Aloha everyone!!

I have done so much since the last post! In a nutshell: Went home for a day, then to Sydney for 5 days, then Yongzhou (middle of nowhere China) for a week, then LA for a week, then home for 3 weeks, and then back to Hawaii for school.
Sydney was awesome, got to stay at Olympic Park and hang for 4 whole days with my beloved beautiful amazing sister.
China was incredible, got a taste of what it's like to be famous in a place where you don't know the language, food, culture or where the heck you are and probably half the people you meet have never seen a white person before.
In LA I learnt that, despite my continuous rants about how terrible American food is, it's actually magnificent delightful fantastic after eating only rice and OSM (nutrition bars) for a week : )
The water polo was hard, discouraging, heart-breaking, but also put a determination into me that I don't think I've had in a while.
If anyone is interested I'd totally love to talk more about it and fill you in on everything but right now I can't be bothered and it feels like a bit too much to cover without making many of you fall asleep!
The real reason I'm posting is because I have a strange desire to draw something but Meike (my endlessly patient and wonderful roomie - who is very in touch with her creative side) isn't here and I can't find her pastels. So woe is me, I go to the next thing that she quietly and consistently, through example pushes me towards, and that is keeping my blog up to date for those who might be interested in my meagre existence : )

Have been back in HI for a bout a week and a half, the first week was the big stress trying to find somewhere to live. After being taken incredible care of for a week by one of my team mates and driven over half the island every day, we found an awesome apartment right across the road from school. On the 10th floor of a condominium apartment building (whatever that means) But it is lovely. We have a washer and dryer in our unit, 2 bathrooms, and we even have a dishwasher! Filling the apartment has been a lot of fun (other than trying to balance the bank account - probably the most un-fun thing in the world) thanks to walmart. With it's endless supply of almost everything.
For the first time since being here, I also got to see the freshman orientation - all these clean faced excited young adults and their parents, trying to make the transition as easy as possible. I got to spend a couple of hours and our Campus Crusade for Christ table, and I have to say it was really cute when so many parents came up to us asking for details for churches and info about us, and all these kids were totally mortified trying to hide. So funny and so cute.
Classes so far look pretty hard, but pretty interesting too. I have 2 political science classes - one of which is pretty much about images and advertising which is always interesting. And the other one, we do a whole section on refugees and their rights and just general being, which is totally what I'm into so I'm so excited about that. Then 2 french classes which is guna be awesome considering I haven't done much french at all in the last year and a half, but I always did like a challenge : ) and one english - literature of the Pacific - taught by Albert Wendt - famous NZ-Samoan writer and Reina Whaitiri. So I'm really excited about it. Of course it's going to be pretty political because of how hard it's been for so many polynesian cultures and the impacts of colonisation and thats what a lot of the writing is about, but it's pretty real and I'm excited to learn more about cultures in my part of the world.
Interesting fact - did you know that you can fit all the land above water in the whole world in the Pacific ocean with room to spare!

Training starts next week and I am determined to have a blast in my last year of elegibility. And so it will be : )

Hope everyone is awesome - it would totally make my day to hear from anyone at all : )

much love
A xxox