Mopeds & Maunawili Falls...

My goodness, I have really been neglecting y'all, haven't I? The thing is, it's been raining and raining and raining here, so I've been having a very boring couple of days filled with lots of reading and starting to watch LOST. The good news is, I've done some pretty exciting things this weekend and today, so I have lots to tell y'all and lots of pretty pictures to share!

Friday: My roommates didn't have to work in observance of Kamehameha Day. That's pronounced ka-may-ha-may-ha, in case you were wondering. Straight from Wikipedia, Kamehameha Day "honors Kamehameha the Great, the monarch who first established the unified Kingdom of Hawai'i." The technical day was on Saturday, but I guess the schools went ahead and took Friday off anyway. Apparently, they celebrate lots of holidays in Hawaii. So, with our beautiful, sunny (for once!) day off, we took off for Lanikai Beach again. I have to say, while it was sunnier this time around, I think I preferred my first visit to Lanikai. Remember how I told y'all the sand there is like powder? Well, Friday it was VERY windy, thus, laying out was somewhat akin to getting sandblasted, as the wind can pick that very fine sand up very easily. I'm pretty sure sand was even coated to my scalp by the time we left. And unfortunately, for the first time since I've been here, I got a little sunburned on my shoulders. The sun must've been fierce that day, because Melissa S. even got sunburned, and she reapplied 3 times. Regardless, it's still an unbelievably beautiful beach & any day spent at the beach is a great day, right?

Moving on: Saturday. Saturday, Saturday, Saturday... What a day. Woke up and called the lady with the red moped I told y'all I was wanting, and we decided I would come look at it at 1. After looking up her address, I saw she lived pretty far away from me, and of course I was going to have to take TheBus, so I went ahead and left my house at 11:45. I didn't get to her house til 1:45. Encompassed in the two hours it took me to get there were one really long bus ride, then a super long wait at a bus stop during which it started blowing rain sideways into the little hut over the bench. Miserable. So, finally get there, the lady is super nice, she's showing me everything about the moped, which I loooove, because it's red & shiny, etc., etc. So, I take the moped for a little test drive, during which it dies on me once. I was like hmmm...but then it started right back up, and I rode it around some more, no problem. When I got back to the house, I told her how it had died on me, and she was like wow that's really strange, it's probably because I haven't ridden it in so long and it's been sitting up. So I decide that that's probably what it is & to go ahead and go for it. Got the price bumped down $50, and we exchanged monies and chit chatted for a while and everything. I just knew this moped and I were meant to be. I mean, come on, it was red, my favorite color, and she had a cover for it that she had written her initials on, but it didn't even matter because her initials were HB, too! How perfect, right? So we chit chat some more (super, super nice lady), and then it comes time for me to ride my shiny new moped home. So I ride off in absolute bliss. For about 3/10 of a mile. And then the moped dies again. Oh no. Are you kidding me? Ok, it started right back up, everything's fine. Oh, no, it's not. It would start, it would idle, but as soon as you gave it enough gas to get it moving, it would die. I call the lady back, she's super sorry and freaking out and can't believe this is happening, and tells me to come right back, so I end up pushing this huge, super heavy moped back to her house in the sweltering Hawaii heat of the day. She calls up the place that she bought it from - they don't work on mopeds, nor do they even sell that brand anymore. She calls the moped repair shop they recommend - they charge extra to work on that brand. Soooo very luckily, this woman was so nice & had integrity and insisted on giving my money right back. As my dad said when I told him later, I could have easily been told, "Sorry, you bought it. Your problem." Thankfully, that wasn't the case, and the lady was super apologetic, and even insisted that she drive me all the way home instead of me having to take TheBus back. So, after all this, I didn't make it back home til 4:30 - my Saturday mostly down the drain. Unfortunately, the pain and suffering of the day didn't end there.

So my roommate Melissa S. teaches Zumba classes at her church twice a week, which I've never been able to attend, for some reason or another. (Zumba is a "Latin inspired dance fitness program" - thanks again Wikipedia - for those of you who didn't know.) Saturday night, however, some of the best Zumba instructors on the island were having a fundraiser for them to be able to attend the National Zumba Conference or some hoopla, so Melissa S. decided we all needed to go. Mistake. Even bigger mistake if you have recently taken a month off from working out.

It was two hours long. TWO HOURS. Constant jumping, dancing, kicking, squatting, punching, shaking, shimmying madness. And the 4 teachers each only did 30 minute segments, so it wasn't like they were getting tired with us. Nope, they just kept bringing the heat, one after the other. Oh, and don't let me forget to mention that this was inside an UN-air-conditioned school cafeteria. To say that I was soaked in sweat would be an understatement. So after the 2 hour torture session, of course we needed to reward ourselves for the gazillion calories we just burned, so we went and undid all that calorie-burning, sweaty effort by stuffing ourselves to the brim with Greek food. But calories don't count when you earn them, right?

