Hollywood!!

Today we got the pleasure of sleeping in a little bit as we left for downtown Los Angeles after an amazing breakfast. We drove all the way to the walk of fame and saw the Sunset Blvd. The Walk of Fame, against our expectations, was HUGE and pretty crowded, as the attractions on the sides of the famous sidewalk were very inviting to tourists and super cheap, and of course the LA citizens used the busy streets for their benefit, which resulted in us being tapped on the shoulder every fifth minute with somebody asking : ‘’ A sightseeing tour maybe ?’’ or’’ Do you wanna buy my record ?’’ While walking down, we passed things such as the wax museum, the Chinese theater, where they had the dog-actor from ‘’The Artist’’ and the Hard Rock Café.

After spending way too much money, we moved on to Farmers Market, an amazing place with a huge speciality variety of food. We got a food-pass over 15 bucks and it was really cool to experience the intercontinental taste present. As we had a lot of freetime, we went to visit the Open Air Mall or just go shopping in the shopping area. As the location is very pretty and has huge stores of all kinds of brands with unusual products, the three hours flew by.

This was followed by the highlight of the day: a visit of the world of the rich and famous: Beverley Hills. This absolutely GORGEUS part of the actually pretty ugly town LA gave us a glance into the other side of the American life : 3 out of 4 cars were Lamborghinis or Ferraris and designers stores such as Gucci, Prada and Rolex ( just to name a few) were all across the place.

We walked around in the town looking at the famous shops or walked to the Beverley Hills sign in a close park to take pictures. Following, we had our last ride in our beloved bus with our beloved driver Antonio back to the Hotel where we are all getting ready for the party tonight. Last mention : YOLO !!

By Sophia Kramer and Martin Strack

Disneyland!!

Today we had a really early wake-up because we wanted to be at the park right away when it opens, get the best rides without long lines... Unfortunately that never happened!! Antonio took the bus to get it cleaned that took FOREVER!! After all, we left 30 minutes late, but who cares, we were heading to the happiest place on the earth. We strarted in the park called California Adventure park, that is right next to actual Disneyland. This was the place where we enjoyed crazy rides and roller coasters. Just a week ago, they opened there a new section called The Cars. However, the waiting time for that was at least 4 hours and they ran out of fast passes early in the morning and new fast passes were coming out only on the next day morning.

Weather was very hot, the sun was shinning, and everybody got some sunburn. Out of all the rides, we picked The California Screamin' as the best one. But there were many other good rides, such as Indiana Jones, Space Mountain, Star Tours, Hollywood Tower, and  Mickey's fun wheel..... We had free time for 12 hours and everybody was in small groups, so it was really hard to find each other, because of millions of people and two HUGE parks.

We all met up by the Princess' Castle to watch 15 minutes long firework show. It was absolutely faaaaaaaaaaaabulous!!! During the fireworks, famous Disney music and fireworks were matching with each other which made totally gorgeous. Also, Tinker Bell and Dumbo decided to fly above the magical castle. After the fireworks we went to see another show by the lake. The show was called Mickey's imagination and it was mix of special effects, acting, fireworks and parts of Disney movies. The show included some amazing moments and it was all done very well.

Today was full of magic. Now we all are dead tired and ready to sleep because we got to the hotel around 12.30am. Tomorrow is going to be our last full day of the trip which is pretty sad..

Kubo, Tuuli and Lucas

Back to L.A.!!

Today, everybody’s parents are going to be mad, because it was a spending money day! Woho! Yes, we went to the shopping center, outlet actually, and it was very interesting, Except, we practiced our handwriting by signing all the credit card bills. 

The outlet is located on a very south of California, on the border with Mexico, which was cool. While driving, we could see on the other side a Mexican town/state Tijuana. That was pretty amazing. Also, the big fence or wall is surrounding the outlet, so nobody could come to US illegally. Pretty scary, but again, an amazing experience.  Thanks again to our amazing driver who always knows where to take us and pick the best spots for us, whether it’s for shopping or sightseeing. 

After shopping, and visiting one of our favorite stores like Forever 21, we got a bit peckish for some tucker so we met at food court at 1:30, and ate subway. Later, we hit the road towards the famous Laguna beach. Place full of cool stores, amazing beach and rich people with amazing cars. We all were impressed with its look. 

