Guangzhou Living - My New Blog

So, with our move to Guangzhou coming up real soon, I've decided to start a new blog. I fell bad abandoning this blog, but I didn't feel that the name, which is also the url, suits a blog that's gonna be all about moving to and living in China. My new blog is, for those same reasons, called Guangzhou Living, and I hope to be able to document this new chapter in our lives in my new blog.
I've lived in a number of different countries and cultures on previous occasions, however, moving too China will without comparison be the far most challenging move to date. 3 years in Hawaii was great, and even if Hawaii is not really like living in the US, it's much, much more than living in the US, it still has all the amenities and conveniences of living in the US, and life in Hawaii is good and easy. I have now lived 2 years+ in both Copenhagen, Oslo and recently Stockholm, and I've never really enjoyed the climate in Scandinavia. So now it's time to move again. This time, it's the far east that's calling, and our dream of living in Asia is on the verge of coming true. Check out my new blog here.

Stairways to Heaven

I’ve wanted to do this hike for quite a while now, and I have to say it really did exceed every expectation. Here’s the thing… The hike got closed to the public a few years ago, and a guard is guarding the beginning of the stairs all through the day. So - in order to hike the Haiku Stairs, you will have to get up and out in the middle of the night. Literally.

The alarm clock was set for 3.40 Friday morning. The three of us got in the car, picked up Audun, attempted to pick up Orestis, attempted to wake up Orestis, broke into Orestis’ secured building and hammered on what we thought was Orestis’ door until we succeeded in waking him up. (Luckily – it was Orestis’ door). We were desperate to get to the trailhead before the guard.

When we finally made it to the neighborhood where the trail begins, we climbed a three meter high fence, woke up every dog in the street (= waking up all the people living there), had every automatic light going off, and ended up running into the forest where we hid in the bushes. Terrified of the barking dogs and the light, for a few minutes I even thought we had somebody chasing us. It was pitch black. We didn’t stop to think or try to figure out which direction to walk in, so for one hour we wandered around in the forest – LOST in the dark. I fell three times and my legs are bruised with scratches all over.

When the sun finally rose, we managed to find the trailhead. At this point we were close to giving up as we thought the guard would already be there – but he wasn’t – around 6.30am we started the ascend.

The Stairway to Heaven was originally built out of wood during World War II in 1942 for the U.S. Navy's Haiku radio station. Today the wooden stairs have been replaced with metal, and 3992 steps lead you about 900meters up on the ridge of Pu'u Keahiakahoe. Needles to say, the view from the top is stunning. Without doubt one of the best hikes I’ve ever done. You have a view of Pearl City, Honolulu, Kailua, and Kaneohe all the way to China Mans Hat. It’s tough – your legs are going to hurt bad for a few days after the hike, but it’s totally worth it. I’ll do it again one day. Check out the pictures!

Micke, Molokai and Shark Encounter

Micke has left. I took him to the airport early yesterday morning, and he’ll be back in Stockholm any minute now. 28hours from door to door is brutal - but well worth it. I know I’ve said it before, but time is flying so fast out here in the Pacific. It’s the same every single semester – but somehow it keeps surprising me how fast one semester goes by. In about 6 weeks I’ll be back celebrating Christmas in Denmark, and I’ll only have a few more months back on this Island. I’ll graduate in May 2010 and probably be back in Scandinavia by June 1^st. All of you who said that you would definitely come visit this time around really should start planning the trip – before you know it I’ll be out of here.

Even though I know I’ll see him in about a month and a half saying goodbye yesterday was difficult - It always is. I spent the entire day biting my nails and feeling sorry for myself until Isabelle took me out for dinner at Bucca Di Beppo’s and a (scary scary) movie Paranormal Activity that seriously had me distracted.  Today I’d better start working on some of the school stuff I’ve been happily ignoring while he was here.

It felt so good having him back on the island. We’ve done lots of fun stuff, but we’ve also been able to relax and enjoy Hawaii since he’s already seen most of the tourist stuff you’re supposed to see out here.  We’ve done some of the usual stuff… Dined at Cheesecake Factory, booze cruised, snorkeled, tanned, been to North Shore twice with the waves picking up, watched the sunset, went to the movies, and obviously celebrated Halloween. But we also got a chance to do a few things I’ve never done before: Snorkeling with Galapagos sharks and visiting the island of Molokai.

