May 3, 20

Last Day when I really don’t want to go back home.

Gosh I got up so late this morning, I needed to get up by at least 6:30 for taking a shower, but I got up about 7 A.M. So I took shower and changed my clothes real quick! One of my friends brought some muffins and something like pie, and I ate those on the bus.  First we went to the state capital building, and actually I confused it with White House, but soon our tourist guide named Mia, said that this was not a White Building. Then we took such nice pictures in front of it. After that we went to the real “White House” which is my favorite place in the U.S.A! In fact, I never thought that White House can be my favorite place here, but after I saw it, it became my favorite building ever! I think I want to be a wife of the president of the U.S.A. haha I’m just kidding.

 Anyway we had lunch at the Union Station, where is similar station with Grand Central Station in the NY. I got a subway sandwich. We wanted to shop there but it was so crowded and actually it doesn’t have good shopping place for me. After having lunch, we went to the Smithsonian museum which was so huge. My friend told me if I want to see whole of the museum, I need a month, I’m not sure it is true or not, but when I got there I could believe that. I met the bones of the dinosaur in the movie ‘Night at the museum’! J Then we went to the Georgetown to have dinner with an hour free time for shopping. They have nice places for cupcakes, called Georgetown cupcake. I spoiled my appetite by eating a  Dark Chocolate cupcake, but it was so good and it is my favorite cupcake ever!

We had sandwichs and Mac&Cheese for my last dinner on this trip at the ‘Old Glory’. I just got to the Hotel, and checked my flight. I had such a nice trip with the nicest people in the world ever, and it will be in my memory forever. I will miss my friends who I met on this trip, and Tici, Diana, and Jacob, when I go back to the home. I love NY, Philadelphia,and Washington D.C.! Thank y’all for making such a nice trip ever guys! J

Dohee Han from South Korea

Welcome to the Capital of the United States of America!

May 2nd, 2013

We were very excited to see the capital of United States of America for the first time. On the way to see all of historical landmarks, Tici told us what we were going to see today. We’ve learned and heard about them in our history class. This time we were actually able to see and feel how awesome they are.

At first, we went to the Lincoln memorial, honoring the President who let the slaves free. We saw the statue in movies and on the penny, but It was more magnificent than we imagined. We were so frustrated that pictures we took were not as great as what we saw through our eyes. There was also a big lake between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln memorial. Don’t the lake and the Lincoln memorial sound harmonious?

After that, we walked through the wall which was filled with all of names who attended Vietnam War. It was really impressive that little kids put some flowers and flags in front of their name. We also went to the Korean War memorial. Since we are South Korean, this memorial was especially more special than anything. We feel thankful for everything they have done for our country. Then we went to the Thomas Jefferson monument which has really pretty with a big lake in front of it. We could take our group pictures in front of that lake and I think it turned out really good! J

One of the favorite things we did before lunch was the memorial of the president Roosevelt. There was a quote, “Freedom of speech, Freedom of worship, Freedom from want, Freedom from fear.” That made us so impressed.

We couldn’t wait for lunch, because Tici told that we would go to the mall. On the way there, we took a rest before our wonderful lunch time. We had some chicken  for lunch, and it was amazing. We had such a hard time to deciding what we wanted to eat. After we had lunch, we went to some stores for shopping. We wished that we had more time for shopping, but we were also excited for our next plan!

I would say, the best moment for today was visiting George Washington’s Mount Vernon which includes estate, museum and gardens. We had a great time in there and learned a lot about how George Washington had lived his life. We watched a video for 20 minutes to learn who he is, how he was, and what he did! After that, we had free time to look around that huge Mount Vernon. Even if it was huge for us to see everywhere, we had such a great time!

Today has been such a long day but we learned a lot from today. Guess what? We are already ready to go to hot tub. :D bye guys and see you tomorrow!

Written by Ellen(Hee yeon) Bae, Gloria(Ji su) Cha from South Korea

Departure to Philly, Washington- Saying Goodbye

May 1st

When we woke up this day, we knew this was going to be very emotional for everyone in our group because for 20 of us the adventure ended at this point.

At 9 our group was leaving for Philadelphia and we needed to say goodbye or rather see you again. There were also some tears flooding because this trip was so amazing!

