07th of October - the legendary day our amazing trip started
7 o'clock in the morning - the legendary time our group met at the airport in Frankfurt
9:30 am - the legendary moment when our plane left the German ground to fly over to San Francisco
3 pm (American time) - our adventure begins! We've just landed at San Francisco International Airport.
On top of that, we were quite lucky because our plane made some kind of circles over San Francisco cause of the Flight Week, and so we were able to watch the beautiful area from each side (:
However, we felt really relieved when we finally arrived in California! Breathing American air now - so exciting! :D
After having passed all the steps at the airport, we now could get our first impressions of San Francisco. First thing we were recognizing: It was hot! The temperature was much higher than in Germany and the palm trees outside the airport immediatly created a 'holiday atmosphere'!
In the afternoon we finally arrived in the lobby of 'Holiday Inn Express'. A hard day - but our program waits for us :D So the first thing we did in San Francisco was of course taking pictures! We walked along Pier 39 and we were like photographing everything! Here are just a few impressions:
little beach at Pier 39 (:
In the evening, we went to Hard Rock Café and ate our first 'real American' meal!
Each day which followed was even more exciting than the other one! We had a huge program, sooo many things to do and to see! Our general impression: In America, everything is bigger, brighter and most extraordinary :D
So, I'll now show you some pictures of the three days we passed in our hotel in San Francisco:
San Francisco from above - a wonderful view! Its beautiful skyline, the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and the coast, this is what you can see from Coit Tower:
After our little excursion we had some freetime at Pier 39 to explore the area and to have a closer look into the little shops (:
There were many cool restaurants, candy shops and so on, but Boudin Bakery was one of the most impressive ones: They bake bread in all kind of forms, mainly animals
Later in the afternoon, there was another group meeting for our tour to Alcatraz! Alcatraz is an island in the Pacific, not far away from SF's coast. In former times it was was used as a prison, now it is a museum for visitors like us - but in fact, it hasn't been transformed so that the atmosphere is still authentic.
And that is really the case - with an audio guide you listen to all the noise and voices which were created by the convicts. Because we had booked the night tour, walking through the corridors and into the cells while listening to those noices was sometimes real creepy!
The day after this new experience for us started with another big trip!
The final visit of the Golden Gate Bridge!!!
Soooo exciting! :D
Early in the morning we left the hotel, there were a couple of things planned for this day. Good weather always accompanied us
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| group picture! :D |
Just after this great event we went on to Muir Woods National Parc. It was really beautiful and it felt good to spend some time in nature where everything around you is calm
Getting "home" now. Chilling in the bus. Letting the memories pass through our mind.
In the evening: program continues - at our lovely Pier 39 (: Our group visits the "Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum" - a very funny building where you can walk through and discover many crazy things, read surprising facts and try out things on your own!
Unfortunately, we couldn't really take many pictures of it, for example of the Mirror Maze, you can better experience it :)
Finally, we let this spectacular day come to an end with an extraordinary meal at an extraordinary place: Rainforest Café!
It's a café which is built up like a jungle - you can see plants everywhere, from the bottom up to the ceiling, little waterfalls, huge plastic gorillas making sounds, and everything else you can imagine in a jungle :D
Even the meals on the menu have suitable names - and they taste really good!
Great event on our next day: Shopping in the USA! A dream comes true!
By Cablecar, we drive to Union Square where you can find every famous American store (:
But of course, this pleasure also has an end - we went on and after a short visit at Cable Car Museum we took a walk in Chinatown:
Very sad - in the evening we spend our last evening at Pier 39 :( It had already become one of our favourite places and at that moment we felt that we'll miss the location and the unique atmosphere a lot!
So why not enjoying the last hours at lovely Pier 39, strolling through some stores and breathing sea air?
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| Ghirardelli Square (: - best chocolate in town! |
last picture at the pier:
The next day, before we moved into our second hotel, we made a "Ride the Ducks" tour :)
This was real fun! Our group sat in a amphibian vehicle - we first drove in and around the city and then we went into the water. Our driver was cool, he always told us special details and insiders to the places we could see. The greatest thing was that on this day, there was a baseball match of the SF Giants and we just passed the huge AT&T parc - well, acutally we could see it from the water :D
During the trip we kept singing all the time, everyone was in a good mood, especially our bus driver! He always made jokes and we had to laugh a lot. On top of that we made a big noise - everyone of our group got some kind of yellow"duck bill", so we croaked and croaked and had fun :D
So, after this, well "special trip" we finally moved into our next hotel, typical American, in the nice village called Redwood City :)
Of coooourse first thing we had to do was testing the pool in our hotel :D
Here's a picture showing our pool - unfortunately we don't have a photo showing our faces when we were recognizing that the water was freaking cold!
The next day started with our second shopping tour - "Gilroy Outlet Center - attention, here we coooome!"
Hundreds of stores waited for us to attack and empty them, what a dream :)On our way we passed the famous facebook sign:
After that another great event followed - we met some guys of our American exchange group! My exchange partner Zoe was also with us and you cannot imagine how happy I felt to see her again after having spend a wonderful week in Germany with her! My eyes were filled with tears and I couldn't believe this was real.
We met each other at the cinema in Redwood City - despite the happy reunion the film we watched was really bad... however, we had a lot of things to talk about and enjoyed our German-English-discussions!
We love talking like this - mostly in English, sometimes one or two phrases in German, or even creating "Denglisch" (that would be the word for "Genglish") words :D
At the end of the day Zoe had to leave, but I knew I would see her again soon. So the next day our group went on another trip - along Highway 1!
First stop: Monterey Bay Aquarium
In my opinion: the absolutely best aquarium I've ever been to! Fantastic!
Here are just some impressions:
The day went on even better - on our trip we stopped at Monterey Beach. Now I can say that this is really one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen!
Next stop: Camel Beach, also one of our favourites! ;)
Swimming at Camel Beach - really recommendable and not tooo cold :D
Our "beachy" day ends - of course - at the seaside! :b
Wonderful sunset at Santa Cruz:
Believe me - this was without any doubt one of the greatest days in California, but that night, we were so tired that we almost fell into out beds!
In any case, those memories will definitely last
With a new day comes a new chance? Nooooo, with a new day comes a new location! It's time for Sequoia High School in Redwood City and our hostfamilies!!!
Since that day, we had stayed with our American partners for one week and we were soooo soo glad to finally spend some time with them!
On this first day we had some time off to get to know our hostfamily better. Zoe - this is my 'hostsister', 16 years old, and I went to a Carrie Underwood Concert at night after spending the afternoon at her house, talking and smiling all the time :)
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| soo enjoyable! |
The next morning: School!
Normal reaction would have been: Oh noooo! :o
My reaction on this day: Yay, can't wait! So excited!
I was so nervous to see Zoe's school from inside - I always wondered if it would be like a typical American school - and yes, it was :) The corridors with the lockers on the side, the posters on the walls, a cheerleader team - I felt like I was beamed into an American movie.
Of course this was only my first impression - lessons weren't so dreamlike as everything else appeared. However it was interesting to try it out and to compare it to our school system in Germany. |
| the corridor |
There was a so-called German Room where everyone of us could always go to and work with the group. We made presentations, created timelines, drew posters, and so on. Every day in the 7th lesson, there was a TOK course where we had a lot of disussions and good topics to talk about! :)
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| we love you too! and we miss you TOK ♥ - the following post will be uploaded tomorrow! (: unfortunately it didn't fit in all together - |
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