It's time for updates on the Aloha blog! According to Hallvard at least...

I think it’s about time for some action on this blog. Well - that’s not exactly true. Hallvard, my Norwegian friend, thinks it’s about time for me to update the blog, so I’d better just do it before my fellow bloggers get another chance to bug me for missing updates. If you scroll down on the left side you’ll find a link to Hallvard and Susannes blog and Christinas blog. Christina, Hallvard and Susanne and I are kind of competitive when it comes to blogging. Since we do most things together, we’re always trying to be first on the blog with the breaking Hawaii news. Also, if I haven’t been blogging for a few days you are likely to be able to get an update on my life through their blogs, and you’ll get to hear the same story from three different perspectives. I don’t know where I’m going with this; however, Hallvard and Susanne have posted the coolest video ever on their blog! It turns out that the water from the tap here in Hawaii is so clean that it doesn’t freeze when you put it in the freezer! It doesn’t freeze until it comes into contact with something else than water, so when they poured the ice cold water in a glass with ice tea in it the water froze immediately. It’s really cool, you should check out the video. It looks really weird… Hawaii is actually one of the places in the world with the cleanest water. Although I think I liked the Norwegian water better…

Well – I guess this blog should be about what I’ve been up to lately. Lots and lots and lots of stuff… But nothing that interesting really. Lots of fun though! I haven’t done any cool dives or interesting road trips, but I’ve been trying to get into the new routine of living in Hawaii again. I’ve been dooing some school work of course. In my law class I’m working on a big Enron case, and in my Econ class I have to do a presentation on Denmark and the Euro. Both cases are really interesting. But that’s not so interesting to blog about or read about I guess. Other from that I’ve been playing tennis a few times. We have tennis courts five minutes from where I live that we can use whenever they are available. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s exhausting to play tennis in the sun when it’s 25-30 degrees outside. It’s good exercise though, as I’m not a very good tennis player, so I really get to do a lot of running trying to get the ball over the net…

I almost forgot… I’ve been taking Ukulele classes! A ukulele is a very small Hawaiian guitar with only four strings. It’s the one Iz is playing on the Somewhere over the Rainbow song – I really like the sound of it. And it’s a lot of fun, but it’s hard for me not to play guitar on it cause I’m so used to playing the guitar. But I’ll get better and if you come and see me here I’ll play the ukulele for you. It was Mette who suggested we should take ukulele classes together. Mette is a Danish girl who’s been living in Hawaii for five years. I met her coincidently one day at Mooses. She came to Hawaii on vacation five years ago, fell in love with her surfing instructor, married him and she’s been out here ever since. It’s kind of a crazy story, but I’m so glad I’ve met her because she’s been here so long that she is almost local… She plays the ukulele and dances hula!

I guess another thing that has been taking up some time is… partying and going out. Surprisingly! Today we were talking about how cheap it is to go out over here. Drinks and beers are about one third of the price you’d have paid in Norway for the same thing. Well – after a few minutes it kind of struck me that it might be cheap over here… But if I go out twice as often as I did living in Oslo… I’m not really saving any money. (And I do go out a lot more!) I’m just having a lot more fun for less money… I guess that counts too!! Hehe….

Also, the first visitor has announced his arrival to the Sandwich Isles! Christer is visiting for two weeks in November. I can’t wait to see him and show him Hawaii. Maria who’s right now doing an exchange program in Canada has also talked about coming out for a long weekend. I really hope she will, I absolutely love being able to show people why I love these Islands! I also thought about going to see her in Canada for a long weekend. I’ve never been to Canada so this would be a good chance to go there.

I guess that’s it for now. I think Hallvard will be very pleased with my blogging efforts. If not, I’ll hear from him tomorrow. We’re going to watch American Football tomorrow – I’m exited.

Something totally unexpected seems to be interfering with my Hawaii vacation...

