I wish it was sunny again

Aloha,

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. Nothing exciting has been going on. I've mainly been looking for a job, and sitting around moping that the sun is hiding.

I got out on Wednesday and went to the Ala Moana shopping center which is this HUGE outdoor mall. Not like an outlet mall where you can drive and park outside of each store you want to go to, but like a regular mall with 4 stories and no roof. It was more upscale stores like Waikiki, so I just did some window shopping. The only stores I could afford there were Old Navy and Forever 21. It was pretty though.

Now I just want the sun to come back out. I haven't been able to go lay out and work on my tan because it's been so windy and cloudy out. It's still in the mid- to upper-70s but the wind makes it chilly.

I also desperately need a job. I'm going crazy sitting around the apartment all day.

The Real World

Thank the Lord in Heaven we have wireless in our apartment!!!!!! I have never been so happy to connect to an unsecure network. Now I don't have to worry so much about our cable and internet not being installed until March 10th. I mean, I can download all my shows anyway. In fact, since shows air in the eastern time zone 4 hours before they do here (prime time starts at 7 in Hawaii), I can usually have them downloaded before I could actually watch them on tv. Kind of annoying considering I was reading my blogs last night as I was watching the Oscars and already knew who won everything before they were announced.

I got checked out of the hotel and made it to the apartment today. I looked like a bag lady. A bag lady with cute bags, but a bag lady nonetheless. Then I walked the 1 mile to and from Wal-Mart. I was given false hope that the Wal-Mart was a Supercenter, but alas, it was not. It was one of those old school Wal-Marts with like 5 aisles of food. There's a Sam's Club above it though so maybe that will be a better place to get food. I'm happy to report that prices are pretty much the same as on the mainland. Except for food :-( It's probably about 25-30% more here. And the selection was quite small, I mean I couldn't even find pizza rolls. A gallon of milk was $4.50 so cereal isn't completely out of the question. I couldn't get much since I had to carry it all back. I got a couple of those reusable shopping bags. Those are so worth the money. Not only are they better for the environment and they hold more, but they are a lot easier to carry stuff for a mile. I know, I know, I don't usually have to walk a mile with groceries, but here I have to. Also, the 1.5 liter bottles of water that I was so pumped to get from the ABC Stores in Waikiki for 99 cents...are only 78 cents at Wal-Mart. I think that's a steal!

So other than walking all over the place (I have to be losing weight by now!), I decided to relax by our pool. Yes, we are lucky enough to have a pool...and a jacuzzi! I was worried that it would be too shaded (with palm trees, sad, I know) to get any sun, but I found a good spot. I'm hoping to get a good base tan soon. And yes mom, I'm using plenty of sunscreen.

Jon also managed to snag us some stuff on loan from the air force base. He got some pots and pans, dishes, silverware, cups, sheets, pillows, blankets, etc. Which is awesome since we have all that stuff being shipped over so now we don't have to worry about what we're going to do while we're waiting. As much as I hate the air force, I guess that stuff is kind of nice.

Oh, and I am looking for a job. I'm not just being a bum trying to get a tan all day. Trust me, I'll get bored with that soon enough.

Until next time, Aloha!

Last Day of "Vacation"

Today was the last day of our "vacation" in Waikiki. Tomorrow Jon has to go back to work, and I have to get to the apartment. I wish there was something for me to do there like unpack, clean, etc. We don't have much to unpack yet since our stuff hasn't arrived. I don't have anything to clean with. I'll probably walk the 1 mile to the Wal-Mart and get as much as I can carry back. The rest of the time I'll probably just hang out by the pool. Yeah, I know, terrible life I have.

We spent most of our day at the beach. Weather.com promised me a high of 78 degrees and abundant sunshine so I was excited to get going on my tan. It wasn't as sunny though, we still had to put up with the periodic clouds hiding the sun. Our spot on the beach today was in front of the historic Moana Surfrider Hotel. We walked through the hotel the other day and it is just a beautiful hotel. It it definitely what I think of when I think of "paradise". We saw 2 weddings taking place in the little courtyard of the hotel right by the beach. There were many tourists hovering around to watch the wedding and congratulate the couples. We also finally made it into the water. I'd been staying away because it is sooo cold, but once we got in it was a lot of fun. You have to go pretty far out to get to where you can't touch. We still didn't make it out far enough before we were kind of in surfing territory. I think I want to learn how to surf. It looks like a lot of fun.

