This is the first chance I've gotten to write, because my house doesn't have internet - bummer. So I'm currently writing this from a 2-story McDonald's close to my house, loving sipping on an iced caramel mocha, and not loving being stared at by a creepy old, homeless-looking man. So, I guess I should start at the beginning. The trip out here was so ridiculously tiring. 16 hours of travel time. In Central time terms, I left at 6:21 PM and didn't arrive in Hawaii til 11 AM the next day. I did get lucky in that I got bumped up to an exit row for my flight from Nashville to Atlanta (all 35 minutes of it), and then I got bumped up to FIRST CLASS for my flight from Atlanta to Vegas (all 5 hours of it)! The flight to Vegas was looking to be super great, until the girl next to me changed seats with her creepy Vietnamese guy friend, who proceeded to try to talk to me the entire flight. I'm talking I had my head buried in my magazine, had my headphones in, only replied with "hmm, uh huh, yeah, alright," even attemped sleeping - nothing was deterring this kid from relentlessly trying to conversate with me. Unfortunately, getting pampered in first class to Vegas just made the 6 hour flight from Vegas to Honolulu in coach all the longer & more miserable. I had a nice black guy who sat next to me who was moving out here for the Navy sitting next to me, and we chatted a little while, then I somewhat slept for the rest of the way, of course waking up with intense neck pain. I absolutely loathe sleeping on planes. Let's fast forward through me aimlessly wandering around the Honolulu airport for 2 hours while waiting for my roommates to wake up & an uneventful (though horrifically expensive) 5-mile cab ride to me getting to my house. I live down a little alley somewhat close to downtown in what appears to be somewhat of an Asian ghetto. However, our house is recently remodeled inside & really nice, and nobody in the neighborhood and surrounding area has bothered me or sketched me out.
I've got to admit, I was pretty depressed my first day in "paradise." My roommates were gone most of the day, I was extremely irritable & tired from jet lag & traveling, and I was quarantined to the house, lonely, and bored to death. I had no means of transportation, had already read all my magazines (didn't have room to bring any books), and spent the day in & out of sleep on an air mattress with a hole in it. I did walk down to the grocery store, where I realized that I'm going to starve to death and/or get really skinny this summer, because I'm not going to be able to afford to eat. I mean, $6.49 for a loaf of bread?? Are you kidding me? I only got bread, cheese, turkey, bananas, black beans, and rice, and it was $26. Needless to say, I'm glad I crammed my backpack full of Clif bars & granola bars from home to bring with me. (I've already eaten 5 bananas in 2 days.) Later that night, I got to talking with one of my roommates (Melissa S.) & her sister (Molly) & we discovered we had all kinds of things in common (love of dancing, Harry Potter, Glee, and Gossip Girl, notably) & already made plans to go to the midnight showing of Deathly Hallows Part 2 when it comes out, woohoo! My first night in Hawaii was spent on said hole-y air mattress with 2 t-shirts balled up as a pillow & my tiny Delta airplane blanket from my first class flight. Not what you probably have in mind when you think of me being in paradise, eh?
Day 2 in Hawaii was much, much better than Day 1. My roommates took me to Target, where I bought 68 hangers, 2 pillows, 1 blanket, 1 laundry basket, 3 plastic bins, laundry detergent, dryer sheets, and all kinds of other miscellaneous things. Sucks not going somewhere where you can just pile your car full of all these basic things & bring them with you, but oh well, I'll deal with it to get to spend the summer in Hawaii, you know? Getting all these things & coming home & being able to get my room together eased my stress level immensely. Molly was even kind enough to bring over 2 extra sheet sets, so I didn't have to buy those. The rest of the day was really fun. Melissa S., Melissa E. (both my roommates' names are Melissa), Molly, and I all rode in Melissa S.'s convertible to the beach (can life get any better than that?), and spent an hour or so there. It was so unbelievably beautiful! Then we came back to the house, because Melissa E. has 2 friends here for the week & she had to pick them up from the airport. These friends coming into town is such a good setup for me, because Melissa E. is already going to be taking them around all week doing all kinds of touristy things & they're letting me tag along on it all! Score. The first thing Melissa E., the two friends, and I did was ride up to the Nu'uanu Pali Lookout. The view was unreal. I'm sure most of you have already seen the few pictures I posted in my Mobile Uploads on facebook, but if you haven't, check them out. An info board up there said that Mark Twain once said that it was the most beautiful view in the world! (Aside: I'm watching a FedEx plane ascend out the window - insert mild pinch of Memphis homesickness here.) Later, we all went to a sketchy but good Thai restaurant for dinner, where I got the hottest dish on the menu and added more hot sauce to it. My lips were burning & my nose was running, which means it was great! (Another aside: the creepy staring homeless-looking man finally left, only to be replaced by another old, creepy, homeless-looking man - do I give off creepy, homeless-looking pheromones or something?) Later, we went and walked around Waikiki, which was AWESOME. I was in bed by 10 PM. Also went to bed at 10 PM the night before. For all of you who know me really well, you're going WHAAAAT? Yeah, I know, crazy, right? I've also woken up at 5:30 both mornings (even bigger WHAAAAAT here).
Ok, so on to today's events thus far (I promise all my entries won't be this long - having to play catch-up). There is an open interview call thing at The Cheesecake Factory at 2:30 this afternoon that I'm going to go to (I'm pretty sure correct grammar would be to say, "to which I'm going" - but that just sounds way too uptight). They require proof of TB clearance (tuberculosis is apparently still a problem in Hawaii? What the heck? Didn't we get rid of that disease like, last century?), so I started my morning bright and early at 7:45 AM walking a mile in the rain to the Lanakila Health Center to get a TB skin test. Have to go back Thursday to get it "read." Then walked a mile back to this McDonald's where here I sit, writing this to all of you. The plan for the rest of the day is to maybe look at a moped to buy, figure out the bus system, and apply (and hopefully get hired) at The Cheesecake Factory! I've never worked in a restaurant before, and never really wanted to, but it's my best shot at making the most money this summer, so I'm down. I'm a little sad that I'm having to go around getting shots & applying for jobs today, because the roomies & friends of roomie are hiking Diamond Head and going to the beach today. Oh well, duty calls. So anyway, cross your fingers for me that I: 1.) Don't have tuberculosis, 2.) Figure out the bus system, 3.) Get hired at The Cheesecake Factory. I've got some backup plans if The Cheesecake Factory doesn't work out, but it seems to be the biggest money-making opportunity thus far, so I'm hoping it works out.
Hopefully, my posts will get less tedious & more interesting as I learn more about Hawaii & have more adventures! Also, I'll try to include pictures with my forthcoming posts, but as of right now I haven't broken my camera out, because I discovered right before I left that I left my camera charger in Florida last weekend when I went to the Hangout Music Fest. Great timing to lose something like that, right? So, gonna work on getting another one ASAP. Love and miss everyone!
P.S. The title to this post is a nod to my grandparents' pronunciation of Hawaii, which makes me smile. I love being from the South.
