I'm Going Back to School!

Today I received an acceptance letter from the University of Hawaii, granting me admission as a graduate student to start in the Spring 2009 classes. According to the information they sent, looks like classes start on January 12, 2009. I haven't looked at class schedules yet, so I don't know what is going to be available, but I do know I'll be back in the classroom. I haven't yet decided on a set program, but am looking at both Anthropology and Sociology. I'm also interested in their International Cultural Studies Certificate, which would go along with either program.

The next step will be trying to convince them that as far as their residency requirements go, I'm not a resident of any state, and therefor should be granted in-state tuition for Hawaii since I have been here the longest in the last 12 months. Then I'll have to work on the funding issue.

But I'm still excited, some of my waiting has paid off. Now if only I would hear back on one of those government jobs I applied to last week....

Waiting

Seems like there is tons of waiting going on in my life right now. Waiting for someone to respond to my ad on craigslist and buy my car. Waiting to hear from the University of Hawaii. Waiting to get my final scores on the GRE. Waiting for paperwork to come from the VA so I can apply for jobs with veteran's preference. Waiting for October so I can turn in 30 days' notice to my landlord.

And once those are taken care of, there will be more waiting. Waiting for the money from my sold car to get to my bank account. Waiting for classes to start so I can be in school again. And waiting to hear back from the various places I applied to.

No worries here though. I'll just keep pushing forward and dealing with each thing as it comes along.

Koko Crater

Last Sunday I went for a hike in Koko Crater Botanical Gardens. More of a stroll really. It was a 2 mile loop through the crater of what used to be a volcano. The plants in there were very interesting considering the plants I have become accustomed to seeing around Hawaii. Inside the crater was pretty dry, but the plants were neat anyway. The following are some pics I snapped while walking around:
"Bougainvilea Glabra" Not really sure of the common name, but I thought they were pretty. I really liked the color.
Didn't take a picture of the name card for these trees so I don't remember what they are called. But they made me think of a Dr. Seuss book.

Yes, that is a cactus from Mexico. In Hawaii.
Golden Barrel Cactus. You probably don't want to kick one of these.
"Rathbunia Alamosensis" from Western Mexico. A giant tangle of spiky cactus.
"Octopus Agave" Just like the name sounds. Made me think of Red.
"Pachypodium Lamerei" from Madagascar. Yep, this botanical garden has things from all over the world. Which is a bit weird considering they are very strict concerning what you can and cannot bring into the state.
"Crown of Thorns" These had big spiky sticks surrounding the flowers.
View from Pali Lookout. A stop I made on my way home from the beach, which was the stop I made after the hike. Nothing better than a dip in the ocean followed by a great view after a stroll through a crater.
Another shot from the Pali Lookout. There is an old road up there that has been mostly reclaimed by nature but that is still hike-able. That may be my next hike.

Disneyland

I've been meaning to post about my trip to California for a couple of weeks now, but never seem to find myself in front of the computer long enough to get it done. The trip was not as adventure filled as some, but a great trip all the same.Doug and I at a Dodger's game. Of course, I know little about baseball, so there was much explaining coming from him and his Dad.
Looking out over Dodger Stadium from our seats. Of course my camera was no where near me, so I used my cell phone for these two shots.
Waiting in line for the Soar Over California ride. Can you tell I'm excited about being at Disneyland?

At the end of the Buzz Lightyear ride. I should have shot more aliens.
Splash Mountain. At the end of the ride I was soaked, yet he was completely dry...
Arg! (at least I am trying to make a pirate face)
Walt and Mickey

Waiting in line for my favorite ride: Space Mountain. It was our last ride of the day (after 14 hours at Disneyland). It was also the 4th time we went on it.

Those two things were the main highlights of the trip. Now I am ready for more Hawaiian adventures. This may be a tiny island, but there is so much to do here.

Snorkeling

Yesterday I went snorkeling for the first time in Hawaii. That is one of the nice things about living here - if you finish your work early and you end up with a day off, you can go snorkeling.

I went with Doug and friends of his that were visiting from California. We went out to Hanauma Bay, a place that is beautiful from above. Once we tried to get in just to visit the beach, but since it is a nature preserve, visitors are required to watch an educational video meant to help protect the reef and fishes. Since we had no snorkeling gear and we thought we would need to watch the video each time, we decided to wait that day and come back later. Turns out that we only need to watch the video once a year, since we are residents of Hawaii. The video is slightly interesting, but is overshadowed by the excitement of the upcoming adventure of seeing the fishes for yourself.

