Week 16: 4/16-4/22

Sunday: Easter

Today was very relaxing day. I woke up around 9:30 am and then went to the school brunch with Michaela and Elizabeth. We had so much food. They had crab cake eggs benedict, macnut pancakes with Haupia (coconut syrup), grapes, raspberries, blue berries, papaya, pineapple, honeydue, canatalope, eggs scrambled and omelets, hash browns, mashed potatoes, honey baked ham, cakes and pies, homemade donuts and rolls. We had tons of choices. After brunch, Michaela and I did some homework and worked on our projects. Then we went to dinner around 5 pm and I came back to go to church at 6:30 pm with Alexa, John, Frankie, Stefanie, Rocky, Josh, and Gavin. It was a great service and it was a lot of fun to see these guys after me being MIA for the last month between going to Oregon and then having family in town.

Monday: Homework Catch up day L

After three weeks of exciting adventures today was the first really day of nothing! I woke up and went to my classes. In Ohana we prepared for our debate next week and reviewed some more for our exam on Friday. In Aquaculture, we talked a little bit about what we wanted to do the rest of the semester and for us to decide if we wanted our final to be a take home or a in class final. We will see what happens. After that I grabbed lunch with Michaela and spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on homework and projects in the library. I also worked some on this blog and tried to catch up! After an afternoon of homework, I grabbed dinner with some friends and then went to a movie night at BCM with some friends. It was a ton of fun. We watched the 1995 film Sabrina with Harrison Ford. It was really good. After movie night, we hung out for a little while and talked. I was still so tired from the last couple weeks that I went back to my dorm and fell asleep!

Tuesday: Homework Catch up day part 2

Today my classes were very interesting. In global change, we got into a heated debate about GMO’s. I didn’t really participate due to the fact that it turned into a screaming match and progressively got louder and louder so I just listened. In Volcanoes and Earthquakes, we talked about how to warn people that an earthquake may happen without losing your credibility and in coral reef ecology we talked about more marine fish and started to talk about nutrient cycling! YAY NUTRIENT CYCLING! This is what I have been wanting to talk about all semester! Yea yea I know I’m crazy but what can I say I love marine geology and chemistry. Any chance I get to talk about Phosphorus I get super excited! Today was another Rainy day in Hilo but it has been a really nice day. I have grown to love rain and rainy days since living in Hilo. I use to look at them and think great I am going to have to stay inside, but I have learned that rain doesn’t have to stop you from having fun. Today though it was a blessing in disguise. I really needed to catch up on some homework and since it was raining I didn’t feel bad about spending the day inside being productive after sitting through my classes in the morning. I still wish I could have been outside but if it means getting work done today so I can do fun things my last couple weekends here I will do it! After doing work all afternoon, I went to dinner with some of my friends and then went back to my dorm to do more homework. This is my week of rest and catch up.

Wednesday: Merrie Monarch

I had an absolute BLAST today. I have been so excited for today since the before the semester. Last year after finding out that I would get to exchange to Hawaii, and trust me there are still times I cannot believe I am here, I went and searched everything I could about the Big Island and Hilo and one of the big things that always popped up was about Merrie Monarch which is the world’s premiere hula festival/competition and it happens every year in Hilo. I was really worried after doing research about it that I wasn’t going to be able to go because tickets were sold out, but I found out from friends early in the semester that the opening night is always free. So, what do you think I did in order to make sure I get to see this festival? I went and sat in line for 6 hours. My friend Emma and I both really wanted to see it so after our classes, we drove over to the stadium and set up a chair, towels and umbrellas and sat there in rain and shine so we could get good seats. We sat with a really nice lady from Hilo that has been coming to the opening night for several years in a row. We talked about school, her job, our time here in Hilo and just about ourselves. It was a lot of fun. Most of the time Emma and I spent talking, getting to know each other and practicing for our debate. When it was getting closer to the time we could move inside we saw Josh and Rocky walking around and invited them to sit with us. They went exploring the craft fair for a little bit and me and Emma sat down. We were about to go exploring when the line began to go inside so we stood up, put our stuff away and stood in line for another 30 minutes. While we were in line I bought a really beautiful orchid and rose head pieces. It was stunning. The orchids were white and pink and the roses where a pretty pink. The lady even helped me put it in my hair so I could wear it during the show. Not long after we got the hair piece in my hair, the line was moving and we were able to go inside. Since we were one of the first inside we got great seats. We were on the side close to the stage, we were in front of the aisle so no one was in front of us, we had a breeze and we had a back rest. It was great. We sat around for about 30 more minutes and then the show began. To start off a group of girls sang the National Anthem and the Hawaii anthem acapella. After that the royal court from all over Hawaii was presented and the show could now officially begin. The first group to start the show was a Hilo group and I knew a couple people in it. It was so neat to see them perform. They performed more of an original old time Hawaiian Hula with the grass skirts. Next came Mexico. They did their version of hula and performed the Mexican sombrero hat dance. That was really fun to see. The next performance was by the Philippians’ and they had lots of cool tricks but my favorite group was the one from Kona. This group was incredible. Their routine was set in the 1950’s when Hula became popular again. In this performance, they had people of all ages doing different things and had the more modern and graceful hula then stuff that is typically thought of as hula. It was really just incredible and I had a blast. When the night was over Emma dropped me off back and at my dorm and I went to bed I was so tired from this amazing 10-hour long hula day.

