31 May 2011

Talk Story

So I'm out of San Francisco after a full day of chemical cleaning and packing up my clown car haha. I am so happy that I decided to go up and visit my grandpa instead of staying in the city and partying it up.

I will look back on visiting Grandpa before I left for the summer as one of the best decisions I ever made.  I had such an amazing time, I don't think I've ever bonded with my Grandpa this much in my entire life.  We talked story for hours and I learned so much about my Grandpa's life and his relationship with his family in Kahakuloa, my Grandma, my mom and my aunties and uncles.  I was surprised by how enlightening his stories were to the times he lived in and the struggles he and my Grandma faced raising 7 kids and being separated for a majority of their marriage with very little money.  Everyone already knows my Grandpa was kinda a bad ass...but now it's official, my Grandma is a SUPER WOMAN! I'll look back on my visit with Grandpa as a great beginning and a major highlight of an eventful summer.  I'm blessed to have such an awesome family, I'm lucky to be a part of it.

My grandpa drove me 2 hours back down to San Francisco for my flight...and when I got there I found out my flight was canceled 2 days ago! Needless to say I was pissed when they ended up shuttling my down to San Jose (because I could have saved Grandpa the drive and flown out of Sacramento). Lucky for Kainoa, I only got to Pensacola an hour and half late. When I got there Kainoa called me and surprised me at the airport.

This past weekend with Kainoa has been amazing. I don't know how I got so lucky to have such an amazing family AND such an amazing boyfriend.  He really does spoil me rotten and never expects anything in return.  Our "hotel" is anything but 5-star, but for the price I can't complain. My first night here we went to this bar/restaurant with a couple of his friends and his roommate. It was fun to see Kainoa in such a different group of people.  One of the other local guys' girlfriend came into town this weekend too so we were the only girls.  It's definitely a big change compared to San Francisco.  I used to tell Kainoa he was exaggerating too much about the weather, but it is HOT AS BALLS in Pensacola. I'm being forced to break my habit of always having a jacket with me because carrying anything extra just adds extra heat.  We went to the mall on Saturday because I had to buy a few more things for Semester at Sea and we passed this spicy store and Kainoa of course had to try the "hottest sauce in the world" Needless to say, it held up its name hahaha.  He actually started sweating and admit that it was "pretty warm" lol. It's his duty day today so I'm pretty much on my own the next 2 days all by my lonesome to explore this exciting land of Pensacola =P It's been really great to get to just sit around and talk while we eat dinner or watch TV and I know he's been enjoying getting to eat real food instead of what's in the cafeteria. 

I've spent a majority of today watching a Law & Order SVU Marathon and researching stuff for Semester at Sea. Hopefully this blog will post automatically to facebook since I spent a good deal of time figuring that out today...Maybe next weekend I'll get to see the beach here to compare to back home =)

25 May 2011

Movin' on Out

Sooo moving out of my apartment has turned into one of the most stressful experiences of this year.

Buuuut there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and good news....the light is shining on some really awesome stuff :) After we do the walk through with the landlord I get to go see my Grandpa!! (can you say full stomach?) Then he's going to keep my car and drive me back on Friday for my flight to Pensacola! I spend about 2 weeks there, so I'll still have my phone and normal internet access until I go to the Bahamas on June 12. Me and a group of girls rented out a condo on HomeAway and I'm pretty sure that there's internet there too, but no phone.  I get on the ship a day early (June 16) because I got this really sweet work study position as a "Videographer's Assistant" and hopefully the work is as fun as it sounds. 

If anyone wants postcards let me know, I'm writing down the addresses and I'm going to send them all at once at each port.  I'll post my email when I get it, but in the meantime here is the link to the addresses in case you want to send me something. Make sure you put a return address on it (in case it gets there late)

http://www.semesteratsea.org/voyages/summer-2011/summer-2011-staying-in-touch.php


and just for kicks here's the rest of the voyage info

http://www.semesteratsea.org/voyages/upcoming-voyages/summer-2011.php