Unfamiliar ceilings
Man, I don’t even know where to begin here….
Let me give you guys the ending first otherwise you’ll be doing a lot of reading.
I’m in a hostel near the university where I will be staying until at least the 18th if not the 19th. After that I go over to another hostel by Waikiki where I will stay for another week. During that week I have classes. After that week it’s uncertain where I’ll be staying next. I’ll either be staying at a YMCA near Ala Moana Shopping Center or possibly somewhere else. On the first of September I can move into my apartment/room thing.
That’s the short version of my housing situation.
Now let’s move on to the beginning.
My mom came with me to Honolulu to help me out for a week. I stayed with her in a hotel room on Waikiki. I enjoyed it while it lasted because I knew what I would be doing afterward would be very different. While she was here we did a lot of exploring around the Waikiki area. We checked out a lot of the shops, tried out different restaurants, and visited different parts of the beach. The only times we did any exploring outside of Waikiki was when I needed to go to the University, when we visited the Bishop museum, and when we visited Sandy Beach Park.
***
The Bishop museum, or at least the part we saw, was okay. They were doing construction on the main museum so we were limited to the other buildings. We did get a chance to see old artifacts of Hawaiian culture.
***
We planned to visit Hanauma Bay. When we arrived there we discovered they had very, very limited parking available and the lot was full. Sandy Beach Park was nearby so we went there instead. It turned out to be very quiet and we had an excellent box lunch there. There was a bit of drama when I was playing phone-tag with one of my doctor’s assistants but I’ll cover that later.
Most of my time over in the hotel was spent looking for housing and dealing with a couple of school-related fiascos. Looking for housing has been a challenge by itself. The University is kind enough to provide us with a link and listing of available housing categorized by area and price. For a while I was glancing at a place that’s well within walking distance to the university and cheap; $400 but not including utilities. I did check it out and thought it was so-so. The room doesn’t have any windows. It does have AC, a fan, bed, desk, and that may be it. The rest of the house is shared with 3 others and has a kitchen, commons area- well, pretty much the basic stuff plus a washer and dryer. For a while I thought this would be my housing. The one thing that made me look for other housing was the fact Gloria said she was still deciding among other applicants.
***
I went back to the listing to see if I could possibly find another place as a backup. Eventually I found Diana’s offer; $700 rent, utilities included, shared with 3-4 others, and on a bus-route to campus. The room and house is beautiful too. Diana also has cats so I won’t go through my kitty-withdrawals. The only thing it lacked was a washer and dryer but there is a Laundromat nearby. After a quick tour Diana mentioned that if I really wanted it I could sign for it right there and it would be mine. The only catch was I would have to wait to move in until Sept. 1st. I figured “Hey, it’s worth the wait” and signed for it there. Housing problem solved.
***
The only left to figure out was what I would do as far as temporary housing. I already had a reservation at the International Hostel near campus for when my mom left Hawaii. The main problem I have to deal with is you are only guaranteed to stay for 6 nights. After that, if it gets crowded, you have to leave. Fast-forwarding a little here, the lady at the hostel office recommend that I make a reservation at their branch over in Waikiki. That takes care of another week. The thing I need to deal with now is where I’m going to stay for the last week of August. She did give me a few ideas of places to stay plus I had a few ideas already so I’m not too hopeless. Diana offered to take some of my luggage so at some point I’ll be able to drop off my big bag with her. That’ll make traveling between hostels much easier for me. But anyway, the last week is still in the planning stages.
Adjusting to Hawaii has had its ups and downs. You quickly learn some differences in everyday life. For starters, driving. You’d think some things would be the same but soon realize how wrong you are. Just because there’s an off-ramp from the freeway does not mean there’ll be an on-ramp next to it. Also the signs over here are small. Chances are you’ll be driving along, minding your own business when you realize the street you need to make a left turn on is 5 feet in front of you and you’re in the far right lane. My favorite though was when we were driving through a busy road, bumper to bumper, and there’s a sign 20 feet from construction saying “Right lane closed ahead.”
***
The second rule I quickly learned was to never touch anything at the booths at the International market. I learned this when I was looking at a jade flower necklace but only looking out of curiosity. I touched it for 2 seconds just to see what it was and all of a sudden she appears next to me. She goes into a very well practiced sales pitch, which goes like this:
“This is real jade. Normally it’s sold for $24 but, you’re a nice young man, I’ll give it to you for $10.”
“Um, thank you. I’m still looking around so I’ll think about it a little.”
“$9. You could give it to your (non-existent) girlfriend.”
