First Day of Classes

Aloha!

Classes started today! I was really excited to finally start classes and meet even more new people. Don't get me wrong, I love the friends I have now. I just love meeting new people too :) So at 5:30 am I woke up right before my alarm went off because my jogging class started at 6 (Yeah I know 6am is a little early for any class--jogging class especially). I had been telling myself ever since I got my schedule all figured out that I was going to defy everyone who told me I wouldn't be able to do it. Yet, as I woke up for class I realized that me and that 6am jogging class were most definitely not meant to be. So, after I hit snooze on my alarm, I reached over and grabbed my computer and dropped my class and promptly went back to bed.
My Political Science class ended up being cancelled for the day so I had a nice long break in between when I woke up and when my psychology class started. My psychology class seems like it's going to be very interesting this semester. My professor is older and has a ton of experience underneath his belt when it comes to psychology. He was a neuropsychologist I think; basically he studied the human brain A LOT. He seems really passionate about his work and he really loves Hawaii which is awesome. He said he's taught at all the BYU schools and Hawaii was by far his favorite school to teach at. The best part about my psychology class is that there is no final! And all his tests are open notes!
After psychology I went to the Human Resources office to find a job at the PCC (Polynesian Cultural Center). 98% of students here at BYU-H work so it's super common to have a job. I felt like I needed one so I don't slack off and so I will be forced to set aside time for homework and time for play. It's funny, when I say I applied for a job at the PCC the main reaction is "...but...you're white...?" Yes, it's true, I am white. While I can't apply to be a dancer in their night shows, I can apply to be a take part in their behind the scenes work. So, as a setter, I would set the tables up, roll the silverware in the napkins up, set up the food, and help decorate for the Island Buffet. It is a super simple and easy job that works perfectly with my schedule so I really hope I can get it :) Plus it'll be nice to have a little bit of inflow of money.
After that me and my 2 roommates along with 2 other girls in our Hale set out for the beach to celebrate our completion of our first day of classes. (I know! How awesome is that?! I get to go to the beach whenever I want). We walked to the PCC so Kailia (one of my roommates) could drop off her application to be a greeter. Turns out we were a long ways away from our desired beach. So we trekked on over to Temple Beach. It's called Temple Beach because it's literally directly down the road from the temple. It was a cute, quiet beach and you could tell students visit it frequently. The water was absolutely refreshing and the sand was so soft. It was an amazing way to end a great day.

♡, 

Nina

Blessed

Aloha!

Today was one of the best days I have had out here so far. Today, we had church in the HGB, the building where we have our business classes. Coming from church at BYU in Provo (I was a visiting student there for the summer), I was expecting sacrament meeting to be in an auditorium of some sorts. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were chapels within the HGB. Anyways, today's fast and testimony meeting was unlike any other that I have ever gone to. First off, my ward is super cool. It's not just freshman, but theres sophomores and even some juniors too. We even have 2 senior missionary couples. Also, I am a minority in my ward. There are so many ethnicities it is crazy! I thought that being from Boston and being in the Worcester 2nd ward was diverse what with our spanish group and all. But nope! There are people from Tonga, the Philippines, Taiwan, Singapore, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Samoa, South Korea, New Zealand, Canada, you name it! It's crazy how many different nationalities are represented here. It's truly humbling to think about how lucky I am to be here. To me, I know I am far away from home and it's not a typical college experience to be this far but it seems pretty typical to me. I guess I don't always recognize how blessed I am to be here. People stood up today bearing their testimonies about how they came from Tonga and the Philippines and how they are so grateful to be getting their education here, even though home is so far away from them. It just made me think about how lucky I am to still be in the same country as my family; to be a phone call away from them; to be able to fly home for Christmas. I am also incredibly lucky to be a minority. I get to be surrounded by amazing culture and I get to learn to appreciate everyone's unique backgrounds. Everyone is so welcoming and inviting here that it's hard to not feel like I'll always have a home here in Hawai'i.
Another testimony that really touched me was one a guy in my ward bore towards the middle of sacrament meeting. He began by saying that he had switched wards had had a lot of mixups as to which ward he was supposed to go to so he had gone to 2 sacrament meetings prior to our ward's meeting. He basically said that while the other 2 meetings were good in their own respects, there was something different about our ward; he felt as though he needed to be there to hear the words that were spoken in our ward. He worded it as being at the right place at the right time. And boy, his testimony really hit me.
My plans were originally to go to BYU in Provo. That was what I had dreamed of my entire life and was anxiously awaiting my admittance. But, I didn't get in. To say those weeks following were some of the hardest in my life would be understating it. I remember feeling so low and so disappointed in myself. I was constantly trying to figure out what I had done wrong. Why didn't I get in? I couldn't find an answer that ever really satisfied me. I was bitter with myself for not trying harder and not doing this and not doing that. How did I get into Hawai'i and not Provo? And, to be honest, it took a long time for me to accept that I wasn't going to Provo. Seeing all my friends from my stake back home didn't help much with me feeling better about myself and my situation either. So I went to Provo as a visiting student to get a feel of it in hopes of transferring. I loved it there and had the best summer of my life there. And while I'm grateful for that summer, it didn't help with me trying to feel at peace with going to Hawai'i. I was trying to keep in mind that Heavenly Father has a plan for me and that it wasn't always going to be clear to me what exactly it was.