The Shark Cage Snorkeling is something I’ve wanted to do for quite a while. I’ve scuba dived with reef sharks before, but those guys are more afraid of you than you of them so they’ll swim away as fast as they see you. The Galapagos sharks were bigger and there was probably about ten of them circling the cage we were hiding in. They weren’t aggressive or anything so it wasn’t much of an adrenaline rush, but it was impressive to have them up so close and watch them in their natural environment. This time around we, the humans, were the ones trapped inside the aquarium starring out on the real world. The sharks seemed very calm and I wouldn’t mind diving with them without the protective cage – they only eat sea food. (What a luxury!).

Molokai was…. Interesting! It is often referred to as old Hawaii, real Hawaii or the most Hawaiian Island. There isn’t one single stop light on the entire island, and literally just one car rental company and one hotel to stay at. Well, the interesting part already started in the airport in Honolulu when our flight didn’t show on the monitors. After a while Micke went to ask, and we were told simply to wait close to the gate. Five minutes before take off the pilot came to the gate and shouted the names out loud of the seven passengers going on the tiny Mokulele Cessna plane that was gonna take us on the 25 minute flight to Molokai. It was the smallest plane I’ve ever been on! (Except from the one I jumped out of while skydiving – about the same size I think). Obviously it didn’t go very high, so we had the most beautiful view of Oahu and Molokai from up high. On Molokai we got into out four while convertible jeep and soon realized that the 25 minute plane ride had taken us 50 years back in time.

On our one night and two day stay I believe we saw and did roughly everything there is to see and do in Molokai. Which is – obviously – not so much… However, we had a great time, and what I liked so much about our experience over there was the huge difference between Molokai and the other Hawaiin Islands. It’s probably not an island I would recommend to a first time visitor to Hawaii, but having visited a few of the islands more than once and been out here for so long, Molokai was definitely worth a visit. It puts things into perspective. A lot of people are disappointed when they come here and realize that Honolulu is just another big size with high rises and homeless in the streets. But the fact that Honolulu and Oahu have everything is what makes it possible to stay out here for so long. It almost felt good to return to civilization after 36 hours on Molokai – haha…

So – here I am preparing to get back into the everyday routine again. The routine of actually going to school, doing my home work, working out, eating dinner at home…. Studying by the poolside, watching golden sunsets from the balcony and going out in Waikiki. Life isn’t too bad out here. But at the same time I am beginning to look forward to going home for Christmas and see family, Micke and friends again…

The Countdown has Started…

One week from today you will find me impatiently waiting in Honolulu International Airport wearing a lei around my neck exited for Micke to return to me and Hawaii.  I can’t believe time is running so fast! In some ways it feels like forever since we said our goodbyes back in Denmark in the beginning of September, but mostly I can’t believe how fast time is running and I’ll see him again in just one week. I’m getting super exited to see him– I’m almost counting the hours now.

I wanna do all kinds of stuff while he’s here. Since he used to live here, we don’t have to do all the typical tourist stuff. I’ve probably been to Pearl Harbor and Hanauma Bay about 10 times with visitors – and those places are most sees when you’re visiting Hawaii for the first time, but… Honestly – I don’t feel a strong desire to go there again. I mean – living in Copenhagen you don’t go visit the Little Mermaid once a month - do you? Oh well - maybe that wasn’t a very good comparison. Hanauma Bay is an extremely beautiful bay where you snorkel with sea turtles, tropical fish in every imaginable color and corals. And not to forget - Japanese tourists…

There still are a few things I haven’t done on this Island that I really wanna do before I’m out of here. I want to hike Stairways to Heaven and I would love to swim with the sharks (in a cage) on the North Shore. Micke has agreed to the hike, but apparently he’s not so keen on the whole swimming with sharks thing. I guess I shouldn’t really blame him… Oh – and while he is here it Halloween! Even better – this year Halloween is on a Saturday – and we’ll turn our place into a haunted house and host a Halloween Party. Lasts year’s party at my old place was…. Out of control but awesome – this year should be equally fun. Or better. Maybe I won’t have to yell at everyone and throw everybody out this time. We’ll see.  I’m definitely capable of making people leave hehe :)

Last night was this semester’s first Sunset on the Beach. I love sitting in the sand at the beach, watching the sunset and listening to live music, eventually watching the stars and a movie. The atmosphere is so special – nothing can beat it really. Sunset on the beach in Hawaii is truly magical.

