My week in Paradise

So when you hear paradise you automatically think Warrnambool, right? Baahha. NO. You think HAWAII! There is a reason for this. Jacquipedia states that Hawaii is freakin sweet. True fact. So why did you go? Who were you with? What did you do? I hear you all asking. This trip to Hawaii was offered to all the exchange students in the states this year. 99 students attended this particular one. So where do I even begin...I guess I’ll just break it down into days for you :D

Day 1: I arrived at 4pm at Honolulu airport when I met a friendly face on the way to baggage claim. It was Amanda! She was my friend on my New York trip and I had no idea she was going to be in Hawaii but it turns out she was! We grabbed out bags and headed to another baggage claim where we would be meeting up with one of our camp leaders Geoff. We had our little meet and greet with him then we were off and away in a van heading for our hotel. After getting situated in my room, some of the girls and I decided to hit the town!!! We had no clue where we were going, how to pronounce each others names (flippen Norwegians), or how to get back. A recipe for success. It was a good thing I was with other girls because my navigational skills are as good as a tumbleweeds. I would have been sleeping in a coconut if it wasn’t for them. Got back to the hotel at 9, went to my hotel room, accidentally slept through the group meeting, and that was day one.

Day 2: Sight seeing sight seeing sight seeing! We visited all the north shore beaches in Oahu as well as visiting sites such as The Dole Plantation, and I must say, NO ONE does pineapple like Hawaii. I think I died and went to heaven. We also visited some awesome macadamia nut farm. Those were some good macadamia nuts. 

Day 3: Day 3, probably the most physically demanding day we had. Well for me anyway because I’m a blob. Day 3 we climbed DIAMOND HEAD MOUNTAIN. It’s an old volcano that has a b-e-a-utiful view from the top. Stunning. Then during the night times we had a pizza party at the park.

Day 4: Saturday! Up bright and early and ready to go to the U.S.S Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbour. One of our more fascinating days. Good thing I love history! We visited the museums and actually saw pieces of the U.S.S Arizona that was still there! Cool nahnas. After that we attempted to catch a bus to the Ala Moana Mall. I say attempted because no bus would open their doors for 99 exchange students and their 5 group leaders. So we walked a fair way and finally got to the mall where we had a bit of shopping time before dinner at Bubba Gumps seafood. For those of you that don’t know, Bubba Gumps is a Forrest Gump themed restaurant. I really need to see that movie.

Day 5: Luau day!!! My favourite day!!! We had most of the day for free time then in the late afternoon we took a bus to Germaine’s Luau. I’d give you all the details of the bus ride but I really can’t be bothered. Luau is Hawaiian for PARTY! Wooo! And a party it was. We enjoyed a night of traditional Polynesian/Hawaiian songs and dances as well as a buffet dinner. Ever seen a man hula? Probably the hottest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. It was practically a strip tease but their clothes were already off. Hnnnnnn....If I could take anything home...ogh. Never mind that... I’ll put a video up.

(Breathe Jacqui...breathe! Gah!)

Day 6: Snorkelling in Hanauma Bay with all the lovely fishes of many colours. Boooootiful! Then we did some other stuff but I forgot. Woops.

Day 7: Boat ride on a catamaran! Caught a glimpse of a whale but thats about it. A little underwhelming.  Free time for the rest of the day until dinner at the Hard Rock cafe. Wooo! Fun time! After dinner we were supposed to have a farewell party at some club we had apparently rented out but the manager that booked us into the place had got fired earlier that day. AND he had told his boss we were all over 21. No party for us. Plus it was the first day of marde gras. Bugger. We had free time until midnight which was a nice change from 10pm.

Day 8: Dead boring day. We got kicked out of our rooms at 10:30 which meant no beach for us because we had no access to a shower. So for those of us leaving later that had no money, we were pretty much stuck in the hotel lobby all day. SO BORING. My god. A few planes and cinnamon rolls later, I was home. Well Nebraska home :D

Free time was spent shopping in Waikiki. I was amazed at how much freedom we had! It was great. As long at we were back by 10, no problem! It was great.

I met some interesting locals, 7 million norwegians and had one of the most amazing times of my life! I wish I could write it all down but I CANNOT! TOO MUCH! I hope this doesn’t sound like an academy award speech but I wanna thank my mum and dad for constantly wiring money to me and putting my mind at ease about every little fear I had. I also wanna thank Lisa! Lovely host mummy for helping me prepare everything for my trip and making my bed so I had fresh sheets to come home to! Well thats all folks. Next time I post it shall be more entertaining and less...boring. I just had so much to say I had no time to make it HilARious.

TA TA!

Who you callin 15? Not me. Thats for sure.

I’m back everyone! And armed with a few more stories than I had before. So today was my BIRTHDAY. My American birthday! I’M 16! I’M ALL BIG AND WHATNOT. Boy did I have a good day. Not really much to tell. I ate junk food all through out the day then nearly threw up in basketball practice. Got lovely prezzies from my Lexie and Lisa and had a gay ol’ time. I’m going to celebrate properly on Saturday with my kick arse JUST DANCE 3 PARTY. Gonna be off the hook. VIP only though so most of you lamos probably wont be on the list...hehehe. I tell jokes. I also received many birthday emails and messages which made me leak tear juices all over everything within 10 metres of me. How embarrassing. I just had to let it out! I had to cry until my eyeballs lacked so much moisture they went crusty and shattered inside my skull.

In other news, THE SNOW CAME BACK. And this time I was so going sledding. No way I’m missing out on that action. A bunch of friends and I headed up to my friend Cody’s house in the country and got PUMPED. Of course I didn’t really know what I was in for...I had no clue of what kind of thing to wear or how exactly to go about hurling myself down a hill so I was more than a tad underdressed and a wittle bit clumsy. I rocked up in my Tony Bianco boots, skinny jeans and a little hoodie on thinking I’m going to be the most stylish sledder around. Oh how I was wrong. I nearly fell and broke my spine 11 times just trying to walk over to the hill in the boots I was wearing and as it turns out...snow is cold. Good thing Lisa made me pack a big coat and snow boots! I was planning on leaving them in the car because I’m too cool for comfort, but that plan didn’t last long. So my original plan was the be the most stylish sledder but the tables turned and I ended up being king dork. Now my cute ensemble was a big yellow coat, thin little jeans and snow boots 3 sizes too big. So big in fact, snow was cascading into them with every step. Lovely. Despite my dorky outfit, I tackled that sledding hill like a pro! Sure my legs were number than a numb thing, but that didn’t stop me from going again and again and AGAIN.

After we became too cold to function we headed inside for a nice hot cuppa hot cocoa. Delish. Perfect way to end the day. Here is a picture of Adam being suave and sophisticated whilst drinking his hot cider

Soon I wont have any snow to play with though. It doesn’t snow in Honolulu. WHAT? DID SOMEONE SAY HONOLULU? AS IN, HONOLULU, HAWAII????? Thats right! You read it!!! In just one week I will be just setting across the ocean to beautiful Hawaii and none of you are invite haa hee hee haa haa! Jealousy is an ugly colour. You all look hideous.

Thats is for now. Because I’m super lazy the next post you get will probably be from HAWAII. I’m going to be the palest person in aaaaaaall the land. Goody.

Good day humans.