I’m sorry you haven’t heard from me for quite a while, however, something totally unexpected has been taking up a lot of my time: School! (Can you believe that??) As my good friend Christina expressed it yesterday while tanning on the beach: School is seriously interfering with our Hawaii vacation! I just realized that I have no time for school. I mean, why waste time on school when all I really wanna do is to go to the beach with friends (without text books…), go diving with sea turtles, play the ukulele with Mette and Christina, dance hula, play tennis with Jonas, work out with Hege, more importantly drink beers on the lanai with Hege, plan events with Danish Dynamite and GSO, go on road trips around the island with everybody, drink ice coffee at Starbucks, have dinner at Cheescake Factory, and last but not least: Go to Mooses for 1$ drinks on Tuesdays, go to Magoose for cheap beer on Thursdays, go out dancing on Saturdays and relax by the pool with hangovers on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays… School just doesn’t fit into my life right now! Suggestions anyone? (I can tell Hege totally agrees. While I've been blogging she’s been making seriously frustrated noises while trying to complete an assignment. And she doesn’t look to happy either. I just don’t think school is our kind of thing at this point in our lives…)

Well, apart from getting frustrated about the fact that I actually have to attend school 6 hours every Thursday, I’m doing… pretty good! I’m getting the best of my life in Hawaii these days. I feel kind of stressed out, but really… I shouldn’t complain. I get a little stressed out every time I feel my tan is fading cuz I don’t get to go to the beach for a few days. Tomorrow morning I’ll be taking Ukulele lesson with Mette, and Wednesday morning Jonas will kick my ass in a tennis match. Tuesday night all the Danes meet up at Mooses for one dollar drinks, and every Tuesday night I will spent a considerable amount of time contemplating about the fact that I can drink around twelve gin and tonics in Hawaii for the price of one in Oslo. So – why not drink twelve? (Because if I did…. Jonas would really kick my ass in tennis Wednesday morning. Not that he isn’t doing that anyways….) So, my life is kind of getting into a routine. A good one though!

Anyways… I’ve joined 24hourfitness without really having the time to go there. And I feel bad about not working out, living in Norway I used to go to the gym at least four days a week. Thinking about it, I guess I just didn’t have anything better to do up there in the snow. Over here I might get fat – but Hey! I’m having the time of my life, so who cares anyways.

Another thing… I really wish I had more time to write personal emails to all of you back home. I hope it will get better when things settle down a little bit. Or maybe when I drop out of school? (Don’t be surprised if I drop out and pursue a career in hula dancing or Ukulele playing. Or maybe I should rather do my MBA concentration in scuba diving with sea turtles?)

Diving Corsair

Today Jonas and I did two beautiful dives out of Hawaii Kai. Both dive sites were unique in their own way. The first site was The Corsair Wreck, a plane that was sunk back in 1948. Here’s a little history on that:

The plane was sunk , well actually ditched back in 1948. On a routine mission from Pearl Harbor the Captain suddenly realized his fuel gauge needle was falling quickly. Thinking it was just a faulty gauge he pressed on. Soon after he began to experience engine sputter then ultimately failure set it. He landed the plane in flying configuration with the wheels up and flaps slightly extended. The water landing was perfect, the plane actually sunk intake with no damage whatsoever. The Captain was rescued later alive in his life jacket.

Visibility was great, and even though this wreck is considered an advanced dive, I had no problems what so ever. (I’m only Padi Open Water certified…) 40 meters below the surface the wreck emerged from the blue, and plenty of Hawaiian fish surrounded the sunken plane just to make the setting absolutely beautiful. This was my first dive since Florida last December, and every time I do another dive I’m reminded of why I’m doing it… The underwater world is so … different! Down there I forget everything that’s above the surface, and the only world that exists is fish, bubbles, turtles, wrecks, colorful corals etc. It’s hard to explain. You haven’t tried it, that’s something I’d recommend to everybody.

The second dive was very different, but equally good. It was a shallow dive (around 15-18 meters). Corals and fish weren’t so special, but we got to see and swim with humongous sea turtles! I think I recall I wrote the exact same thing last night on this blog, nevertheless, I’ve never seen sea turtles that big! They were HUGE! And I was there, right next to them, swimming with them… I think we saw at least ten of them today. The instructor took lots of pictures of me and the turtles; I’ll post them as soon as we get them. Me and Jonas will probably go down to the dive shop and get them on Wednesday.