Saturday was one of those weird days in Hawaii -I was on the beach with my sociology book trying to study for my upcoming midterms. It was a hot day and the sun was shining from an almost clear sky, there were only a few white clouds to be spotted. And then – out of nowhere it starts raining! It happens all the time out here. You’ll look up and you’ll be like WTF – where did that come from? It appears to be raining from a clear blue sky! And if you take a look around you – the rest of the crowd of (Japanese) tourists are also starring toward the sky trying to solve the mystery. But that’s just Hawaii. After a few minutes it’ll stop – and usually the rain feels quite good and refreshing. I guess that’s the reason for all the rainbows you’ll see out here.

I’ve posted some pictures from last weekend’s Toga Party at North Shore – check them out. I had a great time. We were invited to this house party up in Wahiawa – the house… No the mansion was right on the beach and everybody had dressed up in various togas. This Saturday we’re going to another house party up there – should be fun. Unfortunately it’s my friend Morten’s goodbye party – oh well – he’ll be back… Like the rest of us who tried to leave the island :)

School Work Interfers with Beach Life. Again...

I’m flat on the couch listening to music with the AC on. It feels good to do nothing. For a change. I’ve had three busy days in school. That’s likely to be a record. I’m usually not busy in school, and I was hoping this semester wouldn’t be too bad either. I guess it isn’t. But I had a big presentation in my management 7001 class yesterday and a midterm due in my sociology class today. Yesterday we were busy at campus from 9am - 3.30pm. That’s an extremely long day for us – that’s almost like a normal work day! We don’t do long work days over here. So we were exhausted when we finally made it home. School

is beginning to bother me. I try to remind myself I’m here to go to school. I seem to have a hard time accepting that fact. Today I had to spend four hours on my take-home ten page midterm, having submitted it I’m rewarding myself and doing nothing. Not true. I’m watching the sunset from the balcony. It’s all orange and beautiful. I love my life here, and I hope you know me well enough to read between the lines and recognize that I’m not complaining about the workload… I usually don’t do any school work during weekends or later than 7pm. That’s my time of.However, I will probably have to work a little extra in the weeks to come. I want to have finished as much as I can before Micke gets here, so I can spend time with him and not worry about school stuff. (Even though I usually don’t spend much time doing in school work, I do spend enough to get A’s. That’s not gonna change…) He’ll be flying in on Oct 26^th and staying for two weeks. I’m excited. He’s here for Halloween – Halloween is so much fun over here – I can’t wait! I’m gonna dress up in my ladybug dress and do my infamous ladybug dance and throw a ladybug party.

The dollar exchange rate is so low at the moment that we had to buy a 32” flat screen TV to save money. That’s the philosophy – the dollar is so weak that the more we spend the more we save and the richer we’ll get. We didn’t actually mean to buy the TV, we just wanted to rent a movie, but all of a sudden we found ourselves impulse shopping

flat screen TVs in Wall Mart. We decided not to rent the $1 movie, instead we went home with the TV and downloaded a movie to save money. The opening of the Victoria’s Secrets in Ala Moana Mall is another great way to celebrate the weak dollar and save even more money. Maria and I did a little shopping spree yesterday and returned home with matching pink bikinis. According to Micke, I cannot buy any additional bikinis (I think I already have 13), and I’m not supposed to buy anything pink. (Half of what I own is pink). But Micke is not here yet – haha…. Pray that the dollar weakens even more so I can save more by shopping more, and that Micke won’t get rid of everything pink in my (walk in) closet when he gets here.

We took advantage of the car parked in our parking stall and went on a small trip to a Halona Beach and Sandy’s this Sunday. It’s nice to get out of the city, and Waikiki beach is too crowded.

