35 students, 28 degrees heat, numerous countries and a weeks worth of activities planned, we were all set for day one of our cultural experience like no other.
After flights that lasted between a few hours and a whole day, the exchange students from all around America and Canada have arrived. Unfortunately a few students had a late arrival because of problems with delayed flights, but all in all we arrived safe and sound without too much hassle. Students who arrived earlier in the day spent the evening wandering the streets around the hotel and grabbing a bite to eat, and those who arrived later saved the introductions for this morning, heading straight to bed on arrival.
Our hotel is centralized close to the shops, yet also only a five minute walk to the beach, which means we can easily access all of our tourist attractions. It has a pool and a common area in the lobby where we can all hang out. We are four people to a room and this allows us to easily make friends and interact with a wide range of students and countries.
We started the day not too early today with a ride on an open air trolley which took us through the city, and also gave us our first glimpse of the beach! We hopped off at our stop and following a short walk we were greeted with a yummy breakfast at 'Bubba Gump Shrimp Company', a restaurant based on the life of Forest Gump. The decorations were very cool, including signs on each table that read 'run forest run' when you didn't need service, and 'stop forest stop' when you want someone to take your order. Unfortunately these were just a novelty as we had a buffet style breakfast rather than 'à la carte'. This concluded of things such as eggs, bacon, pancakes, potatoes, rice, and a large selection of fresh Hawaiian fruit. We also had our choice of fresh orange juice, coffee, milk and other soft drink.
We then had an introduction type of thing where everyone talked a little bit about ourselves, and we were introduced to things about how the tour will be running and a friendly reminder of the rules needed to help this run smoothly.
Preceding breakfast we headed to the catamaran, a large sail boat where we spent a good part of our mid-day soaking up the sun. We got beautiful views of the Hawaiian coast line from the ocean, which was gorgeous clean blue water bordered with clean white-sand beaches. We also got a glorious view of the large volcano which we will be hiking up tomorrow morning. There were some large waves and several people who sat near the front of the boat got completely soaked, but loved every minute of it!
After this we walked further down the beach where it was less crowded and we had the chance to have some free time, where most people chose to sunbathe, swim, of alternatively play some soccer, volleyball or frisbee in the sunshine. We then stopped for a picnic dinner with various selections of sandwiches, fruit and desert once more.
This evening was spent at the international marketplace, which showcases lots of souvenirs, T-shirts and other bits and bobs. Close to this there were also several larger commercial shops where we had the option to look around, too.
Day one is ending with a bunch of tired yet happy teenagers, with big plans for our day tomorrow!
- Caitlin, New Zealand
After flights that lasted between a few hours and a whole day, the exchange students from all around America and Canada have arrived. Unfortunately a few students had a late arrival because of problems with delayed flights, but all in all we arrived safe and sound without too much hassle. Students who arrived earlier in the day spent the evening wandering the streets around the hotel and grabbing a bite to eat, and those who arrived later saved the introductions for this morning, heading straight to bed on arrival. Our hotel is centralized close to the shops, yet also only a five minute walk to the beach, which means we can easily access all of our tourist attractions. It has a pool and a common area in the lobby where we can all hang out. We are four people to a room and this allows us to easily make friends and interact with a wide range of students and countries.
We started the day not too early today with a ride on an open air trolley which took us through the city, and also gave us our first glimpse of the beach! We hopped off at our stop and following a short walk we were greeted with a yummy breakfast at 'Bubba Gump Shrimp Company', a restaurant based on the life of Forest Gump. The decorations were very cool, including signs on each table that read 'run forest run' when you didn't need service, and 'stop forest stop' when you want someone to take your order. Unfortunately these were just a novelty as we had a buffet style breakfast rather than 'à la carte'. This concluded of things such as eggs, bacon, pancakes, potatoes, rice, and a large selection of fresh Hawaiian fruit. We also had our choice of fresh orange juice, coffee, milk and other soft drink.
We then had an introduction type of thing where everyone talked a little bit about ourselves, and we were introduced to things about how the tour will be running and a friendly reminder of the rules needed to help this run smoothly.Preceding breakfast we headed to the catamaran, a large sail boat where we spent a good part of our mid-day soaking up the sun. We got beautiful views of the Hawaiian coast line from the ocean, which was gorgeous clean blue water bordered with clean white-sand beaches. We also got a glorious view of the large volcano which we will be hiking up tomorrow morning. There were some large waves and several people who sat near the front of the boat got completely soaked, but loved every minute of it!
After this we walked further down the beach where it was less crowded and we had the chance to have some free time, where most people chose to sunbathe, swim, of alternatively play some soccer, volleyball or frisbee in the sunshine. We then stopped for a picnic dinner with various selections of sandwiches, fruit and desert once more.
This evening was spent at the international marketplace, which showcases lots of souvenirs, T-shirts and other bits and bobs. Close to this there were also several larger commercial shops where we had the option to look around, too.
Day one is ending with a bunch of tired yet happy teenagers, with big plans for our day tomorrow!
- Caitlin, New Zealand
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