East Coast 2014 ends today!

WEST and EAST COAST 2014 Trips are ending today! Wow! We had amazing trips this year! Lots of fun together on the road and on the most famous cities from each coast! We would like to thank Rotary International, Chairmen and Inbound Coordinators, Families and Host Families, also our coordinators, guides, drivers and suppliers! Thanks for all the support!
Our special thanks to you Exchange Student! Thanks for traveling with Terra North America - we do hope you enjoyed this trip so much as we did! Thanks! :)

Terra North America Staff

June 24th - Day 14

Today is June 24th.We all sad!! Why? Because the best trip almost over!!!
But I know everyone has lots of fun today.We went to The Independence hall and get to know lots of new things.For lunch my group have a vietnameese noodles. Seriously super good! We gonna head back to the hotel. Probably has some free time at the pool. I guess we having a goodbye East coast party tonight. Hope there is Pizza. I love food OMG!!

Written by Ze-Bra (mp_zea@hotmail.com)!

June 22nd - Day 12

Third day in New-York
After a good night of sleep, we headed back to the city that never sleeps to discover one of the most beautiful views of N-Y. The top of the Rock gives an extraordinary view of Central Park from one side and huge sky scrapers from the other. It is the place to go if you want to be breath taken and admire the city from the top. Cameras are very welcome up there to create magical memories like we did.
When the visit of the Rock was over, all the exchange students had some free time to enjoy and discover other sides of the city. Some of us went shopping while others decided to explore some museums such as the MET , the Guggenheim and the MOMA or visiting famous places like the 5th avenue, Central Park, the Grand Central Station or Time Square.
The afternoon was completed with the Broadway show Cinderella, a wonderful adaptation of the well-known fairy tale with a touch of modernity around the second part of the play that totally refreshes the story. The entire exchange group, I think, enjoyed the show and was pleased to discover Broadway’s exiting world.
After some free time in Time Square and a delicious meal in a pizzeria, we suddenly became celebrities. In fact, we had the privilege to ride two gigantic limo’s around the Big Apple like superstars. We surely had a great time all together, creating new memories and friends singing the same songs and dancing.
Once we all got dropped of downtown, the excitement was in the air. Indeed, we had great plans for the night…We were all going to throw a flash mob in the middle of Time Square on the music Wobble. A little bit nervous but ready to have a good time, all the exchange students started dancing and were even joined by some people that were in the mood to celebrate this trip with us! We surely are a great group and we recognized that night how awesome this trip is and how much we do not want to go home.
We left that night the city with a bittersweet taste but we all will remember how magical these three days in N-Y were.

 

Written by Marie Schyns!

New York Photos!

June 20th - Day 10

Early in the morning we departed from the hotel and so we were on our way to New York City. Sleepy but excited we were looking forward to the city that never sleeps. We stopped by a cute little town where Yale University is located and enjoyed the awesome atmosphere and food.
Following a long bus ride to New York City , we got the amazing opportunity to visit the UN aka the United Nations. The nice south Korean ,now on we were only overwhelmed. The tour girl was from South Korea and Sumin got really excited.
The tour was sooooooo nice.We saw a street dance group dancing and afterwards we went to the famous Central Park and 5th ave. Yeeeaahh Babeee
Shopping was not that successful but we got a pic with hot and freaking good smelling Abercrombie model. Yeah.
Our dinner was near by the Columbus circle so it was amazing too

WOW I’M IN THE NEW YORK CITY BABY
WATCH OUT HAHAHA

 

Written by Maie Wist!

June 19th - Day 9

The ninth day!
Today we had a pretty early breakfast that filled up our stomachs and got ready for the tour of Harvard university, one of the ivy league university and well known for the law school. Our guide was really funny and talkative, she is going to be senior next year and would like to continue study in medical school. She showed us around the campus, told us about how and why those building were built. I’ve known 2 of the biggest lies, one is it was not built by John Harvard.
The second lie is the statue that people believes to be John Harvard was not him either but it is called John Harvard statue. After that we had a lunch at Zoey's. We had an amazing experience that after noon with the duck tour. The vehicle was a mixed of a boat and a car, I guess that’s why they called it duck because it can both drive on land or water. Some of us got to drive the duck too. After an exciting tour we had a free time about 3 hours to walk around , shopping, have dinner and explore the city of Boston. Then we went back to the hotel and rested to get ready for next day.

 

Written by Pasawit Srisiri!

