8th Day - 18th of June - Williams

Today we were driving the whole day from Las Vegas to Arizona. From the bus we could see one of the famous big dam from the window (Hoover Dam), and after that, we stopped at a souvenir shop along route 66. We got some good pictures at the place.

We also stopped at Pine Country Restaurant, and got some delicious pies as cherry, blueberry and lime. I think the worker there was so nice because he was just smiling at us all the time lol. Then we drove for a loooong time and we arrived at hotel, in the late afternoon. We had a small party for all the people who had/have birthday on this trip. We celebrated it with a picnic inside, with an oreo and cherry pie. In the evening, we played a game where you had to figure out what animal or movie the person was trying to describe with gestures not making any sound at all.

It was so much fun!  

7th Day - 17th of June - Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS BABYYY!
What happenes in Vegas stays in Vegas!! Today, Tuesday 17 th of June; we were on the road from the morning until 4 pm. We started to watch a movie that was awful... But of course at that moment Fred changed the movie to 'Men of Honor.' It was a long drive but it was totally worth it! Finally we were in Las Vegas. 
We went to the world's biggest souvenir shop (Bonanza) in the entire world. It was cool but the best was the sexy shop! (Jk) Once we arrived to downtown Las Vegas, we were in the heaven! OMG IT WAS REAL AND AMAZING!! There were many beautiful and huge hotels and one of them (Bellagio) we watched the fountain's show (pretty amazing). We had the dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and we were able to dance and scream in Gangnam Style song. We were entertaining the people at the restaurant being crazy exchange student #wegotthepower. After a long day we got back to hotel, we were exhausted!!! But with a promise in our minds that we are gonna come back here for our 21st birthdays; having fun and be crazy!!!

6th Day - 16th of June - Yosemite

Today was Monday but I like to call it Funday! We got up and at 08:00AM and we hit the road. It took a while to get to Yosemite so we stopped on the way there to pee and to see a lot of turkeys (I am talking about the animal), there were also cockatoo (Araras in Portuguese) that were screaming so much! They were so scary except for my friend Kana Banana (from Japan) that dared to put her finger next to the bird's mouth. Nothing happened because we warned her and because the bird screamed right on her face so she finally got scared of it. It was pretty funny.
When we got to our destination of the day I got to experience one of the best moments of my life. The landscape was so amazing that made me wonder "Who are we?" and then my friend Flor (Argentina) and I laughed about it for 30 minutes, just kidding it was for about the rest of the day. Oh, I also took my corn rolls out because, well, just cuz'. My hair was really big but I liked it, it was kinda different.

We took group pictures with our flags and many selfies. I got to close my eyes and feel the nature, jk, there were so many tourists there! Its ok though, I loved it!

We had lunch at the picnic center. People did a nice job buying their food at Walmart, they are not like me that ended up eating breakfast for lunch. I was lucky enough to feed a squirrel with a piece of lettuce right from my hand ( that literally made my day and my exchange year, now,worth it just because of this fantastic event). There was the river right in front of us. Some people were playing football and Ninja and some others were just enjoying the sun on their skin, just getting tanner to look good on this coming summer. I got to get into the water but not because I wanted to (it was glacial cold) but because the wonderful Brazilian boys carried me into it until I got soaked. No, they are not wonderful and thank God I had clothes to change into because I wasn't wearing bathing suit. It's ok though, because it is one more story to tell to my grandkids.
It was sad to leave Yosemite, it was "so pretty" like Jonas (Germany) (Instagram: jonashiii) would say it. But we didn't have enough time to go to the waterfall (Right, Flor?). But all the sadness went away when Fred told us that dinner was buffet today. Everybody got to eat a good meal and to start the WWIII with straws and mini balls made of napkins. We got the Instagram of the waitress. I was supposed to keep her account name but I lost it, I think it was @lindseyy. Just follow her, she said she wanted more followers.

The hotel is not creepy as we were told. It is so nice! There are the pool, hot tub, wi-fi and also the most wanted: STARBUCKS.

We got to hang out at the pool and then we met at the lobby for some information about tomorrow #lasvegas.

This trip has been a lot of fun so far! Bus 1 rocks. Everyone is so nice even the Chaperones, that are supposed to be mean, are the sweetest thing (well, when they want to). Thank you guys, but first just one more thing: What it is? Wassup? Gotcha you... In the club, gosh zayam! #Exchangelifeisnotalifeitisalwaysfunday.

