Hey everyone,

It feels a little weird coming back online and typing a blog post. I won't lie, I haven't done too much since the last post. Part of this is because I've been busy with school, and another part has to do with the lack of time left in this semester.

It feels weird to say it, but in three weeks I will be going home. Yes, you read that right! In three weeks I will have left Hawaii and be on my way home. However, for this post I want to talk about a something that every out-of-state student (or at least those in Hawaii) absolutely have to do before the semester ends!

About a third of a mile from campus is a storage unit center where students are encouraged to buy a unit for the summer. There are other places, but I will be talking about this one because

1. They provide student discounts
2. I'm most familiar with this company

At this company, they have been quite clear that student discounts, as well as pick up and drop off, are services they provide. I actually just bought my unit today, but have decided to forgo the pickup option. One thing I will advise is to go into this with more than one person. Obviously the more the better, but that isn't always the case. In mine, I had originally agreed to split one with my other friends. However, it's been weeks since we talked initially about renting one and, with literally three weeks left, I couldn't wait any longer and just got a unit myself. I decided that, in my case, less is more, and will be splitting the unit with someone else. However, my biggest fear is that the others won't be happy, but a unit is most definitely something you don't want to put off renting, and so I knew I couldn't wait.

I plan on moving my stuff in finals week and, from there, won't touch it until I fly back in August!

--

I also wanted to bring up something that I'm sure many of you have been curious about since my last post. Will I be transferring? Short answer, I'm not sure. My opinion of Manoa hasn't changed since I've made that post and, if anything, I have decided that if next year really is my last year, then I'm going to make sure I take advantage of everything at Manoa. Granted, as a language major, there isn't much to take advantage of. But I mean this in terms of classes. I have decided to sign up for Korean 101, a decision that I really wanted to have made last semester, but unfortunately couldn't make. This is something I really want to do, and can't begin to explain how excited I am. I'll also let you guys in on a secret- from what I have heard (from people both in the department and out) Korean is a very easy and enjoyable class. Compared to Chinese at Manoa, which I won't go into but could make a separate post about, it also has a much higher retention rate. This doesn't matter that much to me, but I think it says a lot about the program if you have a lot of the students returning each year. 

Also worth mentioning is the amount of aid I have received for the next year! While I'm happy, and shocked that the school has been so generous, I have been awarded over $5,000 in scholarships for the next year. I'm happy, because this is something I won't need to pay, but concerned because I know that if I want to transfer that there will be no way I can get a school to match the price I'm paying without it being an equally low tier school. But, regardless, I can't be upset at the fact that I've been given essentially free money. 

I hope that everyone is having a great week. Keep pushing on!

Until next time,

Aislinn

Hey everyone!

The beginning of this week was a pretty mundane one, to say the least. 

I had to work Monday-Thursday, which meant that I was pretty limited on what I was able to go and where I was able to go during the week. However, come Friday I was able to start my weekend and relax.

Work aside, on Friday I ended my day by attending advising from my department. The department head for Manoa's colleges of Languages and Linguistics (where Chinese is located) was able to sit down with me and go over some classes I should look into taking. Compared to my last semester's advising (you can read about that in my October posts) this advising session went a lot better. I left with a pretty good idea of classes I should take and can say that I feel pretty prepared for registration. I still have to go over advising with the Flagship department, but that's scheduled for April 11th.

Afterwords I went back to my room and rested up for a bit. I had invited the girls to go with me to an art festival in Downtown, called "First Friday". It's in Chinatown and the whole point of it is to go and there are countless art galleries for viewing, and musical performances throughout the night. Since it's Chinatown, and since we had never been before, we decided to leave campus around 5:30, which meant we would be arriving no later than 7. 

When we finally got to Chinatown, the sun had already set and we were soon encountering countless groups of people drinking wine and discussing various art pieces. The first few galleries we went into were very small and featuring only one artist. Additionally, I found it very cool that every gallery had cheese, crackers, and wine available for guests to enjoy. One gallery even had classical music playing in the background, which made the experience all the better. 

It was also noticeable that Chinatown was being kept surpassed, for lack of a better word. It's pretty well known that you shouldn't go to Chinatown at night, but it looked like the police were out and about, which meant that your chances of running into trouble were very slim. 

One of my favorite galleries was one located a block away from the Hawaii theater. It was very interactive, and had various pieces that the attendees could alter and write on. One art piece was titled "Scars" and invited all onlookers to describe their scars- physical or not- and write about how it affected them. Across from that was a piece that asked onlookers how they were feeling and what they've learned in their life. It was a very calming but lively gallery that had a great amount of people inside it. There was even a section for keiki to draw and learn about art.

(Keiki is the Hawaiian work for kid!)

Once back on campus, the girls and I went our own ways and I decided to go to bed early. 

Unbeknownst to the others, hours later Bella and I would be hiking Stairway to Heaven. One of the guys on my floor (remember the one who took Bella and I all around the island?) invited us to hike Stairway with him and promised to take us to the very top. I've learned that when you're offered the chance to hike Stairway- say yes! There is no reason not to, and, like I said, don't worry about the guards. 