So, on to Sunday. Sunday, I was supposed to have orientation for Forever21, but I made the decision that there was no way once school starts that I will be able to do my classes and two jobs. I have to make decent grades for my classes to transfer back, so I need to make sure I have some downtime to study every now & then (I know some of you are laughing right now. Stop it. I am going to study). So, at most, I was going to be working at Forever21 for 2.5 weeks (school starts June 29th), because I would rather keep the restaurant job if one of them has to go, as it has more earning potential. And I would've been having to juggle my Forever schedule around my restaurant schedule, and it would've just been a headache and mess, so I decided to heck with that job. So, I'll just be having one job at the restaurant, which I have orientation for tomorrow at 3:00 PM. Exciting! I'm ready to start making some money.

So, Sunday afternoon was really exciting! I BOUGHT A MOPED! One that works! I found it on Craigslist Saturday night. A girl who goes to UH bought it 2 months ago when she moved here, but quickly thereafter decided she'd rather have a car, so the moped only had 287 miles on it. About as close to brand new in the world of used mopeds on Honolulu Craigslist as you can get. Unfortunately, the only picture I have of it is on my phone, and my phone is deader than a doornail right now. (I'm pretty sure my Blackberry is dying a slow and painful death these days, as it's been freezing, restarting on its own accord, most of the time not charging, and when it does actually charge, the charge doesn't hold like it should. This really upsets me, because I've been holding out for the iPhone 5 for ages now. Hopefully, the crapberry can hang on 'til then. Cross your fingers.) So, I'll just describe it for you. It looks like a brand new moped with sweet matte black paint. And it's clearly a Chinese-made moped (read: the fit and finish - not quite the best). That's about all I can tell you. I promise I will post a picture of it ASAP. I will also humor y'all and post a picture of me in my helmet on it. Let me just say, it's not my best look. In fact, I look like a complete d-bag wearing the helmet, but there's no way I'm not wearing one. You don't have to wear a helmet while riding a moped in Hawaii, but I think that anyone who doesn't is a complete idiot. For those of you who were with me in email spirit on my first trip to Costa Rica back in 2006, I still have VIVID memories of skidding along a wet Costa Rican highway face first. For those of you who don't know the story, I had a pretty horrific wreck on a rented moped when I was in Costa Rica in 2006. Was going about 30 kph down a hill in a light rainshower, tapped my brakes (which locked up), and the moped laid out from under me, it careening sideways off the highway into an embankment, leaving me skidding along my stomach on the highway. Thankfully, I had on jean capris that day, which saved my legs from horrific road rash, but my elbow was bruised and scraped, my knees were bruised, I had holes ripped in my shirt and jeans, and I had road rash on my ribs and stomach. My toenail polish was even scraped off. I have no idea how I wasn't hurt a lot worse. Of course, I got back on it and rode it home, because I wasn't about to develop some stupid mopedaphobia, but I think I did about 5 mph the whole way back!

So, all that to say, I am being VERY careful riding this moped. I didn't really realize how nervous being back on a moped made me until I realized my hands were sweating when I was riding it around Sunday afternoon, and my hands never sweat. I mean, you're just perched up on this seat, doing 25-30 mph, with cars whizzing all around you. Luckily, around town and all the places I have to go, the speed limit is 25 or 30, so it's not like cars are blowing you off the road, but it's still not the most relaxing experience. I have NO idea how so many people buzz around town without helmets. Like I said - they're idiots. The whole time I'm riding it, I can just hear Mad Eye Moody yelling, "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" in my head. (If you don't understand what I just said, you do not read Harry Potter or, much worse, haven't even watched the movies, and in that case I really don't understand how we even got to be friends and why you would even be reading this blog. KIDDING. Kind of. Seriously, who doesn't love Harry Potter?!) Regardless of how slightly scary riding the moped is, can I just say all I wanted to do was yell "FREEEEEEDOMMMMMM!" Braveheart-style while riding around?! So liberating to be able to go wherever I want, whenever I want. In typical Hannah fashion, my first trip was to Walmart.

Oh, I've got to insert a scary side note here for anyone who knows my dad very well. When I first got it home, before I went to Walmart, I noticed it had a little mud splattered up on it, so I promptly got a wet rag and made sure it was perfectly clean before I took it out for a spin. I am truly my father's daughter. Frightening. (Daddy, do you have any extra of those special rags you could send me so I could keep one under the seat at all times in case any minutely teeny speck of dirt gets on my moped? Hahaha.)

In the two days I've had my moped, I've already discovered some pros and cons to moped ownership. Here they are.

Pros:

- Transportation other than TheBus (super, ginormous pro)

- Fun to ride

- Mine is a 2-stroke, so it's a pretty fast, zippy little thing as soon as you give it gas

- Cool in the "I really wish I could have a motorcycle, but this is kind of close" sense

- Holds 1.2 gallons of gas, so cheap fill-ups

- Gets a gazillion miles to the gallon (really about 80-100, but still!)

