A Day to Remember

Sawasdee! (Hi!)

Now we have reached the last day of the trip (April 11^th). Today our tour guide was Dan who led us to Capitol Building, walked to the Library of Congress to explore, and walked through the Reading Room.

In front of the Capitol Building

Theetat and me in the Library of Congress

Next we walked to the Supreme Court which was the highest court in the land and this is also a part of judicial branch and we have learned that every decision the Supreme Court decided is the final word.

All of us (from Thailand, South Korea and Germany)
on the steps of the Supreme Court

Here comes the excited part! We got back on the bus and go to walk to the White House (both North and South entrances). Our friend bought an Obama bobble head, so she took a picture with it in front of the White House which we found it was funny :D

Group shot at the White House

Me, Dream and Prim (Thailand) in front of the White House 

OBAMA!

Then we walked to the Washington Monument. This used to be the tallest construction for 1 year! But then the record was taken by the Eiffel tower!

In front of the Washington Monument

Then we went back on the bus and headed to Smithsonian for lunch and time to explore. We chose to go to the Natural History Museum and National Air and Space Museum. These 2 museums were very cool! In Natural History Museum, we got to see the “Hope Diamond” which was originate from India and also known as the King’s Jewel. We went to see a lot of stuff like dinosaur fossils. After that we headed to National Air and Space Museum, we saw the first origin of the aviation the “Wright Brothers’ Plane.”

Theetat, Supacheep and Wonsuk at the Air & Space Museum

It was a beautiful day and had no rain so guess what guys…Shopping time! We walked down M Street in Georgetown (one of the oldest neighborhoods in DC) and had dinner on M St. at J Paul’s.

This is the last day of our trip. We met new people, made new friends, smiled, laughed and had fun together. For 7 days we have stayed together, in the meantime, we learned new languages from our friends all over the world in this trip, exchange our cultures and experiences in America as an exchange student. How awesome is this!

After this wonderful trip, we will keep in touch with each other because now we are friends! And even more than that, we are like brother and sister :D Thank you YFU and Belo that really gave us an opportunity to meet everybody and explore New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

Thank you Karla who always took care of us, Thank you Rosalia and Laura … you two worked so hard, you two are also awesome and rock! Just so you know that we love you so much J

Finally, thank you for every exchange students, all of you are our favorite and we hope to see you all again soon …

We’ll remember the great time on this trip forever!

--Chananchida & Theetat, Thailand

A Special Day in D.C

Hello Belo!!!!

Today is April 10^th and we went to the capital city of USA – Washington DC. At there, we got to see the statues of some of the greatest people in American history, we learned about the unique things they did, we saw the memories they left us, and we felt the spirits they had.

Me and Claire with the Washington Monument

Group shot in front of the Lincoln Memorial

Today was also the most special day in Washington DC, because it’s the day that all the cherry blossoms bloom. It’s the only time period in the year that we can enjoy this amazing view. See how lucky we are! The weather was perfect. We walked around the Tidal Pool and took many great pictures. We had such wonderful times and this was one of the best experiences we’ve ever had!

Me & Claire with the Cherry Blossoms

Group photo

During lunch, we went to the Fashion Center at Pentagon City. It’s a huge shopping mall and almost everyone bought something. I guess eating and shopping are always the things we love to do.

After lunch we drove to Mount Vernon, which was America’s first president George Washington’s house. We had some free time to walk around and feel the nature. I think it’s really interesting to know about the place where the president lived.

In front of G.W's Mansion

Finally, we had dinner at Mt. Vernon too and it was just wonderful! We had a little birthday surprise for our Chinese girl Claire, and I want to wish her happy 16^th birthday! :D

Joanna & Claire, China

The City of Brotherly Love

After a nice breakfast, we had to say bye bye to some of our new and good friends, who did not book the rest of the trip - We miss you!

We continued with the bus ride to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During that trip we watched a Spider Man movie, which was fun.

As we came to Philly we were hungry, so we stopped at the Reading Terminal for food and to check out the great variety of places to eat. Some had the famous Philly cheese steak and some had Sushi and some German food. We were really happy as we found the German market, where we found real German bread and good German candy, which were too expensive for us, but we still bought it.

Then we took the bus to the Constitution Center, where we had some time on the lawn in front of it. We took some funny pictures, relaxed and tried to get a tan, because the weather was fantastic. It was warm and sunny. In the Center we learned about the Constitution. The most important words of it are “We the people.”

