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…
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. 
