My Bucket List To Before I die.. or At Least Until I Leave This Great Island

*If highlighted it means I have accomplished the task :) *

1. Go camping at Mokuleia
2. Learn to surf and be able to go surfing on my own time and board
3. Own a surf board
4. Eat at Kahuku Shrimp Truck
5. Attempt Haiku Stairs (and not get caught)
6. Go to Waimea Falls Park
7. Jump off the rocks and swim at Sharks Cove
8. Hike Lyon Arboretum
9. Do a sunset/booze cruise
10. Hike Aiea Heights Loop
11. Hike Koko Head
12. Watching a movie at Sunset on the Beach at Kapahulu Pier
13. Take ukulele lessons
14. Go to the Honolulu Zoo
15. Go to the Waikiki Aquarium
16. Learn to kite surf
17. Learn how to make a lei
18. Do the Nature Trails of Oahu which including a hike, bike, and sail day set
19. Horseback ride on the beach
20. Ride on an outrigger canoe
21. Explore the Makapuu Point Lighthouse Trail
22. Scuba Dive
23. Attend a Luau
24. Eat at at least 20 different great restaurants
1. Gyu Kaku
2. 
   
25. Visit Dole Plantation and have a pineapple smoothie
26. Visit at least one of the other islands (preferably Maui and then if I have enough money Big Island)
27. Hike at least one trail a week
1. Lyon Arboretum
2. Manoa Falls
3. Aiea Loop
4. Koko Head
5. Mariners Ridge
6. Makapu'u Point
7. Manana Trail
8. Maunawili Falls
9. Moleka & Ualakaa Trails
10. Sacred Falls
11. Waahila Trail
12. Waimano Trail
13. Palolo Falls
28. Parasail in the Pacific Ocean (Parasailed in Atlantic Ocean)
29. Kayak 
30. Learn Japanese (or at least many main phrases)
31. Be able to use chop sticks as well as I can a fork/spoon
32. Know and understand the Hawaiian language
33. Learn about the history of the Hawaiian Islands (and in more detail Oahu)

Pictures to prove that I actually did/do what I say.. I know some of you people question ;)

                    Mariners Ridge Hike

                            Luau

This place will do.. yes it will do indeed :)

Well it's been a while since I have updated this things but life has been busy.
To start off the ended of March ended with a bang, and brought in the new month of April with some new friends, and some interesting memories. 
Deja, Courtney and Lindsay, three friends of Bryon and his best friend Steve (Deja being his girlfriend) came to visit. Needless to say I had prejudgements before meeting them based on things people had told me and things I had experience myself. However, I was determined to go into the situation with a clean slate and wanted to meet Courtney and Lindsay for the first time. Once Bryon FINALLY let me meet and hang out with them we all seemed to hit it off wonderfully.  After spending hours on the beach and drinking at Dukes, during which the girls each got a surf lesson from Bryon, the girls and I decided to do dinner and drinks. I went home, got ready and then met up with them at their hotel from pre-dinner cocktails. After the cocktails we headed to Doraku Sushi where I had the most amazing sushi I've had thus far (this is counting Kona my absolute FAVORITE place for sushi--however this place was not as cheap as Kona). As we were paying our bill and ready to head out the door, an older man named Steve came and sat down by us. He proceeded to ask us if we wanted to join a large table of Marine Corps guys for drinks. Obviously we didn't turn that offer down. The men were about to be shipped off to Afghanistan and were set in FULL PARTY MODE--which in the end benefited us as they paid for all of our drinks. The night didn't end quite the way I was expecting or wanted it to, but it was still quite enjoyable and I DEFINITELY felt it the next day. 
After Deja and Lindsay left a couple days later, Courtney, Bryon and I hung out. One of the nights we made Courtney dinner after having a few drinks at Dukes. The next day we hit up the beach and took Courtney to one of our favorite restaurants, Gyu Kaku. I absolutely fell in love with this girl. She is such a sweetheart, and basically my twin. Bryon had warned both of us that we are exactly alike, and man were we ever. I hope that girl moves out here or that I live close to her one day because she was FAB-U-LOUS!!

Meeting new friends in March only inspired a theme in April. I finally got to meet Matt, my future roommate to our amazing apartment which you'll read about in a bit. Matt is a great great guy. I am so blessed to have met him. He reminds me exactly of Bryon's first and best roommate in college, Zac Jahn. He is laid back, funny, fun, and the sweetest person ever! I met him through Lauryn, my other roommate, who I actually met off Craigslist (Gotta love Craigslist). Matt and I have had the opportunity to get to know each other and we have a ton in common. This will be great when we finally live together. The other day we went to Sucker Punch together. If you haven't seen this movie I suggest seeing it. It's a little weird but really good! Besides Matt, I will be living with a girl named Lauryn who is moving from CA in a month. She is a teacher as well and seems like a lot of fun! She is also bringing her dog Bentley with her.

