I might mess around and get my college degree....

So I'm assuming that the only reason people read my blog is because they get to hear about how awesome Hawaii is. Well folks...it's still awesome. I've been trying to appreciate it more lately. The past few days I've started waking up early and going to watch the sunrise on the beach I usually go get in the water because hey, why not? Then I usually read for a little bit trying to get a little bit of sun before I go back for my 8:40 class. Here is the result:

Alyssa got her wisdom teeth out the other day so we've gone down to Kaneohe a few times for the procedure/follow up visits. And man, honestly nothing beats driving around the island on the coast looking at the blue water and jammmin to island music. It is excellent. Here are some other Hawaiian things:


I found this little hut constructed on Temple Beach (yes, that's right...it's a on the street where you can see the temple from the beach and the beach from the temple....paradise on both ends of the road)


I found this little table on the same beach. Again, NO idea where it came from. But I thought it was funny. This may be where I start doing my schoolwork....


Evidently this is a rule at my school. However, it must be the least followed, least enforced rule. Because I usually don't wear shoes in public places.


This picture was taken in the caf at lunch. I believe this was after the asians said I looked like spongebob, then asked me to hold my hair out of the way so that they could give me a restitution massage. The fork was also vital, probably.


Sometimes we play basketball with a volleyball and a hamper. Actually mostly Irish just plays because it's the only net she can reach. And I just sit on my bed laughing at her.

And that is my life.

[Title from The Lazy Song by Bruno Mars]

Salty skin

Remember that post that I lost? Wellllll I found it! Here it is:

It's December! [POST EDIT: It is NOT December. Don't be confused. It is January.] Hooray. I love love love Christmas. And I'm so very excited to see my family! I just went to the Christmas Devotional and it made me a little sad that I was coming home to my dorm instead of my real home. But I will see them soon! And I am very grateful for my Tongan friends that treat me as family. I went to dinner and the devotional with them, and it makes me so happy to be around them. They are so fun, so loving, so giving, and such a Christlike people. I am glad to have them surrounding me and treating me as their own, even though I'm a palangi and my Tongan is poor, at best. I also appreciate the elderly Tongan ladies who cook for us and try to find me a husband :)

I really have nothing to be sad about-- yesterday Alyssa and I had another family-setting meal. We went with our friend to his family's house. His family is from Niue, a tiny tiny island just outside the Polynesian triangle, which is another country I'd never heard of until moving here. We had to walk down the beach to get to their house (hello, paradise) and Alyssa and I took the opportunity to take pictures while our friend helped prepare the food.





We got there and they were pulling the food out of the imu (which is basically just a hole in the ground that islanders use to cook food)


This is the delicious food:


I ate a lot of it.

After we'd stuffed ourselves we headed back to the beach to take some more cool pictures and try to get as brown as the people we'd just hung out with. (It didn't work)



Isn't she beautiful??

[Title from Misery by Maroon 5]

You want the world, I'll give you mine

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day civil rights day. Evidently they changed the name because it was offensive...? Anyway. No school today! So we hitch hiked up to Waimea. There were about eight of us so we split up into groups. Makara, Mary and I went together (we didn't want boys ruining our chances of getting picked up). We'd been sitting on the side of the road for about three minutes when a truck pulled up and turned out to be some guys that we knew from school.


(Makara doesn't like to open her eyes in pictures)

It was a beautiful, sunny day which was a nice change from the European-style overcast/cold days we'd been having. The water sucked though! Waimea is usually beautiful--the water's usually calm, clear, and blue:


But the water was dark and choppy today and the undercurrent was so bad that the swimming was prohibited. That didn't stop most of our group from going in the water, of course. We played frisbee and volleyball. Only one guy got sand kicked in his face and we only encountered two topless women. Good beach day in the end. As we hitch hiked back in our groups we were picked up by another two guys from our school. Pretty convenient :) I love being in Hawaii. I love that my hair's always tangled from the ocean and that there's always a layer of sand on my floor and some in the keys of my phone and that my beach towel never dries and that my feet are perpetually sore from walking on hot sand/asphalt without shoes and that I always have a little redness from being in the sun and how my skin always feels weird from salt water drying on it. :)

Also today I got these pictures from a flight attendant that I totally forgot about! When I was on the plane to Hawaii a couple weeks ago I met Jewel Van Valin of Plane Art who is the sweetest flight attendant ever! She started this project right after September 11th when people were stressed out when flying. She gave them a crayon and a napkin and had them draw pictures. I think it's a darling idea! You can read more about it in the LA Times. Anyway, she sent me the pictures she took.


The lady I was sitting next to was a Delta flight attendant going home for her time off and she had some really interesting stories to share! We were sitting in the exit row opposite the jump seats, so the on duty flight attendants mostly just sat and talked to us the whole time. There were 13 dead heading flight attendants flying in first class to Hawaii to accompany some army on the base here to Arizona for a convention or something. They told me such cool stories about the places they've been and the people they've had the chance to work for! I think it would be a sweet job! One flight attendant started talking about pop culture and (even though she was at least twice my age) started singing some of the popular songs for me (i.e., Whip My Hair by Will Smith's daughter...complete with dance action...what?!). It was a very entertaining flight, and the seven hours went by quickly.

[Title from Last Chance by Maroon 5]

Kick it into gear when I see that face

So I spent Christmas in Jerusalem. I may or may not write more on that later. But as of now I'm back in Hawaii, and it's beautiful as ever. I'm really mourning the loss of my camera. I took it snorkeling and apparently the battery compartment wasn't completely shut :( so here are the last few pictures/events:

-cooking with Asians:





Okay just kidding that's all the pictures for today because Blogger is wiggin' out. Hmm. Anyway. Last night I went to play Ultimate Frisbee with Makara and some other guys. I'm pretty terrible at it, as I am with most sports except soccer. But it was fun running around barefoot in the mud tackling people (which is not part of the game, by the way). Afterwards, since it was dark and we were hot, we ran and jumped in the ocean with minimal clothing on :) Then, of course, we were cold so we went back to her house and got in the hot tub on the back porch overlooking the ocean. We sat there getting raisin-y and talking about boys. Love this life! Today I went to the beach with a senior missionary couple that teaches surfing classes every Saturday. My surfing is getting better but my tan is definitely improving faster than my surfing skills. I mostly hung out in the water with Abbie and Kealani who are 10 and 8, respectively. They're darling little brown children that I used to work with, and they told me that I should join their family or try to bring mine here. Not a bad idea at all.

This past week was the first week of classes for me, and I think this is going to be my favorite semester so far. I like my classes/teachers, and the homework is...manageable. I'm genuinely interested in the classes I'm taking this semester, so it will be manageable. I'm actually excited for school for the first time since, oh...kindergarten. Hopefully it lasts!

[Title from Love Like Woe by The Ready Set]