ALOHA - 21st DECEMBER

The 20^th was cloudy and lazy and I spent it at home writing an essay for school so nothing worth mentioning happened.

But on Sunday we woke up into an amazing morning. Sunny and worm just as it should be in Hawai’i. We quickly decided to go skydiving on the North Shore. We got dressed and were soon on our way.

When we finally found the skydiving center it was quite crowded. We first watched the video about the possible dangers of the jump and signed 10 pages long contract where we literary agreed that we’ll do it on our own and that we will not sue them if something goes wrong. “You can get serious injuries or killed” was written on all of the pages. We almost changed our minds. But we signed it anyway.

Than we waited almost an hour to be on turn watching people taking off and landing safely. Another comfort was that we didn’t pay yet. So if they’d kill us, they wouldn’t get their money…

Then finally our instructors came. They buckled us up in practically the same way as if we were about to go climbing. Our photographers were around us all the time taking pictures (so all the pictures were made by them). It was soon time to go. We went to the plane with sea decorations…

…and took off immediately…

…the view was not great but awesome…

After a couple of minutes (I’m not sure how many) the bip was heard. “That means we have to get ready,” my instructor from Austria said with Schwarzenegger accent. The door opened and Manca was gone just like that. Wow! The second later was Tjaša’s turn and then me. Wow!

I didn’t have time to think. We stepped to the door, I had my head back and we jumped. First we made a back flip and then we were approaching the earth. It was amazing!!! Suddenly my photographer appeared in front of me and started taking pictures. I tried laughing and posing… I kind of did it but the pressure was so huge that I still look like Miki Mouse…

After 1 minute of falling the parachute opened. The photographer was gone. And everything was much calmer. I had time to look around and enjoyed the view. I even got the chance to “drive” a bit…

I had fun but it ended too quickly. We landed…

We then went on the beach where we spent the rest of the afternoon. On the way back I was finally driving. What can I say about American automatic cars… Too easy, too gas consuming and no… I didn’t like it. Well I did ‘cause I love driving but I really prefer our cars with the gears where I have total control over the car.

ALOHA - 19th DECEMBER

This day started in clouds but we still went to go to the beach to fulfill the mission. We dressed up in Hula dancers and posed there. I have to say it was really really funny. First the shore was quite empty because of the weather. But it soon began to fill up and we became an interesting Hawaiian sight.

After that we went again to Honolulu, this time to Ala Moana where we just walked around in the cloudy weather.

If something Americans are really communicative. So this time I mate a local lady whose daily routine is walking along the shore. We started talking. She again didn’t know anything about Slovenia so I explained it (again). Unlike the guy yesterday she seemed to get it. And instead on focusing on Europe she started speaking about the USA.

She began talking about the financial crisis and that she doesn’t know what is going on with her country. She looked scared but suddenly changed her face and happily but with a bit of a caution asked what I think about their newly elected president Barack Obama. When I replied that in Europe he’d be elected with at least 90% majority and that we all like him she put a big smile on her face. She started talking about how great he is, that he’s coming from the Islands, that his grandma died during the elections and many more things I already knew. But nevertheless I also learned something new. He’s coming to Hawai’i on 10 day vacations and he’ll be staying in Kailua where I am. Maybe I’ll be playing paparazzi in the next week…

Here’s the view I had while talking to her…

After that Ana and me went to find something to eat. Near the beach lies really huge shopping center with Foodland. That means you have many more or less fast food restaurants placed in a circle with the seats in the middle. The choice is big – from Chinese to Japan, Italian, Hawaiian and so on and on food. It is not that expensive – you can get a decent meal already for 8$. That and the American way of life cause that the place is full all the time. But take a look at it yourselves…

We ended up again on Waikiki where we watched real Hula girls dancing. They were amazing…

As it was Friday night we went out. So after the whole day spent in the city we just changed in the restroom and went to one of the clubs. I think it was called Mad Dogs. By the way in these clubs the security is really strict. You can’t get in if you’re under 21 and sometimes just ID is not enough and they want the passport. Well this time I got VIP entrance thanks to some Peru guys… The night went on and we were dancing and having fun until tree or so…

ALOHA - 18th DECEMBER

We woke up in the sunny and worm morning. First we were posing a bit with the lei’s we’ve got and then went to the market. This time I took the camera with me!

The main market is located near the football stadium (American football of course).

Even though we were there during the week it was quite colorful and alive. I loved it and I will definitely go back during the weekend also because prices are much lower that anywhere else. But until than here are some shots…

After a couple of hours we went through Honolulu. Here’s a quick look…

…and these are student dorms...

We finally got to Waikiki and I immediately went into the sea. It was a long way in I have to say ‘cause I was already quite far from the shore but the water was still below my waist – for those who don’t know me – I’m rather small…

So there in this shallow water I started talking to an American. From Ohio he said. He was, naturally, acting really smart but I was not surprised when he didn’t know anything about Slovenia and Yugoslavia. According to him we were a part of USSR. So like many times before I repeated the history and tried to show him that we are a part of Europe. I luckily managed to do so and he started talking about Europe. He said he’d like to go there but that he’s afraid ‘cause there’s a lot of Anti-Americanism in Muslim countries – I’m not sure if he really thought that European countries are Muslim countries or he just mixed it all up… But that’s not important so I ignored this comment and just affirmed that there’s quite a lot of Anti-Americanism in Europe and that it’s logical. But at the same time I pointed out that he shouldn’t be worried about it ‘cause Europeans are hospitable. But he was still looking at me with skepticism – I got a feeling he thinks people in Europe would gladly kill him if he’d set a foot on that ground. So besides the weather that was it. (Have in mind that I mentioned in the beginning that he was American – that says everything.)

On Waikiki you can see all sorts of people. Japanese who are afraid of the sun…

… men in white socks…

…kids plying with the send…

…and treasure hunters (but that’s another story)…

We stayed on Waikiki until the not very beautiful sunset and took the night walk around…

ALOHA - 17th DECEMBER

We woke up not so early ‘cause we were quite exhausted from the day before. The morning was cloudy but at least it was not raining. We soon headed towards nearest beach called - Kailua Bay. When we got there I was a bit disappointed ‘cause the sea was not as blue as I’ve seen on my friend’s pictures. The problem was that it was raining for more than a week so that the see was mixed with the sand and it looked a bit brown.

But anyway the beach was still sandy, with palm trees and typical life guard houses. At that moment I already missed my camera. I left it in the house ‘cause I thought it was better first to only explore the area. Mistake!!! Big one!!! And I sure won’t repeat it.

But we had fun anyway (picture taken by Mario; from left to right Ana, Manca, me and Tjaša)…

It was a bit windy so we decided to go to the North Shore to watch the surfers. On the way we stopped to see the view of green Hawaiian forests and that’s when I borrowed the camera from my friend Manca and took this picture…

After around one hour driving firstly through Honolulu and then across the island we got to there. We stopped at turtle coast were we saw a big pile of rock. At least so it looked like until we approached and saw that in between there were lying a sea turtle, which was typical and a seal which was a rare coincidence…

We continued to North where we were talking and observing the sea–sand game. That’s when the waves cover the sand and the bubbles appear…

…after that the wave moves back and the remains slowly disappear somewhere into the sand…

After a quick snack we ended up on the Sunset beach. Unfortunately this time we were too early to actually see the sunset, but well stay there longer some other time. Instead we were observing surfers (picture taken by Ana).

The day ended in the shop (more abut that topic some other time) and home made pancakes. Mmmm…

(I'm sorry I can't put the photos up here more often but I have some problems with the net... I hope it'll be better soon...)