Phew

Wow, what a week.

Last Saturday we took the bus up to Laie. It was Mark's birthday and we wanted to get out of Honolulu and we really wanted to go to the temple there. We took the bus up, which while convenient it was kinda long. It was nice seeing more of the island though. For the last 45 mins of the trip we were right along the water. As per usual it was a beautiful day. After the temple we went to a plate lunch place where Mark got $15 worth of steak, shrimp, rice and mac salad. It was his birthday after all.


When we got home we were planning on a nice quite evening. I made Mark his birthday cake and we were peacefully watching a Les Miserable concert on PBS when suddenly it was interrupted with an emergency notice of a tsunami warning! To be perfectly honest the threat of tsunamis was something that I didn't even think about before moving here. We flipped around the different news channels but it seemed like no one really knew what was going on. There were sirens down at Wakiki and other beaches that we could hear at our apartment. We eventually found out that we're not in an evacuation zone but we still stayed up until after the tsunami had meant to hit us. Nothing really happened but it was exciting.

Monday I had to go all over Pearl City trying to find some random clinic so I could get a TB shot for my job. Apparently all state employees have to have a shot. The clinic had just changed locations to a temporary place way up in the hills of Pearl City. What I thought was only going to take me an hour and a half tops ended up taking me almost 4. Needless to say when I finally went back to my temp job I was more than a little flustered.

Monday night and most of Tuesday was spent worrying about all our friends and family on the East Coast. I still can't believe how much damage Sandy cause. It's hard to think about New York shutting down.

Wednesday morning I had to go back to the TB clinic to get my arm looked at to make sure I didn't have TB (I don't). This time I left really early in the morning and managed to only show up 2 hours late to my temp job. Mark had a job interview at Safeway. They him right there and he starts training on Monday. In celebration of his job and of my new one starting the next day we went to this burger place called Honolulu Burger Co. It was super yummy. Mark got this huge burger that had a 1/3 lb patty, black forest ham, kalua pork and bacon on it. Yes, it was obscene as it sounds. They have possibly the best sweet potato fries at this place.

On Thursday I started my new job at University of Hawaii. I'm working in the College of Social Sciences. When I applied for this job I was so excited about it and out of all the jobs I applied for it was one that I really wanted to get. I work in an absolutely beautiful building and I get a Mac! They asked me when I got there Thursday morning which I preferred and totally jumped on the chance to use a Mac at work. I really like my office. There are about 10 of us and it seems like everyone works together really well. It is so great being back on a college campus. I was temping at a bank and I felt totally out of place. UH feels a lot like NAU which I really like as well.

Friday was actually the chillest day of the week. Mark made some seriously tasty pad Thai for dinner and that was about it.

This morning we woke up early to help clean the church building. We got there 5 minutes late and most of the work had already been done. Apparently some men show up super early and do most of the cleaning then.

We met up with some friends to go on a hike a little later. There are a bunch of hikes really close to Honolulu. We went on one called the Makiki Valley Loop. It wasn't super hard but it was beautiful. We went up into the rainforest that is literally minutes away from the city. A couple of times you could actually see the city through the trees. You'll notice the hazy sky, that's due to the vog. Yes, that is a real thing, just look it up. It gets really bad when we have winds from Kona on the Big Island. Once the trade winds come back things will clear up nicely.


Tonight we are kicking back with a movie and popcorn. I am definitely sleeping in tomorrow!