“Wow, thanks. But I’ll think about it a little.”
“$8.”
“I said I would think about it.”
“How much do you want it?”
At this point I pretty much ran through the market. I could’ve sworn I heard a grrrr sound behind me.
***
The third rule is how to tell a tourist from a non-tourist. The main rule is non-tourists do not walk in front of a moving car.
Moving on to school, I’m surprised by the fact that I haven’t even started classes and I am already tired of the bureaucracy I had to deal with. For starters, I’m upset with all the holds on registration I had to take care of. I had to deal with requirements with the Health Center for starters. This caught me off guard. They did mention it in a paper from long ago but I had forgotten about it. The only way I “remembered” it was when they sent out an email to everyone reminding them. The email would have been a nice idea had they done it at least a month ago. For several days I had to deal with my doctor releasing my health records but they needed me to sign something but I am already in Hawaii and…. it went on and on. Long story short, it’s taken care of… sort of. One thing I could do while I was over here was getting the TB test, which is part of the requirement. I wasn’t the only one who had forgotten this either. When I went in for the TB testing I feel safe in saying about three quarters of the people were there for the same reason.
***
The other hold was academic related. The main reason I came to Hawaii so early was because I needed to take a diagnostic examination so the department would know where to put me. Um, yeah, it didn’t go over so well. I was prepared for a completely different kind of test as I was brushing up on my Japanese and reading my old textbooks. When I arrived I found out the test was on Japanese literature. The test asked for definitions on various words and works, to give examples of literary works for different questions, and write an essay. To clarify, the main reasons I joined the Japanese Lit. Program was because Evelyn Nakanishi, who has been very helpful I will add, read my entrance essay and suggested I take Japanese Literature instead of the linguistic program. In the first section I only knew 1 definition and the second section asked for works from eras I didn’t know any from but I did okay on the essay as it was open-ended.
After that I had to meet with teachers to figure out what classes to take. With all due respect, I pretty much knew I would have to take remedial classes to catch up on the Japanese Literature.
I’m trying to think of anything else but that seems to be it. I could go into detail but I don’t want to bore people anymore than I might already have. Things are going to stay a little crazy for the next couple of weeks. I’m sure I’ll survive and all but still I’d like to skip through of most of this if I could.
Ja ne ~_~
Let me give you guys the ending first otherwise you’ll be doing a lot of reading.
I’m in a hostel near the university where I will be staying until at least the 18th if not the 19th. After that I go over to another hostel by Waikiki where I will stay for another week. During that week I have classes. After that week it’s uncertain where I’ll be staying next. I’ll either be staying at a YMCA near Ala Moana Shopping Center or possibly somewhere else. On the first of September I can move into my apartment/room thing.
That’s the short version of my housing situation.
Now let’s move on to the beginning.
My mom came with me to Honolulu to help me out for a week. I stayed with her in a hotel room on Waikiki. I enjoyed it while it lasted because I knew what I would be doing afterward would be very different. While she was here we did a lot of exploring around the Waikiki area. We checked out a lot of the shops, tried out different restaurants, and visited different parts of the beach. The only times we did any exploring outside of Waikiki was when I needed to go to the University, when we visited the Bishop museum, and when we visited Sandy Beach Park.
***
The Bishop museum, or at least the part we saw, was okay. They were doing construction on the main museum so we were limited to the other buildings. We did get a chance to see old artifacts of Hawaiian culture.
***
We planned to visit Hanauma Bay. When we arrived there we discovered they had very, very limited parking available and the lot was full. Sandy Beach Park was nearby so we went there instead. It turned out to be very quiet and we had an excellent box lunch there. There was a bit of drama when I was playing phone-tag with one of my doctor’s assistants but I’ll cover that later.
Most of my time over in the hotel was spent looking for housing and dealing with a couple of school-related fiascos. Looking for housing has been a challenge by itself. The University is kind enough to provide us with a link and listing of available housing categorized by area and price. For a while I was glancing at a place that’s well within walking distance to the university and cheap; $400 but not including utilities. I did check it out and thought it was so-so. The room doesn’t have any windows. It does have AC, a fan, bed, desk, and that may be it. The rest of the house is shared with 3 others and has a kitchen, commons area- well, pretty much the basic stuff plus a washer and dryer. For a while I thought this would be my housing. The one thing that made me look for other housing was the fact Gloria said she was still deciding among other applicants.
