There's no place like home.... except HAWAII!: March 2011

So yesterday started as a wonderful day. I learned a new dance in my hula class, then Saydi and I went running of the beach, and went boogie boarding after to cool off. Which is funny because we both commented on how rough the ocean was! Then we went to Kahuku grill and got delicious burgers & yummy baked potato fries, and frozen yogurt, and then headed into Kaneohe to buy fabric for our sewing class. Then we came home, ate dinner, cleaned our rooms for white glove and went to Foodland. Then baked chocolate chip cookies and ate it w/ vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce in the piano lounge while watching a really cute chic flic! However, we couldnt hear the tsunami alarm that went off every once in a while, because of our movie, and no one bothered to look in the piano lounge, to warn 4 innocent girls that an 8.9 tsunami was heading our way. So when we finally finished the movie, we went back to our rooms, to see everyone moving everything from waist high or lower, up on top of their dressers. Then we were told abou the tsunami. Yup, a few tears were definitley shed! How would you feel if someone told you that the tsunami that had just ripped through Japan, washing cars off highways, turning over huge ships, and killing at least 24 people was headed your way, and then that they had just evacuated Waikiki and all the hotels there, and that the highways were bumper to bumper, and news was telling people to get out of their cars, and start walking to higher ground? And so after spending an extrememly stressful hour moving everything into our previusly empty suitcases, up on top of our dressers, and packing a change of clothes, passport, water, scriptures, a flashlight and some snacks, we were faced with the decision of where to go. A bunch of people were going up to the hill behind the temple, because that is the highest place in Laie. But then the school sent out an email telling everyone to simply go to the upper floor of their hale and sleep there for a night. But then we heard that the tsunami was supposed to hit Halaiewa dead centre, which is just a little ways away from us, and that the tsunami was not supposed to be tall, but wide and powerful and wrap around the whole island, possibly with enough force to knock down foundations...so, after a quick group prayer we decided to camp upstairs for the night. Honestly, this was one of the scariest experiences of my life. You always hear about the natural disasters around the world, and you think "oh those poor people" , but you never think its going to happen to you. Especially when you're from Edmonton and the worst things that happen are blizzards!! And especially since we frequently say " it's kinda scary that we're on a teeny island in the middle of the ocean, thats the farthest away in the world from any other land mass, what if something happened?" So yes, we parked ourselves and made little beds in a narrow upstairs highway, and actually had quite a fun time considering the circumstances, and stayed up til 3am when the tsunami was supposed to hit. We had live news feeds going on our laptops, we were ready to see the worst. However, at 3:30am, when it "hit", the waves just broke on a wall at Waikiki and thankfully never got past there! Then we woke up at about 7:30am, so a good 4 hrs of sleep, but no email has been sent out by the school, so none of us know if classes are cancelled or whats going on, because apparently there is still a warning and we are still supposed to be on high ground, even though we just heard the PCC is going to be open for the day. And thankfully all the Japanese people we have talked to know their families are safe, but we've just heard theres at least 300 dead. So we are now currently trying to decided what to do this weekend! We were going to got to Costco tonight but we've just heard it's closed and then tomorrow we were going to go snorkelling at Hanuama Bay and kayaking at Laniki but it looks like we'll have to reschedule! Oh and I just got an email from the school, campus is open, which I think is a littl bit ridiculous because no one I have talked to had gotten more than 4 hours of sleep! lame!

So I love living here, there are new adventures every week! Heres a list of the things I've done recently:
- bought boogie boards!!
- went boogie boarding
- learned the secret of the rainbow cake
- tastes the deliciousness of banana macadamia nut ginger cake with cream cheese frosting
- went on a gorgeous hike to the most western point of the island & saw seals and whales
- swam in the most beautiful clear ocean and got burnt on the most beautiful beach
- went to the Wet n' Wild waterpark at 50% off admission rate!
- Laie temple to do baptisms
- delicious brownies with mint icing
- Went on a super long and beautful hike through a jungle overlooking Honolulu with the coolest trees and vines! I honestly felt like I was hiking in a fairytale! Haha except when we got lost for a good two hours and thought we were going to have to sleep there overnight
- Ate delicious Acai bowls with lots of yummy fruit:)
- went to a Faculty of the Arts concert, which was amazing!
- Discovered a cute little frozen yogurt van and got smores frozen yougurt- marshmellows, chocolate chips and crushed graham wafers:)
- went out for dinner and ate delicious ribs & mashed potatoes (okay I know tons of these are food, but we get seriously deprived at the cafeteria!)
- sang kareoke at this korean place
- ate delicious mexican food
- watched horrible movies with horrible plots with my favorite girls
- had a super fun photoshoot and got eaten alive by misquitoes!!
- bought the cutest Steve Madden boots from Macy's at 65% off!! We all talked each other into it! I just dont know how I'm going to get them home, I may have to wear them on the plane!
- finished my application for ILP to go to Mexico!
- ordered some on sale makeup and swimwear online!
- ate at Teds Bakery! best breakfast sandwich, donuts and carrot cake ever!
- layed on the beach and watched surfers
- went to an awesome marriage conference that our stake put on
- ate a delicious sandwich w/ cranberry mayo from seasiders one night, and yummy stir fry the next in place of the yucky caf. dinner!
- watched a beautiful sunset
- ate delicious coconut shrimp
- had a pet cat for a little bit!
- passed my hula test!

At the marriage conference! the gym was decorated like a reception, and they had a big dinner and wedding cake and a fashion show of temple ready dresses

Rachel's amazing rainbow cake! Too bad I'm sworn to secrecy!!

Saydi made banana macadamia nut ginger cake! I'm ashamed to say the four of us finished off 3/4 of it in one night!

the little cat that sneaked under my bed! there are tons of cats and chickens on campus!

our first stop for the photoshoot at this like collapsed building. There were so many misquitoes though we had to leave pretty quick! I got at least 12 on each of my legs and were probably only there for 10 minutes!