The North Shore and Polynesia

Aloha and Happy April Fool's Day! This morning was different for everyone, some were at the beach, others stayed at the pool for breakfast, but everyone who got the breakfast burrito agreed how awesome it was.

Same drill as yesterday, we left the hotel at 8:30 am.  On the way to the Polynesian Cultural Center, we saw some wonderful places.

Our first sto was the capitol building, which we learned was designed to look like a volcano with a whole in the middle and all.  On the side of the building was a statue of Queen Lili U'Okalani where the girls took a picture. After we walked to the Iolani Palace where the Queen was held captive. Then the boys took a picture with King Kamehameha I in front of the Hawai 5-0 building across the street.

Back on the bus, we leared about the island from our bus driver, Rhonda, including some Hawaiian words!

Next on the list was the Dole Plantation, where nearly everyone enjoyed a Dole Whip (pineapple magically turned into ice cream). We got a chance to learn our names in Hawaiian and many of us bought bracelets with them engraved. The plantation offered a lot of different things, which we took advantage of and everybody had a good time.

From there, we took the bus heading to the North Shore and we saw some gorgeous beaches on the way. We stopped at Sunset Beach to tkae pictures and learned to 'never turn your back on the ocean.'

A cute little surfer town was our stop for lunch and free time. Most girls got flowers for their hair, but be careful! If you wear it on your left side it means you are married or taken, and on the right indicates you are single. Some people got burgers with pineapple on it!

At the Polynesian Cultural Center we went to a 4 D movie, then explored different Polynesian islands, learned a simple hula, got a ukelele lesson, saw different shows, and some of us even tried poi. During free time, everyone did their own thing but we all met up for dinner and to watch 'Ha, the Breath of Life' together. It was incredible! Even though most of us were very tired, everyone got crazy about the fire dancers.

The day ended with a very quiet bus ride home and a desire for sleep. It was an AWESOME day!

-Jessica from Germany and Miriam from Austria

PS: Note how Germans and Austrians can work together ;)