On January 11, 2018, I arrived in Honolulu, HI. After flying for almost 23 hours, I was even more excited to step off the plane into warm weather and palm trees. My school, The University of Dayton, has a sister school called Chaminade University in Honolulu. I knew from the very first tour I went on at Dayton that I certainly wanted to get to Hawaii at some point in my college career. Finally, after a couple of months of back and forth emails, forms, and meetings, I finally arrived at my dream destination. My family and I vacationed at the island of Hawaii two summers ago, but Oahu was a new location for me. Immediately upon arriving I could see how different the two islands are. While the Big Island seemed more rural with a small town-y feel, certain parts of a Oahu are a bustling city (so far the traffic here has been horrific). Although, from what I’ve seen, there are many untouched areas in Oahu as well, and I hopefully will be able to explore a lot of them over the course of the next four months. I keep having to remind myself that I will be here for an entire semester. It feels as though I am on a week-long vacation, and I have to squeeze all my activities in a short period of time. I am so thankful for this experience, and I hope to make the most of this semester.
(note: for larger pic on pc right click thumbnail and for phone/notebook hold finger on pic a few seconds select open in new tab)
My second day on the island, I mainly had orientation activities. I snapped a couple pictures of the campus–It is one of the prettiest campuses I’ve ever seen. It’s very lush and green with a lot of outdoor spaces. It sits on a relatively steep hill, so there is an amazing view in certain areas of Diamond Head Crater, as well as a view of the ocean. We were also given free snow cones.
After orientation, me and some friends decided to go into town and pick up some essential items (pillows, shower curtain, beach towel). On our walk back, we passed by Ala Wai Canal. I also got a picture of the sunset view from our apartment’s lanai.
Today (Day 3) was the most eventful day. It began with all of Hawaii receiving a bomb warning. Me and my roommates were pretty concerned, and no one really knew what to do. We didn’t freak out though like some people apparently did–we figured that if something was really about to happen, the sirens would be going off. So we kind of sat in bed until about 20 minutes later, all of the major news channels assured us that the alert was false. So that was an interesting start.
After that fiasco, we headed to the North Shore and split up to do various activities with our orientation group/leaders. But first, we stopped for acai bowls.
The North Shore is much different from the Honolulu area. It is still extremely busy (this could have been amplified today since it is a three day weekend), but much less urban. It was a really cute town with little shops all along the main road.
We then went into different groups to either go on a hike, go to the Dole Plantation, or go kayaking. Me and my friends chose to kayak. Four of us went into two tandem kayaks. The water was relatively calm, and sort of a little river that split out from the ocean (not sure what the technical term is). The water was very murky, and looked a lot like PA river water actually. The difference: this water was full of sea turtles that would constantly be popping up alongside our kayaks. Also, the river was lined with mangrove trees that added some shade. Overall, it was very peaceful and beautiful.
Finally, we journeyed back to Honolulu along the east side of the island. That route showed us a lot of huge crashing waves (there was actually an advisory to stay out of the water today due to the huge waves), Chinaman’s Hat (named after the shape of the small island), as well as the huge green mountains (where movies like Jurassic Park were filmed). It took a long time to get back, but it was worth it.
Great pics so far!!!