Then yesterday was my birthday, which I was able to spend at the beach for the first time ever. (And probably the last, at least for a very long time.) Can I pretend my birthday is in the summertime from now on? You can’t do anything outside when it’s cold out… And speaking of cold, I’m not looking forward to getting off the plane in NJ to freezing cold weather. It has been in the 80s and I have been wearing shorts pretty much every day here, so it’s going to be quite a shock in two days.

Well, that’s it. I’m pretty much packed up (Miraculously, everything appears to be fitting!), and unless something super exciting happens tomorrow or sometime during my flights, there will be no more updates here. This whole experience has been amazing and I have had the best time! I miss everyone back home and I can’t wait to see you, but I am also very sad to know that I’m not coming back here. It has, after all, been my home for the last four months.

Much aloha to you all. Shoots! <3

Anyway, I haven’t updated in a long time, like always. So let’s see…

Thanksgiving break Tara and I flew over to O’ahu to spend a few days in Honolulu. It was very nice to go somewhere with actual buildings and stores for a few days, but I’m very glad that I decided to go to school on this island rather than that one. Being in Waikiki with tons of tourists all around didn’t really seem like the real Hawaii experience, however enjoyable it was for three days. The beach was nice, but crowded, and the place actually came alive at night with everybody going to dinner and shopping. Along with going to the beach and doing a bit of shopping, Tara and I also went to the Waikiki Aquarium. It was smaller than I thought it would be, but still nice.

At the Hilo airport… I think I saw 25 rainbows on Thanksgiving.

Maui

View from the hotel room

Waikiki Beach

Waikiki Aquarium

This past week has been extremely busy. In addition to all of my normal classes and homework, I also had all kinds of extra things I had to do. The Great Leaps dance performance was on Wednesday and Thursday night, so I had a lot of dress rehearsals in the theatre (for my jazz class) and then the show. I had so much fun being in an actual show again, and I really need to find somewhere back home to take a dance class. I don’t want to give it up again. =/

Then on Friday all of the Hawaiian ‘Ohana classes got together, along with other classes and people, and we had a big party at Wailoa State Park, which is a park about a mile from here. There were a few hundred people there, and it was a good time. A lot of people performed hula, including my class, and there was lots of Hawaiian food.

Yesterday morning I had my final for my Hawaiian Language in Action class. This involved going to the Kipuka Center, which is a place on campus, and singing and performing all of the Hawaiian songs and chants that we have learned. Earlier in the week Kumu (teacher) had put us into groups to present on and make food from different countries that people are from. I ended up in a group with two girls from Japan, and we made mochi on friday night.  So after singing and doing the hula, we presented in our groups and went around eating food from all different countries. It was a really cool experience to be sitting around singing Hawaiian songs with people from all over the world. I also ate a lot of new food from places like Japan, China, Germany, New Zealand, South Korea, France, Samoa, Yap, and a whole bunch of other places. At the end, we all sat in a big circle and everyone said what they learned/liked most about the class. Some people started crying, I got a little teary eyed, and it made me really sad and not want to leave. This whole experience has been amazing, and I’m not ready to not come back here. I’m completely done with three out of my six classes now, and it made me sad to leave. This next week is going to be hard.

Andrew, Tara, and I drove through Waipi’o Valley, which is absolutely gorgeous!!! And there are actually houses in the valley.  I cannot imagine living somewhere like that.

Driving up to the northern tip…

Akaka Falls…

We went to Mauna Kea and it was clear this time!!! Somebody working there said that they have clear skies 340 days out of the year… so upsetting that the first time I went it was completely foggy.  So it was absolutely amazing!  That is 100% now my favorite place I’ve ever been to.  First we drove up to the summit of the mountain and then walked a short ways to make it to the very top, which is 13,796 feet.  We watched the sunset from up there, which was stunning, and then we made our way back down to the visitor’s center, which is at about 9,000 feet.  Once it got dark, the stars came out, and it was incredible.  They set up telescopes to look through and had someone talking to us for about an hour or so, pointing out different stars and explaining what different things were in the sky.  I have definitely never seen so many stars before, and I was even able to see the Andromeda Galaxy.  Mauna Kea is one of the best spots for seeing the stars in the world, due to it’s elevation, clear skies, lack of light pollution, and a whole bunch of reasons that were explained to us.