June 18th - Day 8

June 18th was a great day and we had a lot of fun. We traveled from Niagara Falls to Boston and also celebrated my "golden birthday"(18th years on the 18th) and it was awesome to spend it with these people.
After we woke up and had breakfast, the bus was packed and we left towards Albany, NY, and Boston. In New York state capital we had free time for lunch and fast visits. In that time, my group and I had greek food from a food truck (good and cheap food) and asked locals for places to go, so we ended up at an observatory up in the tallest building of the city. After that, the entire bus had a tour at the State Capitol, which was an old and pretty construction.
Afterwards, bus towards Boston! On the way there were birthday songs in several languages which was pretty cool. And also speeches to know more about people and I was the first one as it was my birthday.
After a long but still really fun ride, we got to the hotel in Boston, which turned to be one of my favorite cities in the US.

 

Written by Gabriel Moreira de Castro!

June 17th - Day 7

Today we had the honor to see the beautiful Niagara Falls.
The first surprise after the arrival was, that we all (except the Canadians) got the message that we are now in Canada. At least we had free wi-fi.
For me, Inken, was it the best but also kind of the worst day of the entire trip yet.
We got the ride with The Maid of the Mist, a boat that goes around the Niagara Falls. You got really wet in the front, I would prefer not to wear any make up and it’s also not the best moment to take pictures with your camera. Just don’t care about how you look because it will get hidden behind super “attractive” ponchos – blue ones for the Americans, pink for the Canadians.

Another tip is also to wear sunglasses because I wasn’t able to open my eyes for a couple minutes with all the water. But at the time I could see something it really made everything else worth it.

 

Afterwards we were going up some stairs to get closer to the falls and you honestly get wet to your underwear.
Finally we got lunch, sandwiches, with the Niagara Falls in the background, as if you couldn’t get a better place to eat.

 

We noticed that the birds around us came really close when we feat them with bread and they would even eat out of our hands.

A few people, me including, decided to just lie down in the grass and enjoy the sun and all the nature around us. Might sound good but that made my day worse than it should’ve been. I got the worst sunburn in my life. Okay it’s also my first sunburn but that doesn’t matter. Now I have a nice pattern on my back.
But that didn’t ruin my whole day because I got to go to one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.

 

After we left we had a chance to get our clothes washed and watch the soccer game South Korea against Russia.
We ate some pizza and noodles for dinner, the pizza was really good for the taste of the Europeans because it almost tasted like ours.
At our hotel were the guys playing some soccer and later on we practiced a dance for an upcoming day. Some people struggled but at all we did a good job and I have the feeling the time will be as great as the day today.
Best coast? East Coast!

Written by Inken Maria Michael!

Some news from the trip!

Today is day 6 of the trip and we have been enjoying so much so far! Exchange students visited the most important and famous monuments and landmarks in Washington DC, including Lincoln Memorial, the White House, the Library of Congress, Washington Monument and many many more! It was time for some interesting facts about American history and to recognize famous places and landmarks already seen on movies and TV series!

Yesterday, we all enjoyed a lot Six Flags America (on our way to Baltimore)! The park features the most exciting rides and a water park - students loved it!
We're heading today to Niagara Falls - more adventures ahead! Keep tuned!

 

 

June 15th - Day 5

Day 5 - SixFlags
Woke up for an early breakfast at 7:30AM then left Washington and headed to the Sixflags theme/waterpark. We got in at 10 and most of us were able to get on most of the big roller coasters. The Superman ride was so scary I almost made a mess in my pants. On the second half of the day we went to the water park side of the park. It felt great to have a sweet swim and all us students met up and played in the wave pool. Every one was super high on life and it was an amazing atmosphere. A large majority of us went on a slide where the floor would fall out from underneath and you would slide almost vertically for a bit then slide out. We then left the park just after 6 and were all as tired as a farmer after shearing 120 sheep. We headed to a restaurant called Chili's for dinner then back to the hotel. We all had a fun day and we are all very lucky to have a great group of students and chaperones to share this adventure with. Thanks for reading. Check out our next blog dropping tomorrow.

Written by Cullum and Rene!