(Don’t get me wrong - I’m not complaining, just stating a mere fact: Waikiki Beach is too crowded with tourists). This weekend starts off with at GSO Hanauma Bay Snokeling trip, and Saturday night we’re invited to a house party on North Shore. If we decide to go up there, we’ll probably spend a few hours on some North Shore beach on Sunday. I loooooove NS!

Enough for now. I should get back to the important, time consuming task called doing nothing.

Tomato Soup and Tsunami Advisory

Today I washed my hair in tomato soup. It was disgusting, and the entire shower turned out light red. I’m not trying to dye my hair pink or anything, it was a desperate attempt to get the green tint out of my normally blond hair. I googled it (it’s amazing how you can google anything), and I found a lot of people suggesting tomato soup. I went to a pool (and hot tub) party on

Sunday, and when I looked myself in the mirror Sunday night, my ends had turned green from the chlorine. I’ve heard about it, but I’ve never had that happen to me before, so I had no idea what to do, so I googled it. This morning I found myself in the shower with a can of tomato soup and a can opener, and a few minutes later I found myself pouring tomato soup in my hair… And all of a sudden I panicked! My hair had turned pink, and I decided that a few green ends were better than my entire hair turning pink. So I washed the tomato out right away, resulting in… The green ends still there. Well well – this is the kind of problems we’re facing out here. Pool parties lead to green hair. I guess I can live with that.

Yesterday there was another potential problem (or rather disaster??) facing us. Because of the Samoa earthquake a tsunami advisory was issued for Hawaii. It was in effect for a little more than an hour, but was cancelled again, but I still had to promise my mom not to go to the beach… Even with a potential tsunami on its way the beaches were still crowded with tourists enjoying their vacation and most surfers refused to get out of the water. We figured that we’d be fairly safe up here on the eight floor. At least as long as our apartment is still standing…

Sunday morning we had our Graduate Student Organization Welcome Picnic. I think it turned out a success. Since we have had our almost unlimited budget cut to zero, we had to be creative, so for the first time we had a potluck this semester. We had about 30 graduate students showing up, from almost every corner of the world, so the buffet turned out really interesting. There was homemade

sushi, a Slovakian mango cake, BBQ pork, pasta salads, cookies and lots of good stuff.

Back in Paradise

Here I am – back on my favorite Island. Well… That’s an understatement – this place is probably my favorite place on this planet. What can I say – it’s Hawaii. And to all of you guys back home: Yes – you really should envy me my paradise – so get your ass out here and come visit!! The sooner the better. I’m only here for nine more months.

I got back two weeks ago. Susanne and Hallvard (my new roomies) had all ready found our new place, moved in to the apartment and cleaned the entire place, so all I had to do was unpack. So so nice! It’s such a hassle to spend the first weeks in a hostel trying to find a place, and the best part is that I absolutely love my new home. It’s very close to our old place, literally just two blocks down the street on the corner of Kuhio and Kaiulani. This also means that the beach is only 100 meters from here and from our lanai and from my bedroom window I can see the ocean in between theHyatt towers, but it really would help if somebody could maybe tear the hotel down. To say that we have ocean view – or even partially ocean view – would be an overstatement… But hey - I can see a small fraction of the ocean from my bedroom window – if it’s not exactly what can be categorized as ocean view, it is at least a small view of the ocean. And I’m loving it.

But that’s not the only thing I love about my room. I’m in love with my walk in closet, my air con (and even better - I just figured how to work the air con remote control), I love my big soft bed, my tiny TV and the fact that my (master) bedroom is quite big and has hard wood floors. But it doesn’t end here. The building is secured with a security guard guarding us day and night, we have a swimming pool (we figured jumping from our lanai on the eighth floor would be a bad idea, nevertheless very tempting), we have parking (I’mseriously considering buying a car, or rather… I’m seriously tryingto figure out how to afford buying a car), we have a big lanai (Hawaiian for balcony), and we have a washer and a dryer and even better – a dishwasher, a living room with a dining area and a very decent kitchen. I even bought a bread machine on Amazon, so lately I’ve been baking bread on an almost daily basis, and we get to eat real bread with real fibers, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, instead of the soft white stuff Americans call bread. Well… I guess my recent obsession with the bread machine deserves an entire post to itself. As you can tell – I love my new home – and I should not forget to mention the most important accessory that came with the place: Susanne and Hallvard!

