Jun 27th 2010 - San Francisco: Alcatraz, Twin Peaks, Golden Gate Bridge...

THE LAST PARTY:

GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE:

TWIN PEAKS:

ALCATRAZ:

Jun 26th 2010 - San Francisco: Pier 39, Cable Car, Union Square, City tour...

Dinner in Chinatown...

The Haight-Ashbury, historic enclave of the 60's San Francisco Hippie movement, now an upscale neighborhood. Group with a local.

Rea (Coratia), Madaleine (Sweden), Lilia (Italy) and Anni (Finland) on the corner of Haight Street and Ashbury Street. This is the corner that gave the name to the neighborhood: Haight-Ashbury.

Lilla (Hungary), Ida (Croatia) and Fanni (Hungary) in Alamo Square.

Lombard street.

Cable car.

Ready for a nice ride?

Sanne (Denmark), Marie-Claire (France), Ida (Croatia), Cansu (Turkey) and Marco (Italy) with the Golden Gate Bridge on the back of the picture.

Megan (Belo Staff), Anni (Finland), Lilia (Italy) and Madeleine (Sweden) with Alcatraz

Jun 25th 2010 - Yosemite to San Francisco!

Guro (Norway) checking the beautiful landscape.

Hello everybody!! It’s hard to believe that we are already on the 11^th day of our west coast trip. We were at Yosemite in the morning… We woke up at 7am for breakfast in our pajamas. Then we went back to sleep until 10.30am.

We left the hotel at 11am, the latest time that we ever left the hotel… guess what?! We were heading to San Francisco, which is our last stop for this trip. It took us 5 hours to get there. During the trip we stopped at a fruit market to buy a variety of fresh fruit. For lunch, we got the change to choose our own type of food… Then we got back on the bus and finish our movie (The Holiday).

We got at the hotel at 3pm and had free time to enjoy the environment and swim. At 6pm, we had dinner in our own special room. It tasted very good. Afterwards we went to the movies at the all. We had options to choose and everybody was happy. Some of us went shopping and some took some pictures.

Our wonderful day has ended with the smiles on our faces. We still have three ore days to go. The exciting days are waiting for us.

Naey and Mind (Thailand), Yurika and Yuka (Japan)

Jun 24th 2010 - Yosemite National Park!

Doroty (Brazil) ready for some bike rides...

Whohooo...

Hiro (Japan) enjoying the nature.

Gui (Brazil), Clarissa (Brazil), Krestian (Denmark) and Pietari (Finland) amazed with the size of the trees at Yosemite.

Bike Ride...

Somewhere over the rainbow. (Gui - Brazil and Simon - Sweden)

The Brazilians!

Anetta (Czech Republic)

Cansu (Turkey)

The group at the top of Vernal Falls

Arm (Thailand) and Viny (Brazil)

Manon (Belgium)

The hike

Filippo (Italy), Simon (Sweden) and Pieter (The Netherlands) posing for the photo shoot

Hiro (Japan) and Adam (Sweden)

The park...

...is...

...Amazing!!!

4 days left… Everybody enjoy a maximum of each second together. Today was sport day. We left at 8 am this morning and headed to Yosemite National park. On the road we saw such an amazing landscape, mountains, trees, green grass. After an hour, we entered the park. The river was powerful and higher than normal, it was amazing to watch the speed of this river bordered by those giant mountain full of big trees. Once parked we took the shuttle to the fall. I should say, on of the falls. Everybody ready with his or her shoes and flags, we started hiking the mountain. Half way we stopped to contemplate the amazing landscape and it was time to hike some more.

During 40 minutes we hiked rocks under the sun and for the last 10 minutes under the mist water coming from the fall… yes, once we were close to the fall it got really misted. Wet and tired, we didn’t care Everybody let a Whoua!!! Going out. It was just amazing, fantastic, so powerful… We too a hundred pictures, with flags, without, in the front of the water fall, in front of the valley…

But… like always… good things always have and end. Time to go back. We met all the students to have lunch together and went back to the hotel… NO!!! Just kidding… come on… it’s the West Coast trip!!! After lunch we had bicycles and we were able to ride everywhere. I went with my friend to see the mirror lake (where the water was reflecting the mountain), see some mountain and we even saw a deer. At 6 pm, we met for dinner and one hour later we headed back to the hotel. A few minutes later we saw a black bear… everybody screamed and went looked through the window of the bus to see it. I unfortunately did not see it.

Like everyday, this day was unforgettable and we all know the 4 days left are going to be the best, because we are heading to San Francisco!!!

Marie-Claire - France