Cons:

- I've done about a million things more fun than riding a moped in the pouring rain at night & getting soaking wet when you just busted your tail in the gym and all you want to do is get home and go to sleep, but instead you're getting stuck at every freaking red light in downtown Honolulu in said pouring rain

- Sometimes hard to find a place to park it, because you have to (read: don't have to, but definitely should) chain it up

- Chaining it up is a complete pain in the you know what, because the chain is pretty short, so you have to get the wheel justttt right & close enough to whatever you're chaining it to, and then the chain lock mechanism itself is a pain in the you know what to lock and unlock & whatnot

- You smell like gasoline after you ride it, especially your hands

- You will probably have a black mark somewhere on you after chaining it up

- I'm terrified it's going to get stolen all the time (not exactly a justified fear, but I have it just the same - it does happen here occasionally)

- Chaining it up (Yeah, I know I already said it, but it really is such a pain, it deserves another tick mark. If I wasn't terrified of it getting stolen, I would NEVER chain it up.)

- Having to carry your helmet around with you when you go places because it doesn't fit under the seat

Ok, I know I put more cons than pros, but really I'm so ecstatic to have transportation that I'll put up with the cons all day. I love my little moped!

So, today! Today was wonderful! My roommates have a friend named Jake who is a youth pastor at a Nazarene church on the Windward side of the island who has hung out with us a couple times. Today, Jake was taking some of the teens from his church to Moanawili Falls & asked if I wanted to go. (I have told anyone I've met that if they're ever doing anything Hawaii-cool, to let me know, because I want to see and experience as much as possible while I'm here.) So, Jake, a van-ful of teenagers, and I all set off for the hike and falls. Y'all. It was so fantastic. It involved the great outdoors, mud, and waterfalls, which are three of my very favorite things. We hiked barefoot, which was so fun. It's been so long since I've had mud squishing between my toes! Time for pictures! I actually took the pictures of the hiking trail on the way back, but for the sake of the story & illustration, I'm going to start with them:

The official Moanawili Falls hike starts way far down and involves a ton of stairs. But if you drive up into this neighborhood, park on the side of the street, walk up these people's driveway and squeeze through the space to the right of the gate, you can cut the hike in about half, and save yourself a ton of stairs. So, of course, being the locals we are & knowing these kinds of things, that's exactly what we did. The front of the sign that you can only see the back of naturally says "Keep Out":

Doesn't that tree on the right look like something from The Lion King aka Africa?

Now it starts getting good:

The water was so clear!

And finally we get to the falls! This is the view opposite from the falls, so pretty:

And the falls!

This is a terrible picture of the little fall up to the left, but it is absolutely beautiful. Tons of ittle, tee-tiny streams of water streaming down. Looks like tinsel or something in real life.

Where you swim over to, to start climbing up the falls, kind of looks like a water slide at the bottom, doesn't it?

Hopefully, I didn't pick up any leptospirosis bacteria today:

Pretty little waterfall under the leptospirosis warning sign:

The falls again:

Leptospirosis be danged, I'm climbing that waterfall and jumping off it! (I'm that girl up there.)

So everything was well & good in the picture above. I kept climbing up the wet slippery rocks over the waterfall to get to that tiny ledge in the top right corner of the picture. When I was above and to the right of the waterfall (you can't see where it was in the picture), I had a little touch & go moment. I took a step, my foot slipped, and then it was just like a movie. I was skidding/sliding down the rocks, scrambling for something to grab onto. You know how in the movies how someone always grabs the falling person's hand or arm? Yeah, in real life, it didn't quite work that way. Jake was up there and instead of my hand or arm, he could only grab my hair. Luckily, he grabbed my hair about the time my fingertips finally barely latched onto some rocks, so it didn't hurt too badly. I wouldn't have cared if he had ripped half my hair out; it was a scary fall. I only have a few scrapes and two tiny bruises down my left leg, thankfully. So, after almost falling down a waterfall, naturally I kept climbing higher to jump off the ledge. Here I am in the top right corner, about to jump:

(I do not know who all the ripped guys are in the bottom part of the picture, sorry ladies.)

I got up there, made sure the teenager who I gave my camera to was ready, counted to 3 for her, and jumped. It's common knowledge that you don't jump off high places into water flailing with your arms out because it will hurt like heck when they hit the water, and same thing with your legs, and it's also common knowledge that it is very easy for girls' tops to come off when they do such things, so I decided to jump with my arms tucked up to my sides, fists under my chin, in order to stay aerodynamic and clothed. Unfortunately, I was a gymnast for way too long, so jumping straight turned into jumping hollowed:

which somewhere in flight turned into me hitting the water basically butt first. Let me tell you, it is a fierce and unique pain, such a situation. But the jump was totally worth it, of course. I love jumping off cliffs. It's funny what things scare people and what things don't. When I climbed out of the water, some of those boys said something like, "Well, you sure didn't play around with that, you just got right up there and jumped!" To which I thought, "Well, yeah, I didn't climb up there and risk death in doing so just to get up there and stand there. The jumping part's the fun part!" But then I know there are people who would get up there and freak out, or not even climb up there in the first place. And it's funny that I can jump off a huge cliff fearlessly, but yet it once took about 10-15 minutes straight of begging, pleading, and goading by my friends in a restaurant for me to try a bite of rare filet mignon. I was terrified of it, it was all bleeding and stuff at me. (I will admit that it did taste pretty good once I finally tried it.)