Anyways, when we came to the beach a lot of us wanted to swim in the pacific, which was a horrible idea because the water was freezing. But hey, at least now, we can brag to our friends and family that we have swam there. Later, we kind of split up and some of us went shopping, and just checking out the city, while others stayed at the beach and played volleyball, laid and enjoy the sun, or even swim (just brave ones). Some of us were looking for rich husbands (Alice and Nika) to move there, because it was absolutely beautiful. So many hot surfer guys at the same place, that’s never bad! In one word, a dream place! 

Further, after counting all the heads and verifying that everybody’s there, we headed to our next location. We came where we have started, the great Los Angeles.  Dinner was at the Buffet which is always good. We ate and went back to the hotel. This time, we switched hotels with Bus 2, and actually Comfort Inn is better! Woho! 

Anyways, we are super tired so we need to go sleeping. This blog is written by Alice who is showering, Laura and Nika who actually did some work, unlike Alice. But that’s okay. We still love her (jk we don’t). Anyways, GOOD NIGHT everybody, and get prepared for a new day, an amazing day at Disneyland! 

Arrival in San Diego and TALENT SHOW!

Today we are reporting about the amazing trip from Arizona to California.

Julia: “When did you wake up this morning?”

Caroline: “Today I actually got up at 6.45 am because the bus left at 7.45 am and this morning I did not want to miss breakfast.”

Julia: “Well, that is pretty early. I bet some people were late again?!”

Caroline: “Yeah it was sort of early but actually most of the people were on time, so we got on the road by 8.00 am”

Julia: “So I have heard you have had a long bus ride today, what do you want to tell us about that?”

Caroline: “Yeah, the trip was freaking long, yesterday they told us it is going to be 7 hours, but because of the traffic and some restroom stops it took us about 10 hours to get to San Diego”

Julia: “So 10 hours is a long time. I would be so bored, what did you guys do to get the time over?”

Caroline: “Well, some of us listened to music, others were sleeping (how could you ever sleep on the bus?????) and the people that did not want to do either one, watched a movie like the Notebook (people were actually crying) or Zohan (and here everybody was laughing a lot)”

Julia: “Wow, that sounds like fun actually, but wait another important thing, did you eat anything?”

Caroline: “Mhm, of course. How could you ever life without food. Yeah, we went to a Chinese buffet and had a good lunch.”

Julia: “So we talked a long time about the bus ride, but that can’t be too interesting. Did you actually arrive at the hotel?”

Caroline: “Sure. Thanks to our experienced and loved bus driver ANTONIO, we got to the hotel at 6 pm, what gave us a little time to relax and prepare for the talent show”

Julia: “A talent show? That sounds amazing, but what about dinner???”

Caroline: “Well, dinner sounds like an important part of the day to you. We had a little pizza party and every body enjoyed it. After that we were ready to roll. The talent show could start”

Julia: “So this was the night of the hidden talents. Can you give me some examples please?”

Caroline: “Of course. We saw all kinds of dances from Salsa in South America to a traditional german kids song”

Julia: “So what were you favorite ones”

Caroline: “Well, three of the talents will be shown to the other bus group at the last night in LA. Our group decided, that Juan and Vivien with their Salsa dance, Marcello and his beautiful brazilian voice and Amanda`s funny way of singing without opening her mouth should perform and represent our crazy group at this last party”

Julia: ”Now, that sounds like a fun day. Do you have anything planed for tonight?”

Caroline: “Just the usual “going to bed at curfew time J” no just kidding. I guess we are just quietly hanging around and have a good time”

Julia: “Well, thank you very much for sharing your story with me. Have a great rest of the trip”

Caroline: “Thanks, und gute Nacht (vielleicht J)”

Grand Canyon

To start, this was absolutely the best day so far on this trip. We saw one of the 7 natural wonders of the world – Grand Canyon! How amazing is that?!

Moreover, in the morning, our meeting time was 8:15,  and it went kind of smoothly, few of us were late but it was not a big deal and the day went as planned. We came at Grand Canyon on time because of Antonio who is the the best, fastes bus driver ever.  Now, he is like a part of our little Rotary family, we love him and because he always have some surprises for us, today, we had one for him! We got him a keychain with his name on it, to always remember us, the best group!

Anyways, back to the main topic, which is Grand Canyon. We can all agree that it was absolutely one of the best experience ever. When we first spotted that huge Canyon everybody got Goosebumps and were excited like little kids (Especially Amy, who is our chaperone and who is 28 :P). When we started walking around the canyon, and taking all these pictures, we all wondered how could we even describe this amazing place to our friends and family. Pictures are not as near real as the whole feeling of being there.