It’s time to sleep. I should post some pictures – I’ll take some and update the blog tomorrow. Sweet dreams…Zzzzzz……….

By the way - check out Susanne and Hallvard's blog for a video of me giving a tour of the apartment when I walked in the first day I was here: http://honolulusoghawaiivard.blogspot.com/

The Revival of the Revival...

I so wish I could call this post the revival of the Aloha Blog, but I've all ready done one of those revival attempts and named a post that. I should be the first to admit that it was a terrible attempt, however, the intentions were good, and that's what really counts - right?? Here's the thing. I'm so unbelievably bored that I've decided to do a second attempt to do a revival of this blog. I'm not sure how it's gonna end up, we'll just have to wait and see about that. That's not the whole truth. I'm even more bored than that. It's somehow embarrassing, but the truth is that I'm so bored that I've begun to stream the entire Paradise Hotel Denmark show. From the beginning...! The worst thing is that it ended months ago and I know who will win and what's happening (I was bored so I googled it...) and I'm still watching it. That's the evil of extreme boredom - Paradise Hotel Denmark!!

Here's the thing... It seems as if fall has come to Norway today. Today is August 3rd. I think it's too early, but then again, I remember living in Oslo and thinking fall came way to early every year, maybe this is just the way it is in this country?? Native Norwegians - please help me out on this one... Is this normal??? Anyways - I ABSOLUTELY HATE IT. The good thing is, that it reminds me of why I'm living on the other side of the globe in sunny Hawaii. It reminds me of why I should never go live in Scandinavia again. The thing is - I tend to forget about it! Being away for so long makes me forget how terrible the scandinavian weather really is, and after a while, I'll actually start fantasizing about moving back here. I've been lucky enough to spent some time in Stockholm this summer, and for a while I really thought I could live there. It such a beautiful city. It breaks my heart, but I'll have to admit that Stockholm is more beautiful than my favorite city, Copenhagen.

But days like these reminds of why I should not move back here. This kind of weather affects my mood instantly, I'll feel depressed and alone and all I wanna do is hide in my room and feel sorry for my self. I literally feel that the quality of my life is so dependent on some decent weather. I need to see the sun once in a while, and I should not live in a country where the sun rises at 11 in the morning and sets again at 3.30 in the afternoon the entire winter. I know it's very different from person to person how the weather affects you, I just know I should live in a country which is warmer and sunnier than the Scandinavian countries are. Somebody PLEASE STOP me if I ever start thinking about moving back here...

Back (at home?) in Hawaii

I’m back in Hawaii. Maybe I’m back home in Hawaii. I’m not really sure where home is anymore. Can you have more than one place you call home? I know I have. When I go to Denmark I go home to Denmark. When I go to Oslo I go home to Oslo. And when leaving both of those places I fly home to Hawaii. The weird part is that I feel more at home in Oslo and in Hawaii than I do anywhere in Denmark. I’m Danish (and I do feel Danish) but I feel more at home outside Denmark than I do whenever I’m in Denmark. I used to live in Copenhagen, and every time I go there I expect to be going home, but lately I’ve been feeling as a stranger whenever I get to Copenhagen. I almost don’t recognize the city anymore - so much have changed since I lived there. I feel like I should feel at home in Copenhagen, but when I get there I feel like a tourist who doesn’t know how to get from The Central Station to Strøget and doesn’t have any Danish currency. But it’s my favorite city. I love Copenhagen and I still think it’s the greatest city in the world. However, I do feel much more at home when in both Oslo and Honolulu.