I’m a litlle disappointed that I didn’t get to see any sharks today, I really wanna see sharks when scuba diving. The only time I’ve seen a shark was while snorkeling in Florida Keys, and I have to admit that I hurried back to the boat that day. I don’t want to be floating around the surface like a sea turtle when I see sharks (Sharks feed on turtles…), but I would looove to see sharks while scuba diving. Next time!!

Road Trip to North Shore

This weekend has been great! I’ve got so much to tell, and I don’t know where to begin… I guess I’ll try to at least get the highlights.

On Friday we decided to go on a road trip. When I say “we” that would include me of course, My Norwegian roommate Hege, my Danish girlfriend Christina, my Danish friend Per, My two Norwegian friends Susanne and Hallvard, and a German guy called Jan. We rented an old mini van and left urban Honolulu on 9 Saturday morning, and headed toward the North Shore. I’ve been there many times before, but I can’t get enough of that place. Cruising on Kamehameha highway while listening to Jack Johnson is magic! (Jack Johnson is from Hawaii and he’s got a house up there. I’m always looking for a mail box with “Johnson” on it, but I still haven’t succeeded in locating him…)

There’s really something about North Shore. It’s pretty rural, and there’s only one single resort hotel (Turtle Bay) and one lone hostel, so it’s not crowded with Japanese tourists like Waikiki is. Also, the shore isn’t packed with huge American houses and filthy rich people. Of course you’ll find a few nice neighborhoods with big homes, but mostly there are old, shabby houses, and you can tell that the people living there are more concerned with the surf forecast than with maintaining the house. Maybe you’ve been watching the show Lost? It’s filmed on the North Shore. I’ll come back to that.

The atmosphere is totally different from that in Waikiki and Honolulu. It’s very casual up there. On the North Shore you’ll find wild chickens running around everywhere. (I call them Jungle Chickens.) Another thing you’ll find are the locals. Local surfers on their bikes with their surf boards on a rack on their way to Banzai Pipeline or one of the other world famous surfing spots. During winter time the famous Triple Crown surfing competition is taking place on the North Shore. I consider paddling into those waves on a tiny board nothing less than suicide! Luckily most of the surfers actually do survive. Well… When I was here in 2005 one professional surfer got killed.

However, during the summer months North Shore is more or less flat. There’s practically no waves, which makes the numerous beaches perfect for swimming and snorkeling. And that’s more or less what I’ve been doing all through the weekend! After checking in at the hostel yesterday morning, we went to Laniakea Beach where we were told we would have a good chance of finding sea turtles. We were taken aback when we got there. I think we saw around 50 huge sea turtles in the water and on the beach. I’ve seen turtles here before, but never so many and so big. Check out the pictures!

After a few hours of snorkeling and tanning with the turtles we went to Sunset Beach to watch the sunset. Later we went into Haleiwa and had dinner and margaritas at a Mexican restaurant.

This morning I woke up to a really weird sound… Half a sleep I figured it was the sound of a crowing rooster; however, I was positive that it was one of my friends’ cell phone that was making the disturbing noise. The rooster kept crowing, and I wanted to yell to my friends to turn off that damn cell phone. It wasn’t until after morning coffee at Starbucks I realized that the really annoying alarm that went off this morning actually was a real and alive rooster… Half a sleep I just don’t expect to be woken up by a real rooster crowing right outside my window. An annoying cell phone is usually a lot more likely to crow than rooster outside your window. When something like that happens, you know you’re at North Shore!

After breakfast at Starbucks we went snorkeling in Sharks Cove before setting off in search of Police Beach where the first episode of Lost was filmed. I’m not a huge Lost fan myself, but a few of my friends are fans, and with the help of an iPhone GPS we located the spot and went off in search of the exact location. We found it pretty easily because there is security guarding the area, but all Hawaiian beaches are open to the public, so we could walk along the beach and see the jungle where the plane crashed in the first episode. The security guards told us that they would be filming again this Wednesday and Thursday at the same location, and we were welcome to come back and watch it from the beach if we wanted to. They even pointed out some of the settings, and as the tourists we are we took pictures, and did our best to look Lost… Haha…

On our way back home to Waikiki we passed by Chinamans hat and beautiful Kailua Beach. I was the only one who had done that trip before, so I finally had the chance to be a tour guide.

