Hi everyone,


Without realizing it the first week of college has already come to an end! Isn't it even crazier that I've been in Hawaii for just about 3 weeks as well? I would like to point out that it hasn't been just me in Hawaii, but also everyone else who has been reading my posts and keeping up with me. Those people have been in Hawaii just as much as I have been these past three weeks. In addition, I feel like it's also been a few days since I posted anything. I know that traditionally my posts have been a "recap" of sorts, with the occasional "fun fact" post thrown in there. While I've learned enough stuff to make a third fun post, I've decided to make this post based off of a conversation I had with another student today. I hope you enjoy.


This morning my friends and I, yes the same Coloradans I've been hanging out with, decided we would take the bus into Honolulu to go to The Korean Festival. Celebrating it's 15th year, the festival included dancers, food eating contests, information booths, a necessary tent, and lastly many unique food vendors. While it's usually just the 5 of us that go places, my friend Bella decided to extend the invitation to another girl, one from California, to come with us. Bella told us all that this girl had been feeling very homesick and that maybe getting her off campus would help distract her. Surprisingly, the girl agreed to attend the festival with us, something that I think really did help keep her mind off of things. While the festival was entertaining, I would like to point out that to those interested- it isn't all Korean food and Kpop. Instead, many of the booths are actually either information about Korean companies (Korean Air was one of the booths, as an example) or giveaways. Also, while the festival itself is free the activities are not. What I mean by this is that if you want to try a pipe ice cream you're going to need to pay  2-3 SCRIP's. A SCRIP is essentially a ticket that you pay for up front, and while it isn't required I would recommend it if you want to really do anything. Some vendors take cash but many take SCRIP tickets only. My friends and I didn't buy tickets and we still had a blast, so really it isn't something you need to do if you don't want to. 


After the festival my friends and I walked down to Walmart to pick up some last minute things for our dorm rooms. While it was mainly a mix of school supplies and food, what's interesting is the conversation I had with the Californian. She told me how she's been feeling very stressed lately and that she had come so close to leaving the campus. She told me that ever since getting to campus she's felt lonely and like an outsider, and that when she spends too much time alone she begins to feel "depressed". I wanted to make this post to shed some light on something that affects all students but that is still something so few will talk about. For this girl, the first week of college "was horrible". For her, it only took two days before she was calling her parents and begging for them to buy her a return plane ticket. This made me think back to my first post I made while on campus, the one where I was crying in my dorm room because I had no one to talk to on campus. The post I made before I had friends. You see, while the first week of college is fun, it's also very stressful. In addition to all of the schoolwork you'll most likely be getting, if you don't have that group of friends yet than chances are you'll start to feel like you're losing your mind. I want to tell you, right now, that you're not. You're not losing your mind, you're not alone, and it is okay to feel sad. Everyone, at least the majority, of people on campus feel this way. You will find that group of friends, you will have those days where you forget how homesick you are, and, before you know it, you won't even remember why you were sad in the first place. While my first week of school was, for the most part, great, I can confidently say that that is not the case for everyone. So many students on campus will tell you they're homesick, and so many will chime in if you share how you're feeling. With so many students going back to school right now, I only saw it fitting to share that this week is not the end. At times it will feel like you've reached your breaking point, and at times you will want nothing more than to go home, but if you put yourself out there and continue to act positive and kind than I promise things will get better. As it is I've made so many friends this week, and if you've ever known me than chances are you believe that I'm a fairly introverted person! But what happened when I put myself out there, when I was most vulnerable, was when I began to make friends. I made friends with the 3 Coloradans who quickly became 4. I made friends with Californians, Big Islanders, and even locals. I became friends with people from all over, and now I no longer feel alone. In fact, I look forward to spending time with these people. One week ago I wrote about how I was ready to leave Hawaii and about how utterly miserable I was in the place so many call paradise. But like I've said so many times before, if you give it time and put yourself out there I promise you will enjoy yourself. The first week of school is not your last. Remember that next time you feel like giving up. 


Just thought I would share that since I know so many other kids going through those emotions. Feel free to leave in the comments how your first week of college went, or just continue to silently admire my blog. Either way, I hope you learned something from this post. 



