Final Day in Washington DC!

The last day of our trip I'm Washington, D.C.  It is Friday the 03/22/13 and the started the day with the capital building. The capital building is one of the most beautiful building that I have ever seen. Right after we went to the "library of congress". Our tour guide took us with her into the library and told us a lot of interesting just about it. This library is a historical building, was the first building with electricity, 

and looked inside like a European church. The ceiling had beautiful painting. Also there was "the bible of Gutenberg" which was the first book that was printed. On our way to "Washington memorial" we saw the Supreme Court which was under construction. Washington memorial was built from 1854 to 1877 to commemorate George Washington, the first president of America. After the memorial we had the highlight of our day. We went to the White House. I always thought that the White House would be more huge but still it was a awesome experience what I never will forget!!! Too bad that we didn't got a chance to see somebody from the Obamas. 

At noon we went to the Union Station for lunch. There are a lot of different choices of food, but also it is a amazing building, with a lot of stores. Right after we had lunch we were at Georgetown. A very pretty shopping area of Washington. The neighborhood looks very old but at the same time very interesting because of the special facade. 

We had two ours to go shopping, hang out, or just enjoy the beautiful spring weather. Also a highlight of the day was that we had almost three hours time to choice in what museum we wanted to go in the ...mall. There were so many options of different museums from American history all over to sculptures. That was a great experience because the museums really were interesting. Our last dinner was at old glory. I guess everybody enjoyed their meal and had fun at the last day in Washington. Now the trip is almost over and everybody had so much fun, learned new stuff about culture, and about ourselves. I think it was a good day to finished our trip and hope that we all will stay in contact. 

Day 5: DC

Today we woke up in Washington DC and we started the day by going to the memorial parks for the Korean War and the Vietnam veterans. These parks are so much more than just statues and stones, there are so many thoughts about every angle that makes it special and interesting for people to see. After the memorials parks for the wars we started to go to presidents memorials. The first one was Abraham Lincoln and his statue is in a beautiful house. The statue itself is about 19 feet tall but if he would be standing he would be 32 feet but in the law here in Washington, no statue can be taller than the statue of freedom, and she is 19.5 feet. The second president memorial we went to was dedicated to Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife Elanore Roosevelt. His wife Elanore played a very big role in his presidency, when Franklin got into a wheelchair she had to travel for him around 200 days per year.

The next step was the Arlington cemetery for American soldiers and it is huge.  There are about 300,000 soldiers buried in the cemetery and it is not full yet and they have about 20-30 funerals per day (Monday-Friday) in this cemetery I saw men take their job more seriously than their life. They are the guards for the unknown soldiers part of the cemetery, they work 24/7, 365 days per year. I think it is a great way to honor them. 

After this long walk in the cold weather we went to grab some lunch. After lunch the weather changed for the better, we got some sun but still lots of wind. But no weather was going to stop us going to the mount Vernon park. The memorial park is dedicated to George Washington, the first president of the United States of America. The amazing part of this park is that this was his home and farm. When he was alive he had 8000 acres of land to farm and he had 800 slaves working for him. Today it is a museum and it is huge for only one man. We got to go into his real house, the oldest part of the house was built in the early 1200s. We saw where he died (his bed), his presidential chair and nearly all of the items in the house is original. After the house tour we got some free time to look around and there were so many things to do, like see his grave yard, fake teeth and so much more. And they actually have a restaurant on the land and we got dinner there. It was really good food and everyone got to sit down and share the experiences of the day. 

Ulfur--Iceland 

Day 4: Philly

We started the day at 6am, after having slept barely 4 hours, because we had held World War III, pillow fight style in our room until 2am. Bleary-eyed, we made our way down to breakfast. We had already said goodbye to one of our awesome roommates; Vicky Hagen. She, along with more than half of our group were already going home. They would have to miss out on the wonderful cities of Philadelphia and DC.

For once we left a little later, 8:30 am, so the morning was more relaxed than the previous days. We eventually got on the bus and started our next adventure, we were on our way to Philly, leaving the chaotic, loud, but still fascinating city of New York behind. After about two hours, we got to the reading terminal (pronounced 'redding') for lunch. There were so many choices we had a hard time deciding what to get, but in the end we all got something we liked. The choices included Japanese (that was actually more Chinese) for Airi, salad for Sabrina (yay, healthy food!) and the real junk food that is so typical for most Americans: a big hamburger with fries. 

After that, we headed over to Independence Hall to take a look at the interactive museum. We had a lot of fun, and I personally wished we'd had a little mo time. Next, we met up with our guide to start an amazing walking tour of the city. Unfortunately, most of us were too tired to really appreciate it. At least the weather was really nice; our first completely sunny day of the trip (so far). We saw many things, like the liberty bell, the former capital buildings, the first national bank, Ben Franklin's house and history in the town, the pews people like Penn and Washington sat in at church, etcetera.

It was like history coming to life, like stepping into a Back to the Future movie, only instead of seeing cowboys, we saw the founding fathers (did I mention we saw that movie on our way from NYC to Philly?).

Our guide made sure to stop at the stairs to the Philadelphia museum of the arts, aka, the Rocky steps. We raced up the stairs, Sabrina winning, and posed for a glorious group picture, overseeing the beautiful city. On our way to the restaurant, we had so much fun looking for our country's flag on the boulevard. More than once, two or three people shouted out the name of their country as soon as they saw it, I think Zsofi was the loudest :) .

We couldn't have ended our day in a greater way than to go out and eat a traditional Philly Cheesesteak (not to be mistaken for cheesecake), at a cozy restaurant in downtown Philly.

