Easter

This easter was a blessed one. I've never felt so much closer to God than I have this past week. On Friday, I joined my roommate and some friends to attend a service on The Passion. On Sunday, I went to church to witness baptisms and spent the rest of the day at my cousin's house with the rest of the family. Many dogs (even a stray labrador), eggs (a military man and clown), and food (lots of it). Here are some pictures:











About my weekly updates, I'll get to those soon! Hang tight!

Independence

It's kind of ironic how we in Hawaii celebrate Independence Day in a state that basically had their independence taken away. But with that random fact aside, I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July. I spent the day with my family on the other side of the island at Bellow's Beach. What I like about this side of the island is that on a good day-if you're lucky-you can see a faint silhouette of Maui (first picture). Luckily enough, we are planning to spend our Labor Day weekend camping at Bellow's. Soft velvety sand, twister, horseshoes, barbecue, and a good time sums up the day. Bliss.

The Journey Begins

One week and two days have passed since the beginning of nursing school. It's not joke when it comes to long, full days of lectures, group work, and quizzes. The 6 days in total (I have classes from M-TR) have been packed with information. And ever since school began, I've just been trying to keep up or catch up. I should actually be reading a chapter about inflammation right now so I can take another quiz (my second one for the class thus far). We just got our quizzes back for another class and I've really been cutting it close getting 90% on the quizzes we've had so far.

But rewinding about a little less than two weeks ago, we had our nursing orientation and induction. To make it short and sweet, we sat for hours on end, listening to people talk about what we'll be "looking forward to" in the next 3 years. Quite possibly, the most interesting thing during that orientation was listening to nurses in the field share with us their experiences with patients. I wasn't able to take any pictures during the orientation, but here are a few that were taken of the whole class:


I'm somewhere in the middle.

My parents caught a bit of traffic on their way to the ceremony, so they got there pretty late. They weren't able to get any pictures of the ceremony's process, but we were able to get some pictures, albeit the blurryness, this was the only picture of me, my mom, and my dad. My brother was taking the picture:

We headed back to the west side of the island to find a place to eat and "celebrate".

We ate at Phuket Thai to celebrate. After that dinner, I've kind of deduced Thai food has instantly become one of my favorites. :) Sadly, I wasn't able to get any pictures, one: because I didn't have my camera on hand, and two: because my phone camera was not working at that time.

I might be able to post something tomorrow, but I'm making no promises. Until next time...

Friday's Featured Film x Family Movie Night

I've decided to include Family Movie Night posts into FFF posts on occasion as I usually don't have time to post anything on Sundays. There will also be times when I won't have time to post on Fridays, and so FFF will be moved to Sundays with Family Movie Nights if necessary. These types of posts are closely related and so I thought they would go well together.

Today's Featured Film is Paper Heart. A bit different from the usual featured film in that it's a full film documentary rather than a short film. Combining elements of documentaing and traditional storytelling, reality and fantasy, Paper Heart brings a fresh perspective to the modern romance and redefines the classic love story.

The documentary follows Charlyne Yi who doesn't believe in love. To help rid herself of this thought, she brings along her good friend, Nicholas, on a journey across America to search for answers and advice about the four letter word. Everyone she talks to, strangers or people she may know, all offer different views on romance. Shortly after, Charlyn meets Michael Cera whom she develops a relationship with and the documentary takes a turn for the better. But to continue with the film, Charlyne risks losing the person she finds closest to her heart. Watch the trailer for the film below. If you have a netflix account, the documentary is free to watch instantly.

Family Movie Night:

Shutter Island is one of those movies that like to mess with your mind. Same with most films Leonardo DiCaprio has starred in, especially Inception. You really have no idea what's really going on until the end. I came in watching this film thinking I would be terrified and scared, but I thought wrong. The film may be a thriller, but I wasn't exactly thrilled. I don't quite know the right word to explain what this movie is, rather than a thriller, but I really enjoyed the movie. Leo has made his way to my list of great actors. He seems to go for roles that involve having a troubled past, and it fits him well. I'm really bad at giving any type of rating to movies because I enjoy all movies, except for Lady in the Water which exceptionally sucked. So watch the movie for yourself and you decide whether you like it or not. Personally, I loved it.