Now here's where the testimony comes in. With his testimony I realized that there is a reason why I am here at Hawai'i instead of Provo. I am here to be in the right place at the right time. The trick is realizing that being in the right place at the right time doesn't mean that you're gonna have a great big revelation in flashing bold letters saying: THIS IS WHY YOU ARE HERE. I may be here at Hawai'i just to hear someone speak in church, to hear someone's testimony, I may even be here to go to that sacrament meeting specifically. The point is, it doesn't have to be something big. I'm here in Hawai'i for a reason and it could be something as small as a situation or a person or a certain quote a professor says or a compilation of a lot of little things. And whether I end up staying in Hawai'i or going to Provo at some point, I will have this reassurance that I came here and I learned the most valuable lesson about the way the Lord works. 

“Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.

“And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls” 

(Alma 37:6–7).

I love this scripture that I heard in sunday school today. It is so powerful and comforting to know that small things are significant in the Lord's eyes. It helps me realize that little signs from my Father are just as important as the big ones. I am just so blessed to be able to come to school here, in paradise no less! I love the people at this school. I love being able to say hi to everyone I come in contact with, I love how friendly everyone is and how welcoming they are. I absolutely love all the culture that is present here and I love being able to learn to respect it. Today I guess I'm just feeling very grateful for this wonderful opportunity I have to go to this beautiful school and get a wonderful education :)

♡,

Nina

O'ahu

Aloha!

Yesterday I spent practically the whole day on a bus site seeing. And by site seeing I mean we went to a grand total of three "sites". Me and a few friends went on the circle island tour. It was a tour done through the school for orientation so we could get a better understanding of O'ahu. Our first stop was the Pali Lookout Point, which was a gorgeous spot in the mountains where we could look out and see a beautiful view.

It was so beautiful! I love how lush this island is. I also love being able to look to one side and see a clear blue ocean and then look at my other side and see tall green mountains. It's absolutely surreal. 

After the lookout point, we all piled back onto the buses and drove to the USS Arizona Memorial, or Pearl Harbor. We walked around the different exhibits for about an hour, learning more and more about the tragedy until we were ushered into a theater. We watched a video about Pearl Harbor and the attack, it was really sad and eye-opening to see the actual destruction and terror that the Japanese inflicted upon the US. After the movie, we took a ferry over to the actual memorial. The Pearl Harbor memorial was built on the remains of the USS Arizona, the ship that took the biggest hit during the attack. As you walk down the corridor of the memorial, theres a chunk cut out of the floor with railings so you can look down and actually see the sunken USS Arizona. At the end, there's a room with all the names of the 1,177 men who died that day. There's one spot on the left side of the memorial (if you're walking in from the entrance) that you can see oil droplets rise to the surface and spread out. When the USS Arizona was hit, a lot of the oil exploded with it. However, some remained on the ship so from then and for the next 50 years, little oil droplets will continue to rise to the surface from the remaining oil supplies. They sometimes call them the "tears of the Arizona" or "black tears", claiming it is the ship mourning all the lives lost on December 7, 1941. The history channel website had a cool picture where you can see the oil and the ship:

I took a few pictures myself of what I saw. Overall I would definitely say that Pearl Harbor is one of those sites you must see at least once in your life. 