After we'd had enough sun we decided to head out to look for dinner. We walked through the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center which is a big shopping area between the hotels along the beach. The big hotels like the Moana, Sheraton, and Royal Hawaiian. It was so, so pretty. If you want to do Hawaii right I'd imagine those are the hotels you'd want to stay in. We ended up going to this Italian restaurant that had a free spaghetti dinner with the order of an entree. That's my kind of restaurant lol. I feel so, so bad because Jon wants to try all these crazy foods that I just have no interest in.

So the real world of Hawaii starts tomorrow. Hopefully I survive. Hopefully I find a job....

We have an apartment!

A huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders because we officially have an apartment! I have looked at so many terrible apartments online and we ended up getting the first one we saw in person. It's super cute too. It's on the 2nd floor of a 3 story walk-up unit. It's a building called the Makikian, because we live in the neighborhood of Makiki. Our walkway looks out over the pool/hot tub area. There's also a couple grills, lounge chairs, and tables and umbrellas. It's really nice and I think it will make Hawaii feel more home-y.

The owners of our unit are the nicest people in the world too. They're originally from Chicago and moved to Hawaii six years ago. They have been nothing but helpful. Our landlord has already driven us to our hotel to get our stuff so we didn't have to rent a car, and offered to pass my resume along to someone he knows who works in the marketing department at HPU. His wife painted the unit in shades of light green which really brightens the place up. She also painted three canvases that match the walls. It saves me from decorating the place! There are horizontal wooden shutters/blinds that are on the floor to ceiling windows in both the living room and bedroom which creates a nice breeze blowing through the apartment. A/C isn't even necessary. The openness of everything bugs Jon because there's no glass in the windows, it's just not needed. It's in a safe area and our landlord said they often left the door open.

We also managed to find a bed on Craigslist today and the guy delivered it for free. So our only piece of furniture at the moment is a bed, but that's good enough for me. The rest of our stuff will be coming within the next few weeks. There's a Pizza Hut one block down which is awesome for me. We walked down and got a 16" XL pizza for $9.99. There's also a cheap movie rental store, you know, if we ever feel like not downloading everything.

Overall, I think we're going to be really happy there. It's still pretty close to town and only a 25 minute bus ride to Waikiki. And if we really want to we can just walk the 2.5 miles to Waikiki. We did it yesterday. There's a Wal-Mart Supercenter and giant shopping center 1 mile away. It's also right on the bus line.

So now that we have the apartment tackled it's time for me to find a job! Which might be difficult to do since we don't get cable and internet installed until March 10th. What am I going to do without internet!?!?!

Day 2 in Hawaii

Aloha!

Well today got much better.  Jon had a slight melt down about living on an island in the Pacific Ocean but I think he's ok now.  We might be here for awhile.

My body still hasn't adjusted to the time change so I was up bright and early before 6am.  It was ok though because it gave me chance to get ready for the day.  I went for a walk around Waikiki and saw the tons and tons of designer shops everywhere.  Seriously, in like a less than one mile stretch of the same street there are 3 Coach Stores and 3 Le Sportsac stores.  Plus Tiffany (:-)), Gucci, Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Yves St. Laurent, Kate Spade, Cartier, Burberry, etc.  I'd be happy if I saw a Gap.  After my walk I had to get myself prepared to use the Bus.  I'd heard that the bus system here was fantastic, but there are still like 80+ routes.  Much different than the 3 routes at IU that all go the same way.  I had to catch the Bus to go look at apartments and I managed to make it there with no problems.  I was worried about finding a decent looking apartment in Hawaii, but I actually really liked all 3 that I looked at today.  Now Jon and I are having trouble deciding on which one we like best.  We also have to worry about actually getting the apartments because of so many other people being interested.  He's taking tomorrow off work so we can go look at the 2 we have narrowed it down to together.  He likes one, I like the other, it should be interesting.

