AMERICA!!!!!!!
We got into Honolulu around 8am and had to do a face to face immigration. The assistant academic dean woke us up at 7:30am over the loudspeaker blasting “Living in America.” I woke up laughing; when it was done I looked at Caitlin and said, “I am not even mad.” We all looked like zombies coming out of our rooms to smile for the immigrations men while holding our passports up.
Day 1
When I walked down the gangway and got to the bottom step I did a flying leap off, USA soil!
My friends and I walked out of the port and the first thing I noticed was that everyone who was from Hawaii was being greeted by their moms and dads. I was so jealous! I want my mom and dad; mine are way cooler than yours anyway!
We were all staying at my friend Amelia’s “beach house,” a 7 bedroom mansion on the water, not to be confused with her “real house” 3 blocks down. There were about 12 of us and we all piled into her mom and dads cars, after her mom gave us Hawaiian flowers for our hair, and headed out.
On the way we passed Waikiki beach and a Cheesecake Factory, mama mia I’m home.
Her house was absolutely insane. We all unloaded our stuff and relaxed by the pool. We didn’t have any where to be and not a care in the world. Her mom gave us chips and salsa and other fabulous American things. This seems like not a big deal but you have no idea the joy it brought us, you would have thought we hadn’t eaten in weeks.
A couple of us went to Waikiki beach. I am more of a beach person. When I was there I got in contact with an old Northport friend, Chris Zorbo! He met me at the beach and we went to grab some lunch. We walked into this outdoor bar and I saw something I haven’t seen in 3 months, Blue Moon on tap, this day just kept getting better and better!!
Good conversation followed and we caught up on life. He has been living in Hawaii for 6 years and I could see why, the island was beautiful. After grubbing we went back to the beach where our stuff was and all my friends got back from surfing. I was supposed to surf that day but I was nervous so I decided to kick start the tan first.
Chris squeezed 7 people into an old school VW golf and took everyone to a great Hawaiian BBQ joint and then brought us back to Amelia’s.
It was Amelia’s 21st birthday so her Mom was making a big dinner. There were so many delicious things to be eaten and I made it my mission to get it done. I can’t wait for my Mommy to make me food… hmmm…
After we ate, more SASers started showing up for the party. The weather was gorgeous and the house was all open to the outside. It turned out to be a great night of drinking, friends and poolside fun. Oh, her birthday cake was cheesecake so you know who was smiling! :)
Day 2
We woke up and Amelia brought us to a bagel place. Seriously, I have been craving an American bagel since 1976.
I got “the works bagel.” Eggs, cheese, sprouts, avocado and spinach on a scooped out toasted everything bagel. On top of that, fresh squeezed orange juice. I could have eaten 56 of them but I was going to the beach and I didn’t want to look like a bagel.
Back at Waikiki beach I rented a surfboard with a couple of the buds. I paddled out and my arms almost blew off my body, did I sign up for this? There were 80 year old men out there with 6 foot look beards who thought they owned the ocean. Every time I would start to paddle to catch a wave I would see them already up and coming right at me. Kamikaze pilots of 2009, lets leave Pearl Harbor in the past. I would scream and just fall off my board to hide and wait for the next one.
FINALLY, I caught a wave. I can officially say I stood up on a surfboard in Hawaii, cool! I paddled in after that because my arms were chaffing from rubbing against the board. I laid in the sun for many many hours, got some sushi, laid out some more and then went back to the ship.
No big things happened in Hawaii, just a lot of American food and down time. Almost everyone I know went skydiving in Hawaii, I don’t know why but I have ZERO interest in ever doing that. I have on life on this planet, why would I throw it out of a plane? The people who did go went on “4/20” (April 20th) and they had “I got higher than you on 4/20, 14,000 feet!” written on their bodies. Baahaha
We are off to Guatemala now! We have a lot of days on the ship and a lot of finals.
There are serious government warnings for Americans in Guatemala and so SAS put an 11pm curfew on us. I read the warnings and basically it has one of the highest violence rates, the roads are filled with carjackers, it said to bring cash just encase you need to bribe the police, don’t travel at night, don’t take pictures of children, don’t breath, don’t go to Guatemala City, don’t hike volcanoes (there known for their volcanos) and don’t independently travel, great, going to be a really good time. We WERE going to Costa Rica which would have been amazing. I went abroad their last summer for 3 weeks and it was one of the most beautiful countries I have ever seen.
I am not sure what I am doing their yet but I am getting Teflon, packing heat and practicing my roundhouse kick to the face.
Mahalo
Jaclyn
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