To follow up on the previous post… The flight here went pretty well, and my new favorite airline is KLM. The service and the food was so much better than that of United Airlines, Lufthansa and American Airlines. I hope I’ll never have to fly anything else than KLM now. On both of the long flights I was lucky enough to have an empty seat between me and my neighbor passenger. Well - I guess I can’t thank KLM but rather the financial crises that!
As predicted I was taken aside in the customs in SFO and interviewed in a small dark room. This happens every single time I’m entering the US, and in details I’m asked to account for why I visited the US in… 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2003, 2001 and finally 2000. Why don’t they write it down and put it into my file or something?? The first few times it happened I was totally paranoid thinking that they were not gonna let me in, now the only thing I care about is whether or not I’ll make my connecting flight. This time the police officer even looked at me and said: This happens to you every time – right? I confirmed while thinking that I must look like I’ve tried it all before. They always accept my explanations and I always have to run through either LAX or SFO like crazy to make my connecting flight. I made it, and when my luggage actually showed up in Honolulu I was happy thinking that the trip couldn’t have been any better.

Mette picked me up in the airport. I guess that’s one thing that makes me feel like coming home… My good friend picked me up and drove me back to my place. And before I’d made it back to Waikiki both Susanne and Hege had called to ask if I was back and how the trip went. Thanks guys! You’re the ones who make me feel at home so far from home!
Having showered we went out for a drink at The Big Kahunas. (The Big Kahuna means The Big Wise Man in Hawaiian). When the waitress arrived at our table 10 minutes later with a fish bowl (a huge blue drink in an actual fish bowl) from some guys at the neighbor table I instantly knew I was back in Hawaii. It’s tough to be three blond girls partying in Hawaii…

When I finally lay down to sleep around midnight I slept until 8.36 the next morning which is quite impressive taking the time difference and jetlag into consideration. I must have been exhausted. The next morning I woke up to a beautiful sunny day and 25 degrees Celsius. It was like spring had arrived during the night. Being back on the beach in my bikini felt almost surreal after a month in the snow in Scandinavia. It felt soooo good… (Except that everybody’s so much more tanned than I am! That’s the downside of going home for a month – you loose your tan!) The first day back in Hawaii was spent on the beach with a book, on a booze cruise with plenty of mimosas, and on a restaurant with good friends. It does feel good to be back. Home.

Denmark and Norway

I’m in Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. I’m waiting for my 11 hour transatlantic flight to San Francisco. From there I have another 6 hour flight to Honolulu. I’m on my way home to Honolulu having spent a month of winter vacation in Denmark and Norway.
I keep asking myself why Hawaii is so far away, why I had to choose to live in the most isolated group of islands in the world. Well – I guess it’s worth it. Worth the long, long flights. I know I’ll feel different about this flight tomorrow morning when I’ll be back on Waikiki beach with my friends. I’ll soon have forgotten how terrible I think it is to sit squeezed in between strangers in a small airplane 10 km. above the ocean for 11 straight hours. If I manage to get through customs without too much trouble I still have 6 more hours from San Fran to Honolulu. Most people think that when you’ve made it all the way to LAX or SFO you’re practically there. Surprise! You’re nooot… Don’t get me wrong. In the end I still think Hawaii is worth the trouble, and I also don’t wanna scare all the potential visitors away…
However, I do have one piece of advice to offer to everybody thinking about taking this trip. Do not start out with the worst hangovers ever when you board the first flight! Talking from experience I’ll promise you that hangovers are not going to make the 30-hour trip more pleasant. Especially not when you’re seated next to an 85 year old American man who insists on sharing his entire life story with you together with his famous cheese cake recipes. And when the children’s seat placed in seat behind you prevents you from laying your seat down. And when you have a nine hour layover in Dallas Forth-Worth Airport before boarding the transatlantic flight, hangovers, no badass hangovers, are a really bad idea. It’s actually rather simple. Simply do not go to Mooses on Tuesdays when flying out on Wednesdays. We all learn by our mistakes… I hope! Except from the fact that I have a sore throat and feel rather sick I think this trip will be more pleasant. No hangovers or long layovers. At least not if I make my connecting flight in San Fran. I tend to have trouble getting through customs; they always pull me aside into that small room and interview me. I’m always shaking thinking that they’re not gonna let me back in to the US. I think I’ve been in and out of the US too many times on too many different visas. It makes going through US customs very interesting…
I could go on and on about airports, flights and airlines forever, but I guess it’s really not that interesting for most people. Having travelled quite a lot the last few years I have come to feel very strongly about certain airlines and airports. And US customs for that matter. Let’s try not to dwell on that…
I’ve spent an entire month in Denmark and Norway. Two weeks in Denmark and two weeks in Norway. That’s the great part about being a student – my winter break is 5 weeks and summer break is… almost three and a half month I think. I get to go home and say Hi to family and friends – and not to forget… Celebrate Christmas in Denmark with my family and eat traditional Danish Christmas food, and go to Norway for skiing. This was my third year in a row skiing. I’m beginning to get impressed with my cross-country skiing skills. You have to bear in mind I’m Danish! Having grown up in Denmark I have absolutely no basis for skiing skills. This time I didn’t even say: “I’ll NEVER go skiing again” one single time during the entire week of skiing. I’m quite proud of myself. I’ll usually say (or rather… shout that) at Magnus at least once during a week of skiing. The funny thing is that I’m really serious and I mean it when I say it, but I’ll always end up putting the skis back on. But this year went very well, the weather was beautiful and I really enjoyed being in the snow. Even though the temperature difference was… Overwhelming. Leaving Hawaii the temperature was about 30 degrees Celsius, arriving at the cabin in Norway the temperature was minus 18 degrees Celcius. That’s a difference of almost 50 degrees! However, I had a really good time skiing in Norway and it was so good to see everybody again. Check out the pictures! I guess we’re boarding now. You’ll hear from me again when I’m back in my favorite island.