Until next time,

Aislinn

Hey everybody,

As expected, I'm back with another post about my school day. Thankfully, this day was better than the last. While I didn't have as many big lectures, I did have more classes with friends, and for that, I'm thankful. Here's a quick synopsis of my day:


For some odd reason my roommate, a girl who's earliest class is at 8:30 (and only on Monday) decided to once again wake up early and go on what I'm assuming is a morning run. While I'm a pretty heavy sleeper, one thing I've noticed about myself is that when someone else is in the room, or when someone else so much as comes into the room, I wake up immediately. She's quiet when she's getting ready, but when she comes back is when I've started to wake up so she tends to make more noise. Or maybe I just notice it more. Either way, I have an 8:30 class just about everyday of the week, and it isn't as bad as people have made it out to be. No, really, my class is very small, about 7 of us, and the teacher is very friendly, making the classroom environment relaxed (because we're all still waking up) and not competitive in the slightest (again, we're all still waking up so it's a very good time to have class). And this is coming from someone who is not, and has never been, a morning person. 

After Chinese class, my 8:30 one, I walk over to my psych lecture and take some time to just collect myself. Today the weather was a lot better, meaning that at 80 degrees there was, what felt like, a lot less humidity than the previous day. So much so that I even saw people walking around in hoodies and jeans! 

My psych class is huge. By far my biggest class, psych is definitely one that is going to require me studying on my own time. Thankfully, I know two people in that class and was even able to sit with both of them. It's ironic that the biggest class is the one I'm going to probably get the most help in. 

After psychology I was off to my last class of the day, an optional review taught by a TA. The buildings could not have been farther apart, I swear. I'm surprised I didn't hit my steps, either! I actually just barely reached 10,000 today, and you would think that walking from one side of campus to the complete other would help, but I guess it's for the better since it motivates me to take advantage of the on campus gym. I haven't used it yet, but I'm thinking I will soon. 

After my last class I met up with a friend in the bookstore to hang out before having to part ways. It wasn't for long, maybe half an hour, before the bookstore became too crowded for my liking. Also- class just started and I've already seen one tour! There's no way I could give a campus tour on the first day of school, so I wonder if those kids knew they were witnessing the first day. 

I don't have much more to share after that. I did some homework, marked up my calendar with future test dates (honestly, I have one test a week in Chinese. I'm not exaggerating) and met up with friends for dinner. It was a slower day, and I hope the rest of the week isn't like that. Fingers crossed for more active days! 


Besides that I don't think there's anything else I have to share. If you're coming for a tour, be warned: classes have literally just started, so be courteous to those trying to make it to their class on time. 


Until next time,

Aislinn

Hey everyone,

So today successfully concludes my very first day of class! Let me break it down for you..

Firstly, walking from the freshman towers is killer at 8:00am. It really is. Not only is it very humid, but, at least in my schedule, the distance you have to walk is pretty far. At a brisk pace, getting from the towers to the north side of campus is a good 25 minutes. Also- wearing a dress is a horrible, horrible idea. In hindsight, it was something cute to do for my first day, but ideally wearing a cotton dress in humidity is not a good idea. Don't do it. 

My first class was originally supposed to be my largest, however I quickly realized that would not be the case. Out of 7 people I am one of of the youngest. There's actually one other freshmen, but other than that there's only a couple sophomores and juniors and the rest are Ph.D students. It makes me wonder why so few students are continuing with Chinese, and it also makes me wonder why so many students are guys and not girls. But regardless we opened class with introductions of ourselves in Chinese and went on to review the rest of the year. 

After running home and changing into shorts and a tee, something much more practical, and went on to my next class: Intro to World Religion. Now while I thought this class was going to be interesting it just turned out to be a huge rant and a "Do you think God is real? I can prove to you why he isn't as real as you think." Which is insane. And what makes it worse is the fact that I was under the impression that this class would be small. Instead, the class is a huge lecture hall with probably 40 people. Personally, that's way too many people for me and the whole reason I registered for an ACE cluster. It really ticked me off and I wish I could drop the class just based on the sheer amount of people enrolled in it. 

