Earthquake!!!

Okay, now that I have a few minutes to breath, before I plunge in again for next week, I thought I would tell an interesting story about the Sunday that an earthquake hit Hawaii. It's the only earthquake I've ever felt...

My roommate, Caleb, was house-sitting for a couple that went to the mainland for three weeks. Saturday, October 14th, I spent the night at the house with him and James Lui (an ex-roommate, current friend). We'd all stayed up pretty late and when we finally went to bed, I crashed on the master bed, which lucky for me had a memory foam mattress.

I woke up at 7:05 am Sunday morning to rain pounding on the roof. I got up, looked out at the solid gray world, and then went back to bed. After laying there for only a short time (later I found out it was at 7:07 am) there was a slight shaking of the bed. Thinking the family's dog had gotten into the room and was jumping on the bed, I stirred slightly. When I realized there was no dog a sudden thought went crashing through my mind...EARTHQUAKE!!! Then, my mind crashed again back to sleep. You know what they say about memory foam: you can jump on one end and not spill a drop of wine from a glass on the other. It wasn't until later that I realized that if it had been more serious (it was a 6.5 on the richter scale) I would have been buried while still sleeping.

The day proceeded on a normal basis...as normal as you can get with no electricity. The entire city was out all day. In fact, most of the state was out all day. While it was still light out (if you call iron gray light) it wasn't too bad. However, once night fell, things became a little different. I became bored out of my mind. I tried to read but the light from the flash light was annoyingly bright. My friend, James, was over at my apartment with me and we sat on the couch in the dark, wondering what we were going to do. Since it was only 8:00 pm, we didn't want to go to bed. I kept thinking about my movies and wanting to watch one. When I finally voiced this, James jumped up and told me to grab my laptop. Of course, my battery was dead by now. But we took it out to his car, plugged an ac adaptor into his cigarette lighter and then plugged my laptop in. The best part about it was the fact that the lighter didn't work unless the car was on. So, we sat in his car with it running for 2 1/2 hours watching "The Chronicles of Narnia," him in the driver's seat, me in the passanger's. It was pretty funny. Half an hour after it finished, the lights came on. Another great adventure in Hawaii.

Leslie's Visit

One of my most wonderful friends came out to visit me here in Hawaii a while ago. Leslie Aldridge was one of the students who attended the BYU London Study Abroad in the Fall Semester of 2003 with me. We travelled all over England, visiting other places as well, including Scotland, Wales, and Paris. So, when I decided to attend the University of Hawaii at Manoa, she knew she'd be coming out to visit me.

While here, we went all over the island of Oahu, snorkeling, hiking, going to the beach, playing tennis, visiting Laie (where the temple is and the Polynesian Cultural Center), eating at local restaurants, and taking lots of pictures. She stayed for a week and I think I wore her out. The best part of the visit, which I don't know if she would agree, was the Polynesian Cultural Center. Seeing so many of the peoples of the polynesian islands was fascinating and educational. It was definately an eye-opener. The second best thing was snorkling at Shark's Cove. Unfortunately, we didn't see any sharks but we saw a lot of really cool fish. The water is fairly clear and beautiful here.

It was sad to see Leslie go home when the week ended, but she was heading back home for her own adventures in starting her master's degree at Utah State University. It was great having a friend from the mainland come and see what I have been able to experience for the last year.

Thanksgiving

This one will be short. I wanted to tell of a unique experience I had last year while I was still living at the apartment in Hawaii Kai.

It was one of the all-American holidays, Thanksgiving. My landlords didn't like to have me under foot and had only invited me to join them one time before for dinner, my first night with them. So, when I received the invite to dine with them to celebrate the holiday, I couldn't say no, even though I really wanted to spend Thanksgiving with my friends, Jorunn and Delia.

I knew they had a small group of friends that would be coming to eat with us, but I didn't realize the comic situation of it until we had all sat down and began our meal. The English gentleman, with his Russian wife, had invited their German and Japanese co-workers to eat Thanksgiving dinner with them and their American renter. I thought to myself, "World War II all over again." But the conversation was pleasant, even though a few times it steared towards the subject of the war and then was carefully steared away, and afterwards we played games. All in all, it was a pleasant, if not odd, evening.

My Arrival in Hawaii

A year ago I arrived in Hawaii from Australia, where I had been visiting my sister for three weeks. Her and her husband have been there for two years working for a U.S. company. Before leaving Australia, I made a few reservations in preparation for my arrival here. I rented a car so I could get around for the first few days and find a place to live and a hotel room for two nights, hoping that would be enough time to get a place. However, two days before I was supposed to fly out, the hotel emailed me and said my reservation didn't go through because they were overbooked. I looked elsewhere for a room but couldn't find anything. With a little trepidation, I boarded the plane anyways and flew in just before midnight, August 10th. I picked up the rental car (making sure not to let them know I didn't have a hotel room) and drove towards Honolulu. I didn't have a map on me and was only going from memory from a map I had seen a few days before.