By Anna Luisa Lopes

5th Day - 15th of June - San Francisco

Yesterday was an awesome day, we get to see San Francisco! First they separated the bus in 2 groups then one group went Alcatraz National Park and the an other group went to a tour in San Francisco. In San Francisco we went to see the big hill and in the way to there we saw I guy that spoke all the languages of the all exchange students in my group and he also could sing on it! After that we went to the Alcatraz prison by boat of course, on the away there there was such a good information about the boat and the island. When we got in the island it was amazing I literally saw the best view of my life that I thought it was funny because of the fact that it was a prison. After Alcatraz we went to Chinatown and there we found another group of exchange students and they also were doing the west coast trip tour! As exchange students we shared experiences but was for a short time because we had dinner to eat. The dinner was at a Chinese restaurant and the food was really good! We came back to the hotel about 9 10 o'clock exhausted but with the feeling that we had ahead another adventure coming!

By Gabriel

4th Day - 14th of June - Carmel and Monterey

Today, after a very good night sleeping we got up and had breakfast. When everyone was packed and checked out, we got on the bus ready to come to San Francisco. On our way to San Francisco we made two stops spending about two hours in each: Monterey and Carmel. Monterey was a really nice city where there were several souvenir shops, where we had lunch in a really nice restaurant and also where we saw seals and pelicans which for many people it was the first time seeing it. After this, we stopped in Carmel, a very unique city, with many shop stores and an awesome beach where a lot of people hung out, swam and spent most part of the time. Leaving Carmel, our next stop was the shopping mall where we spent a lot of time having dinner and shopping. Now, we are at the hotel resting in the pool area, swimming and getting together with the rest of the group. Today, we have had a full day seeing many new places and meeting new people. Hopefully tomorrow in San Francisco we get to see as many places as we've seen today and in this trip in general.

By Antonio Abreu

3rd Day - 13th of June - Venice Beach, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara

We started the day at the Holiday in hotel and we had breakfast there. Then we all packed up our stuffs and set it in the coach bus. Then we drove to Venice beach and stopped for about 45 minutes, we all got to see the skaters, most of us jumped in the water, because there was not much stuffs to do because the shops weren't open yet. Then we drove for about 10 minutes to Santa Monica, the end of the Route 66. 

We stopped there for about 2 hours, visited the pier, shopped in some of the souvenirs shops, some of us did the roller coaster, some of us went swimming, then we left for lunch at Denny's. And after lunch we left for Malibu which was awesome, we all went swimming, then we drove to Santa Barbara and stopped for about a half our and Fred yelled at us because we were a minute late!

 And after Santa Barbara we went all the way to the hotel, which is in the middle of nowhere. Well today was really fun, and hot! Thanks Terra North America!!

2nd Day - 12th of June - Universal

00:30 All the delayed flights arrived and all the students are here. Everybody is ready for a great trip.

Universal:


Hi everybody !My name is Zuzia and I am from Poland. Today was our official first day of sightseeing. Our bus #1 (of course the more awesome one than the other bus) went to Universal Studios. Everyone seemed pretty excited about that. And I think that everybody is really amazed by the fact that we are in California in LA. First when we got to Universal Studios everyone took pictures with the famous "globe", because why wouldn't you, right? And then we got our free time so between about 10:30AM starting with a general tour of Universal Studios (Studio Tour - the one looking like in the movies) and 06:30PM we had to manage our plan on our own in groups that we just wanted to hang out with. It was really awesome because sometimes the plan is really strict and you feel like you don't have time for anything but now they trusted us so we could decide on which ride we want to go. Then we all went to Transformers ride. It was really unbelievable how sound and visual effects can make you feel like you are fighting with other transformers. After that everyone split. Me and my friends managed to go to I think 9 out of 13 rides/shows. All of those rides were really cool and still very different. Of course some of them were more exciting than others. Also you could go and watch a show of different effects for example my personal favorite show was in Waterpark where "water people" were fighting with "smoke people" and we could see all of those explosions and fights. It was like watching an action movie but live. Maybe it sounds a bit weird but it is true. You have to see it on your own to believe me. After all of the exciting part (which we thought was over) we went to eat dinner at Bubba Gump which theme is the movie "Forrest Gump". It was really interesting. And finally after dinner, exhausted but happy ,after our first day we came back to our hotel. To sum up IT WAS AN AWESOME DAY!!!