The Last Day, A Good Day

Today is the last day and we headed to the historical part of D.C. This city is interesting that it includes modern parts and also old parts.

The Library of Congress, where we went, was part of old part. I learned how this nation was constructured. I could feel the historical aspect directly so I highly recommend to visit there!

Where does the U.S. President, Obama live? Obviously in The White House! I could see a piece of it, but not all. I wish I could make an appointment to go inside it. That's my only regret here.

As for the Smithsonian museum, what impressed me most is that we don't need to pay anything for it. There, I can see the wonder in the world so easily. Especially in Air and Space museum! I saw the progress of how techniques developed. That is my favorite.

Okay, let me talk about myself. I have glimpsed eternity of friendship beyond border. I feel heart-wrenching sorrow that I have to say goodbye... no, let's say see you later so that we can meet again. Thank you, my friends.

---Ryota Takahashi, Japan
(Photos by: Linnea Ymsen, Sweden, Chihiro Matsui, Japan and Belo Staff)

Our First Day in D.C.

As the trip goes on, waking up gets harder every day but our enthusiasm to discover new cities and sights has never decreased!

Today was our first day in Washington DC, the capital! We left the hotel early in the morning and after a short drive, we arrived at “The Mall.” 

It houses of a lot of memorial buildings including ones for the Korean War, Vietnam War, WW2, Lincoln, Jefferson, MLK, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. My favorite was the Korean War memorial because while you were walking through those statues you could feel yourself as part of it.

Cool fact: while we were at the Jefferson Memorial we saw the presidential helicopter landing in front of the White House and then watched it take off with Mr. Obama heading to Orlando in Florida!

After the tour of the memorials at “The Mall” we ended at a real mall called “Fashion Center” that was pretty close to the Pentagon. We had free time to grab some lunch and hang out.

After lunch, we left and got to Mount Vernon, house of the first President of USA: George Washington. We had a tour around the house and the whole estate. It was really interesting seeing where and how the first President lived. 

After that we had dinner at a restaurant right next to the museum and we went back to the hotel. Time to leave our stuff in our rooms and…POOL TIME!!!

Things to check from my bucket list:
-Waving at Mr. Obama

So excited to see the white house and the capitol building tomorrow!!
---Enrico, Italy

(Photos by: Linnea, Sweden and Belo Staff)

A Rainy Walk Through American History

Waking up this morning was kind of hard after a long day yesterday and a night full of packing up our stuff and saying goodbyes to some of the Belo kids. But we got up anyway 'cause you have to keep on moving!

We said another tearful and devastating goodbye then we headed to Philadelphia.

What is your first thought about Philadelphia? Boring, ugly and nothing to see? Not at all - Philly is a really cool place with so many interesting places to go and so many historical sites! We got to see them all!

Our journey in Philly goes like this...

First stop - lunch at Reading Terminal. The reason that it is called "terminal" is that it used to be a train terminal and now they changed it into a market with food from all around the world! You could find so many different options there and no one left with their stomach empty.

Second stop - The Constitution Center.  This is the most interactive museum in the entire country! For example, you could take the president's oath, be a part of presidential election and also they had a really cool presentation about The Constitution.

They said the real Constitution we could not see because it is so old and fragile, they need to hide it from the rest of the world! At the end of the tour we took pictures with representatives from the 13 first colonies. Sadly they were not real, only sculptures. It was a precious moment for us to get to know more of the American history. Honestly - I think a lot of us can agree that we know more about the American system and laws than our own countries'.

Third stop - Tour with Lauren, a real Philly person and an awesome guide! First we walked to the Liberty Bell and George Washington's house which was not far from the museum. At this time it had started to rain but we kept on as true tourists! With determination we continued on to Independence hall also known for us as the bird pooping place. Haha. This place was the place where the constitution was written. During four summer months around 50 men sat in there and isolated themselves from the rest of the world to write the constitution.

After that we marched to an old church, well old considering American standards, not for European! At the church, we got a story about the history of the church and about the important people who went there. Linnea found it really exhilarating that the Swedes were the first ones to settle in Philly area. We also walked by Benjamin Franklin's house, called the ghost house since it only has the frames.

By this point we were all pretty soaked and freezing but we kept going until we got to Elfreth's Alley, the oldest street in Philly. The houses were really small and pretty, with European style. Before we got back onto the bus we stopped by Benjamin Franklin's grave, where we tossed some coins for good luck.

Fourth stop - The Rocky steps. This was a quick stop because of the weather, but some of us ran the steps, just like in the movies! The Rocky statue stands below the steps and some of us took pictures with him. From the top of the stairs we could get an amazing view of down town Philadelphia, even though it was foggy.

Fifth and last stop before heading to DC was dinner. We ate at a nice restaurant with good food and awesome company, of course. They had the famous cheesesteak, which according to the students was really delicious. Even though the weather was really cold we had ice cream for dessert!

Today was a really fun day and we got to see that Philadelphia has its own charm. So do not compare it to New York or other big cities because everything in this world is unique and can not be compared with one another!

Add Philadelphia to your bucket list and you will not regret it!

---Linnea, Sweden & Gia, Indonesia
(Photos by: Linnea, Finland and Belo Staff)

Farewell, New York, New York...

So here we are. For half of the people in this group, today is the last day of activities that don't involve goodbyes and airplanes. Right now I'm sitting in the lobby hotel surrounded by people signing our awesome BELO t-shirts and hugging each other. To be honest, I feel like I should join them soon so let's get to the actual blog.