Once I had the gear I needed I went into the water knowing one thing for sure: this was going to be hard. Not the swimming (I was using a life vest - not so much because I can't swim but because it was recommended, so I could float while watching the sea life below) but the face in the water thing. Water freaks me out. Not sure why, but it is a fear big enough that I am perfectly happy not going in the water over my head. I'll go under the water, but only if I know I can stand back up again. Once I got into water deep enough, I had to convince myself to put my face into the water. Then I had to force myself to keep it there. And what happened? I hyperventilated, for what seemed to be a long time. Breathing started to become a little uncomfortable, but I just kept telling myself that I would get over it and start breathing normally. And eventually I did. I was able to take slower, deeper breaths, and I didn't die. And once I got over the breathing thing, I got to see what I came for: fishes.

The colors and the sizes were amazing. Little fish, big fish, rainbow colored fish, long skinny fish.... I wish I had an underwater camera. It was like being in the tanks at the aquarium, instead of just looking in. And the fish don't even care that people are there. They just swim around looking at all the intruders. So long as the movements of humans didn't startle the fish, it was as if they completely ignored all the people swimming around.

After stopping for lunch I had a much better go at the second round. Panic didn't set in nearly as much, and I found breathing to be much easier. I felt better about being in the water and enjoyed more of what I saw. I still had small moments of panic, especially when I got close to the reef. By the end of the day though I was much more comfortable, and now I want to do it again. Though maybe next time I'll wear a shirt. Sunscreen was not enough for as much water play as I had, evidence of that can be seen on my lower back in the form of bright redness.

Next adventure: California.

My Dead Car

When I bought the Maxima I was pretty excited - though the car is only three years newer than the little blue car that was left on the mainland, it seemed to be a lot nicer. But in the last week the problems have been coming out to get me.

First, the gas mileage started getting even worse than it already was. Then it started idling really rough. I decided to try some fuel injector treatment after reading around on the internet a bit. I'm still on the tank of gas that got the treatment, but already have gotten more miles than I was getting and I still have gas left.

But right now, the gas in the tank does me no good. Tuesday began the period of "hunk of metal that is hard to move." The car won't start. I drove to 20 stores for work, and at the last few I was having a little trouble getting the car started. It had done this before, and at the time I thought maybe the starter was going out, but then the car was sneaky and the problem cleared up. And after 20 stores, I thought it may just need a break from trying to start. I got it started, drove 45 minutes to the other side of the island and let the car sit for a couple of hours while walking around. Upon returning, the car started and I drove 45 minutes across the island again to my house. And that was the end of the car starting on its own. Grr.

After having the car towed to Sears they told me the starter was shot. Lucky for me, they were nice enough to call and get the part from the auto parts store where I found the part for cheaper than they had originally quoted me. But once the part was installed, a new problem was found: the cables leading to the battery are the wrong cables. When the guy touched the cable he was talking about it fell off, and the car wouldn't start again. He managed to get the cable smashed back together enough to get the car started, but told me it probably wasn't safe to be driving around and recommended an auto electric guy.

My car is in the auto electric shop now. Who knows what is being done to it. Hopefully the next thing that breaks I can fix on my own.

Waimano Falls

Recently I bought an outdoor guide to Oahu, the island I am living on. I have been wanting to get more hikes in and this will hopefully prove useful. It already has. Last Saturday morning I looked through the book with my boyfriend, Doug, and we choose to head out for Waimano Falls. The trail head was close by, and there was the lure of swimming in the pools below the waterfalls. Here are some pictures of what we found:

Overlooking the bottom pool, the one with a rope swing
Doug on the ropeswing. I was too scared to try it. Figured I would end up like the people who forgot to let go at the perfect time and came back to smash into the rock wall. Or forget how to swim once I hit the water.

Me in the pool of the larger waterfall. This pool was much shallower, not much swimming to be done here. And the water was a bit chillier than the ocean I have become accustomed too, though not as cold as the stream waters found in Colorado or Washington.
Looking down from the top of the waterfall
Looking back upstream from the top of the waterfall
Looking out from the top
Cool looking flower I found. At least I think it is a flower. Time to brush up on my plant identification in Hawaii.
The hike was short, only a little more than 3 miles round-trip, but it was a difficult 3 miles. A large section of the trail was nothing more than a steep, very root exposed hill. Going up that section was much easier than going down. But it was totally worth it. Hard to believe that there is that much nature that close to the city. The trail head started in a residential area, but within half a mile it felt like the city was far, far away.

