Hawaii

It takes 20 days to cross the Pacific Ocean. We had one 12 hour break during these 20 days. We arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii on Tuesday morning at 5am and woke up at 6am to start clearing customs early. It didn’t really hit me until I was sitting on the 6^th deck eating breakfast that I was actually back in AMERICA for the first time in three months. I was so excited to hear English, not have to awkwardly try to speak a language I had no idea how to pronounce and eat the comfort foods I have missed so much.

We got off the ship as fast as we could so we could take in the few hours we had on land. A couple of my friends and I decided we needed to go to Pearl Harbor in the morning because after going to Hiroshima in Japan and learning about how WWII ended we wanted to learn about how it began. Unfortunately when we got to Pearl Harbor there was a 2.5 hour wait to take the ferry out to the USS Arizona. We thought about it for awhile then realized we didn’t want to waste 2.5 of our 10 hours on land that day sitting inside, so we walked through the small museum then left to go meet back up with our other friends.

We met up with the rest of my friends in Waikiki, had lunch then went straight to the beach to set up our little area on the sand for the next few hours. A couple of us wanted to do something fun and exciting rather than just sunbathe, so we took a walk down the beach to see what we could find. We ran into a little tent along the way that said “surfing lessons”. Perfect. We paid $35 each to have an hour long surfing lessons with two instructors. It was so much fun! We paddled out in the blue water through some small waves then waited as our instructors slowly pushed each of us towards the shore one at a time. The waves were small enough that we had time to get up on the board but big enough that we felt a rush of accomplishment and exhilaration every time we stood up feeling like we were the girls from the movie Blue Crush or the guys from Endless Summer. By the end of the hour my arms were soar from paddling and my leg was cramping up but it was well worth it. We returned our boards, slathered more sunscreen on then got back into the water. We all hung out together for the last couple of hours of sunlight then gathered our stuff and headed to a beachfront restaurant where we ordered dinner and drinks while watching the orange sun set over the glistening water of the pacific ocean. We headed back to the ship at 8:30 after an amazing day. I was reinvigorated and ready to spend the next ten days at sea studying for finals and taking in the last two weeks left on my semester at sea.

As I sit here in the piano lounge, now with only 10 days left I am feeling a huge mix of emotions. In some sense I feel like I am just starting to get used to this experience, but at the same time I feel like I have been on the ship for years. I am so excited to see my family and friends who I have obviously missed so much during this semester, but I am also so sad to know that I wont be able to see my new friends together everyday ever again. In ten days I will walk off of this ship for the last time a different person than I was 3.5 months ago when I first walked on. I don’t exactly know what those differences or changes are or will be, but I can feel it. I only hope that I can hold onto these feelings, stories, experiences, friends, and memories forever.