Now onto the apartment. As of Sunday, Matt, Lauryn, and I have a new(well really old) apartment. It's FANTASTIC!! Matt and I went to check out this place on Saturday and instantly fell in love with it. Its a 5th floor penthouse on a 5 floor condominium.  When you walk in you realize that the whole place, besides the bedrooms, is hardwood floors. There are these neat wooden cutouts everywhere that shows its age but gives great character to the place(see pictures). There are 3 bedrooms all of which have built in shelving and drawers. The master bedroom, Matt's room, is HUGE and leads out to the lanai (porch). There is one bathroom that has a pink bathtub (once again showing its age) but has a brand new toilet and has plenty of space. The kitchen has all the amenities it needs including a washer and dryer, dishwasher, brand new fridge, stove and oven. The kitchen also has a second door that opens to the hallway that walks up to our front door.  This hallway is basically private as we and one other tenant are the only people that live on the floor, and overlooks the mountains. Having this second doorway lets in a lot of sunshine and a nice breeze. 

My favorite spot in the whole apartment is the family room with its big glass windows and screens that lead out to the massive lanai. I will be spending a great deal of time out there. I talked to a guy already about getting a grill, and so now all we need is a good patio table and chairs for all of our outside meals we'll be having together!

Well that's a bit of what's going on. Look for my other post that discusses my Hawaiian Bucket List that I want to accomplish while I am here (which is still an undetermined time line). 

Love and Miss all of you, 

Aloha

Jenna

It's Been A While... So Here's Catch Up Time For All You Followers

 Since I've last blogged a lot has happened. The great holiday of gingers all over the world, a.k.a, St. Patty's Day occurred. Bryon, Sasha and I attended the Honolulu gathering of such holiday--Murphy's Block Party. This consisted of a beer garden like atmosphere, lots of beer, hard alcohol, crazy dressed people, and girls promoting alcohol who were barely dressed in anything. None the less it was fun, but expensive. While there we indulged on delicious Fish N' Chips and beers. Unfortunately Bryon had to work so we left earlier than necessary to get St. Patty's Day crazy but it was fun nonetheless.

While in Hawaii I have picked up many hobbies.

My first, of many hobbies I have picked up is apartment hunting. Man, let me tell you, this is one hard hobby to get into. So far I have looked at 2 rooms/houses. Don't get me wrong, I love living with Bryon and his roommates and partaking in drunken games of Apples to Apples, but I want to be able to spread my wings and make my own friends. Well this seems to be harder than it appears.  The first place I went to was extremely nice. It was a brand new house with many roommates and in a good price range. However, the roommates didn't speak a lot of English, were mostly boys, and seemed a bit scared of a mainland girl like myself. Not only that but the room I would be living in had no windows, was smaller than Bryon's closet, and didn't include a closet. Last, but not least, I was unable to have family come stay which for me is a huge determining factor in picking a place. 

The second place was an apartment under a Japanese family that would involve me living in a cement style room, which no guests allowed, and my roommate was a 50 year old ESL teacher.

Hmmm... I'm starting to see a pattern. Part of me wants to enroll in some classes at the University of Hawaii and live in the dorms again, or even start college over again (which I miss immensely).

My second hobby that I am trying to pick up is that of the famous Hawaiian sport---surfing. Bryon and I went out yesterday, and I was determined to stand on at least 2 waves. Well apparently yesterday was a horrible day to attempt such a thing. The tide was  extremely low and there was coral everywhere. However Bry and I adventured out in the the choppy waters (due to the fact that it was VERY windy). What ended up happening, in all reality, was Bryon and I got all the way out to where we needed to be and ended up being pushed, from huge waves, in a massive patch of coral. This ended up giving me, and Bry as well,  a slight heart/panic attack. We finally got out of the coral, after being pushed against it several times, and nicking our boards and selves.  After that I was to tired to even attempt the real surfing part. BUT I WILL DO IT! I am very determined to make surfing my new arms workout plan.

My third hobby involves a peanut, who continues to grow EVERYDAY, named Liam. This hobby of course is my new line of employment, nannying. Now many of you are probably wondering why, after 4.5 years of schooling and getting my teaching degree, I am nannying. Well here's the breakdown of it all. Nanny is tax free, cash every time I get paid, and if I ever decided to move back in the next couple months it is easy to get out of. However, if I decide to stay past August, which at the moment is looking promising, I will apply for my Hawaii license and take all the necessary tests.