My goal was to get to the University Branch building that was supposedly next to the University of Hawaii. Following the H1 highway East, I drove until I saw a sign that said University Avenue exit. When I finally found the building, there was an arm that blocked entrance into the parking lot and a sign that read, "No overnight parking." Feeling a little worried now, I drove a little further until I was in a residental area. I saw a park that had a little bit of lighting and a road that ran next to it. I turned down the road and found a security guard booth. I pulled over, asked the security guard if it would be okay to park there on the road and sleep for a few hours. He said it would be okay until 5:00 am but that I'd have to move then. So, I climbed in the back seat and fell into a very restless sleep. I realized how humid Hawaii can get and tossed and turned all night, not just from the seat belt jabbing me in the back and leaving me with a very sore back the next day, but because my body would get all sweaty and I'd have to roll over to let it dry. In the park there was a homeless man sleeping too, and I didn't want to roll any windows down for fear of being accosted. However, part way through the night, I finally rolled one down partially which helped clear the stuffiness of the car. At a quarter to five, the guard tapped on the window, startling me from my already disturbed sleep. There was a bathroom in the park where I freshened up as best I could and changed clothes and then I drove over to campus where I had to wait two hours before I could get into the library. I think the only way I made it through that night and day was the fact that I knew I was in Hawaii. But that feeling quickly wore off.

All day I looked for housing. I used newspapers and the University's reference website to look for places that needed an extra occupant. However, after calling number after number, and getting mostly no answers, I was able to line up an appointment towards the evening to look at a place out in Hawaii Kai, about a twenty-minute drive from the University...if you have a car. With a prayer in my heart I drove to the place a little early and found it without too much difficulty. I meet the landlords, a British man married to a Russian woman who lived in a high rise apartment, renting out a bedroom and bathroom. I liked the place, especially since there weren't many to be picky about, and told them I'd like the place. However, they said they had promised it to a young lady moving to Hawaii but she hadn't responded to their attempts at making an appointment to see it. They said they were going to try one more time the following morning and if they couldn't get her, they'd give me the spot. So, feeling very rejected and lonely, I slowly drove back into town, wondering what to do with myself for another night.

I decided I'd had enough of my car for a while and was going to go beg for a room somewhere. I drove around Honolulu but only found booked hotels. "Sorry, no room in the inn," they all seemed to be saying; and I felt about as depressed as that young couple must have felt many years ago. I eventually returned to one hotel that was a Best Western. Having worked for one of their franchises, Days Inn, in Provo, I begged them for a room, mentioning my previous experience with hotels. Just as I thought, she asked me to wait a few minutes while she looked through the system and sure enough found a room they were holding for emergencies. "But, the price isn't cheap," she said. "How much," I inquired. And that's the story of how I paid $169 for a one-night's stay at an old, run-down hotel. But, oh how wonderful it wsa to shower that night and sleep in a bed!

My phone woke me up the next morning. It was the British fellow telling me I could have the room and could move in latter that day. My spirits lifted, I returned to campus and spent the day getting as much lined up for school as possible. I drove out to the apartment, moved my stuff in, had dinner with the couple (one of only two times that ever happened since they didn't like feeding me or letting me keep much in the fridge), and took my car back to the airport (one day early) while my landlord kindly followed me and drove me back home.

I love Hawaii!!!

Visiting the beach

Living in Hawaii

Who would have thought I would be living in Hawaii for two years? I would never have imagined myself here. Of course, I wouldn't have imagined myself in England or Australia either. Traveling is great. You can learn so much stuff by visiting other cultures, things you'd never learn in a classroom.

I've been here for a year now; my anniversary was the 10th of August. Only two more semesters and then I'll be done with my Master's in Library Sciences at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. I've made a lot of new friends here but I've meet up with some long-lost friends as well. One was a missionary friend back in Cordoba, Argentina in 1999, Josh Silva. The other was a friend from childhood, Trisha Ure. Talk about a small world...

So, people ask me what "Library Science" is. Here's my answer: It's a fancy way of making librarians look more important. Really, my fascination with books slowly took me to this degree. I am mostly happy with it. I plan to go into academic libraries, meaning a University library (of course, the Library of Congress would be really cool, too). That way, I can get any other master's or doctorate degrees I want for free. Plus, I'll be working a job that starts around $40,000-45,000/year, slowly paying off school loans.

Okay, so why did I title this the "(Mis)Adventures"? Well, because I seem to have a lot of really weird/funny things happen to me. I thought, "What a great place to write about it and put up pictures!" It also saves time on sending out lots of emails. So, please make comments on anything you want. I am going to call this good for now. My first misadventure will come shortly.