We woke up in the morning to go to Honolulu and got off the ship at about 8 am. We took the bus to Pearl Harbor and got tickets, but had to wait until 11:45 to get in. To kill time we went to a flea market that surrounded the University of Hawaii’s football stadium. It was the most overpriced flea market I’ve ever seen, so I didn’t really buy anything. I did try enough free samples of crackers and sauce though to fill me up. Tolan, one of my roommates, bought a Ukulele for $65 and it seemed to be a good one. By the end of the day he knew probably 7 songs on it, he’s obviously a really talented musician. We went back to Pearl Harbor and saw the Arizona Memorial which I’m glad to have seen, but it wasn’t worth a 3 hour wait. We then waited for about a half hour to catch a city bus to head to the North Shore of the Island which is where Sunset and Pipeline, two of the more famous beaches in the world were. On the way we got off and grabbed some Korean food for lunch. I doubt they will ever read this, but I have to thank my roommates from last year at U.Va, Brian and Ray. I was able to talk to the waitress about all of the legitimate names of the Korean food, and so instead of saying “I want the clear noodle thing” I asked her “Is that Japchea”. She was really almost flattered that I took the time to learn the names of the food instead of just pointing, and I’m really glad to have been at least somewhat culturally sensitive instead of just a tourist. Other words I knew were bibimbap, galbi (which I ordered and was awesome), and mandu. For a really sketchy looking restaurant, the place was a pleasant surprise for all. Anyways we went to the north shore and saw some really big waves. They get up to 60 feet apparently but that day were only 15-20. Still way bigger than I had seen. We watched the sunset on “Shark Cove” which was a rock formation that had some really cool splashes going on. After waiting an hour for the bus, we caught it and rode the 2 hours home. We grabbed dinner really late at a pub that had exceptional burgers, played shuffleboard, and went back to the ship and crashed.
The final day in Hawaii I had no plans, but my friend Simone, from the first day, had an extra ticket to go on the “Oahu Grand Island Tour”. It was a $55 ticket that she gave me for free, and again, I am all about free, so I of course had to go. I had sprained my ankle pretty bad the day before as well, so it was nice to sit on a bus all day instead of walking. We saw a bunch of cool bays, all of the nice beach houses, the mountains, and more sights on the tour. It was like an 8 hour thing and we saw the entire island. We grabbed lunch at a tourist trap place, but I did feel adventurous and tried “Spam Wasubi’ which is basically spam sushi. It looked terrible but tasted really good. We went to Sunset/Pipeline beaches again and the waves were a big bigger. Plus there were surfers out today so we saw them for a bit. We ended with the Dole Pineapple plantation which was the mother of all tourist traps. It had every sort of pineapple paraphernalia you could possibly want, and a maze which they charged to get into. I had a leather necklace carved with the word “Koma” which is my name in Hawaiian, and then called home and talked to my parents for about 30 minutes. We got on the bus, drove back, got on the ship, and took off from Oahu about 2 hours later. I feel like I was REALLY productive in Hawaii and saw all of the sites. If I have any regrets it is not seeing the volcanoes on the big island flowing at night, not legitimately snorkeling at a snorkel place, and not just spending more time at the beach. I loved Hawaii though and would happily go back, it is definitely an awesome place.
So now we have about 11 days at sea with class pretty much every day so that will be a challenge. Reading is intense when you have classes everyday, but I’ll stay caught up somehow. I’ve continued to meet new people about everyday, and have found a lot of fun in playing games at night with the random groups that do so in the piano lounge. We are in the process of planning our trip around Japan, I’ll post something about it sometime between now and when we leave.
Anyways there is so much going on that I could type forever, but I know people can only read so much (probably way less than this), so I’ll let you go. The experience is unbelievable so far, truly a chance of a lifetime.
If anyone has any questions or just wants to chat please drop me an email. I’ve loved hearing from everyone, it helps pass the time and I feel connected to home while being around the world.
We may run, walk, stumble, drive of fly,
But let us never lose sight of the reason for the journey,
Or miss a chance to see a rainbow on the way.
-Gloria Gaither
Thomas
Tdmalinowsky@semesteratsea.net
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