Anyway, back to Liam. Liam is a one month baby boy who "belong" to Wendy and Chris, my employers. He is a peanut who keeps growing length-wise everyday. I have worked with him 4 times, or about 20 hours. I will be doing random days until the first week of April, when they both go back to work and I will begin full time care. I am extremely excited, as Liam is a pretty good baby, Chris and Wendy are the nicest individuals (from Wisconsin--Midwestern raised ;) ) and their house is gorgeous with gorgeous views.

Well there is a bit of a catch up session for all of you that follow me--Thank you by the way. I am heading out the door to celebrate my birthday--all of which was planned by Bryon. Hopefully he can pull of a great Golden Birthday ;)   I have faith that he can..but still wish my best friends and family were here to celebrate. Love and miss you all!

Aloha,

Jenna

Getting into the Hawaiian Cultural Spirit

Well it's been a few days since I've last updated you, but I have been pretty busy. After the tsunami hit I got back to regular ole life. This consisted of hanging out with some new friends I had made. Remember Sasha, the girl I had met on the plane, well she called me up on Friday and asked if I wanted to attend a small potluck with some of her friends that she had met on meetup.com. Meetup.com is a social website that allows people to get together and do the things that they enjoy. I decided to sign up and meet some people through the All Things Oahu site. Hopefully it works. Anyway I agreed to go the potluck, grabbed some BBQ chips and a cheap bottle of wine from Wal-Mart, and headed over. Just an FYI, when going to a Hawaiian potluck you can never fail when you bring sushi. Apparently BBQ chips are more of a picnic party favor. I met a few people and we enjoyed eating food and drinking extremely strong drinks.
On Saturday it was the Honolulu Festival.  The Honolulu Festival is a weekend long celebration that brings all the different cultures in Honolulu together to celebrate. It includes a variety of performances, events, and exhibits. Usually it would be jam packed with different groups, but since many of the performers were from Japan they were unable to come. However Bryon, Cody, Fanchon and I still enjoyed walking the aisles of gifts and trinkets, getting yummy food, and watching a couple performances. That night Cody, Cameron, Bryon and I went to a place they call Suicides. They surfed and I layed out. It was a great place with no tourists! Cam, Bryon and I went to the Shack that night and watched a well known Hawaiian band, Kolohe Kai.
Yesterday I went and saw baby Liam! Baby Liam is the 1 month old baby boy that I will be nannying for starting today! He is such a peanut! I chatted with his parents for a while and then Bryon and I headed to the beach again. After that we ran around town trying to get Bryon a new phone--which I am so jealous of. I only have to wait until June to get a new phone.. oh well I guess my free one will be okay for now.
Missing everyone like crazy!
Aloha,
Jenna

Get To Higher Ground.. Repeat Get To Higher Ground

Yesterday was a crazy day if I should say so. I started my day off with nothing out of the norm. Watched some television with Cameron and Cody. Apparently Dr. Oz and the Nate Berkus Show are all the rave to watch out here. When they both proceeded to go off and do their own things I got down to work with what I wanted to do with my day (since I don't have a car quite yet or the hang of riding a moped down).  The first on my list was a run which in turn ended up being a hike up the hills of Bryon's neighborhood. I then layed out for a while and proceeded to burn my knee caps and my neck. Surprise, Surprise. I then read a bit of my book, Left Behind.After all this I started to unpack my many suitcases. I quickly got bored with that and began watching American Idol. 

After American Idol I went to bed. That is when the craziness began. I woke up around 11:00 pm to sirens going off. Now my first  thought when sirens go off is TORNADO. But obvious the great state of Hawaii does not have tornadoes, so I figured I should probably figure out what was going on. I went out to the family room where Cody informed me that not only was that the 3rd time the sirens had gone off (opps) but that it was a tsunami alert. Instantly I begin to panic and try to figure out where Bryon is since he was flying. I call him and find out that apparently, since we're mountain side and highly elevated, that we are in a safety zone. He then tells me that the airport is being shut down due to the fact that it is below sea level. He comes home and we watch the action outside on the lanai. The action ended up being pretty dead considering the waves ended up only being 3 feet high, and didn't do any damage (luckily!)  So there we have it. I have no been involved in snowstorms, hailstorms, tornadoes, and now a tsunami. Now all I need to go through are earthquakes and hurricanes. Hopefully I can put off those Mother Nature forces for a while.

Aloha to my friends and family,

Prayers to the people of Japan,

Jenna

*Picture shown below: All my clothes and suitcases all over Bryons room.

*Picture: Tons of boats were in the water last night and today due to the fact that the boaters didn't want their boats to get wrecked in their slips.

Food Will Be My Only Expense....I Hope?!

