First week in Hawaii!

What to say? What to say? It is July 22 and we have been on the island for 9 days. It’s been a great time. I can’t explain just how amazing this place is so I will leave a picture to show you! This is the view out our back door. We are in an area called Makakilo in the city of Kapolei (Kah-poe-lay). They are trying to make Kapolei the new Honolulu, or at least the Honolulu of the West (if they used directions like north and west, but they don’t). We are on the second level and our lainai (porch) is over looking this amazing view of Ewa Beach (pronounce e’va beach) and Pearl Harbor. In the distance, especially at night, you can see the Aloha Stadium where the Pro-Bowl is played…or where grown men prance around without trying to win football games. Anywho…Amy and I are out here with a friend of hers from college, Megan. She is great. We are having a good time together; we all laugh and have a blast. The first week went by and we were never home by sunset. Not because we were out having fun, but shopping for furniture, beds, food, school supplies, a car, etc. WE FINALLY got to a beach today for the first time.

We are about 30 minutes away from Waianae schools where we work and we are living on the side of a mountain like goats, but we love it. Our places of residence is great and we are happy to call it home right now. We have furniture, food, utensils and beds. We just purchased a car for the three of us for 4500. It is a 2000 Ford Focus and we are pretty happy with the buy, but it isn’t final yet. We have asked them to fix the windshield and the brakes before we take it, so it could be another exercise in futility, like the last car we “bought.” A 2002 Dodge Stratus that was shown to us without driving it. We were talked into buying it with the promise that it would entirely reversible if we weren’t happy with the outcome of the test drive. Long story short, the car revved to 4000 rpm’s before it left its parking stall; that should tell you how the rest of the test drive went. It took us two days to return the damn thing and then we had to extend our rental an extra few days while we worked on our classrooms. There just wasn’t enough time in the day to get a new car and a functional classroom for Amy and Megan.

We have done some site-seeing in Waianae and saw some amazing sites. There is a cave in Makaha that is really cool and there is an alter type thing, or church complex called a “hanau.” Absolutely breathtaking. The water is turquoise and deep blue everywhere. We went on a boat tour yesterday and saw Waianae from a different perspective, about a mile off shore and looked at the waves crashing against the rocks and reefs. Very, very cool. Today, after we signed for the Focus and took our rental back, we went to a beach in Ko’olina resort that had five lagoons. It was gorgeous, and the water was so warm. It was our first beach in nine days on an island paradise, but it was well worth it. We have finished eating dinner and are now all on our laptops typing away.

So how is Hawaii so far? Well, we have spent more time in Wal Mart than at the beach, and it has taken us 9 days to buy a car, although finding the car was fun, we raced around the lot with about 300 other people to find the 1-dollar car, but unlucky, we settled for the Focus…haha…but it is beautiful, the people are nice and we are having fun when we aren’t stressed out about school. So, at present, Amy is the rotating Special Ed. person in her school with Megan as her second grade co-teacher. I am teaching seventh grade science (mostly biology) called Life Science. I’m not thrilled, but I can do anything for a year. Ask me about teach for America if you want to see my head fall off in a fit of rage though. And that’s about it for week one…You can contact us by mail at:

92-1055 Oka’a Street #3-206

Kapolei, HI 96707

So until I get some requests....haha...