When in Rome was just okay. I think they spoiled everything for you in the trailer, fooling you to think that the whole movie would be pretty funny. But the trailer pretty much sums up the movie for you. It was very cliche and ended the way you would think it would end, happily ever after. I guess what you see is what you get, right? The movie had all the fixings needed to create the typical chick flick, and if you're looking for one of those, this is the movie for you. One of the only reasons why I wanted to watch it is because of Josh Duhamel. He is the total package. Well I haven't met him, so I wouldn't know, but he sure as hell is one of the more handsome men out there. So although the movie wasn't what I was hoping, I still got to see what I wanted to see.

And so the featured films continue, and the netflix queue keeps spewing out new movies to watch. Sadly, school starts up soon, and I won't be able to catch all the movies my dad will probably be watching when I'm gone. Maybe I'll subscribe to netflix myself, and I'll have nothing to worry about. In the mean time, it's still one week away.

Kuli'ou'ou Ridge Trail

This hike came unexpectedly with my mom knocking on the door of my room telling me my brother was leaving to go hiking with his friends and a few of our cousins. I thought to myself, is he serious?! He didn't even care to invite me! With that aside, I quickly packed up a few necessities and we were on our way. I live in the middle of the island and the hike was on the south side of the island. With picking up a few cousins and waiting for a couple of people, we didn't start the hike until around 10:30. The hike was fairly easy, with a few tough spots.

There were shortcuts everywhere. Although not advised, we took a few.

At the halfway point, a green shack is conveniently located for you to rest up for the rest of the hike. It seems like a nice place to camp as well. I didn't quite get a view of the shack, just the view from the table.

Hawaii is known for it's different climates. The area we were in would be considered the desert side of the island, whereas I live in a more year-round rainy area. At the beginning of the hike, the view is filled with a lot of beach trees, but as you venture further up the mountain, you come in contact with a lot of evergreens.

We finally reached the top, and the view was a spectacular 360.

We did the hike mainly for my cousin who came from England (far left), my cousin from the Philippines (red), and my cousin who'll be leaving to Nebraska for college on Monday (white tank).

The trek down was a lot easier than it was up. We came to a steep hill that was pretty challenging to get down from. Me and my cousin took a simple route and slid down. I slid down on my feet whereas my cousin took his butt down.

Afterward, we headed down to Alan Davis beach in Makapu'u near the lighthouse.

A log is conveniently placed for you to jump off of and dive into the clear water.

The location is also home to Hawaii's volcano god, Pele, and her 'chair'.

By the time we finished all of the above it was about 4:00 and we were all very hungry. We headed to "Da Kitchen" for an unbelievable meal that is mentioned in the next post...

Books, Bees, Bags, and Underwear

The 2010-2011 school year is nearing, along with being broke. My parents and I took a trip to my school yesterday to turn a few things and pick up a few things. I carried a little list with me to keep track of what I needed and what I didn't need. It was pretty basic: drop of titer results, buy textbooks, buy nursing polo, get nursing badge, etc, etc. I'm really looking forward to this semester, but at the same time, I'm pretty terrified of what's in store for me.

The price of my textbooks this year are quite ridiculous, nearing about $900. Luckily, I found a few used books, but that only took off about $150. I still need to buy an eight-book pack that costs about $450 and it conveniently comes in a box (quite intimidating) as well as two other books. I'm only taking three classes and looking at the amount of books that are required, I'm not exactly looking forward to the semester (studying wise). Here are the books I've gotten at my school's bookstore so far, along with The Perks of Being a Wallflower which I had gotten at Barnes and Noble. I've been meaning to read this book since high school, but I've never gotten around to it, and now I have.

It was also a priority to get my nursing badge and polo. It was really hot, and I was walking around a lot that day, but my nursing badge didn't turn out too bad.

After finishing up at the school, we headed to Ala Moana's Barnes and Noble where I picked up The Perks and some moleskine cahiers for my usual jotting down of notes. I also picked up some Burt's Bees on the way as my tube is almost done with. Not too sure if I mentioned ordering a backpack a while ago, but I now have time to post about it. It's from Urban Outfitters, and it's great for school, or hiking even. High recommended for a durable, spacious bag. Check it out for yourself at their website.