Today started both good and bad. Good: a full day of awesomeness ahead of us with a predicted temperature of - wait for it - 3 celsius! Way hotter than the last two days. Bad: we had to get up 10 whole minutes earlier than usual. But as we all saw, not much later, and it was definitely worth it. Our first stop was Lady Liberty! And our 10 minutes of lost sleep got us there on the first ship, first group of the day.

We managed to avoid the HUGE crowd that followed and take some (loud and freezing) group pictures!

Second stop: a true New Yorker lunch. Walking around the beautiful Times Square, holding a New York Pretzel in one hand and a couple (of dozens) of shopping bags on the other!  Some of our girls even got put on the big screen in Times Square!

After our usual drive on the bus with all 56 of us singing Lady Gaga, we got back to the serious buisness: a tour of the United Nations. Even though we had to be separated into smaller groups, and even though we couldn't take loud group pictures or over-crowded selfies, it was pretty cool. No, SERIOUSLY, the UN was really amazing. I can say that we definitely all felt at home and we all got to send some really awesome international postcards.

After that, we all felt some need for... more shopping obviously! So, there we go, back to Times Square with our hands full of shopping bags. This time, though, there was no need for New York Pretzels, because our lovely Belo Ladies provided us with some Italian food at Mama Sbarro's Italian restaurant. As an Italian myself, I'm going to abstain from any comment on the accurateness of the Italian Pesto and Pepperoni Pizza... but I CAN say that the place was awesome. As always, our whole group was singing all the songs that came up on the radio, and whenever the restaurant would stop the radio, we would totally not stop singing! Speaking of singing, we also sang happy birthday to Ryota/Totoro in all of our languages at once!

Finally, what was possibly the highlight of the day... a Broadway show! We had the amazing chance to see Cinderella and I can say without a doubt that we ALL loved it.

Well, apparently my time to write this blog is up, so I have to say goodbye to you all. I wish you a good good night but remember: it is probably not going to be as good as ours!

Baci e Abbracci,
Marzia, Italy
(Photos by: Jessica Hurme, Finland and Belo Staff)
p.s. A note from a student who practically became our staff photographer: Jessica Hurme of Finland. -- The trip was amazing! We get to see all the important places in New York City and I have so many new memories and stories. What's the best is I've so many new friends all around the world. Thanks to all of you! I won't ever forget this trip together!

Day Three!

Today we did a lot of things again! First things first: The Empire State Building!! We went through the giant lobby up to the 86th floor. From there we had an amazing view.

You could even see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. I honestly expected them to be bigger. Ellis Island was like a speck in the harbor!

After the Empire State Building we went to the great Grand Central Station. The Main Hall alone was really big! We ate lunch and had some free time to explore.

Next was Wall Street and the Financial District. After a little tour through this district, our group walked over the entire Brooklyn Bridge.

The view over the East River and of the skyline from New York was one of the most enjoyable things today.

In the neighboorhood called "SoHo", we enjoyed the rest of the day. SoHo is like a big mall - only outside. Souvenirs and clothes shopping was really fun!

For dinner we went to Chinatown. The restaurant was really big and we were part of two weddings in one place!

I cannot believe that I am leaving New York in two days! New York is such an amazing city!

---Hannah Onesseit, Germany
(Photos by: Jessica Hurme, Finland and Ming, Thailand and Belo Staff)

First Day in the Big Apple

After a short drive through the Lincoln Tunnel, we finally arrived in our dream city--New York City. Fancy buildings, beautiful decorations, busy traffic and the tall buildings came into our sight! Although the temperature is really low, it still can't decrease our excitement. We can't believe that today we are in the one of the most prosperous, democratic, just and beautiful cities in all the world.

The first stop was the National Library. We saw the beautiful building and were very surprised by its huge size. The guide told us that it takes 10 minutes to find a book, which really impressed me.

We then walked along the street, busy taking pictures, and went to Rockefeller Center. We saw what a big American city looks like. The most surprising thing I saw was a group of people running along the street to exercise in the cold weather! Our next stop was Central Park. Everything there is really beautiful and I found a lot of Christian pictures and decorations. It showed the natural beauty of this charming city.

My friends and I went to eat Thai food which is always amazing. After lunch, we went to visit The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It included almost everything from all over the world. We stayed there for two hours. I learned about the history of musical instruments and what they used to look like. We saw many mid-century European paintings.

Then we went to a hip- hop dancing class which was my favorite part! I had so much of fun there!

Afterwards, we went to Hard Rock to have dinner in Times Square. We took so many pictures in Times Square. I was so excited when I was walking in the Times Square! The lights and buildings and stores were so charming!

I really, really enjoyed my first day trip in the Big Apple!
---Hanyu Lai, China
(Photos by: Katharina Lan, Germany and Jessica Hurme, Finland and Belo Staff)

Going to New York was my dream a long time ago, joining the new York trip with US Belo is a dream coming true!!

Today was the first day of our trip. All the students arrived during the day. In the evening we got together and we had fun dinner together! It’s just fabulous that we are here, we can see the Empire State Building from our rooms!!

Traveling on my own was so great! I feel so independent. I met a wonderful group of people and I had nice dinner with them. It’s so cool to be around people from different countries--it makes me feel unique and I feel proud being a representative of my country.

Finally in my dream city can`t wait til tomorrow. <3

Excited to meet new people from some many different countries!

--Ahlam Hegazi, Israel and Jakob Findenegg, Germany