March 11 2011, Last day! Luau at Paradise Cove

Posing with the good lookin' Hawaiian.

Our own dancers on stage!

Learning another hula dance!

Smooches for the dancer from Tahiti.

The Belo USA staff with Karen and Jackie from YFU.

The beautiful sunset at Paradise Cove.

In green and blue our two hula dancers, Oskar (Sweden) and Matheus (Brazil)

Gustaf (Sweden) Monitor Carleigh and Lucas (Sweden) at the luau

Climbing the coconut tree to shower the crowd with flowers.

Our beautiful students with their new bracelets!

Looking very Hawaiian, some students with our Chaperones!

Aloha!

We are happy to say we survived the tsunami in Hawaii! Everything went fine over night.

We finally left Kapiolani Community College after endless hours of evacuation and barely any sleep. We were all very tired on the buses. Even though we were tired we noticed the many ships on the sea. They were out there because the risk of destruction is much less than when in harbor. After a quick update which Raphael gave us, most of us chose to go straight to bed to make up for lost nights sleep. Others hung out at the hotel pool or in the lobby because we could not go to the beach after the tsunami.

Until 4pm we ate, slept, and hung out. Unfortunately the hiking and snorkeling were cancelled because of everything that had happened but then again, how many people can say to have experienced a tsunami?

At 4 we all met in the lobby to go to the Luau at Paradise Cove on the other side of the island. There we first started out with getting shell necklaces and drinks and afterwards a group picture. For a few hours we had time to walk around the beautiful place to participate on different activities; getting tattoos, making our own flower laces and head bands, buying souvenirs, color sand, Hawaiian style fruit punch, boat tour, and several shows including hula dancing and games.

Finally after a beautiful sunset a bunch of very hungry students were ready for the delicious dinner buffet including salads, fruit, Hawaiian pork, THE PURPLE STUFF and tasty dessert. After we were stuffed with coconut-cake and pineapple the actual show began:

The host entered the show with a typical Hawaiian song, which led to a little lesson about the basic Hawaiian words. Then it was time for the dance moves, which were actually performed by ourselves. Most of our group got up onto the stage, where some local dancers taught us how to dance the hoola dance. Finishing up the introductory part the real dancers came up on the stage and amazed us with beautiful dances and a fire show. Later in the night more students participated in the show and demonstrated their abilities. When the show was over so was our Luau experience.

On the way home we watched "50 first dates" and when arriving at the hotel we had our final meeting with all the students recalling all our wonderful Hawaii memories and experiences together and then we went over the departures for tomorrow. As the last evening together it was great thanks to the wonderful staff members both from the YFU and Belousa that made this trip possible and so amazing. Thank you!!!

Tulle & Elli

8:30 AM LOCAL TIME - Tsunami Update

Dear YFU Friends and Families,

We are happy to inform that the group is back at the hotel and resting at this moment.

Last night we headed to Kapiolani Community College, located by the entrance of Diamond Head Mountain. We used their building to wait for the Tsunami waves. At 3:07am, the wave hit the island of Kuai and at 3:22am it hit the island of Oahu, where we are located.

The wave did not cause any damage in our island and we returned to the hotel at 8am.

We are always here to answer any questions via email yfu@belousa.com or calling our office at 18772356872 office in Chicago.

Thanks,

RAPHAEL DE MELLO

11:30 PM LOCAL TIME - Tsunami Update

Dear YFU Family and Friends,

At 9:30 pm local time we were informed that an earthquake hit Japan. At the same, it was issued a Tsunami Watch for the islands of the Pacific, including Hawaii.

We are all fine and well here in Hawaii! Do not be alarmed!

At 11:00 pm - the watch changed to a warning. AS A PRECAUTION, we are taking the students to a higher elevation. We have bought water and food for the students in case it's needed.

The cell phone towers in Hawaii are busy, so that's probably why you are not able to get a hold of us.