June 14th - Day 4

Sup world? Today 14th of June we went to the Capitol building, sounds boring (well kinda, just the video part, I will confess that I almost sleep hahaha), but after that we had a really cool guide that make history not to be boring as much and show us one of the most important building of US, the Capitol. After that we had the pleasure to go to the library of the congress , that was nice, the art there men I'm telling ya, you should check it out.YEAHH BABE! A lot of pictures of course (exchange students without pictures are not Exchange students). Lunch that day was in the American Museum, and after that we had free time (YEAHH let's go to Virginia, not really ). I choose to go to the Holocaust Museum, was a life experience if you have a chance to go some day you should go, the shoes of the kids were impressive. More free time in DC, everything that we asked for hahaah, and... HARD ROCK CAFE for dinner , my first time there! I got a chance to dance afterwords, nothing like the dance clubs back home, but we get what we get. AND, TURN DOWN FOR WHAT, RIGHT? Keep following us, our adventure just begin !

 

Written by Gabi Cavassana!

June 13th - Day 3

Friday, June 13 Some people said it's a bad day of the month why I'm saying that? Well it's Friday 13, you know? But ... for me it's the best day and again why is that? My answer is ... it's MY BIRTHDAY. Well, we out of topic the point is what we did on June 13 this year... First, we had breakfast at the hotel then we left for the Postal museum which I got a lot of free stamps also the postcard. Everyone sang Happy birthday song for me after that. Then wetook off for the largest Catholic church in U.S. It's the most beautiful church that I ever seen, we had lunch at the church. Then we off to the White house but!!!! it started to rain. Well, we still have to follow the schedule so we was walking on the rain to looked at the white house but just outside though. When we got back to the bus the rain stopped. Well... I thought we had the really bad luck but anyway, next we went to the Lincoin Memorial that have the biggest statue of Lincoin president also the washingtonmonument that we can see from the Lincoin building, I took a lot of pictures out there, more than that they sang Happy birthday song to me again. They all really made my day I love this guys! We jump into the bus that took us to Korean War monument, Thomas Jefferson statue and Martin Luther statue we walked around fast and got back to the bus that go straight to the Arlington National Cemetery and we saw they showed respect to unknown soldier, really nice but would be better if the rain not started tofalled down. That's the last place that we went for the day we hopped back in the bus and we decided to have dinner from Walmart. Got back to the hotel and started eating, my friends surpriced me by the mini cupcakes that they brought from the store. We hung out in the hotel lobby then all of my friends and chaperones came down and surpriced me again with the same kind of cupcakes! That's so funny but so awesome, I love this day! Thanks for reading! See you next time, have a great day!

 

Written by Chutimon Mamuang (also known as Dow)!

And the trip has started!

East Coast 2014 has started! After a long day of arrivals and our morning orientation on June 12th, we took our first visits at the beautiful Philadelphia City Hall and the Philadelphia Museum of Art - Exchange students make sure to run the front stairs of the Museum as Rocky Balboa did on its film! Re-creating famous movie scenes!
We then headed to Washington D.C.! Not after watching a little of Brazil's Opening Ceremony and World Cup 2014 Game! Brazilian students found out a bowling alley to watch so!
Today, June 13th will be a busy day of visits in Washington! Keep tuned for more news!

 

 

June 12th - Day 2

Philadelphia, one of the most beautiful cities on the East Coast was the beginning of the United States and our trip. Here we are, a group of total strangers who were all excited and nervouse to start our last big adventure togther before we all go back home. After a really long day of flying, the good news shocked us... Our lovely leaders decided to start our first morning together at 6:30 AM.
So everyone made it on time except us two, of course the German girls had to sleep almsot an hour longer than everyone else. But now to the most important part of our day, PHILADELPHIA. It was a day full of history, tall buildings, shopping, china town, public viewing in a bowling center (I mean we couldn't miss the start of the soccer world cup) and lunch at Olive Garden. We ended our day with our first group picture at the top of the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. We couldn't have had a better ending than this. Now we are on our way to Washington D.C. and our alarms are set this time for sure, let's see if Washington D.C can top our first day in Philadelphia.

 

Written by Samira Hoelzl and Maie Wist!

June 11th - Day 1

The first day!
Today everybody arrived, most of us tired but also excited. Everybody got to know each other and the chaperones told us the most important rules. Even at the very first day with only exhausted teenagers and chaperones there was a lot of talking, getting to know each other and having a great time together.
You don't realise how many flights are not working the way they were supposed to until you see it with your own eyes. People got to the hotel from 2 p.m. to 12 p.m. with delayed flights, forgotten luggage, or even terminated flights in one case. At the end of the day everybody was extremely tired because of all the flying and talking, but it still took time to get used to the fact that we were sleeping with one other guy in a king sized bed.

 

Written by Jonathan Junge!