aloha

we've arrived in hawaii, and i must say that i'm having a rough time
adjusting to some american customs...mainly cell phones. the minute
we began sailing closer to some of the larger hawaiian islands (we've
been sailing past islands for the past two days, but they are all
smaller islands that just anybody can't visit), everyone whipped out
their cell phones and began to attack the phone lines. it was
overwhelming. and annoying. they've lived without cell phones for
90 days...can't they survive another week? or at least can't they
survive until they get on to land? don't get me wrong, i do love my
cell phone, but i can honestly say that i haven't missed it one bit
the entire time i've been gone. so being reintroduced to a world
where everyone is on their cell phones was a bit depressing, and i
found myself wanting to retreat from the crowds.

once we pulled in to the harbor and docked alongside the famous
aloha tower, the rd's were called to duty to hand out passports for
the final time. within a couple of hours after that, the ship was
cleared and people were running to the gangway to set foot on oahu.
i joined the student life staff, the global nomads and a number of
other staff members to head to dinner. because we were a larger
group and it was already fairly late, we decided to just walk across
the street to the aloha market, where we ended up eating at some
chain restaurant. after dinner, i headed to wal-mart. the last time
i was here, aj insisted that wal-mart hawaii was different than other
wal-marts, which turned out to be true. i needed to pick up a couple
of items, which is why i decided to take a trip to the superstore,
that and the fact that our waitress told us that this new wal-mart is
the largest in the world. crazy!!

anyway, i feel this blog is a little boring and dry, but really,
that's kind of how i'm feeling right now. the last time i was in
hawaii, it was great. i got to see a lot of the island from more of
a local perspective and was able to avoid most of the touristy
places. this time, i'm only here for a matter of hours (about 26 to
be exact) and i'm stuck in tourist hell. so instead of getting to
build off of my previous good time here, i have been stressing out
about figuring out how to make the most of my short time here. i've
already decided that it's not worth me working my way up to the north
shore, so i guess i'm going to find myself a beach in waikiki and
spend the day laying in the sun and playing in the ocean, with
hopefully a bit of snorkeling on the side. and that may not happen
at all if i can't get some guidance from the locals tomorrow.

for now, i'm sitting on this ship - that has been my home for the
past three months - and listening to the silence surrounding me. so
few people are here right now...it's almost kind of nice to have some
time to myself since my time here is coming to a close.