After I jumped off the big cliff, some of those boys were doing flips and dives off the lower part of the falls, so of course I couldn't let them show me up, even though it was super slippery & probably dangerous to be doing so.

Tuck:

Layout (looks to be a little piked, but give me a break, it was off a tiny, slippery ledge of rock):

So, after all the jumping & flipping fun, we hiked back out of the falls. Muddy toes are happy toes!

Then, we drove into Kailua, got 2 huge pizzas, and ate them on the beach. It was so pretty. Then, Jake dropped all the kids & me off, only for me to discover that I had locked myself out of the house. Good job, Hannah. The best thing to do when you're locked out of the house is to go down to McDonald's and get a caramel sundae while you wait for one of your roommates to get home, which is exactly what I did. And I've probably never looked so homeless in my life. There I was sitting in McDonald's, devouring my caramel sundae, with no makeup, wet, straggly hair, damp cutoff workout t-shirt, damp shorts, and my legs and toes looking like this:

Luckily, Melissa S. came home pretty soon. And now, here I am, back at McDonald's (showered & mud-free, I promise), writing to y'all, inundating y'all with tons of pictures, and staring at my moped out of the window, making sure no one steals it. I think I've given y'all enough to read & look at for one blog post, so it's time to go back to the house & keep making my way through the first season of LOST. (Melissa S. owns all 6 seasons, and since it was filmed entirely on location on the island of Oahu, I feel like I need to get in tune with the island & watch it, since I never have.) Wish me luck with my restaurant orientation tomorrow! I love & miss y'all terribly! Write me, comment me, facebook me, tweet me!

Lanikai Beach...

Aloha, y'all. EIGHTEEN followers now! I am SO excited and feel so loved.

For those of you who don't love to read and think my blog posts are too long, you're gonna like this post. It's gonna be short, to the point, and mostly pictorial. (I bet you kind of people are the type that watched the movie for your book reports rather than reading the book, which is horrific and criminal in nature, in my eyes. The book is ALWAYS better than the movie. Shame on y'all. Ok, I'll step off my soapbox now.)

On another hand, this post is also going to be short because somebody just sat down at the table behind me with some of the worst B.O. (body odor) I've ever smelled, and I'm trying not to vomit. Why are all the tables full right now?! I'm dying.

So yesterday we went to the most amazing beach I've been to as of yet in my life, Lanikai Beach, on the Windward (eastern) side of Oahu.

It's such a beautiful drive over there, because you take the Pali Highway through the Ko'olau Mountains, which are gorgeous. And when I say you go through them, I mean that literally. You go through two tunnels under them, which I find exciting, because I like tunnels. I don't know why, I just do. And yes, I still hold my breath in them. Because if you don't, you die or something, right? Anyway, so the beautiful drive is even more beautiful when you get to ride in a convertible, which we did, because we took Melissa S.'s car. If I lived here, I would absolutely, without a doubt, have a convertible. I'm glad Melissa S. has one for the short time I'm here.

Alright, enough of that. Lanikai Beach. Unbelievably beautiful. The sand is like powder. Or as Melissa S. describes it, "like walking on cocaine." I can assure you that she has never done or walked on cocaine. It's just an expression people, calm down.

So, without further ado, here it is (and the pictures don't really do it justice):

Me with one of "The Moks" (Mokulua Islands):

Loving Lanikai:

The whole motley crew, from left to right: Melissa E., Sierra, Melissa S., Me, and Lupe:

The rest of the day entailed a quick trip to Walmart, Ross (Hawaii has a ton of Ross stores, and they're so much better than the ones on the mainland, or the ones I've been to, at least), and dinner before Melissa E. took Sierra and Lupe to the airport. I was sad to see them go; they were really fun to hang out with this week.

No news on the moped front. The people I emailed yesterday have yet to contact me. Frustrating. I want that moped.

Today's been super lazy thus far, just drank some iced coffee and read a book this morning. Considered hopping on TheBus and riding down to Waikiki to read my book on the beach, but the weather's been crappy today. Hot, humid, and little rain showers every so often. So, I'll just keep on being lazy inside today. It's off to the library for more books after this post, because I've already torn through 3.5 of them in the past week.

So, this post turned out to be longer than I intended. Oopsies. (Don't kid yourself, I don't feel bad about it at all, actually. Writing this gives me something to do.) I'll try to do some cool things this last week I have off before starting work, so hopefully I'll have some good pictures and stuff to post. Love and miss y'all!

Hiking and Hired...

Can I just say that I just did a little dance in my chair in the second floor of McDonald's when I logged on here & saw that I had THIRTEEN(!!!) followers?! I feel so loved!

