Upon Arrival

My mom, dad, and I left our house a little after five in the morning, just to give us ample time so I wouldn't freak out about being late.  Our flight was at eleven so we made it in plenty of time.  We waited for Tawni and her parents to get there, then we said our goodbyes at security, and left our parents for FOUR MONTHS.  I was a little sad, but more wanting to make sure we found our gate and thinking about the long flight ahead of us.  I didn't even cry when I left my parents.  Sorry, guys =[

We got into Phoenix around 12:30-ish maybe.  We had an hour before our next flight so we found our gate (rather easily) and got some food before we boarded.

So the flight was really long.  Like REALLY long.  It wasn't too bad going from O'Hare to Phoenix, but from there to Honolulu was incredibly long and would have been dull if it weren't for meeting a super nice girl in my program on the flight and befriending her and the two guys she sat next to.  It was like a 6+ hour flight with not too much to do.  Tawni couldn't even paint her nails.  Sorry, flight attendant.

The flight was also really cold.  I guess that's what I get for boarding wearing shorts and a tank top without a sweatshirt in my carry-on.  That sucked a bit.

Flying over the ocean wasn't as bad or scary as I thought it was going to be.  With my mind on the final destination slash my frostbitten toes I almost  forgot about the vast water beneath us.

Arriving in Honolulu was really cool.  One of the guys said the view wasn't going to be very spectacular - but he was wrong.  You could see the mountains and the beaches and everything.  Incredible.

We got there around 5:30-ish Hawaii time.  Once we got off the airplane, there wasn't a lady in a hula skirt handing out leis to everyone like I sort of expected there to be.  I saw a few people with leis but nobody passing them out, which was kind of lame.

The wonderful Shane met Tawni and I at baggage claim and drove us back to his house in Trixie the tahoe.  He even brought both of us our very own leis!  It was super cute.  No matter where you drive on the island,  you always get a beautiful view.  Tawni and I were completely amazed at how  gorgeous everything was.  We stopped at the beach for a few minutes just because we could.  I don't think going to the beach will ever get old.

We got to his house and met his roommates Nick and Zach.  Then we went for a nice 2-mile night run just because.  We came back and made spaghetti and had a nice family meal.  We finally crashed around midnight (Hawaii time).

And that was day one.  I can't wait to see what all these four months are going to bring.

Aloha!