Let's catch up shall we! Orientation was probably the dumbest thing of my entire life. Mom and Dad abandoned me to deal with it myself because I was being super stubborn. It lasted a lot longer than we all had anticipated but I had to go through all of that anyway. Probably the only good thing that came out of it was that I met a ton of people there. Then again I'm meeting a ton of people anyways. I pride myself in knowing who people are, but more importantly: remembering people's names. Do you know how hard that is with 700 new students and you're meeting like 20 of those 700 every 10 minutes?!?! It's hard. Really hard. But my pride always gets in the way, and I refuse to back down from this challenge. You'd be surprised at how well I'm doing. When I see people for a second time most don't remember my name at all, to which I have to tell them that my pride won't let me forget their name, to which they respond usually with something along the lines of "well…I remember faces." Good enough! After orientation we went to Walmart. Walmart is basically like the holiest place on the whole island…other than the temple. The college kids basically worship it. It is the source of everything you need and more. Inside you could always tell who was a college student based on two things: if there were two adults and a college aged kid walking frantically around and you saw them more than once in the store, and secondly if there was a fan in their basket. Fans are a definite must. While walking around Walmart I realized something…I had no idea how much CRAP I use every day of my life! Thing after thing after thing we tossed into the cart until it was like overflowing. The worst part: I use all of it. So far there hasn't been anything that I've forgotten but still. I'm not looking forward to the part where I actually have to buy it myself. Ick. Mom and Dad and I went snorkeling a couple of days later. It was super fun! We got the gear from the people and were asking them questions like: where's the best place to go, will I see a sea turtle, when do you close, will I see a sea turtle, how do you use this mask thing, will I see a sea turtle: just simple regular questions. We went to Shark's Cove and I was really excited. I'm pretty sure I was going to burst. Getting down to the sheltered area was probably the hardest part. It's rocky and not so fun. Once down there it's into the water you go! Then you just have to swim around and look at fish. It was so much fun. I saw so many different fish. The only down fall were the sea urchins! They were everywhere! I seriously hoped they weren't poisonous, because I most definitely got poked by them multiple times in multiple places. I'm not dead yet, so I think it's pretty safe to say that they aren't. A few days later Mom and Dad took me to the LOST beach! Up until this point in time, my Hawaiian experience was not complete. The beach was just like it looked on TV. Well…it was what was on TV but to see it in real life was mind blowing. I just kept thinking of all these famous people sitting on this beach filming this awesome TV show. I didn't want to leave…ever. I could've died happily on that beach. Mom and Dad wouldn't let me stay though, so we left and drove over to another beach where they saw some sea turtles a few days ago. We walked down to the beach and there they were! Three turtles just sleeping on the beach! I almost died. We took picture after picture and then I realized I was hungry and we went and ate food. The next day was the last day I was going to see Mom and Dad. I hadn't been looking forward to that day at all. They came and picked me up from campus so I could eat dinner with them. They showed up and surprised me with a bike! Well, it was my money that bought the bike but they brought it to me and put it together...well Walmart put it together but they brought it to me! Yay for not having to walk all across campus! (Which, mind you, is like a 7 minute walk around the big circle. It's not that big but still!) It is the cutest little bike ever! I can look around my courtyard and see like four others that are just exactly like it, except none of them have a cute little white basket and a license plate that says Doodlebug on it. I am indeed unique! We ate dinner and they brought me back to campus for final hugs and "see you over skype" type goodbyes. I most definitely cried, but I'm lucky enough to have awesome friends who ran to my side to comfort me. Sad to be all alone in the world? Nah. It was the bestest time having Mom and Dad with me here and I talk to them almost every single day. What can I say? I'm the apple. And I definitely didn't fall far off the tree. J