So, where to begin? The past two days have been so great. We'll go chronologically, shall we?

Day before yesterday was fantastic. There is an artist on the North Shore named Heather Brown who makes the cutest paintings. Sierra (Melissa E.'s friend), wanted to get one of her prints before she goes home, so we went down to an art gallery in Waikiki. Just my luck, they had just gotten a huge shipment of her prints in, and, typical me, I couldn't resist getting one as well. This is the one I got:

"Surf Girl"

Isn't it awesome?! I think so at least, and that's really all that matters, yeah? (Hawaiians add "yeah?" to the end of every sentence. I'm trying my hand at picking up the local lingo.) It's now spicing up my sad little room quite a bit. My parents and many who know me won't be surprised to hear that somehow, someway, in but one short week, my sad little room already looks like a bomb went off in it. I don't know how I do it.

I digress. After we bought our Heather Brown prints, we walked a ways down Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki, drooling at all the shop windows. (It blows my mind that on an island this small, there are multiple Fendi, Prada, Chanel, and other extremely expensive designer stores.) Here are some pics from along the stroll:

This is a statue of Duke Kahanamoku, the Father of Surfing. People hang leis on the statue to pay homage.

Waikiki Beach:

Awesome banyan tree:

Pretty waterfall & plumeria tree scenic setup along the Waikiki beach:

We walked down to Teddy's Bigger Burgers for lunch, where we waited in an extremely long line, but it was so worth it. Delicious. I think they're only in Hawaii, Seattle, and Las Vegas right now, but if you're ever in any of those places you should eat there. So messy & so good.

After lunch, it was time to frolick on the beaches of Waikiki. Everyone else was playing in the ocean most of the time, but I was completely engrossed in my library book, Pearl Harbor, by Newt Gingrich & William Forstchen. It's really eerie and heavy reading a book about Pearl Harbor while being here on Oahu. Especially when there was a black and white picture from 1933 of Waikiki and Diamond Head with a battleship out in the bay, and I could pinpoint exactly where I was laying on the beach in the present day in the picture. I'm waiting to visit Pearl Harbor until my whole family hopefully comes out here to visit, or at least my sister. I'm dying to see it, though. Time for more pics.

Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head:

Life as I saw it day before yesterday:

After beaching for a while, we took a sailboat cruise around Diamond Head. It was AWESOME for the first half of the ride. They had a net on the front you could sit on out over the water, where we all sat, and sometimes you'd get splashed by the waves. It was like riding a rollercoaster, too, which I love. Then, about halfway through, Sierra and I were like, you know...we don't feel so hot. Seasick. Ugh. I was so ashamed of myself! Luckily, neither of us puked, but we spent the rest of the sailboat ride in the middle of the boat, chewing ice, staring at land, and wishing we were off that danged boat. C'est la vie. Pics from the boat ride:

Melissa E. and a Russian girl on the net in the front of the boat:

Diamond Head from the sailboat perspective:

Sailboat sails. We called our boat the Gryffindor boat :)

Diamond Head & myself on the sailboat. I thought I might have to puke in the blue trashcan, but luckily kept my cookies.

After the sailboat ride, it was farewell Waikiki and hello home & shower. Then, off to dinner at a Mexican restaurant followed by salsa dancing! Unfortunately, I don't know how to salsa dance, and I was feeling tired & antisocial so I didn't really try. But it was really fun watching everyone else. There was one girl there who was helping promote the salsa night, and she was amazzzzing. I could've watched her dance all night. Ironically enough, the Honolulu Groupon for that day was 10 salsa lessons for $40. Melissa S., Molly, and I all bought it, so we are going to be salsa superstars in no time. I'm excited. As most of you know, I loooove to dance.

Moving on. Yesterday. We all went to church at the Nazarene church affiliated with the school Melissa E. and Melissa S. teach at. ("at which Melissa E. and Melissa S. teach." Too pompous. Even being the grammar nazi that I am, I prefer to end my sentences with a preposition. Although, I have been throwing out some big words in general conversation lately, in an attempt to curb my overzealous use of the word "like." It's a work in progress.) They had a potluck after, which was a cool experience, because I got to try a lot of local food. Chili and rice was really good, as was some kind of sausage in a sweet and sour tasting sauce. Asian-style chicken, some different take on spaghetti, etc, etc. My dinner plate and my dessert plate were piled high. Probably the most unique thing I ate was a poi donut. It's bright purple inside! Check out the link below to see what it looks like. Pretty weird looking, but tastes like cotton candy.

Poi Donut

After church was nap & reading time, then it was off to do an amazing hike! My friend & neighbor in Memphis, Will, has a friend, Kyle, that lives here with whom he put me in touch. So Kyle asked if I wanted to go hiking this weekend, and of course I said yes, because I love all kinds of outdoorsy things (except when snakes get involved, which is why Hawaii is my perfect place to live, as there are no snakes here!). So Kyle picked up Sierra and I at 5 and off we went. We drove around to Hawaii Kai, on the south side of the island to hike a place called Mariner's Ridge. I've already posted the pics I took on my phone to facebook, but here are some of the ones I took with my camera. The view was absolutely breathtaking, and completely worth sweating to death to hike up there. You could see both the western and eastern shores of Oahu, and the breeze felt phenomenal.

