Yosemite

Guten Morgen. Hyvaa Huomenta, Good morning.

After a small breakfast and a needed cup of coffee, we started our journey to Yosemite National park. Full of enthusiasm we entered the bus. Unfortunately, no one expected a three hour ride. After one hour, we finally stopped at a gas station. A heat wave of 99 degrees hit us like a ton of bricks. Even the South Americans put sun block on, in order to not compete with the Europeans in burning. Later, everyone was sprinting to the cold beverages to cool them down. After hydration we continued our adventure.

The closer we got to the Park, the more breathtaking views we got to see. From a dry landscape to 1.5 km high Waterfalls. A lunch was provided under a so called “lower Waterfall”. After an energizing snack, everybody walked their way through the beautiful parts of the park. A huge crowd was drawn to the small pool of water which was located underneath the Waterfall. It was one of the best spots for climbers and tourists. Most pictures were taken on the upper part to see the nature of Yosemite. Certain people were brave enough to go to the next level and step under the Waterfall. The cold water scared most of us, unfortunately only some realized that you only live once (YOLO!!). 

Besides Waterfalls, long rivers caught Tourists attention. A rental of canoes was provided; sadly we did not have enough time. All in all, the view and the smell of the pine trees reminded some of us of their home countries.

The two hour ride to the dinner flew by fast. Everyone was tired and exhausted on the ride home to the Hotel. Luckily, our tour dj aka Juan got us pumped up with music. Before we were allowed to leave the Bus, our Chaperones informed us that we are leaving early in the morning for another looooooooooooooooooong 7h Bus ride adventure to Henderson!!!
We ended our day normally by going into the pool.

Happy Fathers Day!

(Alles gute zum Vatertag, hyvaa isanpaivaa)
We love you, 

Sonja Brendes (Germany) Heini Teikari, Katriina Rimpinen (Finland)

San Francisco

THE BEST DAY SO FAR!!
We all woke up with a feeling of having a good day, because there was no fire alarm. We grabbed something to eat, got into the bus and we were heading to San Francisco. The bus was divided into two groups, the first group started with a tour in the USP Alcatraz. The second group was just enjoying their free times in San Francisco’s downtown.

Alcatraz was a federal prison located on a small island about two miles from the downtown of San Francisco, so we had to take a ferry to the island; it took us about 12 minutes. During the tour in Alcatraz we were able to see all the cells where the most popular and dangerous prisoners were held, such as the legendary Al Capone. We also saw all those cool places that we knew only from the movies.


For lunch, we went to Hard Rock Café, the food was very good!! The entire restaurant sang “Happy Birthday” to Mégane, who just turned 18 today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MÉGANE! Some people did a little bit of shopping in the Hard Rock Café shop. After the lunch the second group went to Alcatraz and the first group had their free time in San Francisco.

The city is simply amazing! Even though everybody had to walk a lot up and down on the very steep hills of San Francisco and burned their skins under super hot weather, it sucked, but it was worth it A LOT! After all this walking we found one of the most gorgeous places for pictures and we blew some money in the stores of San Francisco!

 After those things we all got back in the bus, we went to the place that everybody had been waiting for the entire day: THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE. … more pictures.

For dinner, we went to “China Town”, the world famous China Town, it was one of the best dinners we had ‘till now (in Lucas’ opinion)!

Antônio the world best bus driver ever (in Kubo’s opinion) surprised everybody with a wonderful view of the night downtown, which means even more pictures…YOLO!

Such a great day… don’t you think so?!

by Lucas and Kubo!

Monterrey / Carmel / San Francisco

Hello!

On day four, we travelled more than in the past three days. We got to know each other better and better, which Juan, our crazy Argentinian, showed in a practical joke. He called many of the guy's rooms, telling us to get out of our rooms due to a fire alarm. That woke most of us up and we went straight to breakfast.

We loaded the bus and got ready to drive north. Our first stop was in Monterey, a historic city in California. We eat lunch and had some free time for shopping.

