Welcome to the North Shore!!!

The State Capitol building

Welcome to one of two palaces in the United States!

We showed the guys what they should wear to the luau

Dole Pineapple Splits are so "ono" (delicious)

Hanging out in Haleiwa surf town

Checking out the monstrous waves during a surf competition at Sunset Beach

We stayed and watched some crazy surfers ride the huge waves

No one else was allowed to go in the water because of the size of the waves

So we spent our time there taking jumping pictures :)

And just hanging out with friends

And more jumping!!!

Welcome to the world famous North Shore!

Can you see the surfer?

We got to learn how Tahitian dancing at the Polynesian Culture Center

Oskar tried out his moves for us...

Then it was Wictoria's turn to show us her skills...

Next was Niels...

An then finally we saw Alba

Then we went to Tonga and Morten got called up to play the drums and learn the Tongan lifestyle

After a good night of sleep and a nice breakfast in the sunlight, we drove for about twenty minutes to reach the monarchy palace of Hawaii.  On the way, Makena and the bus driver, Jane, gave us plenty of informations about the Hawaiian culture : the origin of the hang loose wave, the story of the last ruler of Hawaii before the Americans, Queen Lil, and some basic vocabulary  in Hawaiian dialect.

Most of the students found it interesting I guess, when we arrived in front of the state capital building we were amazed by the size of it.  It was surrounded by water, which one represents the pacific ocean, and it was a "outside" residence.  The roof was open, letting us enjoy the perfect weather of Hawaii.  The students began to know each other better and enjoyed taking pictures with everybody. There was a good feeling of friendship and happiness in the air.

After that we were on our way for the Polynesian culture center but we made a few stops during the way.  The first stop was at the Dole Pineapple Plantation which was like a huge supermarket where we could taste a bunch of different fruits and ice cream, buy a lot of jewelry, perfume, body lotions.  I don't think our wallet were very happy with that, but never mind, we are in Hawaii, we NEED memories.

With a bus full of kitschy souvenirs we drove through the amazing landscape. The waves that broke on the beach rocks were even higher than in our naive imagination. We stopped on our way to watch a surf competition. The local people saw a bunch of screaming exchange students, crazily posing for pictures. Japanese tourists with water cameras and doubled sunglasses are nothing compared to us. After the impressive Surf final we got on the bus again, looking forward to a cute, small surf town called Halaiwa.   We walked around cool local souvenirs were bought and we checked out the best burger place ever!!! The Hawaiian version is so more exotic and delicious- pineapple and avocado give a very special flavor.

The lasof sit of the day was at the  Polynesian Culture Center. Just imagine what it looks like when students from all over the world try to learn all of the hula dance moves. Our apologies to the Hawaiians who had to suffer seeing us abuse of their wonderful culture. But after dinner we got to see a theatre play about Polynesian people and culture. Seriously, it was AMAZING!!! The best ending of the best day ever in Hawaii.

Alba- Belgium

Anna- Germany