Hawaii arrival

I SOOO wish you could be here with me! This place is so heavenly! I keep looking outside to see if I really am here! Our view is right outside the beach, we live on a rock side so it takes us about 10 minutes to walk to the sandy part - that will definitely be a daily routine! Andy and I went on walk today, and I was just in awe.

16 Monday 2009

12:35pm - with an excitement/anxiety I board the plane and head off to Hawaii. After 6hours, I learned that sitting next to a 6.4'' man+tonz of turbulance+a plane full of kids=a very long flight.

3:00pm - arrive in Hawaii. You can smell the fragrant flowers and instantly feel the humidity. Andy arrives with my Hawaiian leis in hand. We drive to our home in Kailua. The ride is amazing, the mountains are majestic and so unique. 4ish-I made it. My room is perfect. The house is older 70's style. The windows and doors are constantly open for air circulation - no AC. I'm sweating like CRAZY, Andy says I'll get use to it - says the girl half my size...it doesn't matter I'm in HAWAII

5:20pm-dinner, Andy made a yummy meal and I get to meet Rita; the woman I'll be caring for in the afternoons. She is more with it than I realized. She's witty and has a good disposition. She's hard of hearing so our conversations our louder than most.

7:00pm - go with Christy and Krystal (my other roommates - why cute and easy to get along with) to FHE at Kenui's. The branch is awesome. Greeting me with hugs and kisses on the cheek. After Krystal gave the lesson, we had an activity of 'guess the name on my back.' Kenui made some fantastic hawaiin food; Kailua pig (pork and cabbage), glass noodles with pork and chives, fresh salsa salmon-not my fav very fishy, fresh cut pineapple, bread and banana bread smeared with frosting. There was SO much food! It was soo yummy and a great introduction to the Islands!

9:00pm - the branch is going to the dollar theater and Christy asks me if I want to join. I can barely keep my eyes open, I'm sOO wasted. I decided to pass.

10:00pm - I get ready for bed and discover a new friend in the bathroom...can you guess it, yup a cockroach, it was about the size my thumb. Apparently they are every where. Krystal told me an interesting fact. Apparently they like to crawl all of the dishes in the cubbard, so she uses her shirt to wipe them off...

10:30pm - it's about 2:30am UT time, so I can't last any longer. Being spooked about the cockroaches finally wears off and I succumb to sleep. The crashing of the waves soothes me into slumber.

17 May 2009

I got up and finally unpacked. I was going to do it yesterday afternoon, but it was so hot in my room, I couldn't. I'm still paranoid about the cockroaches...YUCK! After breakfast, I walk on the beach with Andy and see more of the neighborhood. We had lunch with Rita and play a mean game of scrabble. She gets tired so is napping while I catch up on email and Andy is working on her lesson for Sunday and will soon work on St. Patty's decorations ;) I'm going to go help now. Tonight is institute and we might go to Pearl Harbor in the morning!