With just my luck, my building had another fire alarm in the middle of the night, which led to me getting 4 hours of sleep. Of all the nights to get very little time asleep, this was unfortunately the worst one. Stairway is not a hike I would recommend one do with less than 6 hours, because really, at that point things can go wrong. 

We ended up leaving at 3:30 and arrived by the stairs at 4:30. If you read my first post on the stairs, this was a huge improvement! 

The ascent up the stairs was very rough. My first mistake was not drinking any water beforehand. I completely forgot! About a quarter of the way (felt like half, to be honest) up I knew something was wrong when I began slowing down and feeling very dizzy. I've never been dizzy before, but I knew the second I started swaying and my surroundings started moving that something wasn't right. I knew that there was a chance Bella was familiar with this, so I told her how dizzy I got and she immediately told me that I was most likely dehydrated and so she very quickly gave me some of her water, as mine was at the bottom of my bag. For a little bit I felt better, but I knew that I would need to drink more soon or else I would seriously risk hurting myself. 

After what felt like forever, but was probably only half an hour, we finally made it to the first platform. It was still dark, and the city below us looked like sparkling fireflies. The Pali Highway also looks stunning at night, lit up only by the few cars and lamps. We took about a 10 minute break before starting again, and this time I felt much better. 

By this time you're probably all curious as to what these stairs look like, yeah? Here are some pictures that were generously taken of me on the hike.

Shaka's up for a perfect view

When we finally got to the second platform, I can confidently say that we were all feeling great! I was longer exhausted, which is why I would say that Stairway is quite possibly a mental game more than a physical one. Of course, once we got to the second platform the sky was beginning to lighten, which meant we were limited on how much time we had before the sun would rise. 

From the third platform you have about a 15 minute walk to the last platform, which is where the huge antenna is that is pretty much the reason that Stairway was even built. 


I tried to get it in a picture, but it doesn't seem like the double rainbow made it. The left is a photo of the bunker and the right is the gigantic antenna on top of it. You can actually climb up there, but it's quite difficult to do. I had to be helped up and down, and still found myself struggling. 

The three of us stayed on the last platform for quite some time, enjoying the view of the island below us. From the top, one can see Kailua, Chinaman's Hat, the Moke's (formally known as Na Mokulua), Three Peaks, Waikiki (at least what looked to be a city) and Lanikai. To put it in perspective, you're at an altitude of 2,480, which is achieved after climbing the rusting 3,922 stairs. 

The descent is what has most likely what caused me to be so sore the next day. In complete honesty, I just about swung down the entirety of the steps. The walk down can be done primarily using your upper body, which means you could, if you trusted yourself and the stairs, swing down the steps. I did this by grabbing onto the bar and swinging forward every three steps, and only really walked when the stairs became completely vertical (this is only the case once) and when the stairs were damaged (only once). Once at the bottom, you'll most likely find yourself accompanied by others also descending. You could choose to walk by the guard, or you could run through the woods like us, and a few others, did. We ran along the private road, through the bamboo forest, and through the drainage ditch, before we finally made it back to our car. Covered in mud, scratches, and bruises, we all took a few minutes to rest and exchange how proud we were of having successfully hiked the Stairway to Heaven. 

Needless to say, when I returned back to campus I got breakfast (delicious crepes from a restaurant called Aloha Crepes- very affordable, too!) and took about a 3 hour nap where I was in and out of consciousness. I'm not completely sure why I couldn't fully fall asleep, but after a while I knew I couldn't stay in on such a good day, and I met with Bella and Jade for dinner and, afterwords, a trip to Waikiki where we would go to the Hilton and swim in their pool and hot tub. We like the Hilton because the water is warm and there's usually no people, and plus its a pretty big pool. 

The next day I woke up and, literally, fell out of bed. My entire body, from my throat to my calves, felt like they had never been used before and were so sore. I'm glad my roommate wasn't in the room, because I actually shouted at how painful it initially was. At the day progressed the pain subsided, but I'm sure tomorrow will be another story. 

After brunch Bella and I went to Sandy's, which is a locals beach near Makapu'u. You can get to it by taking the 13 from UH and transferring to the 22, which is right across from the zoo. The 22, as we have recently found out, is the Hanauma Bay bus as well. 

Sandy's was nice, and is definitely a college kids beach. There were tons of groups of college students, and very few tourists. In fact, it might have been coincidence, but the lifeguards actually stopped two groups of white people and told them to go to a different beach because it "wasn't safe". I can agree that the swell was pretty dangerous, but Bella and I both found it ironic how they seemed to only stop the white tourists. Also worth noting is how they let us go no problem, but the two of us knew there was no way we were getting in what seemed to be 10 foot waves. We left that to the body boarders and locals who were familiar with the waters. 

Now I'm back on campus and going over some work I need to get done. With only 4 weeks left in the semester, time seems to have picked up, so I'm trying to get as much done as possible with as much time as I have left!

I hope you enjoy the pictures and are having a great week. 

Until next time,

Aislinn