Yesterday was my first day as a (nearly) permanent resident of Honolulu, HI. My day started at the early time of 6am.  Bryon and I ran around the city doing various errands which started at Target.  Normally it would take 15 to 20 minutes (without traffic) to get to Target--a little different for you Midwesterners who have one on every corner--however Bryon missed our exit and we proceeded to drive around for 30 extra minutes trying to figure out how to get back to where we started. Eventually we found it..after both of us were extremely irritated. At Target I managed to spend a good $80 on shampoo, conditioner, hairspray, and food. Yes ladies and gentlemen food is very expensive in Hawaii, so if you ever visit or plan on living here make sure you can handle the idea of shopping for food at Wal-Mart or Target.
After we finished our grocery shopping, and managed to make it home in the allotted time it should take, we unpacked the groceries and ran more errands. This time we ran to Sports Authority and Wal-Mart. I'm searching for those weighted bars that you find at the gym. Can't seem to find one, so I'm going to have to find another way to workout my arms and legs.
Which brings me to my next topic. Weight Loss. Today is my first day of getting in shape and eating healthier. At this time in my life I am at heavy set weight of 118 pounds. My goal is to get down to 105 pounds. Bryon and I did the calculations last night, and it looks as though I will be cutting down my calorie intake to 1237 calories a day. This is tied in with the assumption that I will only work out 1-3 days a week. Right now I plan on running 3-5 days a week but well see once I start work if that pans out. I have broken my workout plan into 4 goal areas. My first goal will occur on April 7th and that will be to get down to 114 pounds, 2nd goal is May 5th to get down to 110, 3rd goal is June 2nd to get down to 106 and then my final goal--June 9th is to get down to 105. That is 13 weeks of weight loss. We'll see if it happens.
Well I'm off to have my first run in my Hawaiian history. And yes it's at 7am as I have been up since 5:30 this morning. But that's mostly due to the fact that I fell asleep at 6pm last night. Wow I'm lame.

Aloha friends and family,
Jenna

The Dreaded Art of Flying

If I wasn't distraught enough, with leaving behind friends and family, at least I could count on the various U.S. I traveled through to get me to the level of distraught I needed to be on.  It all started with the Lindbergh terminal in MSP. Not only was I unable to park at the main terminal, but I had to be Light Railed and trammed to the ticketing area, which in total took an extra hour of my time. Luckily, my brilliant mother decided we should go early, since we both knew I was going to have to unpack my knowlying too heavy of checked suitcases I was bringing.
 I finally get to the Delta ticket counter and it won't let me check in.  I am finally told by an agent, who I waited for 15 minutes to help me, that I am actually flying Alaskan Airlines (although my ticket said Delta).  I get in line with Alaskan, check in, and OF COURSE my baggage is a good 9 pounds over. (Sorry heating pad, comfy Theta sweatpants, and brown zip-up for discarding you into my SHIP ME TO HAWAII box). When all and all was done, my mother pointed out that I never handed the lady a credit card, so as such, I did not pay for my luggage (The only upside to this whole adventure).
It is now time to board the plane. Now other times I have traveled, specifically to Hawaii before, I have had the luxury of sitting either on the outside of the seating arrangements, or with a seat between myself at the window person.  That was not my luck today. I got placed in the last row, in between 2 massive guys.  However it was a blessing in disguise as I quite enjoyed the company of these 2 such men.  They were two men named Brian and Joe, one working as a part-time 10th grade teacher and the other working part-time at unknown, traveling to Skagway, Alaska to play a gig.  Joe was the drummer of their band, which I unfortunately did not catch the name of, as Brian was the guitarist.  The other member of their band lived in or near Skagway.  The plane ride went fairly fast as the 3 of us discussed politics, religion, finanical burdens of the U.S., movies, television shows, and our lives.
In Seattle the 3 of us said our goodbyes and good lucks as we wandered off to our designated terminals.  I grabbed a bite to eat from a delicious Italian bistro in the Seattle Airport Food Court, and began to make my way towards S6--my departure gate.  However, what I didn't know was that I would have to go down several sets of escalators and board a train to get to said S6.  I arrived, after 20 minutes of walking and traveling, to S6 and enjoyed my meal while starring at a set of mountains (don't get many views like that in MN). I eventually boarded the plane, and readied myself for the 6 hour flight. While doing so, my seat buddy, who later I would discovered was named Sasha, came upon me. We both got comfortable in our seats and immediately hit it off. We found we had many interests in common, like that of Twilight, Harry Potter, hiking, and movies.  We talked the whole time on the 6 hour flight, with the exception of an hour and half break to watch Narnia......

 and I officially made my first friend in Hawaii.

Maybe God really did want me to take this adventure after all.....

Aloha,
Jenna