Weekend #5: One Month In!

Crazy to think that one month ago from yesterday, my flight landed in Honolulu and this crazy journey finally began.  I said goodbye to my parents at the airport and walked toward me gate.  I remember it like it was a few hours ago.  One whole month of paradise.  That's one month I've been away from all my family, friends, and home.  And my dog!



Presh.

Of course I miss everyone a tremendous amount.  I feel like I've been here forever but at the same time I don't think I've done enough island things to be here a month.  School and a lack of reliable transportation makes things a little difficult.  But I still have three months to go and lots to do!

Oh this weekend.... 'twas more eventful than last, to say the least.

Friday Kelsey and I went for a run from our apartment to Waikiki, a 3.3 mile trek.  It wasn't too bad and we made better time than if we had taken the bus.  So now I know that's an option if that amount of ambition ever swept me into my running shoes.  We collapsed into the waves of the ocean once we got there, and it was blissful.

Then we bused back, but not before looking into a tattoo parlor that has a really good reputation on the island (and the internet).  I think all of my roommates and I have shown interest in getting tattoos at the end of the semester which will be really cool if we got them at the same time.  I have wanted another tattoo for some time now.  Even before I even thought about coming to Hawaii for a semester I was wanting a traditional polynesian tattoo of a sea turtle with a hibiscus flower inside it.  Like this:

That's the general idea.  So I'm pretty stoked about that.  We might go make appointments sometime this week for the middle of December right before we leave.

Friday night all the roommates and a guy Blaine from our program went to this nightclub in downtown Waikiki called Zanzabar.  It's free for UHM students on Friday nights, so we figured we'd check it out.  It turned out to be really fun!  It reminded me of the clubs back on campus at Illinois.  We were there for about an hour and then got a cab back to campus for like $2 a person so that was a really good deal.

Saturday I had aquarium class in the morning.  I was so tired from the night before that I almost fell asleep.  Whoops!  When I got back I tried to get some studying done for an exam I had Monday, but I took a 2-hour nap instead =/

Later a big group of us went to the Rainbow Wahine volleyball game against Pepperdine.  After the game, the set of Hawaii 5-0 was there to tape a scene for the show, and they needed the crowd to stay for some of the shots.  The real team couldn't be on the show (probably NCAA rules or something), so they had a mock team come in to play.  They were definitely not as good.  It made me want to go out there and play.  I miss volleyball so much.

That night we went to Rob (one of the RA's) room and watched movies until literally 5:30 in the morning.  Then Janelle and I came back to the room and stayed up until 7.  We finally crashed and slept a few hours before going about our Sunday activities, which consisted of switching between studying and napping.

Altogether a successful weekend, and I can't wait for another great one next weekend!  Besides the fact that the lovely Kelsey will be gone on a geology trip to the Big Island to look at volcanoes.  What a rock geek.  But I love her.  Crazy week ahead of me; I have so much to do.  Better get started studying.... and stuff.

Aloha!