wicked

	Long before Dorothy dropped in, two other girls met in the Land of Oz. One, Elphaba, was born with emerald skin, a bright mind, and a fiery temper. The other, Galinda, was beautiful, ambitious, and very popular. How these two unlikely friends end up as the Wicked Witch of the West and Galinda the Good Witch makes up this spellbinding new musical!
Wicked was nominated for many awards, including Tony Awards and Laurence Olivier Awards. The musical won an award for the Best Musical Album, three Tony awards, and many other prizes.

Lena and Nico

universal studios

	Universal Studios Hollywood is one of the oldest and most famous Hollywood movie studios still in use.
35,000 people like to visit the park everyday and most of them really enjoy it!
	Universal Studios is both an adventure park and a sightseeing tour of different movie sets dating back to the 1930s.

Jana and Katie

the getty

	When we arrived, we had to take the Getty Train up to the top of the mountain where the Getty was.
The Getty was huge and beautiful—we had a perfect view of Los Angeles. The Getty was built by Paul G. Getty.
	The Getty was divided into different parts with different topics. We visited exhibits centered around photography, nature, European Masters, and French Rococo furniture! Everything was really interesting and we had lots of fun!

Karolina and Cherelle

magic mountain

Everybody was very impressed by the view of Magic Mountain and a little bit afraid of the big roller coasters. But, everyone wanted to go on every ride.		There were a lot of different kinds of roller coasters. You could sit, stand, lie down, go backwards, and even upside-down!
	One of the most extreme rides was X2. You had to lie down on your back and go down a 90˚ drop. While falling, the seats rotated.

At the end of the day, every one was happy and no one puked.

Fabian and Nicolas

john mayer concert

	On Tuesday, we drove all the way to San Diego (almost to Mexico!) to see John Mayer perform.  We sat on the grass on blankets. The concert started with Colbie Caillat. She was great to hear live!
Then after that, John Mayer came on stage. It was fun to listen to his music. We all liked his songs. He played the guitar amazingly!  After the concert, we drove back to RSM, satisfied and tired.

Catherine and Julia N.

disneyland

	Finally, the trip to Disneyland came. Disneyland is a place where you can travel through all the different Disney movies.
	It’s an experience for people at every age. You can ride some fun roller coasters or learn to draw your own Disney character.
One of the rides at California Adventure was the “Tower of Terror,” where you ride an elevator up to the top of the tower and then free fall.
	Everyday at 9pm, Disneyland does “Remember Dreams Come True Fireworks Spectacular.” It was very impressive and a great finish to our day at Disneyland!

Sarah and Sonja M.

sea world and san diego tour

	On the way to Sea World, everyone talked about the Shamu and Dolphin shows. After seeing the shows, no one was disappointed!
Most people went on the water rides before we left to go to downtown San Diego.
	First, we stopped at Old Town San Diego. We were able to buy souvenirs and look at the historic town!
Our last stop was the Hard Rock Cafe. Everyone ran into the store to get a t-shirt or Hard Rock trinket!

Julia S. and Anna

angels baseball game

	To learn something about Americas favorite sport, we went to a Baseball Game in Anaheim, the home of the L.A. Angels.
	The Angels lost, but it was interesting to witness a great American sport.
	After this amazing game, we knew the basics of baseball. MAKE SOME NOISE!!

Karl and Daniel

beach day

On Thursday afternoon, we went to a beach in San Clemente called T-Street and had a fun day.

	The beach was very nice. We relaxed and tried to get tan, but it was too overcast.
The water was very cold so only some of us tried to ride the boogie boards. The ones who did had a lot of fun!
	After swimming, we were hungry. We bought something to eat at the little snack shack.

Seraphina and Annik

los angeles tour

	Everyone was excited for the trip to LA. On the way to the Walk of Fame, we saw the famous Hollywood sign.
On the Walk of Fame, there were a lot of stars. Winnie the Pooh, Tom Cruise, Bugs Bunny, Alfred Hitchcock, Morgan Freeman, Sandra Bullock, and Eddie Murphy—just to name a few!
	Our next stop was Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.
Our last stop was Venice Beach. It was very relaxing after our exhausting city tour. After this stop, we returned home.

Sina and Sonja J.

bowling

When school was finished on the second day, we went to Arroyo Vista Park and had pizza.

After lunch, we played some games like “Honey I f you love me, just give me a smile.” We all sat in a circle and asked this. Some had to laugh, but some stayed serious. It was a lot of fun! Then we went to the bowling center.

Every group had a bowling lane and played games.

Some groups put the bumpers up to make the game easier. We all enjoyed it very much!

carina and andrea

welcome to the usa party

To kick off our program, we had a party so that the families and
students could get to know each other. We had a classic American cookout,
complete with hamburgers, hot dogs, and lots of dessert!

	We decorated the Park in red, white and blue. Everyone had name tags on and made lots of new friends. Here is Rachel, Mrs. DuMont, and Sina getting their name tags.
We took pictures of all of the students with their host families. Julia N. had two host families, so we took a picture with both!
After dinner, we played soccer, volleyball, and got to know each other!

kat and anna

getting ready for arrival

for a little preview of what is to come, check out the map of our students! we have a total of 22 students, 1 german teacher, and 2 american coordinators. our students are coming from all over germany, all between the ages of 14 and 18. we are so excited for this four-week travel and study program!

...see you in sunny california...

anna