If you look closely you can see a little black dot in the center of that oil. That's what rises to the surface and then expands.

The USS Nevada also was one of the ships that was badly damaged.

I really did enjoy this trip to the USS Arizona memorial and I feel like it helped me better understand the events of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Definitely made me even more proud to be an American/my love for America definitely grew.

After Pearl Harbor, we stopped at Walmart because we are college kids in Hawai'i. Here, there's only 1 Walmart and 1 Target on the whole island of O'ahu. And it's an hour away from Laie, where BYU is. So there was a lot of abnormal excitement about going to Walmart. Overall, the day was long but really good. I got to do a lot of stuff I wouldn't normally get to do because not many people have cars out here, especially freshman.

♡,

Nina

你好！

Aloha!

So today was pretty crazy with orientation in full swing and classes just around the corner. I was going to go to a PCC tour today but on Tuesday my Chinese professor emailed me asking to meet with me. Turns out when you have taken Chinese for 5 years, you'll probably be asked why you signed up for a 101 class. My thought process was that since I had forgotten how to write anything besides “你好” and “克丽丝蒂哪” (hello and my name), Chinese 101 would be a good refresher course. But, after having a pretty decent conversation with my professor, I came to the decision that a 101 class would only bore me really. So I walked back to the dorms, dropped Chinese, picked up an online history class, and applied for 2 jobs. Woo! Here's to hoping something works out :)

Later, my roommate and I ate dinner with another girl. We sat near these kids from Taiwan and they were conversing in Chinese and I was super excited to be able to understand bits and pieces of their conversation! I ended up talking with this one Taiwanese girl, Mandy, about Taiwan and my ability to somewhat speak Chinese. She was very enthusiastic about me serving a mission Mandarin speaking in Taiwan haha. Honestly though, I would love to serve Mandarin speaking anywhere in the world. As much as I said I hated Chinese in high school, I guess I secretly really did enjoy it. I felt like I made Xin Xin (my Chinese teacher from 6th grade to 11th grade) proud today :)

A little bit after dinner we went to the talent show that's a part of orientation. It was actually way cool. A lot of people did the classic mormon talents: piano, singing, and (since we are in Hawai'i) the ukelele. Don't get me wrong, I go to school with some CRAZY talented people in those areas! I seriously wish I was at least half as talented as those guys. One guy did some crazy tribal native american dance with hula hoops and an entire getup. It was absolutely insane! Two girls signed Party in the USA and kind of danced along which was way cool. After the talent show, I really wanted to get a ukelele and learn how to play. Maybe I'll enlist some help from Logan when I go back to Boston for Christmas haha ;) The perks of having a boyfriend that is part Hawaiian and knows how to play the ukelele.

To end the day, me and a few other friends hopped in a car and drove to some gated path. We weren't exactly sure where it lead to but the guys were pretty determined that a beach was nearby so we kinda just wandered around until we smelled salt in the air. I mean, it is Hawai'i. You're bound to hit a beach at some point. Luckily, we found one and wandered around it a bit. The guys were entertained by the crabs crawling all along the beach. There was a sketchy swing made out of rope and a piece of driftwood that they also tried out. One thing that ceases to amaze me is how warm the water is here. I am so used to the cold New Hampshire/Boston/East Coast beaches! Here, you step in and its warm. If it's cold for some odd reason, it doesn't stay cold for very long. After we finished exploring, we headed back to campus. One weird thing is that at some point at night, a security guard stands outside and kind of barricades the entrance and has to clear everyone through. With 8 people in the car, the security guard was a little less than pleased with us. He finally let us go with a warning, thank goodness. By the time we got back to the Hales (it's the Hawaiian word for home and it's what we call our dorms), it had started to downpour. Here in Hawai'i it does not sprinkle. It pours when it rains. It's super refreshing after all the humidity we get during the day and at night. Here's to hoping tonight will be a lot cooler because of the rain!