And lastly, I needed a few pairs of new underwear! Really, you can never have enough underwear, especially cute ones! I got them at Victoria Secret's Pink. Most of my underwear is from Pink, and if not, from American Eagle, but I haven't been to AE in ages! I got 5 pairs, what with their 5 for $25 'deal'. Worth it though, I love their underwear.

The top three patterns are not what I had purchased, which is why there's a circular swatch to show you the patterns I really did get. The online website didn't have the patterns I had, but I wouldn't mind getting any of these the next time I'm there. The bottom two are the actual patterns I had bought, and are also my favorite styles. They're really comfortable and I love the lace details.

When we were done browsing elsewhere we had some lunch at Genki Sushi. Always good.

Our last stop was to Bed Bath and Beyond which just recently opened in Hawaii, so that was a little exciting. The place is really tight though, they made sure to use every square inch of what used to be Circuit City. My mom got me a Mr. Coffee coffeemaker and some utensils for my dorm.

We came across traffic on our way home, I was driving and had to stay up the whole way. Not fun, but that was my day. I took a bunch of pictures of what I got that day, but ended up using pictures from online stores. Click through each link in this post to see the respective websites of where I frequented that day as well as where I purchased everything mentioned in this post.

This Delicate Balance

Nature always has a knack of showing us things that we don't quite enjoy unless we take some time to really look at it. Living in Hawaii has its benefits, especially for my parents. Year round, my parents are able to tend to their garden and landscaping and are able to produce great things by getting their hands a little dirty. Being home this summer I was able to document some of the plants (mostly flowers) that my parents have put so much hard work into. These posts will come sparingly. In a week, I'll be back in school and not at home, so at one point, I may start sharing pictures of nature elsewhere, rather than my front/back yard. For now, I'll focus on what I have here.

Birthday/Graduation Party

This past Saturday our family celebrated my cousin's 22nd birthday and graduation from college over at his casa. His house, I can't even think of a word to describe how wonderful looking it is. My cousin alone picked each piece of furniture and paint color for the walls and basically designed the entire interior. Their home even has a 'bridge', if you want to call it that, but it's basically an area above the kitchen that leads to the bedrooms and could also count as a second living room/entertainment area. His home has about 3 'living areas' total. To put it in simpler terms, I am way jealous of what he lives in when he's home and not in college. I wish I hadn't forgotten my camera's memory card so I would've been able to share the greatness with you.

We got to the party a little early, so I stayed outside and waited for the group of people my age to start coming in, because at that moment, I was surrounded by parents, grandparents, and the rest of the 'middle-aged' folk. No one came for a while, so I decided to head upstairs to that bridge/living room area and watched some House by myself for a bit. Eventually 'my people' came, basically my cousins. Not all of them were able to make it, because some of them went to Birthday Bash at the Waikiki Shell which is a Hawaiian/Reggae concert held by a local radio station. I was planning to go, but family first, right?

Since I forgot my memory card at home, my pictures have been limited to what could fit in my camera's internal memory. Which isn't much with the setting I've had it at. For most of the night, my brother's girlfriend and I were playing with my nephew. He went around hiding his DSi, and we had the job of trying to find it.

We also had a little 'photo-shoot' in the striped bathroom.

I feel like I shouldn't be showing you all the toiletries he has, but I didn't want to have to deal with cropping the picture.

The last picture I was able to fit into my camera was a picture of my dad, and his brothers and sisters (my aunts and uncles).

The first boy from the left is my dad. I actually didn't know he was the oldest boy, but the second oldest. I guess I thought wrong... My youngest aunt was yet to be born, so she's not in the picture, obviously.

I really wish I remembered to bring my memory card because there was so much more I wish I documented. For one, my niece had the cutest outfit on with a matching headband, as she always does. She was also having so much fun climbing/sliding up and down the stairs. I also wish I was able to get the picture of the food. Halfway through the line I thought I grabbed what seemed like some good food, that is until I looked further down, then to my plate, seeing that I will completely run out of room eventually. My plate was pretty stacked. I'm sure I gained a couple of pounds. And last, his cake. His cake was delicious. It was a half-and-half of dobache (sp?) and chantilly.

I must never forget my memory card ever again. It will really decrease the amount of typing I have to do, and the amount of reading you have to do. And after all, pictures are worth a thousand words. Or maybe I just need an iPhone (and all of its cool photo apps) or just someone who can figure out why my blackberry camera is not working...

Tomorrow, shopping post. :)