When the sun goes down, it actually casts a shadow of the mountain onto the clouds and sky behind it. Pretty neat, eh?

There are 13 observatories at the top of the mountain from all different countries.  NASA has one up there as well.

Beautiful sunset above the clouds.

Unfortunately, getting a picture of the stars was impossible.  I so wish it wasn’t.

Andrew and I also went to go see the lava from Kilauea.  We went with a guide, along with two other people from France, and it was a 2.5 mile hike each way, over old lava rocks, in the middle of nowhere, to get to the lava.  It was well worth the money and the walk, though, because standing about 20-30 feet away from lava is definitely the craziest and coolest thing I have ever done.  At first we were at a farther distance from the flow, but wanting to get closer, we actually ended up standing on top of the lava tube.  (The lava is not coming out of the top of the volcano.  It’s flowing underneath the ground, in a lava tube, and then emptying out by the water.)  The rocks were extremely hot, my feet were burning, and when I looked down at where I was standing, I could see the lava (is it considered magma?) glowing through the cracks.  Not the safest place in the world to be, but it was absolutely incredible!!!  We were the last group of people out there… just 5 of us and some lava, and we didn’t get back to civilizations until after midnight.

The last few days he was here, Andrew and I drove over to Kona.  It was very nice.  We kayaked and went snorkeling, and even saw what I believe were whales.  The whales come over here for the winter time, so it seems like it was a little too early for them to be around, but they were definitely too large to be dolphins.  We also saw some ancient petroglyphs and enjoyed the lovely beaches on the western side of the Big Island.

It was a pretty good week, I think.

Then this past Sunday I went on a trip to Kua Bay, which is also in Kona. I can’t even describe how beautiful this place was! It was the most amazing water I have seen so far, and that is saying a lot. The color of the water in the bay was so ridiculously light aqua green colored and completely clear. You can see the bottom of the ocean perfectly clear, and when I was snorkeling, I could see so far away under the water. I didn’t think I could find a beach that I liked better than Hapuna Beach, but I have. This beach was smaller and more remote, which I liked. It was also a beautiful, clear day, and I could see Maui in the distance…

Well, that’s it for now. I have off today because it’s election day, and I have a lot of homework I need to get done. Andrew’s coming to visit me on friday, so I should be having a lot of fun adventures in the coming days. =D

This past week, like every other week, I have been extremely busy. Last Sunday Tara and I went to Imiloa, which is an astronomy center right here by the school. They were having a film festival last weekend, and the astronomy film that we watched in the full-dome planetarium theater was actually from the Museum of Natural History in the city. It was a fun day, except for the fact that it started pouring on us on the walk there, and we were completely soaked through by the time we got to the center.

I also had an anole living in my room. I woke up last Sunday morning, before going to Imiloa, and saw him jump from somewhere onto my desk. We were friends for a while, and he hung out with me, walking all over my stuff… but then he started walking all over my bed which I was not too happy about. Before going to bed that night I decided to check between the mattresses of my bed to see if he was still hanging out there, and sure enough, that’s apparently where he was living. Let’s just say that we weren’t friends anymore, and it took me 45 minutes to catch him and let him go outside.

Then yesterday was another school trip to Hapuna Beach, which was, once again, beautiful. Next weekend is a trip to some park in Kona, so I will definitely be trying to get on that trip! I can’t believe I still haven’t made it to that side of the island yet!

Shoots! =]

Mauna Kea’s summit is one of the best sites in the world for astronomical observation.  Today the Mauna Kea Science Reserve is the site of 13 observation facilities from 11 countries, the largest such complex in the world.

Aloha Kakou.

