tricks and treats

The journey continues for me here in the state of HI, but the blog posts seem to thin. My workload has increased two fold and the fun times, as a result, have definitely NOT suffered. I work my ass off in the week, still managing to kick it with the Wainani F crew, and in the weekends we beach and party and play. Drinking beers at the beach while the sun sets was last weeks favorite past time, this week it was our public holiday Tuesday spent at Waimea bay watching the big waves roll on in.

This was an amazing day. It made me immediately get over the fact that my ankle still hurts and promise myself I will get my butt onto a surfboard soon! Not on these waves of course or you would all be flying over for my funeral next week. But it was so exhilarating to watch. The sound of waves crashing is my favorite noise. The sound of waves this big, without stormy winds in the background is even better. Listening to this sound whilst sitting in a bikini on one of the nicest beaches in the world totally takes the cake. This was a wicked cool day watching surfing, topped off with the entertainment of the people risking their lives trying to swim in the shallow, dumping waves. We finished this amazing day sitting down the road at pipeline beach, with one of the most spectacular sunsets I have ever seen.Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, but Frank did and his photos are epic. I shall steal one.

If you cannot tell, today I am feeling very enlightened and in love with my new home. This place is heaven. Even today as I woke up at 6:30am to my busy Wednesday that I always dread. My day consisted of two mid term exams filling up my morning (one was goon and one was definitely a fail), followed by classes and a 4 hour lab in which I had to dissect yet another innocent toad. It was raining and for the first time I had to put on a cardigan as it was 24 degrees and apparently my body now thinks this is cold! Despite this 'shit day', I still loved every minute. It is a nice change to feel this way. Though, even with all this love for my life here, I realize more and more that I call NZ home. It just isn't home right now, it's more of an in between place.

I have made more awesome friends and am learning a lot from the people I am around. Not all Americans are fuck wits, though some definitely are.

Example of fuck wittage:

Tove's room mate said they other day that she did not like Obama. As tove asked why, and explained that he has done some good things like improving their healthcare, she commented "I don't believe in sharing". Narrow minded idiot in my opinion. Tove was, of course, stunned and stood with her mouth wide open. I wish I had been there! Then again, that might not have been so good as we all know I am not good at controlling my mouth when angry.

But the American and Hawaiian people are pretty cool. I have come to love them all, aside from the occasional reminder that some people in the world were not as fortunate as I was to have parents who raised me with an open mind, clear head, loud voice and a lot of questions. I have made it my mission to help open some of these minds to the world outside the states!

All hallows eve was this weekend just been. I don't think I have ever had a better weekend. It started on Friday night with the attendance of an amazing concert of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. The people who played before them were called the Budos band, a 9 piece soul band dressed as pirates with a shit load of attitude and funk. They were awesome! Both bands had great music, an awesome stage presence and put on a real show.

The Budos band 

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

Unfortunately I forgot that I was under the ridiculously high drinking age in America, and myself and Ant were shunned to the under 21 side of the concert. This was pretty embarrassing as we were actually sectioned off by a big white fence and had to party with the teenagers who all looked about 12 years old. Refer to photo below for proof of the humiliation.

Ant and I on the 'cool KIDS' side of the fence

Erin and Tove on the big kids side. Literally a big fence in between us!

The last song played by Edward Sharpe.. was really cool. The main singer Alexander made half the crown go on stage (to the horror of the power tripping security guards). He then came down into the crowd, made everyone sit on the ground with him, and sang a really lovely slow song. The crowd was very chill after this. This was a nice change after the large amount of stage sprints and crowd surfing that had gone on throughout the show. It was great, I left wanting to let out more of my hippie personality that I inherited form my rents. It was a nice feeling.

The last song

Me with Alexander, the main singer

Lately I have also been going through a Beatles obsession as I finally watch Across the Universe. Oh how I wish my life was a musical. I start each day with a Beatles song and sing it all day long.

Speaking of the Beatles, check this out. It is too cute.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgrrQwLdME8&feature=player_embedded

The following night was the first of the Halloween celebrations for us. We got all dressed up as the peter pan crew (which took a few hours). This was our crew:

I was the Croc

Jerry was Rufio

Tove was Smee

Andi was Peter and Marissa her Shadow

Erin was a very cute Cap Hook

And Tracy (left) was out Tink

We had pretty epic costumes. We rocked up to China Town, which had all its streets shut off for the night. There was people everywhere, stalls, live music and some of the craziest costumes I have ever seen! It was a really wicked night. One of the best.

The next day we were extremely hung over as you'd expect, but a few of us hopped in the car and headed north for an afternoon on the beach. We chilled just along from pipeline and watching our friend Frank surf into the sunset.

Franky surfing

Pipeline sky

The sun setting at Pipeline beach

After this relaxing recovery we headed home to get creative on our second nights costumes. This started off as a bit of a fail as we all felt pretty terrible, but we got cutting and painting and psyched ourselves up. We were aiming to be the colours of the rainbow, but in the end looked more like colours of the wind. And vavoom this is what we came up with..

Colours of the wind. (From left: Tracy, Luce, Marissa, Erin, Tove and Andi)

Erin, myself and Andi all ready to go

We strolled the streets of Waikiki with what seemed like the rest of Hawaii. It was insane. I have never seen so many costumes and excited people. More photos of these costumes on facebook as many have already seen!  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=238694&id=637091646


Halloween rules. NZ should totally take a leaf out of America's book on this one! Boost the economy a little.
That is life right now, followed by a week of hard work, some relaxing and hopefully another weekend of fun and games...

Peace to you all from the croco-fuckin-dile.