Next class was Anthropology, and more specifically World Cultures. Another class in my ACE cluster, but another one with too many people to count, immediately I wanted to leave. The topic seems interesting, but not only does the teacher not know how to use a computer but also hates electronics. I get that some people are old fashioned, but this is a whole new level of loathing. At one point, when she was explaining the book we would need to buy, a girl asked her if, because an E-book was cheaper, we could opt for buying the online version instead. Her response was, "Of course!" But when asked, "Awesome, so when I do that can I bring my tablet to class?" She did a complete 180 and went "Absolutely not. No electronics." So now the girl is really confused, as am I. She rebuttals with, "So should I get the E-book?" And I kid you not she goes, "Certainly!" And its so frustrating because some of us, like myself, are going to get the book the cheapest way we can, but you're really going to stop me from reading your textbook because you don't like technology and "studies have shown...". Quite honestly that might be the worst line you'll ever hear in school. "Studies have shown..." I mean I get where she's coming from but as a teacher you should know that not every student learns the same, so if I student learns better by typing their notes than why not let them? If technology is so awful and detrimental than why are STEM schools so successful?

Anyways, my next and final class was English 100. Naturally, I scored a 3 on the AP exam, meaning I would get absolutely no credit and that I will have to retake the class. However, as luck would have it, my English class seems like it's going to be the most fun. With only 20 kids, the ideal amount, I really think this class is going to be entertaining. Also, it's great to be able to sit there and say, "I thought all of my classes were going to be small..." And hear a chorus of "Yeah same!" It's comforting.


After all of that was over it was about 3 in the afternoon. I know early classes are often dragged, but being able to walk home when others are leaving, or just starting, feels so refreshing. Plus, it's so nice to just be able to go home at a seemingly normal time. 





I hope you all have a great day and I will talk to you soon!

Until next time,
Aislinn 

Hi everyone,

With less than 12 hours until my first class, I decided that instead of giving advice or sharing some things about my day that I would instead write this post to all of you potential students.

Firstly, lets talk about our 101 classes. Like any other college in the country, your 100 level classes are your most basic class. They range from "Intro to Psych 101" to "Beginners Mandarin Chinese 101". However, a little known fact about these entry level classes are the supplies. If there's anything the school tells you as far as supplies goes is that you will need a little remote called an iClicker. Now what's an iClicker.. Well, to make things simple, it's essentially a little remote on it that is typically used to either take attendance or show your participation in a class. I would go into more detail but considering my first classes aren't until tomorrow that's all I can share on the iClickers. However, if there's one piece of advice I could give you than it would be don't buy from the bookstore. If you have $60 that you're okay with throwing away for a little remote than the bookstore is perfect, but if you want to be a little more frugal than see if you can buy one secondhand. In my case, I found someone on Facebook that was able to meet on campus and sell me a remote for half the price of the ones in the bookstore. Trust me, the professors are going to (typically) tell you the bookstore is the cheapest way to go, but listen to me when I tell you it's not. 

Meal swipes. A little known fact about them is actually also a very hard to explain. At UH meal swipes, AKA your meal plan, can range from 7 meals a week to (I believe) 20. However during your first week, the one before classes start, chances are you aren't going to use all of your meal swipes. When this happens, you're going to find yourself wondering, "But what am I going to do with the five meals I didn't have this week?" The answer, which took my friends and I two whole days to find out, is actually quite simple: The Market. Closest to Hale Aloha Lokelani, The Market is a little on-campus convenience store. Whenever you find yourself with extra meal swipes at the end of a week, simply go to The Market and buy the equivalent of your meals in food. Here's an example: Out of my 10 meals a week, I only had 3. With the extra 7 meals, each meal being $5.50, I was able to buy over $35 of food! In addition to your meal swipes, The Market also takes debit/credit and food cash (essentially dining dollars). A word of advice- do not go on a Saturday. As their busiest day Saturday at The Market is crowded, bought-out, and competitive. Just try and picture 30 college kids trying to do the math as to how many meals equal an entire case of ramen. And don't forget that there's only one case and 30 kids. It's insane. Have you ever seen an episode of "The Walking Dead"? Pick any scene from inside an abandoned, empty, cluttered grocery store and you've got The Market on a Saturday night. It's absurd, but since this is the only place that will take meal swipes, it's all you've got.



