Hawaii!

So, I'm going to Hawaii tomorrow.  Gonna visit my sister and eat some taco bell.   My objectives are to meet my sister and her fiancé, I think it's been about 4 years since I've seen her.  I also want to check out the University of Hawaii. Outside of that my number one goal is to learn to surf, numero dos is to buy some cool summer clothes, and number 3 is to chow on some delicious food.  I just want to relax and get rid of these twitches around my eyes.  About three weeks ago I decided to go to Hawaii, it was kind of sudden and I'll admit it was a whim.  But like Hope says, it's not a bad whim, and the ticket was cheap and the timing was good cause I don't have any classes to teach and I leave on Pay Day!  I've got everything settled and I'm almost finished packing, I have a list of things to do tomorrow before I catch my bus to Narita, pay off a couple of bills, take my garbage to the collection point and send money home. 

Hawaii has never really been on my top ten list of places to go, because cool places appeal more to me than sweltering tropical islands.  I even think Atlanta is too hot and I probably won't move back there, opting for a more northern city (sorry relatives).  Japan is hot too, in the summer, the rest of the year it's a lovely place.  European weather would be ideal, more specifically, Bavarian.  But aside from the heat, I think Hawaii will be an amazing place, It's a collision of Polynesian, Japanese and American from what I hear, so I'm looking forward to my visit.  Plus when I came to Japan, I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish, I've done them all except two, learn to snowboard and learn to surf.  I'll learn to surf in Hawaii, but if I like it, then maybe I can get a wetsuit and join some of my surfer friends here in Japan.  This winter, I am learning to snowboard, no question about it.

Ok, enough about that.  A lot has happened since the last time I wrote, but I've already forgotten most of it.  Oh yeah, I went to Kyoto and Nara (Kyonara) for 3 days with my 3^rd grade students class trip.  We had a great time and I got to see lots of deer in Nara.  These deer are very tame and calm and will let you walk up to them and pet them, and if you have food, they will walk after you trying to get it, but it's pretty fun. There are so many deer just wandering all over the city, it must be a pain to drive there. 

I didn't have many duties as a chaperone on this trip, just general watching over the students as they were out and bathing monitor which was pretty boring.  Mrs. Ochiai and I had to sit in the lobby to the baths and tell students to hurry up, or "tuck in your shirts" when they tried to leave.  That was only for an hour and 10 minutes though, so it wasn't too bad.  I'll post pictures up on Flickr and on Facebook.

I guess that's pretty much it for now.  I'm worried about my e-ticket, I haven't been able to print it off because the link that I'm supposed to click on isn't working.  So I sent an email to the company and they haven't replied, so I'll have to call them if it hasn't been fixed by tomorrow morning.  Worst case scenario is that I have to go to the Travel Agents desk tomorrow at the airport and ask them to print it off for me.  It's in the same terminal as the China Airlines check in counter so it's not a problem.  I just wish I already had it so it would be one less thing to do tomorrow. 

When I get there, I'll recharge my AT&T prepaid "go" phone, and I'll post the number up here if I can.  The old number expired so it probably won't be the same as it was a Christmas.  (ooh, I just got an email from the customer support at the travel agency.... let's see if it's my e-ticket!)

Ok, I checked and my ticket came, so great, I'm all set, and it's tomorrow, or today.  I stopped writing yesterday and now it's Friday morning and I just got into work so It's time to finish this blog up.  What's really strange is that 18 minutes ago, I will have arrived in Hawaii today.  So, I leave tonight at 7:45 and arrive this morning at 8:20, I'm gonna be all messed up, but I'm going to try to sleep on the plane so it feels like I slept over night.  Chances are, I won't even be able to sleep, cause I have a hard time sleeping on planes.  I'm really excited.

tags: hawaii