Flash Flood and Finals

Yesterday was crazy. Living here I’ve experienced quite a few flash floods before, but the one that hit Oahu yesterday was nothing like anything I’ve seen before. In one hour we had 100 mm of rain. By comparison, in Denmark it usually rains 450-850 mm annually. In twelve hours yesterday it rained 350 mm which is more than it usually rains in Denmark in six months. And I thought it rained a lot in Denmark!!

At 2 a.m. the rain and wind woke me up the first time. At 4 a.m. I was wide awake again, and around 6 a.m. I finally gave up on sleeping. I thought I would do the last desperate studying before my finals yesterday, but soon I discovered that we had no power. And since I’m on the 10th floor no power means no water. And no elevator… On Kuhio the lights in the intersection were out, and the police had to direct the traffic. However, the power returned by 8.15 a.m. and I was happy to be able to get in the shower before a long day at the university. Well, I could have spared myself the effort… Walking the 100 meters down to the bus stop I was literally soaked. The umbrella was useless because of the heavy winds, and when the bus finally came I had mascara running down both cheeks and I was soaked all the way to my underwear. No fun when you’re on your way to two final exams, and you have to be at the university for at least 10 hours, and there’s heavy air conditioning inside. I walked around the entire day yesterday thinking that I smelled like a wet dog… When I finally made it home by 8 p.m. there was a glass of red wine and tacos waiting for me…Thanks Hege! Exactly what I needed! I was supposed to go to Susanne and Hallvards for juling and bollefest, however, I was too exhausted and fell a sleep on the couch at 9 p.m. while watching a rerun of Grey’s Anatomy…

Anyways, I think both of my finals went pretty well, and now I have five weeks vacation! FIVE WEEKS! And that just for Christmas! Five weeks is what I had annually while working in Oslo. Next summer I’ll have 3 and a half MONTHS of vacation… Nice. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to work. Studying suits me pretty well…

I have 6 days left on the Island before I leave for Scandinavia. Tonight two of my friends have rented a mansion out in Hawaii Kai, and they’re hosting a biiig pool and Jacuzzi party. I think 75 people have been invited, I can’t wait. I don’t have to worry about studying for any finals or getting up in the morning for a change. I’m exited.

I was planning on spending the last six days before I return to Denmark on the beach trying to get a nice tan, however, it doesn’t seem like the weather agrees with me on that idea. I might return home as pale as the rest of you guys – haha…
Gotta go. I’m off to Ala Moana for some Christmas shopping!! See you soon!