Seattle

Tomorrow I am flying to Seattle. But instead of returning, I am only visiting. A large part of the trip will be taking care of my belongings in my Grandmother's basement and selling my little blue car. I still miss that thing even though I have been driving around my newer car around for over a month now. Must be a first car thing, haha.

It will be a short trip, about a week. Longer would have been nicer for all I want to get done, but with the new job a short trip was all I could afford timewise. I hope people aren't too disappointed at the lack of time I will have. I imagine some will be, but there is little I can do about that. Hopefully I'll get back for a longer trip later on, and perhaps one that gets me to New Mexico and Colorado for additional visits.

Girl's Weekend Out

For a couple of weeks, a large camping trip was in the works. Then, due to everyone's personal schedules, plans were changed up until the actual event was taking place. Red did most, if not all, the planning for the campsite. It started as a trip for her parents, who were out visiting from Colorado. They decided that they would only stay one night though, that three nights were too long. They left shortly after I arrived.

I thought I would be going all three nights, but had something come up on Friday night. Went to a BBQ with another friend, and had a great time. I was able to head out Saturday morning though, and stay to the end. Red's friend/boss from the tattoo shop also made it out Saturday, and as she was the last one to ever arrive, it turned into a "Girl's Weekend Out." Not really what you picture when you think of the girls getting together, is it?

It was a nice weekend. Sure, when you think of camping, you think large groups are the way to go, but not always. For one, we didn't need every cooler we could scrounge up, and everything tended to stay a little more organized. It might be that fires are typically built and then maintained by the most inclined of the males, but we did just fine on our own. I never did much with the actual fire, but between Red, me, and gravity we managed to get even the most un-chopable bricks of wood down to a burnable size. We might have looked like we were doing a botched job to any manly man walking by, but we saved ourselves tons of energy through our ingenuity. So you might be able to impress me with your muscles, but I'll take you out with my brains any day, hehe (just give me time to think about it).

Red and I walked along the beach for about 5 miles. Once we got away from the few hundred feet of shoreline right in front of the campground, we had the beach pretty much to ourselves. For the rest of the walk. And while it might seem that beach walking isn't much of a workout, it is. The sand was quite soft even at the shore break, making for tired leg muscles at the end. Totally worth it in my book though, as it was a relaxing type of physical challenge, complete with honu (Hawaiian word for turtle) sightings and plenty of birds.

After our wander we decided no trip camping was complete without some swimming, so we reapplied the sunscreen and went for it. I suppose it isn't so much swimming as bobbing around in the waves and splashing, but fun anyways, like a giant tub filled with salt water. Most of the time we were there we could see two more honu only about 20 feet away. We didn't want to get any closer, and since they didn't move away we figured we were far enough away to not be harassing them.

Both evenings were spent around a campfire, just us girls talking about what girls talk about when no one else is around. Even though at first we were a little bummed at the lack of turn out, by the end we were happy it was just us three.

Hawaii in Pictures

I am finally getting around to posting some pictures of Hawaii. Part of what prompted this is that I finally carried my camera along on a trip the other day, and took quite a few pictures. Not really sure why it is so hard for me to take them, there have been many days when the camera is carried along just for the fun of the extra weight it seems like, since it is rarely used. Suppose it still isn't much, but here is what I have to share so far:

On the hike to Kaena Point. Nice little hike. I mentioned it in an earlier post, and Red has posted pictures of it as well.
Still on the hike. I love the scenery of coastal hikes.
An arch on the way out to the point.

The next set of pictures were taken while out on a ride last Saturday. I have actually been spending more time on the back of a motorcycle. So much in fact, that I finally went and bought my own helmet, so that I would no longer have to hunt around for something that would work.

Small beach out near Kaena point. The water up here was pretty rough that day, last time I saw this beach it was much calmer and prettier. Didn't have the camera then though.
A fossilized shell I found while walking around in the rocks out near Kaena point. The smaller shells still had live snails in them.
Turtle at Turtle Bay. The like to come out and hang out in the sun on the beach, but nobody seems to know why they like to do it in this particular spot.
Another turtle on the beach. There were also some hanging out in the surf, but they were harder to catch with the camera.
Picture taken mid-ride. Waimea Beach.
Waimea Beach from the other side of the bay.
Coastal pic taken along the way.
Some nice blue water. Fun stuff to swim in.
Smaller islands off the coast.

A video of a blowhole along the way.

Suppose that's it for the pictures for now. And I'll try to post a little more often too.