The wave is supposed to hit the island at 3:07 am local time and it's expected a wave of 6 feet (around 2 meters), but even though we are going higher place (Diamond Head Mountain).

We wanted to let you all know that while there is a threat, we are making sure all the students are safe.

Please do not be alarmed, we are truly fine. We will keep you updated through this situation as we are able to.

Our monitors and YFU Chaperones are working to make this happening a safe situation for every student.

Thanks,

RAPHAEL DE MELLO - COORDINATOR

March 9 2011 - Diamond Head/ Hanauma Bay, Waikiki, Ala Moana Mall and Bubba Gump

This morning, breakfast was really really good, again! After breakfast some of us got into vans and went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. We all got our snorkeling gear and got dropped off for the day. It had such a beautiful view- it was the most beautiful thing I have seen in my life. We snorkeled and saw lots of different fish! It was so cool to be so close to nature! I actually got to see whales in the opening of the bay! They are such awesome creatures.

Everyone loved being able to see over 300 fish available. We actually saw the state fish called the “humuhumunucunucuapoa’a” Some students had underwater cameras and got some good pictures of the under water life! The water was so blue and clear you could see some fish and all the reef from the top of the volcano! It was honestly such a beautiful place.

The students that went hiking up to Diamond Head got to have a little bit more time in the morning. On our way there we all made a big circle and spread out to stretch. It was pretty funny to watch. Once we were warmed up, we had to walk about an hour to Diamond Head. It was nice to walk through a less touristic area so you could see the “normal life” in Honolulu. At the base of Diamond Head we saw a lot of beautiful flowers. We were inside a dead volcano and looked to see where we were going to hike up. Unfortunately we can not control the weather and we got rained on a bit. The view was very beautiful and the weather did not stop us from enjoying ourselves!

When the rain stopped we hiked up in the sun, which made the trip up a lot more enjoyable.Every step up we took it kept getting better and better. There were so many beautiful views around each corner. Before we made it to the top we had to climb up almost 300 steps! AH! Then once we made it to the top we thought that we had seen it all then we went around one more corner and saw all of Honolulu and the Pacific Ocean. We stood there with our mouths wide open with our jaws dropped. What a beautiful view. After two and a half hours, and no mention of how long of a trip it would be we headed back down. And perfect timing, it started to rain on our decent and we got a cool down on the way back to the base. It sounds better than it was. We ended up taking the city bus back to the hotel because we wanted to rest a bit since we were still kind of wet.

We had free time for lunch. Some students went to Duke’s restaurant, and most enjoyed a huge buffet of delicious food. Most of us just enjoyed some time to relax. It was so nice to have some time to sit around and hang out.

It was already time to head out to dinner. We got on the busses and headed off to Ala Moana Shopping Center. We stormed the shops! Everyone spread out and enjoyed being able to get some more shopping done! Some people enjoyed 100% Kona coffee! Mmm! Then it was time for dinner. We ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp! The people that work there were awesome! We loved the food too! YUM! We played games and did trivia with the waiters. It was so funny to watch everyone cheering on the students! The décor in the restaurant is so entertaining! Over all we all loved it!

It was a perfect day and as usual everyone is exhausted now! The food was great, the company of the students was great!

We'll have more stories tomorrow... night night!

Diamond Head

What an amazing view!

Our YFU Chaperones Karen (right) and Jackie (left).

BFFs from Norway!

The group on top of Diamond Head!

Ready for the hike?

View of the West Side of the island.

Beautiful view of Hanauma Bay.

March 8 2011 - Kailua Beach

Aloha y'all!

Already 4 days? We did sooooooooo much in just 4 days and every day was so exciting and full of adventure. So today... the day started as usual with an awesome breakfast and then we headed to Kailua beach. On our way there we stopped at a beautiful look out, the Pali Lookout. It was so windy and was such an awesome view! We all got some funny pictures with our hair flying all around! At Kai Lua some of us hung out on the beach and the rest were ready for a 4 hour adventure! Guess what? KAYAKING ! Woo! Sounds awesome right? So we got some instructions for kayaking and then we started our adventure with our partners.

