:minimalist
Monday, June 07, 2004
Well, I'm home.
At first, that's all I was going to write. But then I decided to entertain you all with a little more detail.
Long post warning.
The Good
Oahu. Almost everything about Oahu was good. Honolulu is a beautiful city, Waikiki has incredible beaches, the hotel was very clean. Crazy abundance of ABC stores, and therefore good for souvenier shopping. The Polynesian Cultural Center was mostly good. Some very funny Samoans. I don't think I've ever seen so many shirtless guys in my life. !_!
The duck tour, with amphibious vehicles from WWII. And we never actually saw any ducks. But it was pretty fun.
Diamond Head hiking/running. The last flight of stairs is killer. Wow, what an incredible view at the top.
My roommates. Thanks to TF, Liz, and Carmen for being such great roomies. :) :) :)
Walking in the morning at Hilo. Coconut Island :)
Walmart and Costco, Hawaiian style. In particular, Walmart with Branny the second time (when I wasn't asleep on my feet from antihistamines) when we had to walk all over the store before we could finally find Lanacane. And buying other things. :) :) :)
The water. Hawaiian water is very nice.
Mauna Kea. Thin, cold air. Random patches of snow. Yum :) :) :)
Snorkeling in Kona. Amazing how clear the water is. Dolphins and sea turtles. Pretty little fishes.
Hapuna beach seemed nice, even though I didn't even go out onto the sand, much less touch the water. Umm... yeah. For various reasons.
Playing volleyball in Kona with Mike, Jon, and 11 and 12 year old boys and their yellow smiley face volleyball. Too bad we were too lazy to bring our own.
Spending quality time with my classmates. Playing cards until 3 in the morning. Doing cartwheels in the hallways. Taking crazy pictures on the beach. Whoo. Class of 2004 is the greatest.
The Bad
I missed my blog. One week without internet access. How did I do it? o_0
Hilo and Kona weren't as clean as Oahu. The hotel in Hilo was pretty gross. Kona was better, except for the super-slow elevators that smelled like wet dog. That wasn't so great.
Eating unhealthy and not having time to work out at all. Which made me fat and unhealthy. Not a good combination.
The Ugly
Chris Gee having to leave early for his speech thingie.
Missing the people who didn't go, especially Merian and Kathleen.
Bugs. Bugs, bugs, bugs, bugs, bugs. Eek. It all started Tuesday night at the Polynesian Culture Center. And lasted throughout the trip. Bugs, bugs, bugs. I got mosquito bites all over my legs, and a couple on my arms. By Wednesday night, my right ankle was so swollen it was hard to walk. Not very nice. So on Thursday, I limped around the volcanos with Branny. Whoo! Gimperrific. Not so fun. But it was getting better until Saturday night. The swelling/itchiness was mostly gone on Saturday morning. Then as we were going to dinner Saturday night, I suddenly got 5 or 6 new bites. And the all happened at once... it was very strange. I thought I was getting hives. But no, it was just more bugs. Ack. Gnats galore, too. Last night we stayed up until around 3 and accumulated a nice pile of dead gnats. Fun fun. But other than the bugs, everything was generally very, very cool. Too bad the itchiness overshadowed a lot of it, at least for me.
The Funny
Are you from... Japan? Japan, yes!!! TF shaking my ice. Lizzie and the worst shower of her life. Tim's binoculars. The random white guy at Cafe 100 saying "Wait, you guys are Chinese, right? So there's one thing that's confusing me. Why are you speaking English?" The hot game. Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? I'm sure there's a lot more, but I can't quite remember right now.
_____
I had a lot of fun. But it's nice to be home. Home, where the weather stays below 80 degrees. Home, where there is little or no humidity. Home, where the bugs leave me alone. Home, with good food and clean showers. Yum. If I had to visit Hawaii again, I don't think I'd go to the Big Island. I might check out Maui, but I'd be the most eager to go back to Honolulu.
Now, I'm looking forward to going to Baltimore, then New York. Whoo. But I'm pretty sure I'll always love coming back home. Yum.
packing list enclosed bananna 10:13 PM |