Thursday: Studying

Today was just another normal day in Paradise. I had classes all day. In global change, we talked about the march for science happening on Saturday and came up with poster slogans. My poster was “If you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the precipitate!” HAHA aren’t I funny! Yea in reality someone else was super funny! I just looked online and found the joke, but it was perfect for the chemistry major within me! In Volcanoes and Earthquakes, we talked about earthquake safety again and had a pop quiz, and in Coral reef ecology we finished learning new material and talked about nutrient cycling again. I wish the semester had been nutrient cycling that would have made me so happy but I did enjoy the class over all. It is my most stressful class and it is the one I am doing the worst in but I am constantly working with my professor and friends and they are helping me to understand the material. After classes, like most Thursday’s I had before spring break came, I spent the afternoon studying. I sat in the lounge of Alahanoua with Michaela for the afternoon. I worked on coral reef ecology paper, my blog, and several other homework assignments. Around 6:00, I went with Alexa, Stefanie, Raymie, and Frankie to dinner at BCM and went then to converge. It was a lot of fun. The group was a lot smaller tonight because of Merrie Monarch but it was still a good time. It was also Kama’s birthday so we sang happy birthday and since Stefanie and I were in his group Anita bought him a sweet potato coconut cheesecake and it was delicious. When we were done in our small groups, I walked back with everyone to our dorm, I went and worked on homework and went to bed.

Friday: Community Service

Today was also another really good day. In my ‘Ohana class we had our second and final exam for the class. This one was on family and the different family classes and the different things pregnant women crave and things they should and shouldn’t do while pregnant. It also included information on laws and what happened if those laws were broken. I finished that exam early so I got to leave and worked on homework before aquaculture. In aquaculture, we talked about NPDES Aquaculture permitting and about our final exam. He decided that it would be a take home final, this is the first take home final I have ever had in my college career and that it would be a paper/manual about everything we learned about. When class was over, I had lunch with Michaela and then went back to my dorm to change into clothes for community service hours. A really cool thing about the NSE program here in Hilo is that you can get a certificate for completing an immersion program where you go to so many events that have to do with native Hawaiian things, doing community service that teaches you the importance of preserving and protecting the island along with the history of the island, as well as taking a class about something Hawaiian whether language, culture, geology, geography, biology or really anything that is focused on the Hawaiian islands. For my last community service project, I worked on the same one I did early in the semester called Keaukaha Service day. This service project is a project that has been going on since 2002, and is looking at how to remove the dangerous invasive species and help keep them from over growing and kicking out the native and less invasive species. They are also trying to find a cure for the Rapid Ohia death that is killing many of the forests. I loved working on this project and was excited to get to go back out and help pull out more invasive species. We worked out there from 1:00 until 3:30. It was a great way to spend the afternoon. When we got back to campus, I showered to make sure I cleaned myself off. We were working in an area that could potentially have Rat Lung Disease present since rats and slugs live in the area, but it should really be a problem cause the animals did not directly touch us and we did not have food from the area. Then I worked on homework for a little while until Stefanie and I went to dinner and hung out for the rest of the night. After dinner, we came back to my dorm and made healthy ice cream. Now I know what most of you are thinking, healthy ice cream that’s impossible but I am here to prove you wrong! We made banana ice cream by freezing bananas mashing them and adding soy milk, peanut butter and chocolate protein powder! After mixing it we had to wait and hour for it to set so the two of us and Alexa talked and did homework to catch up with each other and to spend time together like we did at the beginning of the semester. After the hour passed the ice cream was not frozen yet so we decided to wait another hour and let it firm up a bit more. While we were waiting our friend, Miles came by and asked us if we wanted to watch the movie Attack on Titan Fall, which is anima movie based on another show my friends have all seen. So, we went to the movie room in my dorm, which I found out was air conditioned, had I known soon I would have been spending a lot more time in there this semester, and watched it. I was kind of confused for most of the movie so I didn’t pay attention but did homework instead. I did get a good amount of homework done which was good. When the movie was over Miles, Stefanie and I talked for a few minutes and then Stefanie and I went to see if our ice cream was done and y’all it was soooo AMAZING that we ate all of it! It was so good! So, fruity and yummy! And it didn’t even cost us lots of calories. The ice cream was a total of 257 calories and 15 grams of protein per serving sizes. I would say that is some good eats right there. We decided that we are going to make it again before we leave and try all sorts of flavors! I cannot wait to eat more! After eating our delicious homemade ice cream, I walked Stefanie halfway back to her dorm and we ended up talking for another 30 minutes and then going our separate ways with me working on homework and her going to bed.

Saturday: Merrie Monarch Parade

Stefanie and I decided to spend the morning at the Merrie Monarch Parade. We woke up around 9:00 am and made the walk from our dorms to downtown Hilo. We made it just in time for the parade and found a great spot in the sun to watch the parade. It lasted for about 2 hours. It was a great parade. One things that I noticed is that they have a lot of Hawaii little miss, misses, princesses and queens. They came from all over the islands. While we were sitting and watching the parade we were getting so hot and had run out of water that I ran into Burger King with our water bottles and the lady was so nice that she kept letting the two of us come in and get water as much as we want. I think it helped that I was slowly turning beet red. Towards the end of the parade our friend Gavin met up with us and we watched the rest of the parade before we walked to the best coffee shop, Crusin Coffee, and got a drink and sat in the shade for an hour to cool down. Then we walked from Crusin Coffee to the civic center from the Merrie Monarch parade to go to the craft fair. The craft fairs are huge markets. It was so neat. They had all sorts of stuff. I bought some souvenirs and a couple things for my family. When we were done shopping, we walked back to campus. I was so hot that I took a long cold shower and then spent the rest of the night working on my essay for Coral Reef Ecology. I was up until 2:00 am working on a draft and decided I had gotten enough done to finally go to sleep.

#Easter #Leis #MerrieMonarch #CommunityServiceTrip #STUDYING #MerrieMonarchParade