Thursday, April 1, 2010

Mar 31st 2010 - Diamond Head... Ala Moana Shopping...

Aloha Ahiahi – Good evening!

Today has been another great day! We had breakfast as usual… after breakfast we went hiking up the volcanic cone of Diamond head, southeast of Waikiki

The two-hour walk from our hotel to the top was tiring, but the view from the top was worth every step. We took wonderful pictures with Honolulu and the Pacific Ocean as the background.

When we got back to the hotel, some of us had lunch at Duke’s, some went to the beach and others strolled the streets of Waikiki. All enjoying the beautiful afternoon weather.

At 5pm, we left to go to Ala Moana Mall – the biggest mall in Hawaii. The girls really liked it! There most of us did a lot of shopping, and later we all had a delicious dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp, a restaurant inspired by the movie Forrest Gump.

However, it’s time to go to bed, we are getting up early tomorrow to visit Pearl Harbor.

Malama Pono (take care)

Lovisa Osterberg - Sweden

Chen Shang - China


Diamond Head Mountain


Students at the top of Diamond Head








All the students after a nice hike up...


Going up the stairs... a little over 200 steps.


Entrance of Diamond Head State Monument.


Stretching before the hike... done by Federico (Italy)

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Mar 30th 2010 - City Tour... Dole Plantation... Haleiwa... Sunset Beach... Polynesian Cultural Center... BEAUTIFUL DAY!!!

Aloha!

We started our day with a wonderful breakfast. We sat together and shared our meals and it was fun… bacon, eggs, fruits…

It started raining in the morning, but eventually we had a sunny and warm day. Later on, we took the bus to get to know Hawaii even better and our bus driver was a very nice lady, Jane, who told us a lot of the Hawaiian history and taught us some new words in Hawaiian. Dring the tour, we got to know the capitol of Hawaii… we had a break to take pictures in a couple of places that are famous in Hawaii. The tour was amazing and we experienced many interesting things.

After the city tour, we stopped at Dole Plantation and got the famous pineapple whip… and headed to Haleiwa, a surfers’ town for lunch and some time to walk around and explore the city

We had a stop on the beach, Sunset Beach where the famous surf competitions take place and we had some nice pictures

We also went to the Polynesian Cultural Center, we saw 6 different islands’ presentations: “Tonga, Hawaii, Aotearoa, Samoa, Tahiti and Fiji”. We learned the about the culture, and we got to practice the typical dances in Tahiti and Hawaii.

Dinner was outdoors and delicious. That’s the time we get together and talk about everything that happens in our day.

After dinner, it was unbelievable… We went to a show/theater that was a story about a boy from the time he was born to his adult life… picturing him in 6 different moments and in all 6 different islands. The name of the show was “Ha: Breath of Life”.

In the end we watched “Lilo and Stitch” coming back to the hotel and everybody liked… but we are tired, the day was busy!

So far, it is the best trip ever… It feels like we are dreaming

Gabriela De Almeida - Brazil

Thais Pommer - Brazil

Helena Santos - Brazil

Marina Rocha - Brazil





Polynesian Cultural Center - Show: Ha, Breath of life!








Students with the star for Samoa island.


Learning how to play at Aotearoa (New Zealand)


Hula Class at the Polynesian Cultural Center


Tahiti


Jonas Eskilden (Denmark) showing some Tahitian moves


Johan Paalhed (Sweden) and Eike Langer (Germany)


Our monitor Laura at Sunset Beach


Christian Kroh (Germany) with the Hawaiian flag.


Sunset Beach






Marina, Helena and Thais (Brazil) showing the vintage Volkswagen at Haleiwa.



Some Pineapple whip...


... or a lot of whip...


... but it was important to try.


King Kamehameha's statue in front of the court house of Honolulu.


Capitol



Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Mar 29th 2010 - Nuʻuanu Pali and Kailua Beach...

The sun doesn’t always shine in Hawaii, but here is beautiful even though it is raining… It makes easier to be active.!

After an amazing breakfast at our hotel, we left at 9am and we went to Pali Lookout. The strong winds blowing 35 m/h made us understand the name of Nu’uanu Pali - breezy and cold wind…

After this stop, we went to Kailua beach… some students stayed on the beach while others went kayaking. It took us almost two hours paddling to get to Mokulua. Once we got to the island, we ate a sandwich (turkey or tuna) to get some energy to go back. We were in the center of a 4 million old extinguished volcano… beautiful place…

On our way back, we stopped on a nice undisturbed beach.

At night, we had a delicious buffet and we had some time to walk around. Now we are back at the hotel and we can’t wait to find out what tomorrow is the day wil be like.

Aloha from all the students in Hawaii…


Hiking Mokulua island


Ocean shower at Mokulua island





Surfing on a Kayak - Eike (Germany) and the instructor





"Hanging Loose"


Memories... picture from Mokulua island.


Kayak instructions at Kailua Beach


Nuʻuanu Pali





Group at Nuʻuanu Pali