Fall 2014 Recap 6: The Final One!

So by now, you're probably sick of reading about my fall semester, and we're starting the spring semester! Time flies, doesn't it? Here is my very LAST post about Fall 2014, I promise. Anyway, I ran out of themes for my posts, so here is an assortment of photos of the random things I did this semester.

I saw the cast of Hawaii Five-0!!!! They were filming right here on Fort Street Mall. I walked out of class and BAM - celebrities. Pretty cool! That was one of my goals for my time here.

 I ate my first fresh coconut! We have coconut trees in our yard, and you have to cut the coconuts down or they can actually be very dangerous! They're huge - that box is really big!

I survived a "hurricane." Everyone FREAKED OUT and bought all the food & water on the island. It all amounted to a rainy, windy day off. The boys decided that buying enough pizza to feed the entire army was the best (and most economically practical) way to prepare for a hurricane. We had pizza for days!

 I went to a luau and ate delicious food. So much food. We went to the luau at the Hale Koa Hotel in Waikiki. "Hale Koa" means "house of the warrior" in Hawaiian. It's the military hotel here.

My pictures are awful but the luau was SO. COOL.They performed dances from all over the Polynesian world. I was amazed, honestly. It was so much fun.

We went to the luau for my 24th birthday. Not a bad way to ring in a new year of life! Obviously, for a luau, we had to wear our best Aloha gear!

We had dinner at the Oceanarium, which is this restaurant/aquarium where you get to eat with the fish! While eating... fish... They also have a mermaid! Our waiter was from Mexico and we became best friends once I told him I spoke Spanish. 

I gave my first "AL Talk." Applied Linguistics (AL) Talks are professional development events from the department. They happen every other Friday. Sometimes professors give them, sometimes guests give them, and sometimes students give them. I got to give this one, along with 2 of my classmates, about the language teaching jobs we had this summer.

I rescued a cat! Jack here was a neighborhood stray who was always very friendly. One day I came home to find him limping. We took him to the vet and got him fixed up, and it turned out he had a microchip. His mama was tracked down and we discovered that Jack had been missing for almost TWO YEARS (pretty crazy for a 3 year old cat!). His mama had moved to Virginia in that time. She was so grateful he was found, and he flew home to her that weekend. After so long, they got their happy reunion just in time for a Christmas - how's that for a miracle?

Fall 2014 Recap Part 5: The Fisher House Hero & Remembrance Run, Walk, or Roll

The first weekend in September, we did the Fisher House Hero & Remembrance Run, Walk, or Roll on Ford Island. The event is all volunteer-run, and it's to remember the members of our Armed Forces who have been lost in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It's an 8k route, and all along the route are boots - one boot for every person lost. There are so many boots. It was such a nice event, but also so emotional. It was so strange and sad to think that for every boot, a person had died. Each boot had a picture of the person with their name, branch of service, and the date they died. Walking with so many people in the military, it was especially sad to see the people I knew looking for friends they had lost. To me, the people on the boots were strangers, but to some people there, they were friends or brothers or sisters or fathers or mothers. It broke my heart. One boot (pictured to the left) honored one of the heroes depicted in the movie Lone Survivor. (If you saw that movie and didn't cry, how?!)  At the last straightaway, I started to look more closely at the boots, and suddenly I couldn't stop crying. Some boots were tied together - people who had died together. One pair was tied together but had different dates; then I realized they were brothers. The poor parents. Most of the photos were from military IDs, but some were personal photos. One of a soldier with his newborn baby. One of a soldier with his dog. Neither of them would ever understand why their soldier never came home. Some of the boots had been decorated with leis or other offerings. Someone set a beer next to one boot, sharing a drink with a lost friend. One widow had left a letter for her husband. I cried so hard I couldn't read it. A little boy walked with a shirt honoring his father. From the Ford Island bridge, you can see Pearl Harbor. It was almost overwhelming how much loss was represented there that day. It was a heavy reminder that the people who are fighting our wars are not statistics or faceless strangers. They are real people, and they leave real loved ones behind when they go off to fight.

Fall 2014 Recap Part 4: Some pretty Hawaii views :)

One of my favorite things about Hawaii is the VIEWS. So here are some of my favorite views from this fall. Please note that, once again, my little smartphone camera doesn't do anything justice.

This is actually the view from our back balcony one Monday morning around 6 AM. I hate Mondays as much as the next person, but this made getting up a little easier.

This is the view from Tantalus Lookout. You have to drive up a VERY winding road to get there (I thought we were going to die a few times), but the view from the top is amazing.

 Sea cliffs out by Koko Head, on the way to Hanauma Bay. Hanauma Bay is a GREAT view too, and SO MUCH FUN, but I didn't get any pictures of it. If you like to snorkel, GO TO HANAUMA BAY. If you've never snorkeled, GO TO HANAUMA BAY. I've never seen so many fish in my life. My favorite was this HUGE parrot fish. So beautiful.

The view from Nu'uanu Pali lookout. You can't tell from the photo, but it was just about the windiest place I've ever been! I thought I was going to blow off the cliff! Nu'uanu Pali is the site of a very bloody battle in which Kamehameha I conquered Oahu. The pass used to be the only connection between windward Oahu and Honolulu and it was really dangerous and tough! There are ghost stories about the old highway today, and according to Hawaiian folklore you can't carry pork over the Nu'uanu Pali, especially at night. Allegedly, if you have pork in your car when you drive over it, your car will stop. This is because the goddess Pele didn't want Kamapua'a, a half-human, half-hog god with whom she didn't get along, crossing into her territory. For better photos, Google Nu'uana Pali!

This is the view of downtown Honolulu from the Aloha Tower, which is actually right down the road from HPU! We visited on a day with strange weather, and were lucky enough to catch a double rainbow. The second one if faintly visible at the top, see?





Well, I hope you've enjoyed my snaps of just a very few of the great Hawaiian views I got to see during the Fall 2014 semester! What's your favorite view in Hawaii?

Fall 2014 Recap Part 3: Camping & Hiking

If you like to hike or camp, Hawaii is a great place to do it! Also if you like to hike and camp, you should date my boyfriend. (Just kidding, he's mine!) 

This fall, Devin dragged brought me on the longest backpacking trip I've ever done - 20 miles round trip. To say that I was sore and blistered afterwards is an understatement. (Remember when I said I would never run a marathon? Yeah.) But it was worth it! We camped for a night in the middle of nowhere and had silence, incredible views of the ocean, the mountains and valleys of Oahu's North Shore, and the STARS. My photos don't do it justice, but wow.

Waialua and Haleiwa.

The view from our little campsite.

SO BLUE.

I never get tired of looking at the Pacific Ocean from the top of a mountain, honestly.

Our little campsite in the morning.

You can't tell in this photo, but I was sore, sweaty, and covered in blisters.

Like I said, if you like to hike, Hawaii is a great place to do it. There are SO many hikes, even just on Oahu!