We had an awesome time in New York and we already miss the city that never sleeps and the great friendships we made in the last days L

While we were driving our great friends recorded a video of them singing. This didn’t only cause happiness but bleeding ears. Thank you for that ;)

After two hours we finally made it to Philadelphia which already looked really pretty from the far. The weather was really nice that day and we could already feel the air getting cleaner and the grass getting greener.

We first stopped at the Food Market in Philadelphia. We had some free time to explore the whole market which was filled with all kinds of food and some of us got really excited about seeing food from our home country J

After that we drove to the Constitution Center  which was surprisingly good. We watched a theater play about how America became independent and could then explore the galleries and actually swear in as a president while we could see ourselves on a big screen.

Later on this day we met our tour guide who showed us a really pretty church that was over 300 years old and which was visited by very important people such as George Washington.  After that we went to the Liberty Bell which should show us that independence isn’t always perfect because the bell has a crack but it still represents independence and freedom.

He also showed us really nice corners of Philly and the grave of Benjamin Franklin and his wife and also the oldest post office in the United States.

The end, which is almost our favorite part of the whole day: DINNER! We had a traditional Philly Cheese steak which was very delicious. We had a great time at the restaurant and also found out that “how are you?”  in Czech sounds like Is your butt itching? In German ;) We also had an arm wrestling competition before the bus came and then it was time to say bye Philly, Hello Washington!

Copyright: Elvan and Melina J

Day 4

April 30^th 2013 The Phantom of the Opera!

 Today in New York we all had a great time! It was the best way that I could think of to end our trip here. We started off the day with a tour on the boat “Zephyr” it was completely awesome! They told us to dress for Alaska but it was actually kind of hot. We toured around New York and it’s harbor also getting to see the Lady Liberty herself too. Unfortunately she was unable to harbor visitors due to the recent hurricane(which I completely forgot the name of).  We took so many pictures and enjoyed it so much.

 After that we went off to the one and only Times Square and went shopping and just liquidated money. We were everywhere down there. It seemed like almost every store you went into there was one of the fellow Belo kids there. Time square was so chaotic during the day with people yelling at you to give money to taxis honking their horn at you. We all absolutely had fun there today!  Two of our people had to run to the bus to make it on time though. Ha that was pretty funny.

Next we went to the United Nations to have a pretty long tour. When we got there it was just like airport security with all the hoops and whistles. When we were about to begin our tour we had to be split up into three groups. When the tour started she was stating random fact about the UN and asking us questions like “How many countries are with the UN?”(193 I was the one who got it right but no reward :P). We learned about the UN’s purpose and what they have done, are doing, and will do to help make and keep peace. We learned about a cool site that we can donate rice for free to starving kids (freerice.com). We even got to see where all the meeting are help and how they do it. The gift shop was awesome! A lot of us bought stuff there mostly flags and pins with flags.

Then we went to go eat at Sbarro’s.  It was a one trip buffet and everyone’s eyes were bigger than their stomach if you know what I mean. I ate about three-fourths of my food and gave my dessert away. The food was one of the closet things to Italian food that I have ever had!

Finally we went to go see………. Phantom of The Opera!!! It was so amazing! It had to be my favorite part of the whole trip. The way that the stage was set up and how easily they could set everything up. These people had dedicated their whole lives to dancing and singing to do what they love and it was totally awesome. The way that their voices harmonized and were still clearly audible was outrageously awesome. The whole theater stood and clapped for what seemed like an eternity. Well thanks for reading byeeeeeeeeee. I am David Robin Wooten the one and only.

Day 3, Our amazing walk around the city

Dear people of the world,

Our day began at 6:30 in the morning in the beautiful but rainy New York City/New Jersey. After an enormous breakfast we took off for the amazing, gigantic, Empire State Building.  After a little bit of history we got up to the 86^th floor of the giant skyscraper. Even though it was kind of cloudy and windy we had an amazing view of the big Apple. We took tons of awesome pictures. Our great bus driver drove us to the famous Grant Central Station. We felt like we were in Madagascar, Out of the Zoo. Everybody split up for lunch and tasted the variety of New York’s flavors. Some went to the 5^th avenue to spend some money, and some more money. Stuffed with food, we met Garrett our real New Yorker Guide at the Battery Park. After we took pictures with the famous bull and its famous body part right in the middle of the financial district, we went over to the Wall Street. Garrett told us a lot about the Wall Street history and we explored the federal hall.  Ground zero was our next destination! We experienced the atmosphere of Ground Zero and spent time at the St. Paul chapel. It was a memorable impression of Ground Zero, thanks Garrett.  After that we walked over the historical Brooklyn Bridge, as a matter of fact this year it is the 130^th anniversary. We got a little city tour of Brooklyn, because Garrett is from there. SoHo the shopping place where everybody goes in NYC was next on our agenda. We had time to shop like a New Yorker and got to know how busy NY actually is. After SoHo we went to Chinatown and experienced some Asian food and we took a deep breath of Chinatown. Tired and exhausted we went back to New Jersey where we spent the rest of the night having fun with all our new friends of the whole and beautiful world.  

