Oct 12, 2012

Happy Aloha Friday!

Did that last post sound like it was written by a 12 year old to you? Because that's totally the vibe I'm getting. Which is bad. But I promise I'm not 12. In fact, tomorrow's my 19th birthday! It seems like each birthday celebration I have is a window into where I am in my life. I remember posting after my 16th, when my French family bought me sushi and gave me 16 little gifts and I felt an overwhelming sense of place in a new home. And then again after my 18th, when I took myself out to the fanciest dinner of my life when I was dealing with a new sense of independence. Tomorrow is going to be just as much as an indicator. The plan is to go to UH's homecoming football game in the afternoon and then go dance the night away with all my fantastic new friends, and I couldn't be more excited. (I already got a cake baked for me!)

But, before I can party it up on Saturday I'm going to spend the morning ....

at work!

Yep, I finally managed to score some part-time employment. It's looking like I'll only be able to take on one shift or so a week, but it's better than nothing. And guess where I work: A crepe restaurant! How fitting, right? 

That's most of the major developments in my life, though. Birthday and boulot. Other than that it's been pretty normal college stuff. I've really been enjoying my classes. On the music side of things, it's really cool to get to spend so much time both learning how it works (theory) and making it. And on the language front, I'm regaining my French (thankfully) and learning a lot of cool things in Linguistics about the foundations of language. I've pretty much cemented my morning routine, which involves Starbucks and regularly getting to my first class 15 minutes early.

And once classes are out and homework is done I get to enjoy the social part of school (which is just as big as the academic part). I don't go to the beach as much as you think I do, which is a bit of a shame really, but I try to at least go down on weekends. Often on Saturday nights a group of us will head down to Waikiki and sit by the water and relax. Other than that, it's a lot of hanging out in dorm rooms, laughing, and generally having a good time. 

As you might have noticed, I tend to post less about my day-to-day now then when I was in France or Costa Rica. I guess I feel like since it's in the USA it's pretty standard stuff. But when I think about it, Hawaii is completely different from anywhere on the Mainland. The continental US is very European, because it was started from the east just expanded westward. But Hawaii's influence comes from the other side. Instead of employers looking for bilingual Spanish-English, they're looking for proficiency in Korean and Japanese. Campus dining has bento boxes and sushi and and loco moco (which is very typical Hawaii, rice topped with a hamburger patty topped with egg topped with gravy). Flip-Flops are called slippers. 

Certain "stereotypes" are very true. There is an Aloha Spirit. People here are friendly and smiling, and I tend to have lots of little passing conversations anytime I go anywhere. There are a lot of traditional tattoos. It's sunny. There are lots of tourists.

I'm officially in love with Hawaii. I love the people, the weather, everything. (Well, I'm not really a fan of the vog, the volcanic ash fog that blows in when the conditions are right.) Come visit me?

-Sophia






2 comments:

  1. Hey!! I just found your blog a week ago and I read it straight through! You are a amazing writer and I just love this blog! I just become happy every time I read this. Im a finnish girl and I'm going to brazil for an exchange in February for a year and I couldn't be happier! Reading this has given me More courage to leave and made me even more excited. So thank you and your life sounds perfect in my opinion. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Who wouldn't love Hawaii!?
    By the way - happy birthday :-)

    ReplyDelete