Our next destination was Carmel, one of the most spectacular coasts of this region. The city by itself seemed kind of rustic. We walked all the way down to the beach, which was amazing. The sand was almost white, and everything looked gorgeous with the rocks and the beautiful Golf course in the background.

We left Carmel and continued driving towards San Francisco. Our hotel for the next two days is located in Oakland, where we ate dinner at Denny's. There was a firework show going on at the Oakland- San Diego Baseball game. We went outside of the hotel to get a better look at it.

We are looking forward to seeing the famous city of San Francisco and the prison of Alcatraz tomorrow.
Very tired, we are heading to bed for a good night sleep.

Sincerely,
Felix and Michael

Venice Beach / Santa Monica / Malibu / Santa Barbara

Hello everybody!
We started the day at 8.30 by loading the bus at the hotel in LA to head to out first stop at Venice Beach. This is an alternative city with a lot of cool people. We walked around on the beach, taking pictures of our selves in the Pacific Ocean and of course posing with some life guards; there was also a shopping street with a lot of souvenir stores.

About 10 minutes away we stopped the bus again, in Santa Monica, where most of us headed to the famous pier. Here we of course took a lot of pictures but also took some rides on the roller coasters. Santa Monica also has a nice shopping street where we spent some money.

We had a delicious lunch at Denny's before we loaded the bus again to take off to Malibu. Then we had a short stop to see the beach, use the bathroom and pose for pictures with some surfers. This time we boarded the bus for a longer trip and 1,5 hours later, we arrived in Santa Barbara, which was so beautiful. On our way here we also saw some really cool houses/mansions.

Some of us walked out on the pier and the beach to watch the amazing view while some of us took a bus downtown to explore the historical city. Due to the downtown shoppers our departure was a little delayed, they did not know the buses back stopped running at 6pm so they had to run all the way back to our bus.

Now everybody was hungry but the food was worth waiting for. We drove about an hour through beautiful hilly California to a buffet restaurant where we all ate so much. Then we all rolled with our full belly's out to the bus so we could drive to the hotel here in Atascadero, where we finally are sitting now!

Today was awesome and we can't wait to go to bed so we can wake up tomorrow, bright and early, and be ready for a new beautiful day in Monterey, Carmel and finally San Francisco! Vivian Zapata and Julia Scherlin

Universal Studios!

Hello Followers,

It’s a real pleasure to have the opportunity to be the first exchange student writing in this blog.

As you can see, we landed all safe!! Right now I am writing from the beautiful city of Los Angeles, a place where thousands of famous celebrities chose to live in.

We met with some more than a hundred exchange students from all over the world, representing until now in the best way, the Rotary Central States and his own countries. They divided us in two groups. Bus 1 is the one we are part of (super cool), and it didn’t take too long to get along with everyone in it.

As soon as we got up, after listening to some words and rules from our excellent staff, we went to the wonderful park of Universal Studios!!! This place that has been bringing unique entertainment experiences for more than 100 years to millions of people around the world, including us now. It was awesome!! Unreal, like my Canadian’s friends would say. In our way, we passed by the hill with the Hollywood sign, but because it was too foggy we could hardly see it.

I wouldn’t say we were tired, the trip just started, but after walk all day long there, we finished our night in the pool and the hot tub that our Holiday Inn hotel provides us. What a hard life, eh?

To our parents; host parents; Rotarians and Terra North America staff, we say thank you a lot for making this possible. We will be in touch with you for the following fourteen days.

Wishing you the best of lucks,

Best Regards,

Juan Bechara

WEST COAST 2012 has started!

Coordination meeting prior to students arrival

    Exchange Students living in USA from all over the world are meeting today at the LAX Airport in Los Angeles (CA) to start one of their biggest adventures on the Exchange Year - the West Coast Trip! For the next 14 days, exchange students will live together traveling around USA and visiting unforgetable and exciting places like Disneyland, Universal Studios, San Francisco and its landmark (the Golden Gate Bridge), Santa Monica, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, San Diego and much more! Follow our blog to keep posted on what's happening at the tour...

WEST COAST - Coming soon!