On Saturday I went with some of my friends here to Mauna Kea. I was soo excited to finally make it there. Seeing the stars there, along with seeing the lava, are the two things I want to do here the most. In fact, I will not leave this island without seeing both of these things first. So the mountain is supposed to have clear skies at night 96% of the time. And OF COURSE we went during the other 4% of the time. It was completely cloudy and we could barely see any stars. It was also freezing up there! But that was a nice change from the normal temperature here. I also couldn’t believe how dark it was. Because of its elevation and location in the middle of the Pacific, Mauna Kea is supposed to be one of the best places to view the stars in the world. There are all kinds of observatories on the top of the mountain. Also, the entire island does not use normal lights. All of the lights here are a dim orange color because they create less light pollution. I think it’s awesome that they do this, and seriously, I have never seen an area as dark as on the mountain. I couldn’t see one foot in front of my face. It was crazy.

I have a field trip tomorrow in my Hawaiian ‘Ohana class. We’re going to the volcano and Ka’u (the area at the southern part of the island), and there are going to be a ton of people because all of the ‘Ohana classes are going. I think there are like 6 classes, so yeah, lots of people. I’ll let you guys know how the trip goes.

Miss you all! xoxo

The weekend before last was a trip to the Papakōlea Beach, which is more commonly referred to as Green Sands Beach. It’s all the way by the southern tip of the island, so it was a pretty long drive over there, and an even longer walk. Only four wheel drive cars can actually drive to the beach, so we had to get out and walk 2.5 miles through the desert to get there (And another 2.5 back). Despite the fact that my shoes and clothes are now permanently stained orange, it was so worth it!!! It was beautiful and amazing and just awesome to be at a beach with green sand. And the beach is literally in the middle of nowhere, so it was just us UHH students and a few other people there.

Hike through the desert.

Green Sands Beach

On the beach.

Then the other day my roomies and I went to Richardson’s Beach. While we were swimming in the ocean, there were two honu (sea turtles) swimming a few feet away. So one of the lifeguard’s actually brought one of the turtles over to us and we got to pet it!!! The turtle just kinda hung out with us for a few minutes, and it made me really happy. =) They might be my new favorite animal.

And then this past Saturday Tara and I wanted to go to the farmer’s market (loveee going there!), but the buses weren’t running into downtown because there was a block party at night that they were setting up for… so the roads were closed. So we got out on Banyan Drive (There are banyan trees everywhere! They are soo cool!), which is a ways away from the farmer’s market. So we ended up making a few stops in between. First we went to Coconut Island, which is a tiny island right off the coast.

And we saw some sea turtle swimming in the water. So we stopped and watched them for a while.

Tara and I then walked through Liliu’okalani Gardens, which was very nice.

We also stopped by the bayfront so that I could get ‘ili’ili rocks for one of my classes… don’t ask. lol.

So then we ate at a fun Mexican Restaurant because we were starving by this point, and then we finally made it to the farmer’s market (yay!) and got some lychee and rambutan.

Then at night we went to Ho’olaule’a, which is the block party in downtown. There were two stages with bands playing music and lots of vendors, and it was fun. We also finally got shave ice, which is something you have to try while you’re here, and it was great.

Until next time,

Aloha.

We hiked across a dried up lava lake, through a lava tube (underground tubes that lava used to flow through), and we went up by the caldera of Kilauea. Altogether it was about 4 or 5 miles.

Dried lake with Kilauea in the background.

At the entrance of the lava tube.

Da tube.

Kilauea.

]]> http://rebecca.akuehner.com/hawaii/volcano/feed 0 http://rebecca.akuehner.com/hawaii/after-school-adventures http://rebecca.akuehner.com/hawaii/after-school-adventures#comments Fri, 10 Sep 2010 09:51:03 +0000 Rebecca http://rebecca.akuehner.com/?p=115 The stars here are amazing!!! Tara and I have been trying to see them every night since we’ve been here… but usually it’s cloudy (and raining) at night. Last night it was finally perfectly clear, so we went out to lay in the grass for an hour and look at them. It just made me so happy, I had to post about it. There were so many, and I could even see the Milky Way galaxy. Now if only I could get to the top of Mauna Kea, it would be even more amazing…

We also went to Richardson’s Beach after our classes today. It’s so nice to be able to go to class in the morning, be done at 12:15, and then go right to the beach. We brought our snorkel gear along, which was great because there were a whole lot of fish along two sea turtles swimming in the water. The turtles are so gigantic! And I was about two or three feet away from it… it was great! I really need to find a way to get a good picture of the turtles.