***
I went back to the listing to see if I could possibly find another place as a backup. Eventually I found Diana’s offer; $700 rent, utilities included, shared with 3-4 others, and on a bus-route to campus. The room and house is beautiful too. Diana also has cats so I won’t go through my kitty-withdrawals. The only thing it lacked was a washer and dryer but there is a Laundromat nearby. After a quick tour Diana mentioned that if I really wanted it I could sign for it right there and it would be mine. The only catch was I would have to wait to move in until Sept. 1st. I figured “Hey, it’s worth the wait” and signed for it there. Housing problem solved.
***
The only left to figure out was what I would do as far as temporary housing. I already had a reservation at the International Hostel near campus for when my mom left Hawaii. The main problem I have to deal with is you are only guaranteed to stay for 6 nights. After that, if it gets crowded, you have to leave. Fast-forwarding a little here, the lady at the hostel office recommend that I make a reservation at their branch over in Waikiki. That takes care of another week. The thing I need to deal with now is where I’m going to stay for the last week of August. She did give me a few ideas of places to stay plus I had a few ideas already so I’m not too hopeless. Diana offered to take some of my luggage so at some point I’ll be able to drop off my big bag with her. That’ll make traveling between hostels much easier for me. But anyway, the last week is still in the planning stages.
Adjusting to Hawaii has had its ups and downs. You quickly learn some differences in everyday life. For starters, driving. You’d think some things would be the same but soon realize how wrong you are. Just because there’s an off-ramp from the freeway does not mean there’ll be an on-ramp next to it. Also the signs over here are small. Chances are you’ll be driving along, minding your own business when you realize the street you need to make a left turn on is 5 feet in front of you and you’re in the far right lane. My favorite though was when we were driving through a busy road, bumper to bumper, and there’s a sign 20 feet from construction saying “Right lane closed ahead.”
***
The second rule I quickly learned was to never touch anything at the booths at the International market. I learned this when I was looking at a jade flower necklace but only looking out of curiosity. I touched it for 2 seconds just to see what it was and all of a sudden she appears next to me. She goes into a very well practiced sales pitch, which goes like this:
“This is real jade. Normally it’s sold for $24 but, you’re a nice young man, I’ll give it to you for $10.”
“Um, thank you. I’m still looking around so I’ll think about it a little.”
“$9. You could give it to your (non-existent) girlfriend.”
“Wow, thanks. But I’ll think about it a little.”
“$8.”
“I said I would think about it.”
“How much do you want it?”
At this point I pretty much ran through the market. I could’ve sworn I heard a grrrr sound behind me.
***
The third rule is how to tell a tourist from a non-tourist. The main rule is non-tourists do not walk in front of a moving car.
Moving on to school, I’m surprised by the fact that I haven’t even started classes and I am already tired of the bureaucracy I had to deal with. For starters, I’m upset with all the holds on registration I had to take care of. I had to deal with requirements with the Health Center for starters. This caught me off guard. They did mention it in a paper from long ago but I had forgotten about it. The only way I “remembered” it was when they sent out an email to everyone reminding them. The email would have been a nice idea had they done it at least a month ago. For several days I had to deal with my doctor releasing my health records but they needed me to sign something but I am already in Hawaii and…. it went on and on. Long story short, it’s taken care of… sort of. One thing I could do while I was over here was getting the TB test, which is part of the requirement. I wasn’t the only one who had forgotten this either. When I went in for the TB testing I feel safe in saying about three quarters of the people were there for the same reason.
***
The other hold was academic related. The main reason I came to Hawaii so early was because I needed to take a diagnostic examination so the department would know where to put me. Um, yeah, it didn’t go over so well. I was prepared for a completely different kind of test as I was brushing up on my Japanese and reading my old textbooks. When I arrived I found out the test was on Japanese literature. The test asked for definitions on various words and works, to give examples of literary works for different questions, and write an essay. To clarify, the main reasons I joined the Japanese Lit. Program was because Evelyn Nakanishi, who has been very helpful I will add, read my entrance essay and suggested I take Japanese Literature instead of the linguistic program. In the first section I only knew 1 definition and the second section asked for works from eras I didn’t know any from but I did okay on the essay as it was open-ended.
After that I had to meet with teachers to figure out what classes to take. With all due respect, I pretty much knew I would have to take remedial classes to catch up on the Japanese Literature.
I’m trying to think of anything else but that seems to be it. I could go into detail but I don’t want to bore people anymore than I might already have. Things are going to stay a little crazy for the next couple of weeks. I’m sure I’ll survive and all but still I’d like to skip through of most of this if I could.
Ja ne ~_~