Feb 13th 2009 - Pearl Harbor and our last day...

In the morning everyone had breakfast as usual, accept today people were not as cheerful as usual. This was because it was our last day here in Hawaii. After breakfast we left the hotel at 9 o clock to visit the US Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. Once we got there, we were guided into the centre. There a guide explained us something about the attacks at Pearl Harbor and what really happend there. Then we got to see a movie about the attacks, it was an inspiring movie. When we left the movie theatre, we went on a boat to the cemetry to see the sunken Arizona and the huge memorial hall. It was pretty impressive to see how many people died.

After visiting Pearl Harbor we went back to the hotel with the bus. Then everyone had a few hours for their own to do some last time shopping, surfing, swimming, playing soccer on the beach, actually final things you had to do. At 5 o clock everyone gathered at the beach for a photoshoot. Carol took two pictures of everyone while the sun was setting.

At 6:30 we all left for a nice dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Everyone had their own choice of real American food, like a cheesburger, a turkey sandwich etc. People took some last pictures together and we sang our last birthday carol for the week. Before we left people bought some souvenirs in the shop. Once we got to the hotel we got our last meeting together. Raphael opened the meeting with a very powerful speech. There we also saw a surprise: Carol made a slideshow of all the pictures from the photoshoot on the beach. All the people from every country got their picture taken with a big American flag and a little flag of their own country. We also had a surprise for Raphael: a t-shirt from the Hard Rock Cafe with all the names of the exchange students who joined the Hawaii trip on the back. After that we scheduled the departure times for the next day for the airport. Then some people got a little bit emotional because everyone got so close in this week, we are all friends and now it was time to say goodbye.
We want to thank everyone for the unforgetable week, it was an amazing week and everyone made a lot of new friends from all over the world. And remember: the people you meet, you will always see again, at least twice in life.
It is not a goodbye, it is just a see you later!
Written by
Jannika Schwaab from GermanyNeele Kunka from GermanyFernanda Gomez from MexicoStephanie Cootjans from The Netherlands