So that concludes this post! I hope those two things helped in some way. If not, at least you now know a little more about Manoa! 

Until next time,
Aislinn

Hi everyone,

So today is going to be a different post. Instead of retelling my day, I've decided that I'm going to write more about the things that stood out to me. I've picked out my top three, and hopefully these will help you if you decide to go to Hawaii.

1. DaBus
On island, the bus (literally called DaBus) is quite possibly the easiest way to get where you want to go. When I first got to Waikiki, DaBus was oftentimes how my mom and I got anywhere. The system is easy, you just look up which number bus goes to your destination and that's it. Except it's not. The bus, while it's a good way to get around, isn't so black and white. For example, today some friends and I were going to head to Waikiki, a simple 15 minute ride from campus. However, after talking we decided to dedicate the day to a trip up to North Shore. In hindsight, this wasn't feasible. While it's possible to get to North Shore, it's not just one bus you're taking. Instead you take one bus for 20 minutes, then transfer to another line for an hour, and then from there you finish the route on another line for the final hour. Before taking DaBus it's extremely vital that you do your research. Download the app (available on both iOS and Android!) or simply google maps the route. Personally I use google maps transit because I like the real-time aspect, but any of these three things are better than waking up one morning and deciding on a whim to go to only the farthest part of the island.

2. Week of Welcome
I know that I've talked about this in some previous posts, but I wanted to go into more detail. For $125 a student (and $50 per parent/guest), the Week of Welcome isn't something you should pay for if you're not serious about going. Referred to as "WOW", the week of move in is jam packed with workshops, tours, and free food for those students who paid. Meaning you can't go anywhere without your lime green wristband, which lets the leaders know who is a WOW student and who isn't. I would suggest looking into it only if you're a student who hasn't been to Hawaii before or if you're coming from another state. However, in my case, I payed and haven't done much of anything. I take advantage of the free breakfast and dinner, but haven't gone to any workshops. But don't think I didn't have a good reason to miss the activities, alright? The biggest problem I've seen this year is overlapping of two different WOW's. The original one made by the New Student Orientation staff as well as the second one made by the RA's. This year, the school (from what I've heard) didn't communicate with the RA's and, as a result, many of the days are spent picking and choosing what to do. The big question this week has been "Do I want to meet more students or the people on my floor?" It's a hard decision and if I knew it was going to be like this than personally I wouldn't have paid. The confusion of what to do paired with the FOMO (fear of missing out) just hasn't made for a good combination. And of course, this leads me to my next point. Today was a mandatory freshmen orientation but also wasn't. Wait, what? Well actually, I'm just as confused as you are. See, I was told this orientation was mandatory. No exceptions. You have to be there. (Actually all I got was an email that said: Meet in the courtyard at 12:45). But because I had plans with friends, I decided to ask an orientation leader about this freshmen orientation that I had never been told about prior to today. Her response? "Um no, no orientation at this school is mandatory. The only time we would say something is mandatory is if you're a nursing student in that school. Other than that no orientation is mandatory." Huh. Weird.

3. Biking on campus
Alright so this has been something I've debated doing. My friends all have bikes and have talked about going on bike rides, something that sounds like a lot of fun. In fact, many students on campus ride bikes. The students that don't either walk, skate, or drive. (Or get creative and do something like scooter) However immediately after getting a bike you're told you need a lock as well as a removable seat. Yes, a removable bike seat. Why? Because if you don't take that bike seat off than someone else will. I even had an advisor of mine walk me through locking up a bike "just incase you get one" I hate to say it, but why get the bike to save time if you're going to then turn around and use that extra time to both remove a seat and unlock the snake around your wheel, frame, and handlebars? To me the extra work doesn't seem worth it. I would rather get my step count in.



Anyways I would love to know what you thought about this kind of post.

