End of the Trip!

WEST and EAST COAST 2013 trips have ended! It was an awesome experience! We could visit amazing places, learn about history and tourism and discover a total new side of the United States! Most of all, we have made the biggest friends! Terra North America would like to thank all the students, chaperones, monitors, drivers and suppliers for those incredible trips! We really hope you have enjoyed every minute and built great memories!

Thanks!

Terra North America Team.

Day 12 - June 23rd - Disneyland

    Well, people may differ but this was the best day for me. It was the longest day for sure, cause we were in the park since 9:00 am until 11:30 pm. Personally it was the best day, I loved it, me and Mathias were together pretty much the whole day and in the course of day we find diferent persons of the group. The first thing we did was Soaring Over California, that is a simulator that takes flying you over different landscapes of California, then we went to California's screaming, the big roller coaster of the park, we ride it two times, afterwards we went with some other people to the Toy Story's attraction (the largest line, 55 minutos waiting). We went to eat at around 1 o'clock and then we went to the Aladin's show. We had fast pass for the Hollywood Tower Of Terror at 4, so in the meantime we ride California's Screaming again.

After riding the Hollywood Tower Of Terror (which by the way was my favorite attraction) we crossed over to Magic Kingdom and then went to the Space Mountain (a roller coaster in the dark) the wait time said 75 minutes, but luckly there were some people of the group already in the line so the wait was like half and hour. Afterwards we went to Pirates Of The Caribbean and then to Indiana Jones. Went to have dinner at like 8:30 and then we met the rest of the group by the Walt Disney's statue at 9:30. At 10 o'clock the fireworks started in the castle, that was really amazing. The last thing we went to was Fantasmic, a show about Mickey Mouse's imagination.

 

By the time we arrived in the hotel it was already past 11:30, we were all exhausted and with feet sore, but it was worth it!

Written by Quique

Day 13 - June 22nd - Zoo

Today we spent the morning in the famous Zoo in San Diego, one of the biggest zoo's, were they even have mechanic stairs.
we walk around, did the bus tour,the cable car and even Aryaman paint his face as a panda.

After the zoo we hit back to LA, but first we went shopping to the mall and some of the guys went downtown San Diego, it was something pretty to see and we kinda bought a lot.

After 2 hours in the bus finally we got to LA were we had free time and dinner at Arbis.

Day 10 - June 21st - Sea World

    Saturday, we went to see world, we left the hotel right on time to be there at the opening! when we were inside the park, we started by the killer Whale show who was amazing, these animal are able to jump in the air, wave to us, dance, splash us and to do many more stuff. After that we all split up and went in the different way. The important rides were Manta, Journey to Atlantis but we had the opportunity to do many more things like touch Manta, go to the top af ''skytower'', feed dolphins. Between the killer Whale show we also saw shows like the dolphins show which was amazing and the pets show who was also pretty good! We had a very good lunch inside the Park. Even though it was really hot outside, i think we all had an amazing day! Everyone likes it and had so much fun there! After the park we just came back at the hotel and went the Dennys for dinner.

Sido.

Day 9 - June 20th - Grand Canyon/San Diego

    Today is the 9th day on this trip, after we're spending really fun time in the Grand Canyon now it's time to leave and move on to San Diego. After had a quick breakfast in the morning we got to leave early at 7:30, San Diego it's pretty far from Grand Canyon so we will have a long trip for today. During the ride we spending more time on watch movie first movie we watch The Blind Side it's really inspiring and based on the true story, then after we watch it we stop for lunch and continue the ride with The Hangover, it's really entertaining movie. When we're arriving at the hotel we had a free time for swim, hang out, or some of us prepare for the talent show tonight. The talent show were great! Some of us play music such as piano, harmonica, and trumpet, the group from the same country were sing their own song or even solo, and some of us were dancing too, also telling the joke. It's a really great night because we got to know everybody's talent and also the cultures, songs, dances from different country.

Thalia Azdhani

PICS

Check pictures here.

Day 8 - June 19th - Grand Canyon

Hello from Arizona!

    Today was probably one of the most exciting days for all of us because we got to pack ourselves into a bus which was heading to Crand Canyon!!

     Some of us got up real early and some of us didn’t even make it to the breakfast but somehow we managed to start our one hour drive at 8 AM.

    We got the perfect day in every ways. It was super sunny, warm, no clouds, tiny breeze and extremely dry. I love Arizona, this is how summer suppose to be back in Finland too!

     Everyone of us were carrying a bottle of water which really came in need. The moment when we first stepped on the edge of this amazingly beautiful creation of nature. How should I explain it or even describe it? You feel so small just standing there next to something so much bigger, something that people didn't have anything to do with. After taking five million pictures on the top, we started to work our way down to the valley. The paths were steep and dusty so I really didn't have time to check the views while walking, I just remember how the path looked like and what color was the sand..

    We were warned that the hike might be really exhausting because of the heat combined with the steep paths. Well when we walked down, it went fast and of course it wasn't hard or exhausting! At that time we all were still making our happy hike with a big smile on our faces enjoying the views. Our destination was to make it to the first ”trail stop”, where we then took some more pictures (like we didn't have those enough already) and then we started the HARDEST part of the hike...Going back up.

     Now all the meters you walked down felt 5 times longer, and after the 10 minute walk downhill, the same distance took at least 30 minutes. Definitely one of the hardest and coolest experiences I've ever had. We all got back up safely and now we can proudly say we hiked in Grand Canyon.

     After the hike we all were starving, so we went to have lunch together into this small town close to Grand Canyon. After eating we saw an Imax movie about Grand Canyon. We all were so exhausted because of the hike, so 90% of us just fell a sleep during the movie. I stayed awake pretty long so I can say it was a well made movie!

    We came back to our hotel after lunch, and had free time couple hours before taking off again. There was a small village near by our hotel that we drove into. Before having our amazing dinner we saw a gun show presented by traditional cowboys. It was fun and so AMERICAN, although the gunshots were way too loud!

     With our bellies full, we headed back to our hotel for dessert. For me, the Grand Canyon was the most amazing national park I've ever visited in.

    Hiking in there is also thing you have to experience at least once in your life. Next post coming up soon!

Susa Palviala

 Finland

(Cass City, Michigan)