Our group in front of the Constitution Center where we learned how the U.S. became a country.
Many of us bought our state flags


The four of us (Lars, Max, me and Valentin)

After a little break in the gift shop we met Bevin, our tour guide. He took us to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, where we saw the old Congress house and Senate as well the Supreme Court.  Then we saw the First Bank of the US, which looked like an old roman temple. After that we walked to the first gild building, which is Carpenter’s Hall. 

Group shot in front of Independence Hall

Carpenter's Hall (site of first First Continental Congress)

As we were walking to Christ Church--the church were the fathers of the Constitution belonged to--we saw a fire and many fire trucks and many news reporters, which was really interesting, but not planned (and we stayed clear of it)! Then we threw some coins on Benjamin Franklin's grave, which is a tradition, which is really profitable for the church, because we learned that they earn $4000 in a year with that.

Ben Franklin's Grave in Christ Church Graveyard

After that we took a little bus tour through the City, the last stop was the Art Museum, with the famous stairs, which Rocky used for his training. To feel like him we had a little race up the stairs as a group. It was a lot of fun. That made us very hungry, so we went out for the famous Philly cheese steak, which was really delicious.

At the top of the "Rocky Steps"

Our day in Philadelphia ended here, because we had to take the bus to the hotel near Washington D.C. We had a great day, which was packed with a lot of fun and interesting and historic places.

-- The Germans: Lars, “Sid” Max, Valentin, Felix  

Arrivederci (Goodbye) New York!!

Ciao Belo! 

Today is the last day of the New York City part of the trip and it was awesome as all the other days, if not more!!! This morning we visited the Statue of Liberty: it was pretty foggy when we got there and as the day was going on the fog disappeared and New York showed its beauties! The Liberty Statue was fantastic (I took like 1 million photos there hahah) and the landscape of New York from the island was unbelievable.

Our attempt at a group photo!

Me (Italy) and Clare (China) in front of Lady Liberty

New York Skyline

Then we headed to Times Square for lunch. I took a hot dog on the road and I ate it while walking to catch the most as possible of that area.

Times Square

The most impressive site we visited was the Ground Zero Memorial: for the first time I really realized what 9/11 means for Americans, and it let me think about it.

Reflection Pools at the 9/11 Memorial

Tower 1 (tallest building in New York)

Program from the Memorial

As Italian I can say that Mama Sbarro was a pretty good Italian American restaurant (I repeat American) and I ate so much I couldn’t even move in the end! But we kept going! After dinner we walked three streets down to Broadway.

Phantom of the Opera

What to say about the Broadway show?? Just fantastic, it doesn’t happen every day to see a play in Broadway, especially if it is The Phantom of the Opera!! It was really, really good.

New York City in general is awesome, so crowded, busy and noisy!! Like in a movie! Perfect.

-- Marco, Italy

A Day of City Skylines

The third day of our trip was another amazing day in New York City. Right after breakfast, we left for our morning program at the Empire State Building. It is the 10^th highest building in the world and has 102 stories. We got to go up to the 86^th floor and enjoy a fantastic panorama of New York City. Even though it was a little bit foggy today, the view was just breathtaking and we probably took a zillion pictures.

Haruka (Japan), me (Germany) and Judith (Austria) on the Empire State Building!

Me (Germany), Haruka (Japan), Marco (Italy), Lina (France) and Francesca (Italy)

Our next stop was the famous Grand Central Terminal, setting of many movies that were filmed in New York City. We had lunch at the huge food court that offers lots of different choices from all around the world. We tried Thai food and had some cupcakes from the famous Magnolia Bakery, known from “Sex and the City.”

Magnolia Bakery

With filled stomachs, we continued our city tour in the Financial District, where we met our tour guide Garrett. He showed us different important sights, for example the famous bull a lot of people like to touch (for good fortune!) and take pictures of. The spot of the bull that people touch the most is the shiniest. Can you guess what it is? ;-)

Afterwards, we took a walk from Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge to Brooklyn, where we had a fantastic view of the Manhattan Skyline. Even though it was drizzling and the wind was blowing, we could still take nice pictures of the city.

Group shot on the bridge

The New York skyline

After all this walking, our treat was a shopping tour in SoHo. Even the hard rain couldn’t stop us from going to all our favorite stores. Many shopping bags later, we had earned ourselves a dinner in Chinatown. The Asian exchange students taught some of us how to eat with chopsticks. We could use our new skills to eat egg rolls, chicken, vegetables, rice, beef and more delicious dishes.

