What we've learned so far...

So for our first real-time post I’m going to share a few things I’ve learned in the last 19 days:
1. Double rainbows are really bright and vivid. (They’re beautiful, but they didn’t bring me to tears)
2. Playing music from home makes me kind of sad, which is frustrating, everything is tied to memories of the past 5 years in Oklahoma.
3. Moochi Ice Cream in Hawaii kicks Moochi Cream in Japan’s butt!
4. In Hawaii a yellow light at a traffic signal really does me drive faster.
5. My hope that one of the hardest parts about living in Hawaii would be learning to cope with my gums hurting from all the acidity in the pineapple I’d be eating every day weren’t true. (The best pineapple and other island-grown fruits are sent to the mainland!!!)
6. An air mattress was never meant to be used for a real mattress.
7. You get in shape really quick when you walk literally everywhere. (luckily the car has come in, no more 5 mile walks to look at apartments!)
8. Snorkel masks are not created equal! We bought the nice kind but I have a sneaky suspicion they are not geared towards mainlanders with protruding nose bones! John and I both have bruises from our masks
9. Living in a place where I visited on pacrim brings back all the nostalgic feelings from that trip. Truly a life changing experience.
10. We live directly across the street from the church our group visited while we were here. Such a coincidence! Yes, the island is small but it’s not that small.
11. Learning to live on ‘Hawaiian time’ isn’t so bad.
12. A lot of what people ‘warned us about’ turned out to not be true when we got here. Well with the exception of traffic. that IS bad. But milk isn’t $6 or 7 a gallon, it’s like $4.25. Christmas trees don’t cost $600 and gas is only $3.39. So yes, things are a little more here but not some unbelievable amount.
13. There are definitely times I feel like we moved to another country. We are often the minority when we go out (not that that bothers us) it’s just a very different culture than what we were used to in Oklahoma City. We welcome the adventure and can’t wait to explore the island more!
14. People are the worst on craigslist here!!! They don’t take stuff down once it’s sold, it’s so frustrating!!
15. Just because a collapsed volcanic crater is extremely shallow with beautiful reef and tons of people around doesn’t mean we should feel 100% safe from any ocean threats! Hanauma bay was shut down this weekend because three 9-foot hammerheads were in the bay!!

16. This is going to be an amazing time for John and I to have adventures and to grow even closer. The idea that we really only have each other seems pretty basic… hellooo we’re married. But with our families and close friends so far away it’s really pushing us to rely on each other more.

ALOHA

After a few days of making a mad dash after work to Macys or Walmart or Sam’s we officially have a stocked kitchen. After an exciting weekend of exploring the island but foot or mass transit our car arrived today! Such a relief, I actually walked to work today because we forgot to get enough money out of the ATM for both of us to ride to and from work. It’s $2.50 each way each time and they don’t give change. So I just woke up extra early and walked the 2.2 miles to work. It was really a pleasant walk and I took my time and still got there in 40 minutes. 

On Saturday we woke up and walked up punchbowl, it’s the closest “mountain” to our apartment, probably 3/4 a mile away. At the top we expected to find the National cemetery of the Pacific (which we did) what we had not realized was that we’d also be getting such an amazing vantage point of Honolulu. There weren’t many people up there and the walk was really peaceful. There was a somberness to the whole place. There were thousands of graves and tributes to soldiers who’ve died, mostly during WWII. After that we hiked back down and got our things ready to go to Hanauma Bay. It’s a volcanic crater that the wall along the ocean collapsed and it’s now a really shallow bay. We got to swim with these amazing fish and even sea turtles. We’ll definitely be back there many times. John really enjoyed his first time snorkeling!