♡,

Nina

See You Later

Aloha!

I said my final goodbyes to my mom today. She met me up at the dorms after doing a session at the temple that morning. From there we walked all around campus trying to find my Great Grandpa Brower's picture. My Great Grandpa was a president here at BYU-H right before it switched from Church College of Hawaii to a branch of BYU. He was basically called to come fix the college up so the church wouldn't have to shut it down. It was a pretty intense few years for him and my Great Grandma, but I'm so grateful that they came and served here because it has allowed me to come get an education in this lovely state of Hawai'i :)

We ended up asking about 5 people where the pictures were but no one seemed to know where the portraits were of the past presidents. So we decided to go take pictures by the sign at the entrance of the school (scratch that, my MOM decided to take pictures at the sign). I wasn't really all that excited to climb up the wall (which is a lot higher than it looks!) but the pictures turned out fairly decent so I guess it was all worth it.

The Shaka sign: Hang loose \m/

After that we journeyed on over to the Laie Temple. The Laie Temple is the LDS, or Mormon, temple  that is right next to campus. Mormons believe that in order to live with our Father in Heaven again, we must preform sacred ordinances in the temple. To learn more about temples visit this really neat site: FAQs about Mormon Temples :-)  Anyways, the Laie temple is pristine! It is such a bright white temple, a lot brighter than Boston! We went through the visitors center there and it was so cool! I love how each visitors center is unique. From what I remember I've been to the one at the Hill Cumorah, in Salt Lake City, and now here in Laie. At the Hill Cumorah, the visitors center focused on the Sacred Grove and the First Vision. In Salt Lake, it focuses on the pioneers settling the area and building the temple there. In Laie, they focus on the history of the church in Hawaii which is so cool! We watched a video on how the Temple, the University, and the Polynesian Cultural Center are all interconnected. They talked about how the missionaries came over to Hawai'i and a lot of people converted. All the members migrated to Laie because church leaders had received revelation that it would become a prosperous city. A temple was soon built so that the members could participate in the saving ordinances and so that their families could be sealed for time and eternity. Eventually, the Church College of Hawai'i was built to help educate all the converts in Laie. In April of 1974, President Kimball announced that the Church College of Hawai'i would become Brigham Young University-Hawai'i and that President Brower (My Great Grandpa (: )would be succeeded by Dr. Dan W. Anderson as President. In the mean time, church leaders received revelation that the different cultures of Hawai'i and those who settled there needed to be celebrated; they had visions of a center that would thrive and receive millions of guests, to celebrate and learn more about those cultures. What they saw was the PCC, or the Polynesian Cultural Center. Today, the PCC has served over 30 million guests! It's cool place where you learn about different cultures by visiting different "villages".  There is also an evening show and luau you can go to. Here is a picture from the visitors center: 

This is called "The Christus", it's a statue that is in the Palmyra, SLC, and Laie Visitor's centers as well as numerous other visitors centers across the world. It depicts Christ after His resurrection.

We then made our way up to the temple to take some more pictures because who doesn't love pictures of pretty things especially when the pretty things are in Hawai'i?!

Afterwords, I had to finally say goodbye to my Mom. She's pretty much the best and I'm so grateful to her for coming out to Hawai'i with me :) I know it must've been SO hard to trek all the way to Hawai'i but I hope she had a good time. I seriously have the best parents in the entire world.

♡,

Nina

Lazy Beach Day

Aloha!

This morning I woke up to birds chirping and construction. I guess they're really trying to expand here at BYU. I was told that they're wanting to include more majors and increase the living space here, which is super cool because that means in the future, BYU-H won't be as small compared to the Provo and Idaho campuses. But, at the same time, I don't really like waking up to construction noises. Not exactly my favorite way to spend my mornings.

The rest of the day was pretty laid back though. It was my mom's last day in Hawaii so we drove up to Waikiki and went to the beach there. It was a nice sandy beach to go to, but it was also VERY touristy. It was fun just walking around Waikiki and seeing all the little shops on the streets leading up to the beach. It was a good relaxing day.

