Day 13: Eat, Beach, Sleep

May 19, 2012

Even though it is the weekend today, we still had class.  But since it’s the weekend we got to sleep in an extra hour.

After we had class and lunch we went to the military beach, which is about a 5-minute walk from the conference center we are staying at.

Today the beach was absolutely beautiful! It was so sunny and warm. It was the perfect beach day!

We sat on the beach, took naps, talked on the phone, read books and talked to each other.

It is absolutely beautiful here, but I think I’ll be ready to go home in a week. As much as I love the people and love it here, it’s not home. I’m not homesick and I don’t really think that I’m experiencing culture shock, although the culture is different than I expected. I’m just ready to be home and see my family and sleep in my own bed.

Being here has been an amazing experience. Hawaii isn’t the Hawaii I had in my mind. I pictured a lush beautiful Island, fruit at every meal and people that were basically the same as those on the mainland, just a little darker.

I was wrong about all of the above.

The side of the island we are staying on is brown. It hardly ever rains on this side. However there is a green side that fits with my image of a lush beautiful island.

We haven’t had very much fruit while we have been here, but what we have had has been amazing.

The Hawaiian people probably the furthest away from the image that I had in my head of Hawaiian people. I thought that everyone would be one race, except for the occasional white or black person. I wrong.

Hawaii is made of people several different nationalities: Fiji, Japan, China, Pilipino, European, Korean, ect. No one looks the same.

I also thought that the people would speak the same as Americans on the mainland. I was wrong, while they do speak English; they also speak other languages as well. This gives the Hawaiian people an accent like I’ve never heard before.

It is has been hard for me at times to even thing of Hawaii as part of the United States, but then I’ll see someone pay with American money.

After the beach we had dinner, fish and chips. Then we went back to the Bungalow. We tried to watch a movie, The Proposal.

I lasted only about half of the movie. By 9:30 I was dead to the world.