the Boulder Station for dinner.  Lot of varieties of foods and deserts. Then we took a group picture with everyone while waiting for the limo. As they pulled the limo there everyone got excited and started taking pictures. That was the beginning of the last night in Vegas. The limo's were freaking awesome, we all were dancing and having one the best time of our exchange. We had three stops in our limo ride. The first stop was at Vegas downtown, or Freemont Street for their Summer time Thursday night concert and we all were dancing and having lot of fun with few funny characters who were dancing like crazy. When we were heading back we saw the Chip N Dales dancers both set up on the street and just had to take a picture with them! Then we got into the limo again and our next stop was at Bellagio to watch the water show. We could see Paris of Vegas and all the lights from there. The show was amazing we all enjoyed it a lot.  It was pretty cool since the fountains and lights were timed to music! It was very relaxing and beautiful to see.  The third and final stop was at the sign of welcome to Vegas. We all got cute individuals and a group picture. Then we all had to head back to the hotel :( nobody really wanted to get out of those limos but we had to...it was super sad since we were having so much fun!  So we got a few pictures and went back to our rooms.

It was one of the best and rocking night with lots of fun. We all had a great time with awesome memories. Unforgettable night. And a very good sleep to be ready for LA.

Blog Contributor: Chelsea Devendra Lalawala, India

One of the Hummer Limos we rode in.

New York, New York Hotel

Las Vegas Welcome Sign

V, Luiz, Anna, Tensy, Veronica, Jan, Elisa, Bauti, Ille, Giovani, Emily

Excalibur Hotel

Day Four: Grand Canyon to Las Vegas

Entry One:

Today was another day of traveling! We were sad to leave the Grand Canyon but excited for Las Vegas! Along the way we stopped at Route 66, "where we got our kicks!"It was cool to see such a historic place.  The Route 66 had some amazing old cars and we even ran into a group of bikers with some cool bikes! It was also fun to learn that the Disney show Cars was even inspired by this historic site!  Some of us had some coffee and we explored for a bit than we continued on our journey!  It took awhile but we made it to VEGAS!!!!

We were able to shop at the outlets and get some new things.  Some of us got clothes, some got sun glasses or shoes.  We all got a little something we needed from stores such as Adidas, Ralph Lauren and Foot Locker.  After shopping we headed to the Stratosphere!

At the Stratosphere we were able to go up 109 floors and look at Vegas from above! It was pretty sweet!  Some of us than continued on to ride some of the thrill rides. They were scary but pretty awesome... especially the claw!!!  It was neat because we basically experienced hanging off the building on two of the rides!   After the claw we are at the Buffet downstairs in the hotel! We had delicious bread pudding, sushi, wings, rice, delicious meat!!!! I think everyone was pretty impressed with the selection!!! Yummy!!!  We than went to the Bellagio and were able to explore the strip! It was Amazing to see the lights!!!! We were even  able to take some pretty funny pictures with the people dressed up on the strip! Now we are back enjoying the pool while others are at the Cirque de Soleil show O.

Blog Contributors:  Giovanni Aldrigo, Italy
                                 Max Gasser, Switzerland
                                 Caitlin Castine, Australia
                                 Beatriz Quintanilla, Spain
                                 Isabella Pilhatsch, Austira

Entry Two:
Today we had a traveling day, we drove from the Grand Canyon to... LAS VEGAS! We left in the morning and we had our first stop at Route 66 which was really cool! The route 66 stop was awesome because it was a really small American town and there was a lot of old cars and motorcycles. It was also the most famous highway in America at one time.  We learned that it isn't really traveled anymore but it still is a part of American history and pop culture.  

After that we went to the outlet mall in Vegas. We stayed in the mall for some shopping and ate lunch.  After we left to go to our hotel, a really nice hotel, with an outdoor pool and a pretty nice fitness room. We had a little bit of time to get ready and we left for the Stratosphere hotel a casino with three rides. SCARY RIDES.  After the rides and a little of free time we went to eat at the buffet, it was really nice food.  Our favorite food was the Sushi. When we finished eating we went to the Bellagio, a really famous hotel in the middle of the Las Vegas strip. In Las Vegas every hotel has a casino.  During our free time we got to see the water show and go around Vegas at night time. It was crazy, Vegas at the night is beautiful and so big. 

Then we had to split up into two groups, because some of the exchange students didn't go to "O Cirque du Soleil" so some of us had to go back at the hotel and the other students had to head to the show. The show "O cirque du Soleil" was just amazing and left us speechless. When you watched you don't really understand the story because there is a lot everywhere but that's just so cool. There was constant acrobats, the people in the show were so strong and capable of doing amazing things! We cannot even begin to describe it all!  One of the best part was the moment with the fire, because all around the guys it was water and they mix two natural elements. When the show finished, TiCi organized a little surprise she rented a Bus Limo and we had so much fun to dance and had music so loud.

Blog Contributors:  Sander Dieryck, Belgium
                                 Emma De Sermet De Tournefort, France
                                 Ilena Domet, France

Picture One:  Paris Hotel behind the Belagio Fountains

Picture Two:  Flower frog found in the Belagio

Picture Three:  Thril ride at Stratosphere

Picture Four: Route 66

Day Three: The Grand Canyon

A lot of people were looking forward for this day, and finally we did it The Grand Canyon!

We woke up early in the morning to start our adventure!  We a delicious breakfast at the hotel and than headed to our bus!  The trip to the Grand Canyon was longer than expected, but the views were so cool! It was much different than what I had seen on my time here in the U.S. so far!

When we finally got there we meet at the Bright Angel Lodge.  At the lodge the first thing we did was look down to the Grand Canyon, one of the seven wonders of the world!  It was one of the best views of the canyon, there are no word to describe it. It was so amazing! We all felt in love with that.
After getting some instructions we had some time by ourselves to go explor, so with our new and old friends we went to different points of the Grand Canyon. The best point from the Ridge Trail in my opinion was Powell we had just an amazing view just like a dream, we took a lot of pictures.

Some of us ate lunch at the restuarant and others got some food at the cafe.  Than we all met up as a group and started stretching four our hike of the Bright Angel Trail!  Most of the guys went down to the bottom, others just did half of it. It was really fun but exhausting!  We all agreed that even though it was tiring it was so worth it when we were done!  We hiked three miles in total!

While we were waiting for the bus to go to dinner at the Maswik Lodge we met another group of exchange students!  We were able to talk to them and hear about their experience in the United States as well!  Some where even living on the East coast.  It was pretty sweet.

Then we went to dinner place which was a restaurant in the park, we had a buffet and it was really good! It was one of the French girls birthday so we all sang happy birthday in our languages.
We came back after that, we were really tired so some of us went to the pool, some played soccer and others
just relaxed in our rooms!  Tomorrow we leave for Las Vegas!  Everyone is excited for what tomorrow brings!

Blog Contributor: Karen Medina, Ecuador

 Picture One: Bright Eye Lodge, View of the Grand Canyon

Picture Two:  Trail that we hiked

 PIcture Three:  Lovisa, Stefani, Humberto, Carlos, Belen and Veronica at the bottom of our hike

Picture Four:  Luiz, Isabella and Katarina at the bottom of our hike

Picture Five:  Along the hike we have Emily, Bea, Nicole, Milla and Caitlyn

Picture Six:  One of the amazing views of the Grand Canyon

Picture Seven: Ileana Domet Sweet Sixteen