My mom made me pose for pictures in the water. The water looks brown and gross in the picture but it's so so clear when the water calms down. I think I'm becoming a water snob, meaning that if the water isn't clear I don't have a desire to swim in it. I'm becoming a little spoiled with my water I guess haha. 

♡,

Nina

Finally Here!

Aloha!

I have finally arrived in Hawai'i! And let me tell you, it is really what it is cracked up to be. This island is absolutely gorgeous. I got here Saturday afternoon around 4, which felt like 10 at night to me (Jet lag has been KILLER). At about 9, my mom and I headed to a friend's house where we would be spending the night until I got checked in. The first night was fine; we were in bed around 10 and got up around 8. Pretty standard times. We went to church with our friends that morning. Church in Hawai'i is so cool! People who give talks ALWAYS start off by saying "Aloha brothers and sisters". I think that is so fun! At the end of sacrament meeting, the entire ward sang "Aloha 'oe", a Hawaiian farewell song, to a sister who was moving out of the state. That was so cool to hear/be a part of. They have the lyrics to the song pasted inside the front cover of the hymn book so we got to sing along with them. I went to sunday school with my friend we went around the room and said our names and how we liked our shaved ice. By the time it got to me, I had nothing to say because I hadn't had shaved ice before. There was a lot of discussion afterwords about how much I was missing out on and a few suggestions for good places to go around Honolulu. After sunday school, I went to relief society. They gave my mom and I knit leis since we were visiting. Once they heard I was going to BYU-Hawaii, they offered me advice and places to do laundry for free haha.

Once we got home, I ate, called Logan, and decided to take a nap. Well, I would recommend NOT taking a nap if you're super jet lagged because that nap turned into me not waking up until the next morning. I ended up waking up at 4 in the morning Hawai'i time because I was so stinking jet lagged!! It was definitely not one of my most pleasant mornings. But, by 8 we were out the door on our way to do some exploring.

We first went to China Walls. It's a beach, but it's not one of those sandy beaches that you see in post cards. In fact, there was no sand that I could see except for underwater. It was basically a bunch of rocks and cliffs that you jump off of into the water.

That's basically where we jumped off from. The waves make it crazy because they'll come and the water level will get super high at some points, and other points it will die down, and at other points it stays pretty normal. It makes getting back up kinda tricky because you have to time it perfectly with the waves. I definitely left with some scrapes and battle wounds from trying to climb up the rocks. We also tried to snorkel here. I hadn't snorkeled before then so it was all new to me. And of course I thought it was just so amazing and the coolest experience ever because there were some exotic fish and some coral. But apparently the visibility was low and not many fish were out so it was a pretty poor snorkeling day at China Walls. (I still thought it was good). To top it all off, we spotted a sea turtle swimming at the surface! He was the cutest thing ever! He would just pop his head up and bob for a bit and then he disappeared. Here's a picture of a sea turtle because I think they're just the cutest things and I'm sad I didn't get to take a picture of the one I saw today.

Our next adventure was to do some more snorkeling. We went off near the Kaiwi Shoreline trail to this neat little beach. The visibility there was amazing! We saw so many exotic fish darting around. It was overall a really neat experience. Afterwords, we grabbed some shaved ice. I had to know what exactly I was missing out on I guess. We went to this cute little shack/hole in the wall place down the road a bit. I got lilikoi, or passionfruit, with ice cream on the bottom and a snow cap (condensed milk) on the top. It was absolutely amazing! There really is a difference between shaved ice and a snow cone. Holy cow it was so good. I could definitely get used to those. 

Finally, 3 rolled around and we were headed to campus to check in. I got all checked in, and had the rules reviewed. It's kinda crazy here in Hawai'i. If we get locked out after 3 times, we have to do community service! And if we don't pass our cleaning check we have to do community service. There are a lot of rules and a lot of the consequences end in either fines or community service. Which is pretty new to me, especially coming from Provo where it was totally laid back with that kind of stuff. I'm starting to kind of adjust though with Hawai'i life. Jet lag is going to stick with me the next couple of days so I'm going to be taking a few naps here and there but what else is new. I'm excited to finally meet everyone in these next few days as orientation starts up!

♡,

Nina