Pictures

This week has been a mad rush of school, dentist appointment and lots and lots of homework. For the first time in a couple of weeks we also had a lot of sun and high temperatures! Im really starting to notice the rush of schoolwork, but so far, so good. Its all just a matter of keeping on top of it all and not falling behind. 

So this weekend I havent done much exciting stuff, the others went to a beach to watch a kiting competition but I opted to stay behind to relax, because of the aforementioned rush of everything. I needed to chill out for a bit! Like mentioned, I had a dentist appointment on Wednesday, because my glued retainer had snapped, and this added to the stress of homework and projects, so I was in need of some time off.

Anyway, a sprinkling of pictures from this week

Someone at our school was selling Krispy Kreme donuts for fundraising, so I bought a box, obviously. I do think they would have been better fresh, and chocolate coated, but still, very very good!

The Olympics started, and Obama had a serious chat with us. This is the first time in years I havent been able to keep up with the Olympics at all, most of the sports are on in the middle of the night, quite literally, with most of the cross country skiing and such starting at 1am. Not that Norway has been doing that well in that anyway, but it feels weird, Im used to spending hours in front of the TV watching sports during the Olympics!

Dance competition or show at Ala Moana, there were hundreds of women in beautiful dresses and intricate hairdo's all over the mall!

But most of all, this has been my week:

Trying to motivate myself with rewards for an assignment, turns out I wrote it wrong as well, meaning I had to rewrite it after writing over 7 pages in a complete panic mode.

Entertaining myself in that same class the next day, that note says 'No rewriting!' which is exactly what I had done! 

The view from the library, its not the worst view to say the least.

North Shore and kitties

Today we went to North Shore! We got on a bus and what seemed like aaages later, but in reality was less than 2 hours, we were on the opposite side of the island! We got off at a monument for fallen soldiers, and walked along the beach.

Our first mission was getting some food! We walked along the main road in Haleiwa, and ended up at Pizza Bobs!

Cecilie and I both got the Cajun Fish Sandwich, it was really good! Of course I couldnt finish the entire meal, which seems to be a recurring thing here, these portions are too damn huge! 

After the food we went exploring! 

Sleepy shop puppy

 We went looking for a toilet, and found kitties! Most of them were too scared to get close to, but one came up and played with us, and others let us snap some pictures. 

 Cecilie named this one Frank, he was completely cross eyed but played with us like nothing was wrong!

After a while we went back to get the bus back home. It was a nice day, even if the weather wasnt the greatest, but we'll definitely go back to check out the beach at a later time!

Trying new things

So, one of my goals while Im here is to try new things. Todays new thing was sushi, although Ive tried it once before, this is the first time Ive had it as a full meal! We went to Genki Sushi to have sushi, a couple of us being completely new to it and others old veterans so to speak. I, of course, did the whole tourist thing and took a bunch of pictures! First up, what I ate.

 Garlic mayo ebi

Crab Mayo

 Salmon Cream Cheese roll 

The little speedcars that delivered ordered food. 

Cecilie's spring rolls

 Sushi plates whizzing by

All in all a nice day and good meal! Im not the biggest fan of rice, so I thought, as I suspected I would, that having only sushi was kind of a boring meal, but I suspect that having a couple of pieces with something else next to it would be a much better solution! And I'll definitely have it again, its cheap and fast to eat!

School

The first weeks of school has been pretty great. Compared to Norwegian school, its more like high school, with weekly readings and scheduled quizzes and actually getting homework. I quite prefer it! Getting weekly homework rather than semester long projects, though we have a few of those too, makes getting stuff done both more important, and easier. I just need to learn what to prioritize and to get better at writing everything down so I dont miss things! 

 Notetaking seems to be the easiest way for me to learn in class, so Im already starting to get quite a few pages like these in all my notebooks. With five classes to take notes for, Im even hopeful my handwriting might improve hah!

In Creativity we got a semester long assignment to keep a passion journal, a creative journal to keep track of our experiences and ideas. We're supposed to make 2-3 pages a week, and Ive already made a couple. I think this assignment will be a lot of fun, I might post a few pages on here if Im really happy with them.

The first weeks

So Ive already been here for almost a month (oh boy!), so these posts are a bit back-dated.

The first weeks after we got here, the main thing on our minds, after getting an apartment sorted, was getting to know the area, and relaxing! School didnt start until the 21st of January for those of us going to HPU, so we had a couple of weeks of just having fun before the rush of school. Some pictures!

As mentioned, we had to find an apartment, but in between that, we had time to eat some yummy food, and go shopping! Eating and internet break at California Pizza Kitchen, photo by Gina.

After we got settled into our new apartment, we went to a rooftop BBQ party with other Norwegian students here to study at University of Hawaii, where my roomie Cecilie is studying as well. We had a lot of fun, ate burgers and hot dogs and the night ended with a beer pong competition that went awry when the losers ended up in the pool, phones and all. 

The roomies of Tradewinds! Ole, Gina, Cecilie and me!

Obviously there has also been some beach going...

 

 And exploring!

Life in Hawaii

This is a blog about living as a student abroad in Hawaii. I decided to make a blog to keep those at home updated, and to keep a record of my life here. Hopefully this place will become a virtual memory book for me after this semester of temporary warmth and tropical fun ends.

If you dont know me, my name is Christina, and Im a student from Norway currently in Honolulu, studying at Hawaii Pacific University. Back in Norway Im studying Media, ICT and Design, and here I am taking five courses, the theme of them ranging from Creativity, a course in learning how to use your brain and thinking outside the box, to Sex, Gender and Communication, a course that explores ways we communicate in combination with our genders, and how culture affects how we see gender. In addition Im taking a web design course, photojournalism and an integrated promotion management course. Im hoping to learn a lot, and so far Im having a lot of fun! Honolulu is a big and noisy city, but its a wonderful place, and everyone I meet are so so nice. Im going to be updating this blog with pictures and experiences from living here, including school, hikes, dinners and other fun stuff!

Our apartment, on the edge of Waikiki, lies on the eleventh floor! 

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