This day was long and exhausting, but we’ve seen so many cool and stunning places and we’re already looking forward to doing more exciting stuff tomorrow.

-- Judith, Austria and Jana, Germany

An Action-packed Day in the Big Apple

Bonjour tout le monde, or as we say on our trip “Hi everyone!”

So today was our first day in the city that never sleeps, aka New York. Exciting, right? We left the hotel early in the morning to meet our awesome tour guide Garret in front of the New York public library, which by the way is not the “real” one.. I know it’s confusing. Did you know that if you wanna borrow a book from this library, you can’t!

Group shot in front of the library

Then, after our little “study time” we went to Rockefeller Center. It was pretty interesting to see this huge building next to a small ice skating open rink! Also, we learned about the egg contest that is taking place in New York: basically the goal is to find more than 600 hidden eggs in the whole city such as museum, shops, and streets... to win a prize. We had a couple minutes to take some pictures.

As everyone knows, New York would not be the same without its Central Park and its marathons!  We had the chance to go for a wonderful walk in Central Park and take more pictures of a break dance show, lakes (although they are man-made), and of course SQUIRRELS!!

Strawberry Fields in Central Park

Until now, you have to admit that we are pretty lucky, but wait it’s not over! We went to see the Cathedral Saint John the Divine. If you just walk over there and look quickly at the cathedral, you may not see that a lot of statues are missing, not because it’s pretty old but simply because they don’t have enough money to finish it.

St. John the Divine

Right after this, we stopped at Columbia University to walk around and guess what? We took even more pictuuuures! I know it’s only the first day and we already have so many pictures.

For lunch, we had some free time at Greenwich Village where there are lots of trendy restaurants and cafes.

Columbia University

Then we went to the MET. It was amazing because we all had something to see from all our countries—European paintings, African artifacts, Asian buddhas, and Ancient Egyptian tombs! After that we headed to Alvin Ailey dance studio for the funniest part of our journey: a hip hop dance class with an amazing teacher! Can you imagine that? Having a hip hop class in NY, craaaaazy!

Showing off our moves

Group shot with our dance teacher!

Ok it’s time to talk about dinner guys (since we were all starving from our dance class)! We went to the famous Hard Rock Café in Times Square. Who would not like a hamburger in one of these famous places? No one, I’m sure.

    

After a good dinner, it’s time to walk around Times Square! We were told that the best time to go there and take pictures is at night, and guess what? They were right! All the buildings were enlightened by lights all over the place! Here is a picture of me (right) and Lina (left) there!

After this amazing, but long day in the Big Apple, we took the bus back to the hotel. This day was incredible and we’re sure that tomorrow will be even more wonderful!

-- Chloe and Lina, France

Welcome to the Big Apple

Hi everyone,

Finally we arrived in New York, the city that never sleeps. With a lot of other exchange students from all over the world we met at the Newark Airport in New Jersey. Our flight from Tampa was long and we left the sunshine state Florida to start a Belo Trip on the East Coast. 

Helene and me (left) at the airport

We were one of the first to arrive at the airport and we had to wait for other students who were coming to go to our hotel.  We’ve never been to New York before and that’s why it was really exciting to see Manhattan for the first time.  After arriving at the hotel we checked into our room and explored the hotel. Swimming in the pool was a good opportunity to meet other students. 

Pool time

Part of our group hanging at the pool

We found out that out of the 44 students on the trip we are at least one third Germans and one third Thailand. Other Countries are Switzerland, Italy, France, China, Japan, Chile, South Korea, Austria, Denmark and Indonesia. It is really interesting to meet people from all over the world. It’s exciting to see how different our exchange experiences are, because we live all over the United States.  We met people we already knew from our home country or from our state.

Some of the Thai students :)

And two of the Japanese girls (Mia and Mion)

All of us came together to have our first dinner as a group and after that we got a little introduction to our trip.  Even though we are really tired, some of us spent some time in the pool area, fitness room or in the main lobby to get to know each other.

After a long day we will sleep well and we are excited to go to New York City tomorrow morning. Remember what you dream the first night, it’ll come true…

Our trip song by Alicia Keys 

“Baby, I’m from New York, 

concrete jungle where dreams are made of 

There’s nothing you can’t do 

Now you are in New York

These streets will make you feel brand new

Big lights will inspire you

Hear it from New York, 

New York, New York !"

-- Helene and Lisa, Germany