ALOHA! 5:30 AM, January 24, 2010. Hilo, Hawaii. My LLC (living learning coordinator, like an RA) Jenny came knocking on our door to wake us up, and the person who makes the ships announcements started her annoying speak. I waited in bed while my roommate, who is an early riser went to get the door and spoke to her. I stayed in bed also, while the first five seas (halls) were being called to the Glazer lounge to go through US Customs. Finally, at 6:30, I had to head up the few flights of stairs, in my pajamas, to go through the amazingly quick process. It amazes me everyone we do pretty much anything that I would expect to take forever on this ship because they have it down to a science. We sped through, I didn't stop moving once, in and out of the room. Since I was meeting my friends at 8:15 and it was 6:35, I went back to sleep of course.
At 8:15, I met up with my friends to go out on LAND! It was very exciting, my friend even got down to kiss it. We walked out of the pier, following a bunch of other sasers, down the road that the sign said Hilo went to. About half a mile or so down, we decide we might be going in the wrong direction (we wanted to go to a black sand beach) and stopped. I ran into the gas station to ask the woman where we are, and we have our first interaction with a Hawaiian in Hawaii. She had no idea what I was talking about (mom and dad I am sure you are not surprised) since I said black sand beach. It was actually called Richardson's and there was just black sand there. We were confused. She told us it was 2 miles in the opposite direction, so there was a fail. And then she offered to CALL US CABS!!! When was the last time that happened to you in a gas station? She was so helpful, and it was awesome. When we finally arrived at the beach we hiked our way through the sand and over rocks and in water to end up at this giant rock in the middle of the rough waters. (A LOT of SAS people were on it).. What I discovered, was that I had my sea legs, not my land legs, and balancing on rocks and in the strong-currented water was not an easy feat. Anyway, we made it to the rock and decided that it didn't seem like a very fun place to stay and sit. So after walking around for a little, my friend falling in the water, and having trouble figuring out what to do as a large group, we ended up going back to the sand part. We then realized that we had not stopped for beers as planned, so my two friends and I started our trek up the road that we came from in search for a convenience store. After walking for about a half hour, a van with a tour guide/driver pulled up and asked if we wanted a ride. We said no, but asked where the nearest convenience store was. She offered to drive us there for free (once again, when has that ever happened to YOU?) Her name, we learned is Theresa and she is the best! She dropped us off, I remembered that I was a nice person and tipped her anyway and we grabbed her number in case we needed another ride and headed into the store. The woman working was very funny, and my friend Amanda who was buying the drinks had a great conversation with her. With three cases of beer in tow, we left the store and headed back down the long road to the beach, and within seconds, what do you know? Theresa pulls up next to us with two SAS boys and offers us another free ride on the boys. It was awesome. When we got to the beach there was a man getting stuff out of his car that Theresa introduced to us, his name is Cool and he will become a great part of the story later.
We headed back to the beach, which had gotten pretty packed with SASers since we left, andshortly discovered that we had way to much beer, as not everyone of us ended up wanting to drink. Anyway, Cool had set up a nice chair and stuff next to where we were sitting and one of our friends went over to hang out with him. He had some fun stuff with him, and when we offered him a beer and he rejected it saying that he couldn't and was on probabation, but would we like some fun stuff. As we would learn, growing this fun stuff and then sharing it with the community is a very popular practice in Hilo, Hawaii and everyone on the ship came back with some story or other about it. (just so we are all clear, I said he offered it, not that we took it) When the lifeguard came over, he didn't say anything except that he wasgoing to tell the SASers on the big rock that they couldn't be swimming over there. All in all, a very relaxed a carefree city so far. We hung out listening to Cool's words of wisdom and really interesting stories about Hawaii culture and history. He was pretty awesome, but we found out that he got injured in a surfing accident after 30 years and he had to stop, but that he has been sober for 9 yearsso that was good haha. A little later, one of his friends came to the beach and was doing handstands on rocks. It was amazing, we all got pictures. When it got to be around lunch time we ordered pizzas to the beach from this INCREDIBLE pizza place. Cool ended up getting his own pie... the pies were 19 inches. Eventually we left the beach and I went downtown with a few of my friends and window shopped, made a reservation for dinner that night, and basically just hung out. Hilo is a really cute town, and a good mix of touristy with the local Hilo culture very evident. As Theresa pointed out to us later that night, the crime rate is low, and the cops are NEVER out, and people are just all in all very calm.