It took us around 1 hour 15 minutes to land at Moko Lua island. Well it's really hard for me to describe the beauty of that island, it was just "wow"! The blue water, the green lush mountains, white sand...oh my gosh! It's even hard to dream such a view! We hung out there and have lunch and the lunch was subs ..chips .. And water! Imagine eating subs at an island where you can't even find a single building! We took a lot of pictures!

Then we started heading back to another beach with a sad face because it was just awesome! We again got into our kayaks and started heading back. We had lots of fun kayaking! We stopped for a while to swim and then we came back to Kailua beach where we stay for a while. Some of us grabbed a snack and head back to the hotel!

We got some time to change and relax and then we went for dinner to California Pizza Kitchen. Afterwards we got some time to shop and then we went back to the hotel and started getting excited for tomorrow!

Mahalo ..thanks for your attention!

By Sahil Gupta (India) and Alena Trittibach (Switzerland)

Students at Mokolua.

Pose for the picture...

...and more pictures...

a great picture with one of the Mokolua islands behind.

Who jumped higher?

Getting ready for the kayak tour.

Raphael (Coordinator) and Carleigh (Monitor) - Belo Staff

On top of Pali Lookout - Nuuanu Park

March 7 2011 - City tour, Pineapple Plantation, Haleiwa and Polynesian Cultural Center.

Island of Samoa.

Let's try the coconut water.

Hula Class

Felipe (Brazil) on stage in the island of Tonga.

Marius (Denmark) showing his dancing skills on the island of Tahiti.

Group on the arrival of the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Sunset Beach.

Sunset Beach.

Haleiwa town.

Yummy... Pineapple whip.

Statue of King Kamehameha V, the greatest.

Iolani Palace.

Our Japanese students, Eri and Saaya.

Inside the Capitol Building.

Hawaii

Aloha World

Today was the first day we got to spend on the bus! We had two busses between all 103 of us! The first part of our day was a city tour. We learned a lot from our bus drivers including some Hawaiian words. We stopped at the state capital building and learned a bit about the states history. From there we walked to one of the only two places in the United States. The architecture of the buildings is beautiful and has lots of meaning.

Once we were done with Honolulu we headed to the North Shore and stopped at the Dole pineapple plantation on the way. They have a frozen yogurt called “pineapple whip” that is sooo delicious! Everyone had at least a cone! The whole plantation was interesting but the best part was definitely the whip!

After getting filled up on whip we headed to Haleiwa where we had free time to eat lunch. Some students ate huge hamburgers with pineapple slices on it! We had sushi from a market. It was cheap and good! There were lots of little shops that we could all find some Hawaiian gift in! I especially loved the jewelry! From there we went to Sunset beach. We got off the bus and got to stand on the beach to look out at the beautiful blue water and white waves crashing. Wow, it was so beautiful! We got a great group picture with the gorgeous background!

From there we headed to the Polynesian Cultural Center. We learned a lot about the Polynesian islands. We got to see a lot of dances they do on the different islands. Each of the 7 cultures had different areas at the PCC that we could visit. My favorite part was learning to hula dance. We all got a lesson and even though it was sprinkling it was so cool to learn the dance! Everyone enjoyed being able to interact at the different locations.

We ate dinner at the PCC and it was a big buffet. The location was beautiful with palm trees, different bushes and even flame torches around us. Once we were full from another big meal we went to a show called “Ha, Breath of Life”. The show was really cool. I didn’t expect a show so big with lots of effects and special production. They basically showed all the cultural dances from the different Polynesian islands through a story of a man’s life. The dances were very detailed and the costumes and everything were very bright!

Today we learned a lot about the Hawaiian culture and history. It wasn’t boring at all because we got to be apart of it! I am excited for the rest of the week, especially snorkeling!

Goodnight world! (Shout out to my friends and family back home in Germany!)

Lena- Germany