Until next time,
Aislinn

Hello everyone,

Boy, today was a sigh of relief. It's truly amazing how you can go from feeling absolutely horrible to comfort. If I had to pick the weirdest part of my day it would probably be the feeling of deja-vu I got at the most random parts of the day. Crossing the crosswalk in front of the East West center? Deja vu. Looking at the palm trees across from the Queen Liliuokalani center? Deja vu. While I felt yesterday like I didn't belong, today I felt the opposite. I wouldn't say I feel like I belong, per say, but rather I feel comfortable and almost like I'm in a familiar place.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say something that I'm sure will catch many people by surprise. You see, I'm not a very religious person, but when I have very hard times I often pray and ask God for the best. I don't think the feelings I got today and the day I experienced were because I "put myself out there" (which I did, by the way!). Instead I truly believe it's because God helped me. And I won't go into much more detail, but I will share that I'm very excited to get involved on campus and begin attending weekly mass. 

Now onto the rest of my day. After being woken up by both garbage trucks and roosters, I decided I couldn't just lay there any more and instead I got ready for my day. I knew that my mom would be stopping by, so for the first half of my day I knew I would be alright. 

Once she got here we did our laundry and set up my payment plan. At Manoa, students have many options of paying tuition. If you don't get scholarships or your loan money falls short, there is a third way to pay your tuition: via a payment plan. Pretty self explanatory, but a payment plan is essentially paying everything for that semester up front. I won't share how much I pay, but I will share which plan I signed up for. At UH there are three plans a student (or their parents/guardians) can sign up for. The first is a four month plan, typically for upper classmen. In this plan, students pay for the fall semester in four payments. Payments can be done up front, but only in the beginning. The school requests that you pay online, I personally think because it's quicker, through either a checking or savings account. In my case I had to sign up for the credit union out in Manoa and pay for tuition that way...Carrying on, the second type of plan is a 3 month payment and the third type is a two month plan. The perks of the payment plan are great, because not only does the school give you time to come up with the money, but they also don't kick you out if you're late or low on funds. Also with a payment plan you aren't tied to a bank that you'll eventually have to repay!

At the end of the payment process mom and I hopped on the shuttle to Walmart and from there we walked to Ala Moana. Ala Moana, a mere 15 minute bus ride from campus, is located right outside of Waikiki and consisted of over 300 very interesting stores. From your standard Coach and Disney Store to your only-available-in-Hawaii stores like Hilo Hatties and there ABC Store, there's something for anyone and everyone. While at the mall mom and I ran into Old Navy (which is quite honestly very cheap here) and went out for lunch. 

After lunch we caught the bus back to campus and finished setting up my dorm room. I know that I haven't posted pictures yet, so here are a couple to hopefully satisfy until I become more comfortable sharing pictures online. 

The day of move-in before anything had been unloaded

After unpacking everything. Isn't it adorable?

Overall I think my mom and I did a great job of setting my room up. Now I just hope my roommate and I get along so that I won't need to move rooms and take it all down! 

Afterwords was when things went downhill.

I knew that I would feel lonely again, but was at that point in the day where all I could think was "Why won't people hang out with me? Why is my door the only one open in my hall? Where is my roommate?!" In short, I was thinking very negatively. In an effort to change things I decided to reach out to one of my friends Shannon. Shannon and I know each other from Colorado, but that's about it. I opened with, "Hey! I hope I'm not bothering you-" and asked if she had signed up for NSO (New Student Orientation). She quickly said she has, and I explained my situation (could you really call it that?). She quickly texted back that "Of course, you're more than welcome to join the three of us as we do NSO. If I had known that your roommate wasn't there yet I would have reached out!" This was when my day began to get better. Before I knew it, I was rushing to get my room tidied up before leaving to go have dinner with Shannon. I'm sure my mom wanted to spend more time with me, but I was very eager to hang out with people outside of my floor! And really, I haven't done much of that. My floor seems to be the silent type, in which no one leaves their door open and instead of socializing they all stay inside of their rooms. In fact for the whole day yesterday mine was the only room with the door open- on my entire floor. I understand that people are still getting acclimated to campus, but shouldn't you also be getting to know people? 

When my mom left was when Shannon came over. She actually came over right when my mom was calling a cab. It was really nice spending the majority of my day with my mom while also getting to hang out with my friend. 

Once inside my tower, we hung out for a bit before heading out to dinner. We ate in a different cafeteria and it was a crazy experience. I say crazy, but really the only thing crazy was how much effort the school puts into the presentation of their food. No, really. I'll attach a picture my next post. Also, Ashley ate dinner with us! I'm actually really glad, because Ashley is really nice and I would hate to be left out had she gone and eaten with someone else. Because Shannon and I had been talking about going to Banan and the Japanese garden after dinner, we extended the invitation to Ashley and she accepted. So, after eating my tilapia, rice, and fresh green beans, we left and began walking. 