Afterwards, we all filed back into the bus, driving the two hours and a half to DC, with Inception playing in the background.

It was a wonderful, busy, tiring, educational, and amazing day, but we couldn't be happier getting to the hotel, and crawling in bed.

Our Philly day was definitely one of the better days we've had so far. But now it's late, and we have to get up early again tomorrow for our first day in DC.

I can't wait!

An Jooken, Sabrina Carli and Airi Hikita

Belgium, Italy and Japan 

Last day in NYC!

The last day in New York...  it sounds sad, but it was one of those days that your not going to forget in your life. Our day started visiting one of the most famous landmark in NY, it was the Empire State building, I was really excited, because its one of those places that are in the movies, and wherever you see, you would recognize it. When we got there, at the top, it was foggy so we couldn't see NY from there, it was kind of sad, but you can still say that you were at THE TOP OF THE EMPIRE STATE!. 

After Empire State, we went to Central Station, it made me remember of Madagascar, the movie, I couldn't believe that I was in the same place, it was awesome. I was looking for the whispering gallery in there, and I found it, it is really cool!. Then we went to Times Square "the Crossroads of the world", I can't find words to describe it, I just can say that I'm in love with it, even when the sun came out I could see the amazing screens and bright lights everywhere, it's just AMAZING!!. We had some time for shopping, well it was 3 hours, but never is enough, my friend Camila and me had to run to get the bus from the store in 1 minute! Because the time flew really fast, and you don't notice it. 

After Times Square, we went to United Nation, we had a tour with this really nice guy. When he talked about all this sad things, like little kids dying because they are hungry or the violence in the world, it made me realize that we have the power to change and help the world, it doesn't matter if its just a little thing, because your doing a change.

Our dinner was in Sbarro, a Italian restaurant and after a busy day, food sound pretty good, I love Italian food and in there it was pretty good, I couldn't decide what I wanted because there was a lot of choices.

To close our last day in New York, we went to watch a play in Broadway, The Phantom of the Opera, it was one of my favorite things ever. At the beginning I wasn't really excited about it, but when it started, it was another thing, it was amazing, the actors played so well that I felt all the emotions that they were interpreting. And I don't know it was just AWESOMEE!! A great way to close our day.

I'm having so much fun, and all the persons are really nice in here, I have to say thanks so much for making this trip unforgettable!

Valentina Ortiz- Chile   

Day 2!

Today , day 3 , at New York we went on the boat to see the great view of Statue of Liberty which turn to be such a nice and fun time that we also got to hang out with our friends .Then after that we met Garret who are our local guide to show us how fabulous Wall Street was . That was kind of long way to walk from Wall Street to Brooklyn Bridge in the chill weather like this ,however we have such a great time together and we also got tons of picture . And then we got to shop at Soho for 2hours that made us spend lots of money on clothes , shoes and things like that . For dinner , we had Chinese foods . There was a wedding at where we were which meant that we were really lucky that got to see another country's culture. Then on the way back to hotel we got to played snow together . Then we arrived our hotel and got ready for tomorrow's life in New York . 

Loupe--Thailand

Day 1!

After the busiest day that I've ever had I can say, it was my best birthday ever! I was that lucky that I could celebrate my 18th birthday in New York City.  At 8 o'clock the bus finally left the hotel and we could start our adventure in one of the largest cities in the world. First we met with a really sweet  guy who showed us first the Public Library. But unfortunately it was closed so we couldn't go inside. After the library we went to the Central Park, exactly the west side of the Park, and of course no one wanted to miss taking pictures in that beautiful place, especially in strawberry field. Of course we weren't bored on the bus because Garrett told more and more interesting stories about New York and about the more and more beautiful buildings of the City. For example The Empire State Building, and the Museum of Culture, History and "Everything" what we just could image in our dream. So shame we had to say goodbye to Garret because he had leave. After  a really good lunch we visited the Museum of Art. We had only 2 hours and I admit it wasn't enough. And the best parts of the day were first a hip hop class, where a really cute and amazing dancer guy. Who was amazing teacher, and even those who haven't danced hip hop they also loved to taste some part of the hip hop dance. We danced from the West to East Coast. After the dance class we went to the best and most amazing, beautiful place in the whole world. The Times Square. I felt I needed sunglasses  because it was so bright. We had dinner in the Hard Rock Cafe. I had the most fantastic moment in my life. The waiter said I have to sign up something, and I was a little bit worried that I have to pay the dinner for every one, and then He yelled that my birthday is today and everyone in the restaurant wished happy birthday to me. It was incredible, I couldn't even believe that... After dinner we had time to take night pictures on theTimes Square. We have been here for 2 days, but we are already a family. Thank you so much every one. I hope we are gonna keep talking to each other, and visit each others countries. I made a lot of friends. Love everybody!!!

Zsofi Kaiser 

Hungary

Arrival Day

Yesterday was arrival day for students on the East coast adventure and as usual it was an eventful one! Students came from as far as Washington state and some began traveling the night before. As each new group was welcomed at our hotel just outside New York City it was exciting to see new friendships being made and old friends being reunited. The day flew by as everyone caught up on rest...or enjoyed the pool! Before we knew it, it was time for dinner and orientation. The buffet was delicious and well earned (especially the brownie tray the hotel had to refill two times.) After a quick slide show on what to expect on a Belo trip it was easy to see the excitement building for this trip's adventures. With a day full of exploring New York City ahead and a long day of travel behind them, nearly everyone went right to bed dreaming of walks in Central Park and the bright lights of Times Square!