The hike ranged from looking like a desert to looking like a jungle to looking like a forest like this:

Views from the top:

So, needless to say, I plan on doing many, many more hikes, because it was completely addicting.

After we got home & showered, some of Melissa E. and Melissa S.'s friends came over and we played Know It or Blow It, a trivia game, and Buzz Word. Hadn't ever played either of those games, but they were really fun. Then, I finally had my first true Hannah night in Hawaii - I stayed up til 3 AM finishing my Pearl Harbor book, and slept in til almost 11 this morning.

On the job front, the news is great! Forever21 offered me a job Friday night, which I accepted. I could've started orientation yesterday, but they had to have my social security card, so my mom has put that in transit for me, and I'll start there this coming Sunday! Yay for being employed! Although, if you know me, you know I am absolutely DREADING the thought of having to dress up & look cute every day. Why on earth I didn't pursue a career in the healthcare field where I could wear scrubs every day is beyond me. Oh well, a job's a job, and money's money, so dress up I shall.

On the moped front, I'm about to email someone about a Schwinn moped on Craigslist, so let's hope that works out, a.) because it's one of the only non-Chinese mopeds I've seen listed on there, b.) because it has super low miles, and c.) most importantly, because it's red, which is my favorite color :) (just kidding Daddy, I know you're rolling your eyes.)

This afternoon, we're going over to Lanikai Beach on the Windward side of the island (read: eastern side), which, when you're here, seems so far away, but is actually only about 11 miles. Supposedly, it's an amazing beach where the sand is like powder. I'm excited. Pictures will come in the next post, I'm sure.

Ok, it is time I fiiiiinally quit forgetting to say why I'm even in Hawaii, because apparently many of you don't know! I am participating in the Hawai'i Summer Law Program at the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law June 29th-August 3rd, where I'll be taking 2 classes, International Environmental Law and Media Law. When I was making preparations for housing and such, it was much easier to find a place to sublease for the entire summer, rather than just for July. And hey, if you're going to spend July in paradise, you might as well spend June there, too, yeah? (Getting better and better at my Hawaiian slang already.) It's also easier to find a job when you can work for the entire summer rather than just one month (but maybe I've been slightly forgetting to say I'm only here for the summer?). So here I am, living in paradise for the entire summer and loving life.

Well, I'm tired of being in McDonald's (although my time here this morning has been completely devoid of homeless people...a first), and we're going to the beach at 1! Love and miss y'all!

If a Picture's Worth a Thousand Words...

Guess what? This post is going to include lots of pictures! No stunning landscapes or beach or mountain shots, though. Lo siento. The job hunt has taken precedence over frolicking along the beaches day in and day out. The weekend should prove different, however.

So, while most of you sleep peacefully in your beds (which hopefully aren't air mattresses with a slow leak that you have to pump up every night before bed without fail), it's 7:51 here, and I'm lonely, tired, and bored. Thus, here I am in McDonald's writing to you all with my 2 new friends named Medium Fry and Rolo McFlurry. I considered Small Fry and Snack Size Rolo McFlurry. For about 1/2 a second. They just weren't going to cut it. This Rolo McFlurry is making me slightly homesick, because Rolos remind me of my Daddy. Agh, enough, before I get all weepy & depressed tonight.

My day started bright and early at 7:45 AM with a return trip to the Lanakila Health Center:

to find out whether or not I had tuberculosis. I don't. Big surprise. So, got my TB Clearance Card. Super exciting.

I took a few pics along my mile long walk to the health center for y'all. First up, my cute little house!

My bedroom is behind the bush, and the little window beside the bush is my bathroom. I'll give y'all a photo tour of the inside in an upcoming post.

X marks the spot! Or in my case, a plumeria tree marks the spot. I live down an unmarked alley, so it's not "Turn left onto so-and-so street," it's "Turn left at the plumeria tree."

Next up, my super classy & cute bus stop:

Don't be jealous. The next pic is solely for AnnMarie and/or any other blogreaders I have that are also obsessed with Korea. It's a Korean Christian Church.

This pic I took on the way home from the health center, just 'cause I thought it was pretty:

Next, I would like to rescind my statement from yesterday that I have mastered TheBus. Apparently, Google Maps transit mode, while performing spectacularly for me in the past couple days, proved outdated & flat-out wrong today, which led to me missing my 11:00 AM appointment at the Apple Store to get a new charger. But, they rescheduled me for noon, so no big. Before I got to the Apple Store, while waiting on a bus, I saw these gems of ladies. Yeah, the 1980s called, and it'd like its hair and clothes back.