Banan is interesting. And also vegan. Do you know what an acai bowl is? Banan has a similar look except it's misleading and gives off the impression of being ice cream. Don't be fooled, IT'S NOT ICE CREAM. Instead, it's yogurt made entirely out of bananas. Around the yogurt is anything from coconut shavings to fresh slices of strawberry. In my case I got the Acai bowl (it looked like chocolate) with a side of banana slices, strawberry slices, granola, and puffed quinoa. Like I said, very vegan. But still good. I think next time I'll read more of whats in the bowl before buying. 

Once we finished eating we walked over to the very peaceful Japanese garden. One of those moments where I thought to myself, "is this really happening?" happened as I walked down the aged stone steps to go look at the koi in the pond. With a full moon in the cloudy sky, it was one of those times where you can't help but think, "I couldn't do this stuff if I was back home" Seeing the garden, while at night, was still very cool and while I don't think Ashley enjoyed it as much as I did, I'm glad Shannon was able to show me. 

Later was the inflatable fun in the courtyard which Ashley wanted to do. When we showed up, there were 2 inflatables and a dunk tank. It's a very small courtyard. Since Shannon and I didn't really want to do the challenge course or basketball we just decided to walk around campus some more, given that the two of us haven't seen a good chunk of it. The walk was interesting, we saw a mongoose and many wild cats, but the weather was great so it was nice to walk without getting sweaty. 

After that we said our goodnights and went back to our dorms. Tomorrow we're going to get breakfast and will then take the bus into Waikiki. I'm not sure if Ashley is going to go, but I'm still so excited. God is so good. 


Until next time,
Aislinn

Hi everyone,

I know it has been a few since my last post, but I promise I haven't left. Instead, today was move-in day at school. Today has been very long and very busy, so I will try and recount it as best I can.

To start, my mom and I woke up at 6:30 to get a head-start on the day. Luckily we packed our bags the night before, the smart thing to do, which saved us some time this morning. After getting ready, mom booked an uber and we were off.

Surprisingly, we made it to campus no later than 8:15, however getting unloaded was a whole other ballgame. Our uber driver, a kind woman named Amy, was thankfully glad to stick with us until the very end, even staying to help us unload her car. Before she left she gave us both a hug and said, "I feel like I know you both. Good luck at school!" It was a very thoughtful thing to do. 

Next, the two of us waited for a cart to be rolled our way. Once we had one we quickly piled as much as we could into it and headed up to the room. 

Just as I had hoped I was placed on the honors floor. However, this meant that I would be staying in the very top of the building. No, really, the only thing above me is the roof and laundry machines. It's a nice room but the view isn't that great. Currently I'm typing this at my desk, which is directly placed under the wall of windows. Unfortunately my roommate isn't here yet, which is really hard. 

After we unloaded all of my stuff I quickly left to take my placement exam. Some advice- the test is holistic, meaning that, in my case, the first 25 questions were listening based, the next 60 were reading comprehension and fill in the blank, while the last few were essays. Actually there was only one essay and the prompt was "write about yourself to best showcase your Chinese skills. Max. 700 words." I'm not going to lie, the listening portion was very challenging just based on the delivery alone. With a five minute audio and no pause button, you're essentially expected to know, on the spot, what everyone in the dialogue is saying.

After I made it back to my room we unpacked some more stuff and went to check me in for orientation. At UH, orientation isn't mandatory, and it isn't free. For a student alone to go would cost them about $125, and if their parent(s) want to go it would be another $50 per guest. Honestly, it's too early to say if its worth it, but I can tell you not that, at least this year, the NSO schedule is conflicting with the res. hall schedule. I've honestly already questioned whether or not this was worth it, and I feel like it's not but only because everything is optional and you're not actually told whats included until after you've paid. Naturally. And let's not forget that my mom leaves in a week, and to be honest I would rather see her than go to a lecture on getting involved.