After that first station (45minute stop) we headed to a little hike. Well, actually it wasn’t so little. We walked on the edge of the canyon for about 2 hours. Although it was super hot, we were tired and exhausted, we can all agree that it was worth it. We were excited and fascinated by the view all the way through. We couldn’t hide our happiness and excitement, because we were taking pictures on every single rock.

Also, we saw few birds that are rare to see, because there are just 400 of them, and we were few lucky ones who captured them in pictures. 


After that long walk, we headed to the lunch which was in the Imax cinema (National Geography building). There, we watched an amazing movie about Grand Canyon. It was very interesting, and the proof of that is that nobody fell on sleep J. That was the end of the day in the Grand Canyon. We will forever keep this amazing place in our memories!


When we left, some of the people wanted to shop and some wanted to relax next to the pool, so we divided our bus in two groups. One, small group, went to the little town called Williams, and others went back to the hotel. For dinner, we went to a really nice place in that town, and nobody left hungry! Some of the boys made friends, actually waitress called Barbara (a.k.a Barby) who was bringing  food without stopping. This is how we wrapped our incredible day! Tomorrow, we will conquer San Diego, so good night everybody and get ready for a 8 hour drive!

Nika (Croatia) and Alice (Italy)

On our Way to the Grand Canyon!

Today has been a very exciting but relaxing day!

First we slept in, ate perfect breakfast and left towards Arizona at 9:30 am. We ate our lunch in a town called Williams after sitting in the bus about 5 hours.


Lunch was awwwesooommee! After eating we had some free time = SHOPPING! An hour later we arrived at our hotel, which has appeared to be the nicest hotel on our trip.




We laid out by the pool in the about 100 degree weather! The pool and jacuzzi are outdoors and we also have a tennis court and a volleyball net where we spent some time.


Our dinner was a delicious sub with chips by the pool. But yet, the day of excitement was not over, as a surprise we had four different cakes to celebrate this trips two birthday kids, Megan and Kim.

Now we are just hanging out at the cool hotel area until our late curfew at 11.30, wohooooooo!!!!! :D

XOXO
Silja Soittila, Julia Scherlin and Martin Strack

Henderson / Las Vegas

Hello everyone,

This is Giovanna and Marcelo from Brasil!! Waking up so early for a 7-hour trip was tough, but at the
end was totally worth it!

We drove through the beautiful landscape of California and Nevada, seeing how impressive the desert
can be. The Brazilians made enough noise on the bus to annoy every single person we could. However
everyone had fun, watched movies, listened to our awesome “DJs”, got to know people better, got
some sleep (all of us needed it!), etc.

On our way to Nevada we stopped by MC Donald’s and after all the confusion with the 52 orders, we
finally got to our hotel. It was kind of surprising getting off the bus with a 41 degrees C, but the hotel
had a cool and big swimming pool that a couple of us enjoyed before getting ready to go to….bam bam
bam…the fabulous Las Vegas!!

No words to describe how wonderful Vegas is! We never saw the group so happy and excited like today,
not even our tiredness prevented us from having a great time. Once we got there, we were amazed by
all the buildings, casinos, hotels, stores, everything you can think of.

We ate at Hard Rock Café at the Las Vegas Boulevard; Marcelo noticed how everyone was in such a
really good mood, because we were in a beautiful place, with good people, music and food. ALL AT THE
SAME TIME!! Obviously, we took hundreds of pictures and had so much fun exploring the place.

Because we are such a great, responsible and obedient group, our ABSOLUTELY AWESOME driver
Antonio surprised us by taking the group to the Bellagio’s water show (btw, do you know he is also an
engineer? Wooow! Haaha!). It was amazing, the water would follow the songs, we saw the Eifel Tower,
the lights were on…it was undescribable!

Then another SURPRISE!! We visited the old downtown Vegas, really pretty and still lively! Everyone got
excited with the ceiling covered with the biggest digital screen ever. Had so much fun! On the way back
we had more Brazilian songs being horribly sang: ”Prim Prim Prim alguem ligo pra mim…”

Chilled on the pool doing water fights and taking pictures underwater! Had a blast as always!

Seems like each day gets better, maybe for the fact that we are getting to know people better. WE LOVE
ALL OF YOU GUYS! This trip should never end!

Kisses and hugs from Brazil!!

Marmar e Gigi <3