High-waisted shorts, white tennies, bedazzled jean skirt, and feathered hair? It was just too much. I had to document it. I really hope they were coming from a party with a "1980s Casual" theme somewhere in downtown Honolulu. I was baffled.

So the Apple Store I chose to go to today is located inside the Ala Moana Center. To call it a "mall" seems paltry. It's more like the most amazing place EVER. Anything, I repeat surely ANYTHING you could ever want has to be housed in its three massive floors. Here is a list of stores:

I promise you, the food court alone has to be half the size of the mall in Jackson (TN). And that's just the "food court." There are also "Restaurants," "Specialty Foods," and "Casual Dining." And in case you wanted to just move into the Ala Moana Center, you could fairly well, given that there is a post office, Foodland, pharmacy, and even a nightclub within. For my fashion-obsessed friends, there is Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Betsey Johnson, Chanel, Juicy Couture, Tory Burch, 7 For All Mankind, Burberry, Dior, Lacoste, Ralph Lauren, True Religion Jeans, Fendi, Gucci, Hermes, Kate Spade, Louis Vuitton, Michael Kors, and Prada stores. Addison, Katie, and Lesley will be shocked to hear that I went in 7 For All Mankind and left with...nothing. (I have a serious jean obsession. As in, I buy lots of them, and only wear about 3 pairs. Totally makes sense.) I also went in Michael Kors and very painfully resisted the oversized horn watch that I've been dyyyyying to have. I've included a link here, in case any of you have a spare $250 lying around that you'd like to use to send me an "I miss you so much!" present.

Michael Kors Resin Chronograph Watch

Unfortunately, my willpower reached its breaking point in Tory Burch, and I now own an amazing pair of sandals that you will probably never see me without until there is snow on the ground. I'll post pics of them tomorrow.

Here, I would like to show proof that AppleCare does indeed work for some things:

Brand new, beautiful charger! Here are a few pics from the beautiful Ala Moana Center:

The next pic is for my Nanna, who is obsessed with koi ponds. This is still in the Ala Moana Center.

So, I finally tore myself away from the Ala Moana Center (it was painful) and walked to the nearest bus stop. It was an interesting wait for the bus to say the least. I was sitting on a bench next to a homeless woman who alternated between muttering to herself and yelling at people walking by. She had crumpled-up leaves all in her hair, too. I would've felt sorry for her, except that all her mutterings and yellings were laced with the most extreme profanity. Apparently, it is "all our fault that she is homeless, because she never ate one bento box from her scientist family, but we ate them all." Just insert multiple, multiple expletives in there, and it'd be a direct quote. Crazy old woman. I kind of guessed as to which bus to take, and it wasn't the smartest decision, because it dropped me off about 1.25 miles down from my house. Down as in downhill from my house. Fun. So, I took some pictures for y'all on the hike home. First up, my library:

Get ready for the next one. It's my McDonald's!

I'm sitting right by those far right windows on the second floor right now. In the background, you can see the Foodland that charged me $6.49 for a loaf of bread. I'm still not over it. And the last picture is just one of my street and uphill climb:

So. My job patience is wearing thin. I went back to the restaurant today at 4:30 and met with one of the assistant managers. I think she liked me, and she said the GM really liked me, and I think I pretty much have the job, but she said she'd call me next week after she interviewed a couple more people, because she wanted to get a group of us new people together to streamline the training process. I completely understand the logic of this, but I do wish I could start making money NOW. Oh well. I've decided it's good that I have the weekend free, because I can go to some of the beaches and explore some before I start working as much as possible. And I've also GOT to buy a moped. I keep putting it off because I'm kind of scared to make such a big purchase, but it's got to be done. Guess I'll start a serious search for one tomorrow.

Ok, so for all of you who keep pestering me about posting pictures, I hope the FIFTEEN I included in this post somewhat satisfied you. I would also really appreciate it if all you people who have google accounts would "follow" me. It would make me feel more loved. I've almost decided to going back to mass emails like I did when I went to Costa Rica instead of blogging. People wrote me back when I did that. Hardly any of you comment. Yes, I am being whiny and pouty. But remember that I am like, 3,700 miles away from home all by myself. And even though I'm in a beautiful paradise, loving it, and super excited to be here, I still miss my friends and family terribly! So write me an email or comment me on here or on facebook or something! Love y'all!

Success...

As I write this tonight, my two roommates & the two friends are hilariously dancing around our living room while I dee-jay the iPod. One of the friends has a T-Mobile hotspot that she's graciously letting me use so I don't have to make another trip to McDonald's tonight. I say "another" trip, because I already walked the 0.7 mile down there to blog to y'all, only to get there and see that my computer charger cord looked like this:

So the charger demon strikes again. First, my camera charger, now my computer charger. I called the Apple Store (there are 3 in Honolulu - heaven) and the lady said that cords and cables are covered by AppleCare (what?! something is actually covered by AppleCare?), so I have an appointment at the Genius Bar tomorrow at 11 AM. I have no doubt that I'll get all the way there only for them to tell me that it is indeed not covered by AppleCare, and that I'm S.O.L.

