Well, we departed Honolulu the night before yesterday. Sorry it took me so long to post, but I couldn't connect to the network last night. Hmm, what to say about Hawaii... The weather was very nice (even a little hot for my taste, but I'm sure it was better than whatever it is you all have been experiencing!)
On the first day in Hilo, I went on a bus tour of the city, which was more or less cool. It definitely wasn't the highlight of my time there. After we got back to the ship, I realized that I had absolutely nothing to do and no one to hang out with because everyone was out exploring or on other trips, so I was feeling a little lonely. Lucky for me, there were three people who hadn't left yet and they invited me to walk around town with them, which was a lot of fun, then we went to eat dinner at a place called Ken's and went out with some people for a girl's 21st birthday (the place was for people 18 and over). The next day I went on a whale watching trip - A-MAZE-ING. We went out about four miles and found ourselve in the middle of a circle of multiple groups of whales. Females with calves and escorts, and even a couple random males that were showing off (breaching and slapping the water and what not). I didn't get any pictures of them breaching because it happened so fast, but I got some of the females comming up for air (unfortunately I can't post them because pictures are over the attachment limit we are given). After that I came back to the ship and hung out with some new friends and played card games and whatnot.
In Honolulu, I went to Chinatown on a Faculty Directed Practica for one of my classes, and it was...well...chinatown... Quite a few of us signed out early so that we could go exploring. I went with three other people to find the shopping center and a beach. I will definitely be in shape when I come home, simply from all the walking that we do here! When the sun was going down, we found a random guy to take a picture of us spelling out L O V E with our arms; it was so cool! He even took a picture with his own camera because he wanted to send it in to the local news channel!! We got back to the ship a little after 1900...(that would be 11:00 pm for all of you), ate dinner, and then made an attempt to go out. That one didn't work so well because we left before we got into the place - one of the girls had forgotten her ID, so we left with her, which was FINE BY ME because I had to get up at 5:00 am to go on an FDP to the United Agency Fish Auction. The cool thing, though, was that while we were waiting in front of the pier, a huge bus pulled up to drop off a bunch of students, and someone convinced him to take us to the club (once again 18 and older - just so you know - and there were only like 8-12 of us or so, and it was freaking awesome to show up in a bus...we felt pretty cool) The fish auction was definitely an interesting experience. We saw shark carcasses of animals who had gotten caught on the long lines while trying to steal the fish, a swordfish carcass, and a TON of huge-ass tuna (along with moonfish, mahi-mahi, and lots of other good stuff). I think the biggest tuna I saw was a 206 lb yellow fin tuna - and these things go for anywhere from $2/lb to $8/lb depending on quality. Most of the fish had huge cookie-cutter shark bites in their sides - I was awed by how big and deep the bites were - I wouldn't want to be caught in the water with one of those suckers! After the fish auction, a friend and I took the free shuttle to Walmart and walked to the shopping center to find two other girls, who found clothes for me to try on so that I would actually have something cute to wear in the hypothetical event that we go out in other countries. After that we returned to the ship for the rest of the day; I made a couple calls, and the ship departed around 2000 hours and said goodbye to land for the next week and a half.
Random other things - For anyone who is wondering about the class aspect of my journey, let me just say that I have to do A TON of reading! I don't think I've ever had this much reading to do in all of my academic experiences. Other than that, my classes are pretty interesting, even if some of them are a little dull at times. Career wise, I had a phone interview with someone from Zurich the morning we arrived in Hilo, and I think it went pretty well. Also, as of last night, I am now 5 hours behind Central time, and soon we will cross the international date line and be ahead of you by a day! The day we skip is either the 2nd or the 3rd of February. Fortunately, that is the only time we move ahead, so the rest of the time I will be moving my clock back every so often until I am back on track with Central time. I am so glad I am on the Spring Voyage and wasn't on the Fall Voyage. Imagine having to go the opposite way around the world and having to wake up earlier and earlier all the time...that would suck!
All-in-all, I had quite the experience in Hawaii - and that was just Hawaii. I mean, we were still in the United States (techincally speaking); I can't imagine what the other countries are going to be like!
