Wait, what? That cannot be right! It's hit the seven week mark of the winter semester here at BYU-H campus, which in turn, means that there are only seven weeks remaining until I return home to the desert of Arizona! Well, the very least that I can say is that it has been a very very oh so very busy semester! Hence the lack of updates... Well, also, sometimes I just dred going over all the things I've done and writing them. I think it sort of causes the blog to lose it's purpose. Yeah a blog is a device that could be used to just talk about everything someone has done, but I think that there should be a bit more to it, yeah?
So from here on out, I will try to include events, thoughts and the sort in this blog of mine! Ookay, where to begin? Well, lets see..
I broke the law... You see, dear readers, there is a hike on the lovely Hawaiian island of Oahu called "Stairway to Heaven". It consists of an extremely steep, devestatingly long, and terrifyingly narrow set of metal stairs that lead to the top of a mountain surrounded by other mountains and a heck of a lot of green. Coming from Arizona, this new "green" concept is entirely alien to me. It is beautiful, I'll admit that, but I do find myself missing the varying shades of brown, yellow and tan from my homestate.
This is beside the point! So seeing as this is an illegal hike, there is a security guard that sits at the foot of the stairs. So how do people get around this guard? Well, there is a three hour gap in time where there is no guard in position, and since he is not present, that is typically when the rebellious hikers start trekking up the stairs. The catch is that that three hour gap happens to be in the middle of the night.
My group was delayed in getting to Stairway, but we managed to get there about half an hour before our little guard-y friend got to his post!
This is Emma and I trying to look good in the middle of the night halfway through our killer hike up Stairway
Can I say that it was one of the hardest things I've ever done? Imagine, if you will, stairs, and then make them about three or four times steeper. In fact, in a few areas, the stairs morphed into a ladder.. So I kept my mind off of the strain of keeping up with all the fast hikers by talking to the people directly in front of me. Namely my friend Daniel and later Kevin. Daniel described the hike to me in three segments. The first portion is the most difficult, and I for one certainly agree with him. The second part was the most dangerous and the third was the homestretch. By the time we reached the second part, the clouds decided to be our friends by covering the steep drop offs on either side of the stairs.
About two hours later, we made it to the windy top and found shelter in a concrete building. We were sweaty, we were cold, we were tired. But we made it! I'm going to describe the inside of this shelter to you: grimy, slimy dirt covered floors with piles of trash in the corner, metal supports and graffitied walls. It was awful, but hey, we were sheltered from the freezing wind and clouds. The group decided to stay until sunrise before decending the staircase. That was really fun! Emma, Eric and I became cuddle buddies to keep ourselves warm. Seeing as I am the shortest of the trio by far, I got to be in the center. It was awesome. And then everyone else in our hiking party joined in. If you can imagine a bunch of sweaty, smelly, damp young adults group hugging in a dank bunker, you've just visualized us.
So eventually when it got light outside, we realized that it the clouds were covering everything and so coming down to the bottom was freezing and miserable for the most part.
It suffices to say that the rest of the day, I was exhausted and sleep deprived. An entertaining combination.
The descent!
Don't we look good with all that green?
This is about halfway down. Lots of stairs in both directions
We made it! Emma, Preston, Eric and yours truly
The Stairway crew plus our guard who was actually friendly. He's the one in the blue jumpsuit..
Meet my friend Morris!
We like to play in the rain. Oh and Eric likes my watch I guess
Moving on to the next week! Me and most of the "Hawaiian Family" hopped on a bus to hike up a perfectly legal hike called the Crouching Lion. This was a heck of a lot easier and just as much fun! I love my ohana dearly. I wish we really were all related because life would be a ball all the time! It also suffices to say that we took many awesome posing pictures.
Crouching Lion hike!
Aww cute Emma!
Josh and I make attractive shadows. But that's it.
Middle of the hike pose!
The top! You can't see, but we're up at the top, I think..
So there is this one place in the hike that has trees that look like olive trees a little bit and because of that I dubbed it Jerusalem. We ate lunch in Jerusalem. PB and J. And Gushers, and goldfish and wheat thins and ritz chips. Mmmm healthy. Not. But it was all good!
Valentine's Day was not Valentine's day for me this year. In honor of Arizona's 100th birthday, I celebrated that instead! Yeahh it was a good day. Me and my ohana went to Tito's for a delicious Valentine's dinner with complimentary chocolate cake! We got real spoiled there. It's safe to say that we're going back again soon.. So after we got back from our music blasting, rain soaked escapade, we returned to campus and parted until 8:45. Until that time came to pass, I recieved a Valentine's package from my lovely family filled with goodies and a J. Crew shirt! Best.Stuff.Ever. Thanks mama and family! This was delivered via my Lovely cousin Allie Jones and her awesome friend! We chatted for a bit and then I was on my way to the GCB to watch You Again with the Ohana. While we were waiting for Emma to bring the stuff, Eric and I did sommersaults and looked at a map for a long time. Then we watched the movie and I fell asleep until the end. Oh well, it was a good day! And I'm still very happy single. Sorry all! No marriage in this bright horizon anytime soon!
Guys, so much more has happened but I just don't want to bore you with a novel of the things that I've done! I'll just hit a few more points and then it can be picture time!
Fast forward to this past weekend. That was quite eventful. So Friday is typically beach day once we finish with school and lunch. Tori, Austin David and I headed to Hukilau and played in the water for a good two hours. Tori and I got towed around by our ankles and were assaulted by sand courtesy of Daveed and Austin. But we still had fun! The day has only just begun however, because we still had a concert to go to!
After our failed attempt to play raquetball, Austin, David, Tori and I parted ways to shower and meet everyone else for dindin before the Jon Schmidt and Steven Sharp concert. I got my ticket for freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Okay so the concert was fantastic! I love the cello even more now and those guys were just so entertaining to watch! And once the concert was over, there was a steamy hot dance in good ol' Hale 2! And by hot and steamy I literally mean there was steam coming from the windows from the main lounge. It was an exciting dance though..even if I got called a limp noodle. You know who you are.
So Saturday Emma, David, DJ, Tori, Austin and I headed out to the Ala Moana Mall and Wal mart for some much needed supplies. We were thoroughly entertained on the way back because of a silly man who was jamming out to his music rather enthusiastically.
Sunday was a big, big, big day! (Hunger Games reference for you HG nerds like me). Since school was out for Monday, we, meaning the Ohaha, celebrated Beau and Brooke's birthdays by camping out in the Turtle Bay area. We had fire and in insufficient amount of blankets for the night. And a severe lack of umbrellas, but that wasn't too bad. There was a toasty fire and s'mores with plenty of s'more puns: "please sir, I want s'more!" And DJ used a creepy voice a lot. Petri and Ralph were new additions to the party. It so happens that DJ, Emma, Eric and I set up our little island of sheets amidst the other groupings on the beach. Plus side of the camping trip, it was really fun and full of entertainment and I had my own personal heater for the night (thanks brother!). Negatives to the trip was the fact that I took a nap early that day and couldn't sleep very well and the cold rain in the morning. To those of you who slept like rocks ( Austin, David, Beau, Aroha and who ever else is crazy and could actually sleep), I am very envious of you all. Very envious. I suppose I am willing to do this again though. Provided we cook breakfast on the beach of course!
After we got back from the camp out, Alex and I got breakfast and did our laundry. The rest of the day was uneventful save for the card playing at night! Tori and I are the champs, yeahh buddy!
Morning after the campout. I like my blankie a lot, okay?
I mustache you a question..
