Week 8: 2/19-2/25
Sunday: Retreat and MAUNA KEA...
It was the last day of the retreat which made me sad. I had been having so much fun with my new friends. We started the day with breakfast again and had our last worship session and small group time and talked about the importance in celebrating life even when times get tough. It was an eye opener for me, and I realized that there are parts of my life I need to stop stressing about, the small things and the things that have happened in the past, and just think about the positive outcome I have gotten from them. After this session we packed up everything loaded the stuff in the vans and drove back to campus. When we got there, we ate lunch at the BCM house and said goodbye to the Oahu students. Stefanie and I had to leave a little early because we were about to go on another amazing adventure! Chris, one of the guys from paddling, the one who use to live in Georgetown South Carolina, had offered last week to take the two of us up Mauna Kea. So around 2 in the afternoon he picked us up from campus and drove us to Mauna Kea. Now a lot of y’all know me and know that I have been wanting to go to the top of Mauna Kea since I found out I was going to be coming to Hawaii. It is so much cooler than I ever imagined!!! When we got to Mauna Kea, the access road leading up the mountain was guarded and closed. The weather had been iffy all day and the rangers didn’t want people going up if it snowed. Chris used to be one of the head engineers for two of the telescopes at the top so he knew all of the rangers. While he was talking, Stefanie and I looked around the gift shop and then Chris came back and showed us around the area and pointed out some native plants and gave us some time to acclimate to the elevation difference. The elevation at the gift shop was 9000 feet. It’s important to take a few minutes and adjust or you can get really sick. He then told us that we would be heading up the mountain! Guys, I was so excited when he told us this! I didn’t think we would get to go up but he pulled some strings (This meant that we were the only people to get to drive up on Sunday! Which is such a cool thing to say.)
We drove up the mountain taking our time and being very careful. On the way up we stopped to walk around and look at the silver sword plant. The mountain use to be known as the white mountain because of both the snow and the silver sword plant that used to be all over the place. Now it’s very hard and rare to find them on the mountain due to animals eating them. A lot of the silver sword plants around the island are protected by cages to keep the critters out. We continued the climb up the mountain and you never will believe what happened!!! IT STARTED TO SNOW! Y’all it snowed in freaking Hawaii when I was on Mauna Kea!!!!!! I was in pure cold bliss! I really didn’t think I was going to need hats, gloves, and layers when I came to Hawaii, but I was so wrong and so happy Chris lent us jackets to wear or we would have been so cold. In Hilo, it was 75 and rainy when we left and when we got to the top of the mountain it was 34 degrees and sunny (we were above the clouds at 13,803 feet). It was COLDER IN HAWAII THEN IN SOUTH CAROLINA! That was just unbelievable! When we got closer to the top it wasn’t snowing because the mountain was above the cloud cover, but there was still a lot of snow from the downpour in December and the light dusting it had a couple of weeks ago. When we got to the top. Chris drove us around and showed us the summit, it was closed at the moment due to snow covering the path, and Stefanie and I took tons of pictures. We also played in the snow. You can’t beat playing in the snow in Hawaii. Who can say they have done that before! We were so cold on the mountain that we decided to go down the mountain and watch the sunset at the beach. This was the first sunset that both Stefanie and I watched since being in Hawaii, I know, I know but in our defense in order to watch the sunset we have to go across to the other side of the island and that’s hard when you don’t have a car. But we spent some time at the beach and ate sushi and then drove back to Hilo. On the way, we stopped at a little spot on Saddle Road and star gazed. OH MY GOSH! THE STARS IN THE SKY ARE SO INCREDIBLE!! You can see MILLIONS of them! More than I have ever seen. It is one of my favorite activities. I wish I could take a pictures and show it to you all but I don’t think that would even do it justice! After a little while we got super cold and decided that it was time to head back to Hilo. I was so tired when I got back that the moment my head hit the pillow I was out.
Monday: President’s Day means NO SCHOOL!!!!!!
The Best kind of day is a Holiday because that means NO SCHOOL! I really like that here at UHH we celebrate all of the major government holidays cause that means I have more free time to explore. Today, I slept in which was a first in a long time and then met my friends at brunch. We were done at brunch, Hannah, Paige, Alicia, Alyx, Julia, Elaine, Ellen, Claire, Vicky, and I decided to go on an adventure downtown! We walked from campus to downtown to go to this really good smoothies place called Big Island Juice Company! I got a Coconut Chiller with pineapple. It was a mix between a smoothie and a slushy. It was super yummy and refreshing and I got it in a fancy mason jar which means when I go back I get a discount on my drink if I bring in the cup! YAY! When everyone finished there smoothies, smoothie bowls or coconut chillers, we headed down to the little beach on bay front. We went through the sand and looked for sea glass since this is a popular and great place to find it. We also found a dead blowfish on the beach which was sad but also really cool! I had never seen a real one before, I wish it was alive but it was still neat. After that we took pictures and walked back to campus. We all went back to our rooms to relax before dinner before getting together again. When I got back to my room I did a little bit of reading and went to bed. I had a long day ahead of me on Tuesday and I didn’t even know it yet!