It’s Sunday night and another week is about to begin. I haven’t opened a book since Thursday, so I’m guessing it’s about time to get serious about school. When I think about it, I guess that’s kind of why I’m here… Well… Tomorrow morning I’ll meet up with Jonas at 8 am. We’re going diving! I’m exited but also a little nervous cause I’ve never been down so deep before. I think it’s a 40 meter dive site. It’s an old plane wreck from the Second World War, and I was told it should be a really beautiful dive.

What a great weekend!

Hanauma Bay & BBQ

I’ve spent the entire weekend on the beach in the sun. It’s been great. Especially when I hear from people back home that fall is on its way. I’m so relieved that I won’t have to live though another Norwegian winter. Damn…. Those winters are looooong, cooold and daaaaark! (I’m sorry if I’ll make all you guys back home feel bad now… That’s really not what I’m trying to do, I’m just trying to tell you how much I like the whole idea of the Hawaiian seasons... Summer, summer, summer and.... Summer).

On Saturday we went to Hanauma Bay. I’ve probably been there ten times before, but the bay is beautiful and we had a great time. Although the visibility was poor we did some snorkeling, and two of the Norwegians even spotted a sea turtle.

It’s funny how I’m mostly spending time with Norwegians now. Having lived in Oslo for almost two years I feel the same sense of connectedness with Norwegians as I do with Danes. Probably because I understand the language almost perfectly, and because I know the culture so well. However… I thought leaving Oslo would be the end of “Vi forstår hinanden ikke” og “Kamoloso” jokes, but with 98 Norwegians at HPU that’s still all I hear when they’ve had a drink or two! And even though I’ve heard that joke at least 200 times before, I still smile politely every time a Norwegian makes fun of the Danish language. No… I actually do think it’s fun. At least most of the time. And if nothing else, it’s a good icebreaker. And Norwegians do sound kind of cute (Or rather stupid??) when they think they speak Danish – ha ha…

Today we had a GSO (Graduate Student Organization) BBQ at the beach for all the new graduate students. There was plenty of food and drinks and a lot of people showed up. We stayed at the beach for five-six hours just mingling and getting to know people. Lots of Scandinavians were there, so now I know quite a few Norwegians and Swedes, not so many Danes though. Most of the Danes here are undergrad and only here for one semester, which is really too bad. Anyways – I guess I didn’t move out here to hang out with Danish people… It’s so easy ending up doing that though!

It’s Sunday night and I’ve been trying to do some reading for my ECON 6000 class. I’ve read a chapter, and all of it is stuff I’ve had before. I’d better go and get some sleep now. Tomorrow waits another day on the beach… With my ECON book!!

My first day of school

I’d completely forgotten how exhausting school is! What am I doing going back to school? Whose crazy idea was that? How come nobody warned me about this whole MBA thing? I thought working was exhausting, but no…. School is a lot worse! I wanna go back to my fulltime job… Well… I guess I just have to get into the routine again. After a few weeks I’ll be fine. I think there’s gonna be a lot of work, but I have the feeling that it is not gonna be too hard. I’ll manage.

I’m taking four classes this semester. Most Master Students only take three classes which is the requirement for full time studies, but since I’m in the MBA program I need to take a few more classes. I’ll definitely have enough to do, but that’s ok, cause I really do like to learn new stuff. I’m taking an Economics class which I think is pretty basic micro and macro economics. But I really enjoy economics, I’ve always thought macro economics to be extremely interesting, so I have a feeling that this class will be one of my favorites this semester.

I’m also taking a Business Law class disguised as a management class. It’s American law, so I’m not sure that I’ll ever be able to use what I learn in this class out there in the real world. But I’ll learn something new. The third class is a management class called Individuals, Group Dynamics and Teams. I’m really exited about this one, since the professor is one of my favorite professors from my BA. I have a feeling this class will be very interesting, but my first lecture is not until Monday. My last class is a MBA seminar. I have absolutely no idea what that is, but I’ll find out tomorrow.