After I got back from looking at apartments I decided it was time to hit the beach.  I threw on my bathing suit, grabbed my towel and umbrella (rain, not sun), and was off.  Yes, the umbrella is necessary everywhere I go.  It started raining at least 6 or 7 different times when I was out and about today.  It's like annoying rain though.  It just sprinkles sometimes where it's not even enough to bother with an umbrella, or it's raining enough that you need an umbrella but then it's so windy that the umbrella flips inside out.  I hate when that happens.  It's so embarrassing.  So I just get wet.

The beach was...interesting.  It's kind of small, well from the street to the water is a very short distance.  And it was PACKED.  There were little stands renting surfboards and offering surfing lessons.  I managed to find a spot and just sat and read for awhile.  In the maybe 30 minutes I was there it went from hot and sunny, to cloudy to rainy, back to sunny, back to rainy, back to sunny, and finally raining enough to make me leave.  I knew as soon as I got all my stuff gathered up though it would be sunny again.  I was right.  I decided to walk around and shop again and managed to find a cute palm tree necklace at the International Market Place.  They had tons of jewelry stands and the lady kept lowering her price to get me to buy.  It was so crazy.

Then Jon got home from work and it was time to find dinner.  I'll have to say that I love just being able to walk outside and walk around until we find something we want to eat.  He really wanted sushi from a hole-in-the-wall place so that's what he got.  He ate tuna and octopus which is possibly the most disgusting thing I could imagine.  Then we walked down the main strip of Waikiki and it was all night-lifed up.  There were street performers everywhere.  It was so cool.  There was even a guy dressed up in a giant Elmo costume wearing a lei.  Seriously, that was his talent...and he wanted people to tip him for it!  I think that was the moment Jon decided Hawaii might not be so bad.  Well, not the Elmo guy, but just the night-life in general.  I found a Pizza Hut too!  And get this, a personal pan pizza was only $4.19 which is only $.20 more than at home!  I ditched the breadsticks though.  I'm supposed to be losing weight in Hawaii.

So now we're back at the hotel.  I'll probably fall asleep at like 9:30.  I don't mind the shifted sleep schedule so much though.  I'm pumped for Jon to be off work tomorrow!  

Mahalo for reading :-)

Random Thought

Waikiki reminds me of New Orleans.  I was just looking out the window and that's what I thought.  Like in New Orleans everywhere you go there are stores with beads and mardi gras stuff.  Here, everywhere you go there are stores with habiscus flower prints and Hawaiian souvenirs.  And everything is really open since people just walk to the beach.  I liked New Orleans, so that might be a good sign.

Finally Here!

Aloha!

Well I made it to Hawaii!!  It was a long flight from Oakland, but they served yummy pasta so it was ok.  I didn't have a window seat so I was pretty bummed, but we were just flying over ocean the whole time anyway.  I sat next to a nice lady who was on her way to Kauai to visit her daughter and grandson.  It was nice to have someone to talk to.  Much better than sitting next to a ginormous man who snores really loud.

I was nervous to be traveling by myself but everyone I have encountered has been super helpful.  I even managed to make it with all of my luggage and I didn't break anything.  Well, there was this little incident where my wrinkle releaser spray bottle opened and leaked all over my stuff.  It just got on some towels and my DSP track jacket.  Oh, so here's a funny story for you.  So my track jacket is soaked with wrinkle releaser and I kind of wanted to wear it today so I decided to try to wash it out and let it hang dry.  When I woke up 5 hours later it was still completely soaked, so then I didn't know what I was going to do.  I couldn't just put it back in my suitcase wet.  So I thought I might try to use my blow dryer to dry it.  That didn't work so great.  I know! I'll try to iron it dry!  Nope, that didn't work either.  Put it on the heater?  Didn't really work so great.  I managed to get it only slightly damp so that I could roll it up in a towel and pack it.  But I couldn't wear it :-(  So anyway, yeah people have been really nice.

