Absolutely Priceless
This morning, I woke up as the sun rose over diamond head and Waikiki. Our hotel is on the 37th floor of the Pacific Beach Hotel and overlooks the beautiful diamond head national park. Despite still being tired. I sneaked up to take a look at the gorgeous view outside. The ocean was pale lavender and still had a thin layer of mist over the horizon.
As if the view is not enough, I found out the happiest news after turning on my computer. I received the long-awaited acceptance letter to OHSU! After a whole month of checking my email and status page, waiting, hoping and torturously reliving my interview, I can finally lay all my doubts and fears to rest.
I am IN. I got into my top choice school! No longer do I have to drive around Portland, staring at the buildings and the tram wondering when I would be able to step on that campus as a medical student. I still remember years ago, when I worked there as a lowly lab aide, someone there mistook me for a medical student and directed me to the new student orientation. I told him that I am not a medical student. At least, not yet. And next August, I will be there as a student, as a part of that beautiful campus!
Anyway, we happily all headed out to breakfast at McDonalds across the street. The egg McMuffin was pretty solid, apparently, if you get a meal in Hawaii, they include hashbrowns AND Pineapple. Awesomeness? I think so! After breakfast, I was too excited to go back and decided to wander down to the beach for a minute. The palm trees are absolutely gorgeous, set against the turqoise waters and golden sand. I’ve only seen scenes like this from the movies. The pathetic sad little palm trees from LA and SD cannot even compare to this paradise. Hawaii is without a doubt the crown jewel of all tropical vacations.
I might’ve been a little bit too excited… because I wandered too far into the surf, my pants got soaked from the tide. Ah, my first touch of Hawaii’s waves.
For the rest of the morning, we headed up to Diamond head. When we got there, the hike seemed to be way longer than I thought it was going to be. All the way up one huge side of the crater. But as we set out, the slope was not very steep. There was a daunting series of stairs at the end, three separate journeys the most difficult has a straight stairway of 99 steps.
But the view, when we finally reached it after climbing through the old army bunkers and dugouts, is superb. I am glad we went in the morning, when the sun is not shining in your eyes as you are looking toward the soft curve of the Waikiki beach.
The hike down was hard on the knees and it seem to take forever, much longer than the hike up. Anyway, we then decided to search for nearby Chinese food restaurants and found on Kapalaua avenue pretty close to the bottom of diamond head. The food was average, we had a lot left over so we dropped it off at the hotel and then proceeded to the windward side of the island.
East Oahu is dominated by series of beautiful beaches, but the landscape is not that specatular. It looks like someone had spliced central Oregon with the coastline. Not much trees, at least not tall ones, but plenty of white sands. And of course, the color of the ocean is superb.
We stopped at several beaches to take pictures and then to walk along the surf. There were plenty of fisherman along the shores, but I have no idea what kind of fish they are trying to catch, hope its not anything along the lines of nemo.
We were pretty tired at the end of the day, it got pretty cloudy and then windy so around 4:40 we headed on a central high way back to Waikiki. The traffic on a Friday afternoon was horrendous, especially along the main road passing the beach, it took us half an hour to go 2 miles. As a result, I nearly missed my first sunset in Hawaii.
Leftovers are for dinner at night and because I am with parents, there’s no way I can go out dancing so… the night was spent editing pictures and watching “The Wedding Crashers” on cable TV.
As if the view is not enough, I found out the happiest news after turning on my computer. I received the long-awaited acceptance letter to OHSU! After a whole month of checking my email and status page, waiting, hoping and torturously reliving my interview, I can finally lay all my doubts and fears to rest.
I am IN. I got into my top choice school! No longer do I have to drive around Portland, staring at the buildings and the tram wondering when I would be able to step on that campus as a medical student. I still remember years ago, when I worked there as a lowly lab aide, someone there mistook me for a medical student and directed me to the new student orientation. I told him that I am not a medical student. At least, not yet. And next August, I will be there as a student, as a part of that beautiful campus!
Anyway, we happily all headed out to breakfast at McDonalds across the street. The egg McMuffin was pretty solid, apparently, if you get a meal in Hawaii, they include hashbrowns AND Pineapple. Awesomeness? I think so! After breakfast, I was too excited to go back and decided to wander down to the beach for a minute. The palm trees are absolutely gorgeous, set against the turqoise waters and golden sand. I’ve only seen scenes like this from the movies. The pathetic sad little palm trees from LA and SD cannot even compare to this paradise. Hawaii is without a doubt the crown jewel of all tropical vacations.
I might’ve been a little bit too excited… because I wandered too far into the surf, my pants got soaked from the tide. Ah, my first touch of Hawaii’s waves.
For the rest of the morning, we headed up to Diamond head. When we got there, the hike seemed to be way longer than I thought it was going to be. All the way up one huge side of the crater. But as we set out, the slope was not very steep. There was a daunting series of stairs at the end, three separate journeys the most difficult has a straight stairway of 99 steps.
But the view, when we finally reached it after climbing through the old army bunkers and dugouts, is superb. I am glad we went in the morning, when the sun is not shining in your eyes as you are looking toward the soft curve of the Waikiki beach.
The hike down was hard on the knees and it seem to take forever, much longer than the hike up. Anyway, we then decided to search for nearby Chinese food restaurants and found on Kapalaua avenue pretty close to the bottom of diamond head. The food was average, we had a lot left over so we dropped it off at the hotel and then proceeded to the windward side of the island.
East Oahu is dominated by series of beautiful beaches, but the landscape is not that specatular. It looks like someone had spliced central Oregon with the coastline. Not much trees, at least not tall ones, but plenty of white sands. And of course, the color of the ocean is superb.
We stopped at several beaches to take pictures and then to walk along the surf. There were plenty of fisherman along the shores, but I have no idea what kind of fish they are trying to catch, hope its not anything along the lines of nemo.
We were pretty tired at the end of the day, it got pretty cloudy and then windy so around 4:40 we headed on a central high way back to Waikiki. The traffic on a Friday afternoon was horrendous, especially along the main road passing the beach, it took us half an hour to go 2 miles. As a result, I nearly missed my first sunset in Hawaii.
Leftovers are for dinner at night and because I am with parents, there’s no way I can go out dancing so… the night was spent editing pictures and watching “The Wedding Crashers” on cable TV.