We had already decided that Sunday we’d go to church just down the street to see how we liked it. So we read on the sign the the english service started at 9am. When we walked up to the doors they handed John a church bulletin and then we both looked down and realized there wasn’t a word on the page we could read… It was all in Korean. They saw the confused look on both our faces, laughed and ushered us towards another small chapel. When we got inside we instantly felt as though we didn’t fit in. Not only were we the only Caucasians (we didn’t mind that part) we were the only people in the room over the age of 15!! They sent us to (what we assume was the only english service at the time) the middle school/ high school worship service. We couldn’t help but chuckle when they began with “We know you have all had long weeks and we know how difficult middle and high school can be, but let’s just put that aside….” Best part was that they gave us a goody bag of candy to thank of us for visiting their service. All that to say that it was a very welcoming church and right up our alley, If only we can find the young adults english class!

So as we start this new week, my second- John’s third week of work we look forward to what’s in store for us! Here’s my setup at the office…

And here’s the view out the windows at my desk.

Life in Transit

Well we've failed on blogging everyday but it's been hard to keep updating the blog while we're on the road with no wireless.

We had an amazing time exploring LA with Jeremiah and the next night sleeping in the middle of the Redwood National Forest wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it might be.

As we traveled into Oregon we both dreamed of ending the trip there and just making Portland our home. But, the trip wasn't over and the adventure had hardly begun.

Everything went as planned until we attempted to drop the car off at the port in Seattle. As we pulled up to the gates and the shipping company and read that they were closed we began to freak out. We had 3 hours until our flight and a car that needed to get on the other side of a 12' fence… Luckily John had some college friends who live in Seattle and who were willing to help us out. So onto the Airport we went.

 I called the shipping company first thing Monday morning and they apologized for not catching the mistake sooner, (we had arranged to drop the vehicle off on that day a month in advance and even had it verified the day before.) So fast forward through our first week here of sightseeing and beginning to get our bearings (and me being really sick! Throwing up and super swollen tonsils..) But we are here!

We spent the weekend camping at Bellows AFB. (Reid Agan got our PACRIM group onto base so we could swim there when I was here back in 2007.)

(this picture is from our attempt at longboarding on Waikiki) [Dec. 2007]

This was our first chance to swim in the ocean. We just kept having those moments of realization- we live here now! I spent a good part of the first week sick and trying to get better while searching for an apartment and preparing for my interview. Thank the Lord, (literally) I got the job and am looking forward to starting work tomorrow! We also find out if we are approved for the apartment that we went to look at last week tomorrow. We'll be better at blogging especially once we get our own place and get wireless. Thank you again to all of our family and friends who supported our big move in every sense of the word. It's going to be tough to be so far from everyone we love but we are so thrilled to be finally getting the adventure we've been longing for!

Arizona!

We've made it! After a long drive through the night from Fort Worth, we are descending into the desert-like atmosphere north of Phoenix.  We arrived at our first destination (The Petrified National Forrest) earlier than planned and it wasn't open. 

We forgot to take into account the time zone changes. So we continued on for the Painted Desert.  This is where the first real adventure of the trip happened. With only three "blips" of gas left in our little white spaceship we ventured off the Interstate to a long and winding two-lane road through the desert. About 40 minutes in John commented that he hoped we came to a gas station soon because we only had 2 blips left and quite a ways to go. We never found that gas station, there was literally nothing but these enormous mesas and a few passing semis.

With 46 miles to the next major city our light starts flashing for low fuel. At this point we took advantage of the downhill slopes and coasted as often as possible. Our little hybrid saved our butts and before long we were rolling into the first gas station in Tuba City on fumes. 

Our trip to the Grand Canyon was surprisingly underwhelming. Don't get me wrong; the reality of the huge expanse was breathtaking.

It's just a strange thing to drive up to this enormous canyon with hundreds of tourist piling off of the buses, peeking over strangers shoulders to get a better view. More than anything we just wanted to take a week and hike it!

Let the wild rumpus start!

In seven short days John and I will pack up what belongings we have left and pile into the car and head east. Destination: Salem, MO! After spending a week with John’s family we’ll travel down to Fort Worth, TX and spend a little time with my family before the real adventure begins. After time with both of our families we begin the journey west! First stop- Phoenix!