Tuesday: Classes and planning site visit
Let’s just say to day was like having an entire week of stuff rolled into a matter of 24 hours. To start off the day I woke up late and just made it in time for classes. I started my day off going to class and we started talking about Forestation. Then in my Geology class we talked and took notes on Silica Eruptions and the events that correspond with those. After that the real day began. I had to call and set up my site visit to Oregon for my internship in a few weeks. It took a lot of work to print the forms, fill them out scan them and do this for several different things. It all worked out but I just spent a long time in the library fill out the forms. When that was done, I had to eat a quick lunch and head to my coral reef ecology class. When we finished, I had a NSE mid semester check in with Kadian and some of the other NSE students. We talked about our semester, had Malasadas, Kona Coffee, Mochi and other sweets and cookies. We also played a trivia game on Hawaii! I won a prize by knowing that Hawaii became a state in 1959 and was the 50th state! I got a Hawaiian language book to help me learn and practice the language because we all know that I need help with my language skills. After the Mid semester check in lots of us stayed behind and talked to Kadian and the NSE staff and just got to know them better. I then met up with my Hawaiian Ohana group to work on our project. We had to do research on Kū and make a PowerPoint. Kellsie and I got together for a little while to do some last-minute research and edit the PowerPoint for Wednesday. After that I went to my room to do some homework and then met up with Hannah, Vicky, Julia, and Elaine to get dinner. I then went to my hula class, did more homework and went to bed.
Wednesday: Frozen Night
Today was another long day. My group and I gave our group presentation on Kū who is the God of War and one of the 4 main Akua, Gods, in the Hawaiian culture. After this class I walked over to Aquaculture and we talked about Hydrogen Sulfide in ponds and how destructive and harmful it is to the ponds. After class, I had to call and talk to talk to the people to book my flight for the site visit in a couple of weeks. I must add on an extra day to travel since it takes so long to get from Hilo to Coos Bay Oregon. I am so happy we were able to find a flight and get everything worked out. I am so excited to get to go to Oregon. It is one of my favorite places and now I will be able to say that I have lived in Oregon too! I think that is just so neat. After figuring out my flights for Hollings I also bought my plane tickets for SPRING BREAK!!!! I am so excited to get to go to Oahu and Kauai, and I am so glad that I am getting to spend the week with my grandparents exploring the area. After all of this plane and trip planning, I was so excited to spend the afternoon relaxing and taking some time for myself. I walked around some of Hilo. When I got back to campus, I went to grab dinner with my friends when my friend Stefanie called me to help Anita and her clean up BCM from last weekend’s Retreat. I told her I could come in a little while to help even though I really didn’t want to because I had homework I should have been doing when I went for my walk. But knowing me and my amazing ability to not be able to say No to anyone I went and helped out. I texted Stefanie to see when and where she wanted to meet so we could walk over to BCM together. She didn’t answer so I walked by Stefanie’s room to see if she was in her room. When I knocked on the door her roommate answered and said she wasn’t there. So, I called her and she told me that she was already at BCM to help Anita and that I should just come by around 7. Well in Katie time, 7 means 6:45 because I cannot be late to things it is one of my pet peeves when that happens. So, I walked over early and got there around 6:46 or so and saw Anita and Stefanie walking around inside. I waved to them through the window but they didn’t see me and the front door was shut so I went to the side door which was open and walked in. When I looked up I saw that all of my friends, Stefanie, Annika, Hannah, Julia, Elaine, Vicky, Sammi, Raymie and Emma where all there and had decorated the room for a Frozen Party. At the retreat over the weekend I had talked to Stefanie and Beth about my friend Virginia who passed away my freshmen year of high school and how I hadn’t watched the movie since that day. But Beth told me the importance of celebrating her life and looking at the wonderful life she had. We had talked at the retreat about doing a party and she told Stefanie to make it happen, I didn’t think that it would happen but it did and it was a total SURPRISE! It was so much fun we had dinosaur chicken nuggets and all sorts of snacks. It was a great night and I have made some of the best friends here!
Thursday: Normal class day
Today was a normal class day. We didn’t do a lot in classes. My coral reef ecology class was canceled for the day so I spend the afternoon doing geology homework with my friends Alicia and Alyx. It took us 4 hours to do it. We had to use google earth and trace the mid ocean ridges in the ocean and then do calculations and answer questions. During this time, I was laying down on the floor because I was exhausted and my head was still hurting from jumping off South point. When we finished the homework, we walked over and got dinner together and with some of our friends and then I went back to my room to do some more homework and sleep.
Friday: Movie Night
Today was just another class day. I learned more about some of the Akua of Hawaii and we learned about toxic algae in ponds. After that I spend the afternoon at the pool just relaxing and doing homework. I ended up meeting Hannah, Julia, and Elaine and we had dinner and then watched Les Miserables in Hannah’s room. I love that movie but it is so sad. It was Hannah’s first time seeing the movie too. After that I went back to my room to do some homework and go to bed.
Saturday: Back on top
This was the most laid back Saturday I have had in a while. I slept in until 10 and then went and grabbed brunch with my friends and spent a couple hours doing homework. Around 2 pm I got ready to go back up to Mauna Kea. Mauna Kea is one of my favorite spots. I was so excited to get to go back up and see more snow. There had been a winter snow storm warning over the week so there was potential to be a little bit more snow on the mountain; and there was!! I met my friends Hannah, Elaine, Vicky and Caitlyn and the outdoor edventure club people at the SLC and we drove up saddle road to go to Mauna Kea. When we got there, we stopped by the welcome store, and bought some freeze dried ice cream and some souvenirs before driving up the mountain. When we got to the top of the mountain we drove around for a little bit and took pictures. When we got to the top we parked the car and waited for the sunset. There wasn’t really a sunset so we just sat in the car. While we waited all of us fell asleep in the car and woke up just in time to see a little strip of pink. It was still a really fun day! As soon as we got back I went to bed because I had to be up early for my trip to the beach.
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