Speaking of which, after my mom left I went to the first floor meeting. After that, I went to both my neighbors and introduced myself. One pair seems very friendly, but the other seemed like they didn't want to be bothered. I also think they wen't to high school together, which could make it harder to befriend them. Overall the people are friendly, but I haven't met another Chinese major since being here. I did meet a kinesiology major who's very nice. Her name is Ashley and it seems like we have a lot in common. 

I know that everyone here is "nervous about making friends" and "is just as nervous as you are" but based on how people acted today, it really felt like everyone knew each other. Even the foreign kids! Add that to the fact that my roommate is now unsure of when she's even arriving is making me feel very left out. Honestly I'm not sure if I want to be here or if I just want welcome week to be over.. Probably both. And don't get me wrong the campus is very nice but it's very lonely here and I'm, again, not sure if I want to be here. I'll give it a semester and see how I feel. 

Besides that I think move-in went pretty good. Tomorrow I've decided to skip out on the orientation in favor of spending more time with my mom. 

Until next time,
Aislinn

Aloha everyone!

As my first day in Hawaii has drawn to a close, I figure it would be best to share a few things my mom and I have done.

First, it's worth mentioning that we slept for a total of 12 hours. After being awake for more than 27 hours we ended our day by going to sleep at 7 and not waking up until 7 the next morning. Something you'll figure out very quickly is that there really is no jet lag here. Try and stay awake as long as you can and sleep during your plane ride over here. Luckily in our cases the plane ride was perfectly inline with Hawaii's time, meaning that we could sleep on the plane and wake up the same time as everyone else on the island.

Second, we left very early to go to the university. Not after eating at an I-Hop, of course. (Mom got the french toast combo whereas I opted for a classic pancake combo. She says it's worth noting that the fruit was so fresh she wouldn't mind having that for a meal.) At the university I found the buildings to be pretty run-down. While the campus isn't brand new, I did get the feeling that the buildings, and surrounding area, could use a remodeling. Or at least a pressure wash. After arriving mom and I head off to meet with my advisor, whom afterwords we both agreed was a very funny and welcoming man. Next at our campus stop was the Student Center, where I would set up a bank account as well as get my ID. After finishing those two things (which maybe took an hour in total? The bank was the longest thing we did.) We went downstairs to the bookstore where I was able to score a nice long sleeve. I know their hoodies are tempting, but if you're going to be attending the school than it's not too smart of an investment. With the day to day humidity and a typical temperature of 80, there's really no point in buying a fleece lined jumper that you really only think you're going to wear. Just don't do it.

We ended our trip on campus by walking to the East West Center so we could see the famous "China Through the Lens of John Thomson, 1869-1872". On display are dozens of photographs Thomson took during his stay in China, and the most interesting part about them is how real they are. Interestingly enough, Thomson's photos are some of, if not the, first pictures ever really taken in China. And in many cases he was the first white man many Chinese had ever seen. If you ever get the chance to see the exhibit, whether at Manoa or at it's home in London, I would recommend going and learning about it.

The day was then spent with some more walking in downtown Waikiki and followed by a dinner at PF Chang's. Afterwords there was a fireworks show on the beach which mom and I got to watch.


Hawaii is interesting, to say the least. To be honest I don't really see the appeal of coming here for a honeymoon and am also lost as to why so many Australians are here. It's certainly not a cheap place to go and many stores are high-end ones you can go to anywhere.



Until next time,

Aislinn

Hi everyone!

With the new school year quickly approaching, and college application season quickly catching up to underclassmen, there is not better time but now to create a blog. 

In short, I am an incoming freshmen at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. My goal is for this blog to help answer any questions, as well as clear up some misconceptions, about both the university and the state of Hawaii. 

I won't go into too much detail about my college application process (maybe later on I will?) but instead I aim to blog about my school year and the inevitable culture shock that comes with living in Hawaii. In other words, I am a haole. 

I would prefer to keep my first post short, as I did just arrive to the island (for the first time, I might add). But in the sake of a good first introduction I will share a little about me. 

My name is Aislinn but is pronounced Ashlyn. This fall I will be attending the university of Hawaii with the intention of majoring in Chinese and quite possibly Korean. I've never been to Hawaii before so I expect it to be quite the adjustment.

Until next time,

Aislinn