So, on to news/updates/probably boring stuff. Yesterday, I got to The Cheesecake Factory, only to discover that directly next door is THE BEST, MOST AWESOME, INCREDIBLE, AMAZING Forever 21 EVER. Three, I repeat, THREE, stories tall. I thought I had died and gone to heaven, and I told all this to the girl who greeted me when I breezed through the blessed doors. I said, "Man, I'm about to go apply at The Cheesecake Factory, but I doubt I'll ever make any money, 'cause I'll probably just come right over here and spend it all!" And she said, "Don't go apply over there; you should apply here!" Turns out, they were hiring. I went upstairs, got an application, then went back next door at 2:30 for The Cheesecake Factory thing. Well, The Cheesecake Factory thing was just not looking good from the get go. I'd say there were about 40-50 people there trying to do the same thing I was doing. We filed into a back room like cattle, getting handed applications along the way. I sat down, looked at the application, turned it over, saw where it wanted all kinds of restaurant experience & lingo, and promptly pulled my Forever 21 application out of my purse and proceeded to fill it out right there in The Cheesecake Factory. Then, when I finished, I waltzed right out of The Cheesecake Factory, leaving all those super-waiters/waitresses to it. Went next door, waited a few minutes, and caught in on the tail-end of a group interview which included 3 other people other than myself. I did fairly well, I'd say, but they said they would let us know by Friday if they wanted to go further. Well, if you know me, you know I'm not very patient, and Friday wasn't good enough for me (I didn't tell them that, of course.) So I proceeded to check out a few other places, no go's on them all, though.

The good news from yesterday is that I mastered "TheBus." (I surely hope I did, I logged about 3 hours combined on it - awful.) The other good news is that I joined the public library! Woohoo! There is one just down from my house (read: a mile), which is fantastic. It's not the greatest library ever (I live in the Asian ghetto, remember), but it got the job done. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that it was going to start raining as soon as I checked out books, so I walked the mile home trying to balance heaving 4 huge books and an umbrella. Oh, and let's not forget that the walk from the library is uphill! I returned home tired, sweaty, rained on, and dejected about the job search, but then the night got considerably better when I learned we were all about to go eat Greek food for dinner! Woohoo! Lovvvvvve some Greek food. A ton of hummus, pita, and chicken souvlaki later, I was one happy camper, job search frustration be danged. Came home & was in bed by 9:30 (seriously, it freaked me out, too, don't worry).

On to today. Today was a great day! I woke up frustrated because it was raining outside, which was going to completely hinder my plan to wander Waikiki until someone hired me. Then my real, unmotivated self kicked in, and I realized, "Hey, this is great! Perfect excuse to lay in bed & read all morning!" So other than getting out of bed to get a cup of coffee (Dunkin Donuts Cinnamon Spice - um, YES), that is exactly what I did. I'm currently reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and it's fantastic thus far. I see what all the hype's been about it. So, my morning was pretty perfect. Cool breeze blowing through the windows, the soft lull of rain pitter-pattering outside, delicious coffee to sip on, and a great book to read.

Unfortunately, it stopped raining about lunch, so I decided I might need to not waste anymore of the day away (unusual, I know). This was a good decision, since my day just kept getting better! Hopped on TheBus, rode down to a shopping center, walked in a restaurant, and asked to see a manager. Asked her if they were hiring, she said yes, she got me an application, I filled it out, attached my résumé, and then she conducted a pre-interview right then and there. It must have gone pretty well, because she said that the general manager was coming in at 4 and to come back then and she would try to get me an interview with him that afternoon - woohoo. So I wandered around the shopping center for 30 minutes or so (it was 3:30 when we did the pre-interview), came back at 4, and sure enough got an interview with the GM. Pretty sure he loved me, and he told me to come back at 4:30 tomorrow, and as long as his assistants liked me, I was good to go! YAY!!!!! Hannah's going to be employed! He said I'll probably have to be a hostess for a week or two before I can start serving, but that's A-ok with me - gotta start somewhere. This job is going to work out super well, because it's downtown and only 1.7 miles from my house - excellent. Then, as I was walking a couple blocks back to the bus stop, I noticed that there was a 24 Hour Fitness right there, so I went in, and 30 minutes later I was a member for the next 2 months! I feel SO much better now that I'm going to have a place to workout; it's been killing me not getting to workout lately. I could have gone to the University of Hawaii gym in July, but they make you wear sleeved shirts, and I HATE working out in sleeves. I don't know why, it's just one of my OCD things. I just feel all restricted or something.

So yeah, quick recap: 1.) I am now a master of TheBus, 2.) I pretty much got a job(!!!), 3.) I joined the gym. Good day, I'd say. Up tomorrow: Genius Bar at the Apple Store, and hopefully starting the job! Oh, and one of the friends that's here has the same camera charger as me, so I just charged up my camera! Pictures will be forthcoming! Love & miss y'all!