The Revival of the Aloha Blog

The Aloha blog wasn’t dead if that’s what you thought… It just went into hibernation for an extended period of time. For many good reasons! Since you heard from me last time, lots of things have happened, and I’m not sure where to start… Let’s try to go with it in chronological sequence.
I think the first thing that happened was Maria visiting from Canada. She was here for five days, and it was great to see her and have the chance to show her around in Hawaii. We rented a car one day and did a circle island tour. We were lucky enough to see a big sea turtle on Laniakea Beach on the North Shore, we got to swim in a waterfall, we ate garlic and chili shrimps at the shrimp wagons, relaxed at Waimea Bay, and went for a walk on the beach where Lost is filmed. We also did some scuba diving and got to see 20 dolphins swimming in front of the boat. On her last days here we went to Hanauma Bay for snorkeling.

Maria left a few days prior to Halloween. Hege and I had decided to invite people over for a Halloween Party, one thing we forgot to discuss, however, was how many people to invite to the party… By accident we invited around 60 people, and by accident… everybody showed up at some point during the evening! In addition our neighbors across the hall had a party going on, so we decided to open the two doors and make two big parties one humongous party. It was good fun, and everybody had dressed up in crazy costumes. At one point it kinda got out of control, and I though I would make people leave. I also thought people were not gonna leave voluntarily, so I started yelling: Get the F*** out of here… NOW! It actually worked… Although the next day I started wondering why I hadn’t just asked people to leave in a friendlier way… Well – it seems as if nobody really took insult… I still have some friends left; what's more, the apartment is still in pretty good shape.

A week following Halloween Christer came all the way to Hawaii from Norway. He was here for two weeks, and I think we got to see and experience a lot of what Hawaii has to offer. We pretty much did all the stuff you’re supposed to do while in Hawaii. Here on Oahu we went to North Shore to see turtles and surfers, Kayaking in Kailua and Lanikai, snorkeling in Hanauma Bay, hiking the Onomana ridge, Pearl Harbor, Waikiki Beach, Muse on a Tuesday for $1 drinks, Chessecake Factory, we watched hula in the sunset, watched baseball, went to down town and china town, Aloha Tower, Ala Moana Shopping Center, etc. But I think the best part was the trip to Kauai – the oldest and northernmost of the Hawaiian Island. I’ve been there three years ago with Sisse. It is called the Garden Island for good reasons. The Island is extremely green… Also for very good reasons! It rains a lot over there, something we also got to experience. We had rented a convertible Mustang (niiiiiice!!) and more than once we had to stop and put the cover back on, so we wouldn’t get soaked… (However, we discovered that if we drove really fast we didn’t actually feel the rain. That theory, however, only applied until it was raining a certain amount of rain, and we couldn’t go any faster than we all ready did…) While on Kauai we went on a boat trip where we were lucky enough to see humpback whales, dolphins jumping in front of the boat and we got to snorkel with turtles. We also did a trip to Waimea Canyon (Grand Canyon of the Pacific – check out the pictures) and hiked the beautiful Na Pali coast.

Christer left two weeks ago, and because I practically did not do any school work while he was here, I’ve pretty much spent the last two weeks catching up on papers and exams, and in three days this semester is officially over! I’ve got my last two finals on Thursday, so I’ve spent the last few day writing papers, doing presentations and studying… If you wanna know anything about The Implementation of Fiscal and Monetary Policies in the US or The Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 – just let me know… I’m the one to ask!!
I’ve started the countdown… In only 9 days I’ll be on my way home to Denmark to celebrate a traditional, rainy Danish Christmas, and I’m so exited… I cannot wait to see family and friends; I’ve been feeling a little homesick lately. I’ll be home for an entire month, and I’ll make sure to spend time both in Copenhagen and Oslo besides my parents place, so I’ll get to see everybody. I just can’t wait!

Now I have to go cause I’m heading over to Susanne and Hallvard to watch julekalender… We’re watching a Norwegian julekalender called Nisserne på Låven (I think…!!) It’s kinda hard to get in the right kind of Christmas mood while there’s 25 degrees Celsius outside (I’m not complaining..!) however, Susanne is making an excellent effort by baking rolls with chocolate inside and serving hot chocolate every time we come over. Gotta go!!