Day 9: Honolulu, I Don't Mind!

Location: Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Much to my disappointment, rolling out of bed to catch breakfast is not getting any easier. Maybe the long day we had in Hawaii yesterday made it a little bit difficult.

After breakfast I was on a mission. I was determined to get my readings and other homework done before we got to Honolulu today. I knew that we would only have a limited amount of time to use our phones while we were there and I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity as much as I could. I sat outside on the back deck with my laptop and textbooks and read (while getting a little bit of sun, of course).

Goal: accomplished. While I was sitting in my Nutrition class I could just barely see out the windows but could catch a glimpse that the island of Oahu was coming into sight.  We docked in Honolulu and it was very pretty outside. Everyone compared the differences of Honolulu and Hilo. Hilo is much more rustic. A much older town. It seems as if the locals are trying to preserve everything. Honolulu is much more like going to a city. The "sky scrapers" were visible from the ship.

I had lunch with Shelley and Lauren today. Usually, my goal is to sit with someone new at breakfast and lunch but have dinner with them. For some reason, that was not the case.

After lunch, we all decided to soak up the beautiful weather, attempt to study, and utilize our phones. For me, I had gotten everything done I needed to for the day so I just talked on the phone. Yippee!

At my next class, Diverse Cultures in Mass Communication, we were already working on group projects. It seems like the semester is cruisin' on by. My group is trying to have our group project finished before we get to Japan. We all have a hunch that after Japan it will be even harder than it already is to focus.

I went and found Lauren and Shelley for dinner and we sat with a kid name Charles from San Diego. The entire time he was with us he laughed and kept telling us we were funny. (I think he just didn't know how much he was in need of a good chuckle.) At lunch and dinner, there is always a dessert that you can pick up in the food lines. Tonight there were chocolate eclairs. They were soooo good!

The Captain decided that the ship was going to stay the night in Honolulu because there was a major storm in our path to Japan. Rumor has it that the storm had 25 foot waves, yikes! I can hardly handle the 2 foot waves we have dealt with. The plan was to leave before 1800 hours on January 18.

I was going to talk to people back home after dinner but they had already went off to bed. This time zone thing and communicating with people is only going to get worse! Since that option was eliminated, I decided that I ought to get some homework done for the next school day. I sat in Shelley and Lauren's room and watched Mickey Mouse Monopoly for my Diverse Cultures class, while they colored.

Throughout the voyage, our instructors will air movies and television shows on the televisions throughout the ship that we are required to watch. Some of them aren't too bad but some of them can be pretty boring. At least we get to watch them in the comfort of our own rooms!

We had to attend a mandatory meeting tonight. It was called to discuss the inappropriate behavior of approximately 200 students while we were in Hilo.  Luckily, the police officers handled the incident through crowd control rather than making arrests. Let's just say that the Semester at Sea faculty is not impressed. Personally, I don't think I would mind if 200 students weren't on the ship. It would be faster lunch lines, I could sit where I wanted to, and quieter study times. Yes, a little selfish, I know.

After the meeting, I attended another Unreasonable at Sea program. This time the entrepreneurs that were on board pitched their business plan to us. The business pitches ranged from helping teachers out in India and Africa to providing cleaner stoves for mothers to helping with the poverty situation prevalent around the world. It seems to me that these entrepreneurs would like the creativity and help of the students on the ship to help with their business plans. Interesting...