I arrived at the airport and I think I was the only person on my flight with a lei greeting.  It was just a little treat to myself.  I mean, you only arrive in Hawaii for the first time once, right?  So my tour guide guy was super awesome.  He took me down to baggage (I would have never been able to find it), helped me carry my bags, and got me on my shuttle to the hotel.  I know I wouldn't have been able to do all of that by myself.  The shuttle ride to Waikiki was...interesting.  Honolulu is definitely different from what I expected.  That's what everyone has told me, so I tried not to expect anything, but it was still different.  It's a little run down in areas but Waikiki is pretty cool.  I just looked at all the mountains, and I couldn't believe that there are actually like towns on the mountains.  Google maps didn't show me that very well.  Then we drove past the beach in Waikiki.  It was so unbelievably crowded.  It kind of makes me not even want to go to it.  It seemed way too chaotic.  I like my beaches to be peaceful.

I got checked into our hotel, we're staying at the Aqua Continental for 5 nights while we look for an apartment.  I got it because it was cheap and had a fridge and microwave.  It's the tiniest hotel room I've ever seen.  It'll do though.  It's within walking distance of the beach, KFC, Burger King, Subway, 2 McDonald's, high-end retail stores, local shops, etc.  And there are these ABC Stores everywhere.  They're just little convenience stores that have souvenirs, food, clothes, etc.  In the area surrounding the hotel there's probably like 6 of them.  I managed to get a loaf of bread for $2.15, some PB&J, some chips, a bottle of water, and some ritz bitz.  All of that cost me like fifteen bucks.  I almost had a heart attack when I saw that a box of cereal was $6.  Those are some expensive fruit loops.

So now I'm just waiting for Jon to get off work and get to the hotel.  I have no idea what time that will be.  I feel all disoriented because it's only 4:30 here and it's 9:30 at home.  And I'm pretty scared now.  I wasn't worried about coming here at all, but I'm already starting to miss home.  Cedar Point was never a big deal because it was still the midwest, but this is just so different.  I hope I can get used to it.  Hopefully things will get better once I actually see Jon and I don't feel like I'm just alone in Hawaii.

Until next time :-)

Getting to Hawaii

The day has finally arrived.  I'm on my way to Hawaii.  Since I'm cheap and broke I couldn't take advantage of booking an easy flight to Honolulu.  No, no, I had to spend hours upon hours researching various days and flights and websites to find the best deal.  I ended up finding a cheap flight out of Oakland, so then my goal was to get to Oakland.  I had to catch a flight the night before so I would be there in time to catch my 9am flight to Hawaii.  That's what I'm in the middle of right now.  I am fortunate enough to have a 2 hours layover in Las Vegas.  The airport doesn't seem as nice and fancy as other airports I have been.  Trust me, I'm an expert.  The whopping 3 airports I've been in before beat Las Vegas hands down.   Except they don't have slot machines.  Yes, Tina warned me there would be slot machines the second I stepped off the plane, and she was right.  I'm not a gambler, so really the constant noise the machines make is just kind of annoying.  It must be something like working in the arcade at Cedar Point.

So anyway,  I have an overnight layover in Oakland.  I was going to stay at the airport, but my dad was worried about me surviving so I had to get a hotel.  There goes my cheap and broke plan.  I just hope I can manage my 4 bags, which together must weigh at least 100 pounds, if not more.  Hopefully there's some nice guy who will help me carry it all.

So anyway, I'm pretty excited to get to Hawaii.  It hasn't really hit me yet.  In like 15 (?, I can't keep track of the time zones anymore) hours I will be in beautiful, sunny Hawaii.  I can't believe I managed to go to Las Vegas and California in the same day.  Those are both firsts for me.  The next few days are going to be crazy trying to find a place to live and a job.  I hope my forwarding address isn't the beach in Hawaii.  Although, if this were Harry Potter world that might not be so bad.  Please address all letters to Danielle, Shady Spot Under a Palm Tree, The Beach, Hawaii.

Enough of my rambling.  Time for Hawaii :-)