I went to get my books today. Even though I know how expensive books are, I’m outraged every time I leave the book store with four used books at price of… $500! I’ll never get over how expensive that is. I got to remember to get my books from ebay or Amazon next semester. I just didn’t have the time to wait for handling and shipping this time. I’m all ready behind with the reading in most classes. Most professors expect you to have read the two first chapters in the book even before the first day of school, so I’d better get to it!

I was really anxious too meet the other MBA students. I was a little worried that I might be one of the oldest in the program, but I’m really not. There are lots of people in my classes that are older than I am, and most have some working experience, so it’s a really good mix I think.

Also, the thing that makes Hawaii Pacific University so special is the diversity. Even though I’m used to it, it still amazes me to find myself in a classroom with Americans, Canadians, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders like Samoans, Malaysians, Africans, Iraqis, Germans, Indians, Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Thai, etc… And of course lots of Scandinavians! HPU state on their homepage that they’ve got more than 100 nationalities gathered here in Hawaii, and it is supposedly the most diverse university in the world. I believe that to be true. Sometimes the culture clash can be frustrating when you do group work with one from Samoa, one from Gambia and one from Japan, but usually you’ll end up finding it really rewarding.

Here I am!

I’m finally here. So much has happened since you heard from me the last time, and I almost don’t know where to begin. I’m still a little jetlagged, and by forcing myself to stay awake now, I hope to be able to sleep inn tomorrow and get on to the Pacific time zone.

My flight went ok. Well - it was a bit stressful, and I almost didn’t make my LA-Honolulu flight, but I ran through LAX and jumped onto the plane as the very last passenger. Once again, the immigration officer took me into that little dark room and had me sit there for a long time, while he was trying to figure out why in the world I have four different US visas in my passport. Same thing happened when Magnus and I went to Florida in December last year. I’ll sit in that room with all the (other) weird looking (illegal ??) immigrants, and I’ll bite my nails like crazy and pray that they’re gonna let me in. And for some reason, after having answered too many questions like: Why are you entering the US? What was the purpose of the trip you made in 2003 to Florida? When was the last time you entered the US last? Are you going to apply for citizenship? etc. they always have mercy, and let me through the gates. Nevertheless, having travelled for 20 hours, you’re really not up for that kind of interrogation. But Hey – I’m here now! And that’s what really matters.

Today Hege and I finally moved into our new apartment in Waikiki Beach. It really feels good to have unpacked at last, and have a place you can call your own. The apartment is great. The location is even better. For those of you who know your way around Waikiki, we’re right on Kuhio and Paoakalani Avenue. Paoakalini is the street where Tiki’s is right on the corner on Kalakaua, and we’re less than 100 meters from the beach, and very close to Lilioukalani Park and Diamond Head. It’s really perfect!

We’re on the 10th floor in the Scandia Tower building, and from the lanai (Hawaiian for balcony) we have a great view of Diamond Head. The apartment is a two bedroom/two bathroom so I have my own room and my own bathroom. Hege and I share a pretty large kitchen and living room, and last but not least a lanai that is a least 10 square meters. The apartment is furnished and fully equipped. It even has snorkeling equipment, body boards and air mattresses, and of course three TVs. Nothing less is fully furnished here in Hawaii J So please… I have plenty of room and even a bunk bed if someone feels like stopping by!
(Even better…. Starbucks is pretty much just around the corner. I can finally have all the tall-non-fat-decaf- iced-caramel-macchiatos-up-side-down that I can drink!)

I guess that’s it for today. I will go and inaugurate the bunk bed and enjoy that I (almost) have my own place. I feel so lucky. I live on the beach in Hawaii! I almost can’t believe it myself. But it feels right. A lot “righter” than Oslo ever did. (Don’t get me wrong. I somehow did end up loving Norway). But this is where I belong – at least for a few more years. Having spent just a few days here, I now know why I decided to come back here. Hawaii really is beautiful.