Love...True Love...

This quote was on one of the boards in our hale, it is my favorite quote about love. I just wanted to share it with everyone because I love it so much! President and Sister Hinckley are the worlds best couple and two of my heroes. I love them so much!

Foodfest!

Oh there is so much to say about foodfest! This event is a big deal around here. I bet you can't find anything like it anywhere else in the world. Every club on campus (which is at least 35- if not a hundred) makes traditional food from their country and sales it to earn money for the semester. It's like a giant food carnival that no one misses. Keep in mind that there is a club for pretty much every place in the world here and none of the food is "americanized". Most of it is a little sketchy so you have to not think about the sanitation behind the whole process. I don't think you understand how big of an accomplishment this is for me. Three of us all bought food together so we could try a little bit of about fifteen different foods. Somethings I tried were so disgusting they made me gag (seriously), but it was so worth it to get to the foods that were so amazingly delicious. Oh they were so good! I was so sick at the end of the night from the random assortment of foreign foods, but I didn't care because it was so fun and such a cool experience.


Don't ask me what they are doing...Sorry the pictures don't capture the experience very well. It was too crazy to mess with the camera very much. Food is a little distracting for me. ha ha!

Dole Plantation

These are just a few pictures from our adventure to the Dole Plantation. It's a pretty cool place. Honestly we just went for the "dole whips" which is the amazing pineapple ice cream they have there. Oh it is so good! Half the adventure is riding the bus...mostly because it takes half your day to get anywhere with the bus. We waited at the bus stop for so long, but we managed as always to have a good time doing it. Pretty sure everyone on the bus thought we were crazy, but they were happy to have some entertainment.


This bus stop was pretty boring...we practiced for hula class at the other one, which kept us more entertained...and everyone else too, because we are not the best at hula.
You gotta love the shaka!... I am really going to miss it when I go home...it doesn't fit so well in Utah.

Yes, I really do look that ridiculous. We had a lot of fun rocking out on the bus. Don't worry we really didn't sing out loud that much...we are not quite that ridiculous.

Dole Whips are oh so yummy!

Raining Ice Cream

The weather in Hawaii is so exciting...Here is the explanation for my cute face in this picture. ...one beautiful day we decided to walk to Foodland to get some random stuff we needed. It was so sunny and hot on the way there I was starting to sweat. It was so warm Hannah and I decided to get ice cream at the famous Angels Ice Cream for the walk home. The weather was so beautiful and warm....five seconds later it was pouring rain! I was freezing!- hence the face. Good thing the rain only lasted about five minutes, then it was hot again...then it rained again...you get the point. It's a fun memory...good times!

anniversary cake

Just some random picture of some of my crazy friends here. The school had an anniversary celebration and gave all the students cake...It caused I lot of excitement. :) Notice how our world revolves around good food because it is so rare when we eat in a gross cafeteria for almost every single meal. Oh I am so excited to eat my moms amazing cooking I can't even tell you!

Truck Ride

I had to post these pictures because this was such a funny night. We were supposed to go island fishing (net and everything) with Hannah's ward. Long story short the ocean was too rough so it wasn't safe to go. Basically, we just ended up riding in a back of the truck (it's legal here) , singing songs and laughing with a bunch of hilarious Polys who stole my camera and took a million awesome pictures. These photos don't due the experience justice. I love these guys they are so friendly, crazy and so much fun! The world is full of so many exciting people and I feel so blessed to get to know so many of them at this amazing school!

Valentine's Day Without My Valentine

Needless to say, Valentine's Day is pretty lame when you are thousands of miles away from the one you love. Our hale (Hawaiian for home and the name for the dorms here) had a valentines party....which was about as exciting as it gets (yes that was sarcastic). No in all actuality it was pretty fun just because my dorm family is hilarious. These are just a few random pictures of my fun friends in my hale.

Oh Hannah cracked me up with this one...I love her face in this picture! Classic.

Oh and the best part...Sweet Kevin sent me these beautiful flowers... yes they are in the shape of a heart...cheesy I know, but so cute! They stayed pretty by my bed for so long and made me oh so happy. Thanks again Kev!

Hawaiian Immigration

Oh my goodness this was probably the most random adventure of the semester... Hannah's Anthropology teacher invited her to go to the 20 th anniversary celebration for the Hawaiian immigration schools (Hawaiian is the main language for every subject). She begged me to come along so being the good friend that I am I agreed-plus I was curious :) This celebration was a very big deal to many of the Hawaiians. For many years their native language was outlawed in schools as a colonization tool- you know take away the language and kill the culture. It means so much to them to have Hawaiian back in the schools because it means that huge part of their culture which was almost lost will live on. Must of the program was in Hawaiian of course , but we had some random girl do a little bit of translating for us and managed to understand a little bit of what was going on. Hannah and I were two of maybe seven white people in the whole area and everyone looked at us like "why do you even care?", but we didn't mind because we really did care. The best part was the little kids sitting on the front row. They were so cute I couldn't even handle it!

A few players for the UH football team spoke, which everyone was so excited about. They are basically Hawaiian celebrities.

This is a random tree I encountered that day. I think it is so cool looking!

The Beautiful Laie Temple!!

I LOVE THE TEMPLE!! enough said.

The Famous Hukilau Cafe

The Hukilau Cafe is my favorite place to eat in Laie. It has the best banana pancakes and even better french toast. Not to mention its cheap! It has actually been said that Jack Johnson wrote his song Banana Pancakes about these pancakes. (Jack actually has a house in Laie and many people around here have seen him surfing. I am jealous because I am such a fan.) I'm not sure if the pancake story is true, but I believe it because those pancakes are amazing! Hukilau Cafe is also famous from the movie Fifty First Dates... Hollywood only used the name not the actual cafe (maybe because it's really... not that nice). Main point: really good food...if you ever come to Hawaii you have to try it!

Funny Food Vans

Oh the food vans! These things are everywhere on Oahu! I think it is so funny because most of them would never pass in the mainland! One day I will be brave enough to actually eat at one... and I will tell you about it if I actually survive!