At 5ish, we went back to the ship to shower and get ready for dinner. We went to dinner at this place called Cafe Pesto, and it was delicious, but freezing inside. After dinner, we split into two groups, and the 21 year olds went to go to the bars, and the rest of us went to go on a lava adventure that little did we know would end up being one of the most fun nights I have ever had. At 10:15, we were picked up from the dock, 8 of us, to go to see the lava at night. Theresa was taking us, and it was 45 minutes away. She had a lot of really cool pictures from when the land that we were standing on used to have houses (that are now underneath the hardened lava) and what it looked like as the volcano was erupting, as she had family that had lived there the last time it erupted. Seeing the lava at night was really cool. We weren't THAT close, but we could see it glowing bright from where we are, and it was lighting up the sky and clouds. One of my friends told us to turn off our flashlights at one point and just feel it all, and she was a genius, it was so cool. We were literally in the middle of nowhere, hadn't passed any person or car in over a half hour, and standing on lava in Hawaii. It was really great to just take it all in.
After we were done with the lava watching, we got back in the car to go see some more stuff. Every so often on this long road, that apparently we were not supposed to be on at night, we would pull over and Theresa would pull out her photo album and show us what the spot we were at looked like before and during the volcanic eruption. There was one place, where the house used to have an ocean view, and now the ocean is half a mile further back than it used to be. We couldn’t get over all that used to be in that area (290 houses) and that now you can see people in the middle of building new homes in the same spots, even though the volcano is still active! Under the lava that we saw, there used to be all these homes and such. It reminded me of Israel and lots of places in Italy where they find evidence of life under each layer of land there that they excavate. So, we stopped at cool photo-op places along the road, and got some great pictures out of it. At about midnight, we are driving along and all the sudden find ourselves in front of this absolutely gigantic tree down in the middle of the road. Of course, someone in the car decided that we should move it ourselves, and so we got out to do it. Theresa was getting a kick out of it. And don’t worry, of course I contributed to helping... my friend Elena and I took pictures and video and laughed at their pain (kidding, kind of). We (as in they) eventually got it out of the road and we continued on. Theresa showed us this cute little bar in the middle of nowhere, but we didn’t want to get out and drink, mostly because I was the only one that really could. Finally, we ended up at the water that Theresa kept talking about. She was really excited about the gates being opened and not having to jump the fence, but not so happy about the other random car in the parking lot, as she didn’t want him breaking in to her car. {Side note: It was a pretty creepy, and sketchy night, and I must say, I apologized to my friends at a point because I knew I was being my normal paranoid self and they were like no, you are totally right in feeling that this is creepy. So there parents. Also, when you read this don’t worry that I am going to be doing unsafe things in other countries, this was definitely a US only type of activity.} So we park, and Theresa grabs some towels andwe head towards the hot spring. There was one long sign that my friends were shining light on and we were reading it and she yelled at us not to read it so I only got halfway down. So, at 1am, we went swimming in the hot spring, it was so much fun. {Important and amazing side notes: 1. My friend Elena lost her ring in the water and was really sad. She went back there coincidentally with SAS today, and FOUND HER RING on the sand in the water. Apparently, it had something to do with the high and low tides, but we were in the OCEAN. 2. My friend Leigh who also went back today took a picture of the sign that Theresa told us not to read, and it said do not aggravate the fish and eel or something to that extent. SO happy I was not aware.} AnywayS, conclusion of the night was that I was happy that we (or I) chose to go do what I did instead of the bars. It was an awesome night and no one elses even compared.
At the end of the day, if I had to choose one word for Hilo, it would be CHILL. People are just awesome, and so amazingly chill. If this day is any indicator of what the rest of my semester will be like, nothing will ever compare to it again in my life. It has already proven to be one of the most exhilerating, adventerous days ever. I cannot wait to continue on. ALOHA!
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