Alohaa

Aloooooohaaa! (which means hey, goodbye and Love)  First of all, I'm just gonna post this link to our Hawaii blog that I don't have to write about everything. http://belousa10hawaii2012.blogspot.com/?m=1 These were definitely some of the best day in my whole exchange year! Probably even some of my life, yet. Our program was packed! On the first day, we went surfing and on a catamaran tour where we saw whales. We could always go to the beach or shops in at the Waikiki beach because we stayed at the 'queen kapiolani hotel' which is about two minutes from the beach. Two dreams came true already at the first day because of the long boardes and the whales!!! On the second day, we went to the polynesian culture center and on our way, we drove through Honolulu downtown, to the holy palace and also came by Jack Johnson's neighborhood!! and stopped at the the sunset beach where 'Pirates of the Carrabean' was filmed and also saw the beach where 'Bay Watch' was made. Then, we could have lunch in a really cute, traditional surfer village. Me and my room mates went to a Thai place which was amazing, the best Curry ever! At the Polynesian culture center, we 'visited' all the Hawaiian islands.  A group of natives introduced their cultures with dances, music and plays. The funniest person was a Japanese volunteer who had to drum and the guy was asking him things and he was always like; yes,yes...then, he asked him if he understands him and he was like; "yes".  The Samoan guy asked him: "are you lying to me?"  "yes". He didn't understand anything and was just smiling. ;D For dinner, we had a buffet with different food, a lot of Japanese food, though because of the abundance of Japanese tourists everywhere on Hawaii.    The next day, we went kayaking and had a blast because some just felt in the water. We ended up reaching our detonation, a little island that is suppose to be one of the 10 most beautiful islands. The guides let us over a path through rocks to a natural "pool".  After returning to the hotel, we went out to eat to the Hard Rock Cafe Honolulu.  The next day, we went hiking to the top of the Diamond Head where we had an amazing view over whole Waikiki and the ocean. In the afternoon, we went to the biggest open air mall in the world and to 'Bubba Gump', Forest Gump's restaurant. They had prepared a quiz for us where you could win prizes. My shrimp scampi was delicious;) We also experienced American history at Pearl Harbor where we had to volunteer, brooming the USS Missouri. We saw the memorial and a movie about December 7th. Afterwards, we went to a deserted white sand beach, it was soo beautiful! Luckily, we got to see a real Hawaiian wedding on the beach! Besides that, we had a fun time with swimming, tanning and playing beach volleyball. Our last day, we wanted to be an even more special one than the others. We went snorkeling at the Hanauma Bay and saw the most beautiful fish ever! Leni, Giulia and me went out twice. The second time we went out further and saw a kinda arc of corals on the ground where a school of fish were hiding in between and the sun was shining through it. In the evening, we went to a Luau. They had a show with a fire-dancer, a Hawaiian buffet and some activities like making flower bracelets, dancing, tattoos and some  other Hawaiian traditions. The brag there was beautiful, too, especially after the sunset. The moon was just reflecting in silver sparkles on the water. And then, we already had to leave and all spent our last night together in Room 606! The room! We were about 45 people in one little hotel room, all squeezed together and tired from the long week. Some really started brewing coffee in the middle if the night;) The goodbye was soo sad!! But we're already planning to meet again! I mean, exchange students should be used to go to other places;) Me ka aloha, hoku.     (means: love, Miriam)- hoku is my name in hawaiian, Miriam comes from Mary and Hoku means 'star'