Greetings from the foreign exchange students Hanne Meyer & Luis Rieken from Germany and Nicolas Diez.

Day of Arrival-April 27^th

^{Dinner together: After everyone arrived at the hotel in New Jersey, we met in the dining hall to all eat dinner together. BeloUSA held a presentation about the trip to give us a first impression of what the trip is going to be like.}

^{First day- April 28th}

^{In the morning we all met eaaaarly in the morning to have breakfast together. We talked about some main things about today and then all enjoyed the good breakfast J}

^{Our first stop was the Public Library in New York City. From there we walked to the Rockefeller Center and had a little Sightseeing Tour with our Tour Guide Garret. Then we went to the amazing Central Park. Nothing in the park is natural and it took them 14 years to plant all the trees. A lot of New Yorkers go running in the park, just like you see it in all these American movies.} 

^{The bus took us to the St. John The Divine Cathedral, it was so huge, the Statue of Liberty would even fit in it. Another impressive thing about it was that the statues on the left side are not on the right side, they are still finishing it up. It is supposed to be done in 2180.}  

^{After that we walked to the famous Columbia University which is one of the best universities all over the world. It kind of amazed us how the campus looked because it was pretty small, but Garret told us that New York was the campus of the students there. The university is famous for their medical and law program which made some of us think of studying there.}

^{Of course we were hungry after all that stuff that we did in the morning, so we went to Greenwich Village to eat. We walked around with our slice of pizza or Starbucks coffee and enjoyed New York’s streets.}

^{The Metropolitan Museum is so big and impressive, it takes 4 days to see everything in the museum. If y’all guys have seen the Mr. and Mrs. Smith movie, you would recognize the temple in which Brangelina were dancing.}

^{Afterwards the bus dropped us off at Alvin Ailey’s dance studio and we had a Hip-Hop class. It was really fun and we had a wonderful view of New York from the room in the 5th floor.}

^{After the hip hop class we we were all exhausted so we went to eat at a special place every tourist has to see: The Hard Rock Café! Everyone was so excited because it is always something special to eat there. It was a cool experience and we all had a ton of fun buying souvenirs and eating delicious food,( their cookies were the best)J}

^{On the ride there we already knew what we were going to do afterwards. The Hard Rock Café is located right on the beginning of the Times Square which we saw while we drove there. It seemed like a whole other world in New York. I have never seen an amazing place like this! Everyone took a million pictures just to remember this amazing place and some of us went up the stairs to be seen on one of the big screens, we kind of had to get our elbows out and fight for some space there J  This was such an amazing day and we can’t wait till tomorrow and the rest of the trip! We hope you like this Blog entry and the pictures we took J}

Goodnight from the Big Apple!!
Melina (Germany) and Elizabeth (Germany)

WELCOME TO THE NEW YORK CITY, PHILLY & DC TRIP BLOG!

WELCOME TO THE NEW YORK CITY, PHILLY & DC TRIP BLOG!

 

This will be our day-to-day journal... each day, you'll get news, information and pictures from the students. Join us on our adventure!

Get ready for a week in the exciting cities of New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC!! 
The trip will be starting out in the great city of New York! There is no place like it in the world! A nice walk in Central Park, shopping in the cool and modern neighborhood of Soho, exploring the ritzy Upper East Side…the possibilities are infinite!

Continuing on to Philadelphia- we will see American history come to life! We will explore the National Constitution Center, see where the Declaration of Independence was signed –even try one of Philly's famous delicacies, the “Philly Cheesesteak”.
 

Next, we will head to Washington DC – the nation's capitol. Here, we will explore the many monuments and memorials in this important city! Enjoy an afternoon on the Smithsonian Museum campus, visit the quaint neighborhood of Georgetown, explore the life of George Washington on his Mt. Vernon estate…and more!

Join us on this journey through three of America's most vibrant, exciting, and historical cities!

Have Fun!!!