What a Cowinkydink!! (not)

Aloha!

So I've been thinking a lot lately about why things happen to people. Since coming here I can't count how many times I've been told that there are no such things as coincidences. When I first heard that it made me stop and think about my purpose and the plan that my Heavenly Father has laid out for me already. All of a sudden I found myself constantly thinking about everything that had happened to me in my life and in that day, that week, that month, and that year. Soon, I engraved that nothing that has happened to me has been a coincidence. 

I believe that I went to BYU in Provo for the summer term for a reason, and while I may not know why exactly just yet, I know for a fact that it wasn't a coincidence. After being admitted I was determined to live in Heritage Halls where all my Boston stake friends would be. However, since I was a visiting student I had last pick of housing so when I went to go sign up for a room, Heritage was all full. So as a result I found myself looking at rooms in Helaman Halls., I went through 5 rooms before finally deciding on 2212 in Hinkley Hall. I'm not exactly proud of how I chose which room I chose. I basically chose a room and stalked the girl I was sharing a room with on Facebook. I went through 5 different rooms before choosing mine because every girl looked sort of strange to me on Facebook. And then I came across Tracy. At this point I was tired of not finding a room so I was ready to just pick a room and stick with it. But nonetheless I looked Tracy up on Facebook and she seemed to be the most normal one yet. I am so incredibly grateful I was stuck up and judged people by what I saw on their Facebooks. While that might seem self-centered and weird, I would not have had the experience that I had at Provo without Tracy. Because I was picky I got to meet some of the most amazing people I have ever met in my life. Tracy became one of my best friends. We related on so many levels and could talk to each other about a lot of things--something that would normally be weird for people who had only known each other for only 3 months. I had been praying to make good friends that would make transferring to Provo an easier experience if I do end up transferring in the future. Tracy made me want to be outgoing; at night when we were bored and wanted to do something, we wouldn't just sit around and watch netflix! We would text friends and ask them if they wanted to do something. I got to do some pretty cool things and go on fun adventures with a lot of people that way. In a lot of ways, I really came out of my shell this summer; I got comfortable with a really great group of friends. None of that was by coincidence. It wasn't coincidence that I'm a picky person who is secretly a little self-centered. And it most definitely was not a coincidence that Tracy and I roomed together this summer.

 Tracy & I right before I left    

                                                          Tracy, Jessie, me, and Bree

My Provo friends and I throwing a surprise birthday party :)

As hard as it is for me to admit, it was not a coincidence that I only went to BYU as a visiting student. It also is no coincidence that I'm here at BYUH. I know that great things are in store for me here. One of the many blessings that I've come across has been the fact that my testimony has grown enormously here. I always thought I had a pretty good gospel perspective on life, but when I got here I actually started to look at things differently. It was like I had been hit in the head with a spiritual lightning bolt! I don't know exactly when it started or how it started but I have found myself seeing the deeper meaning to a lot of things. I catch myself crossing a road and frequently just pondering to myself about the plan that Heavenly Father has laid out for me and how things I have done throughout my life have led me to following it. I constantly think about the whole idea of coincidences and how they don't exist in God's work. I've come to believe that things always happen for a reason. Obviously if me and some girl wore the exact same outfit one day, that probably wouldn't be a huge life/path-altering occurrence. But something like a life-long friend or a college experience has a huge life-time effect. My path has been changed, or at least the direction that I thought it was headed in changed. Something so simple as switching rooms 5 times has changed my life forever. I'm so grateful to know that there is a purpose to all of this and that what has happened to me thus far has happened to me for a reason. It's nice to be able to recognize how Heavenly Father has been continuously guiding and directing me, especially because I never really took the time to recognize it before hand. I am so incredibly blessed to be able to say that I have a strong testimony that God is real and that His plan for us is so real. I love having the knowledge that He lives! He lives and He loves us enough to help us along the road. We don't even recognize His hand in our lives half the time and He still is patient and continues to help us. How amazing is it to know that there is someone always keeping an eye out for us? I love being able to say that I know everything that I have said here to be true because I have taken the time to recognize it in my own life. 

♡,

Nina

❀ Aloha Friday ❀

Aloha!

So this weekend has been kinda crazy. Friday, we went to the beach (again). After about an hour we decided we weren't getting any real sun so we packed up our things and trekked back to school. I know I say trekked making it seem like this long, hard, walk and I guess at times it seems pretty tedious how far away the school seems, but this "trek" is about a 15 minute walk. So in all reality I need to count my blessings with blessing number 1 out of many being that it only takes me 15 minutes to walk to the beach. And I can go whenever I want. Anyways, after coming back we ate dinner and started to prep for the opening social. The opening social is a dance put on by a club here at BYUH. The club that held this year's opening social was the New Zealand club. Yup, there is a club for people who are from New Zealand. It was a really fun no pressure dance. Towards the last hour, the club did a little flash mob. It was so cool! Apparently whoever hosts the dance has to prepare a flashmob. It was cool to see how they integrated their culture into their dance. I can't express how much I love the culture here enough. It completely fascinates me to be surrounded by so many different people with different backgrounds. I love feeling like some exotic creature because I'm from Boston. I can't count how many times I've said I was from Boston and the reaction has been something along the lines of: "Oooh!" or "That's so cool!" or "Wow! That's awesome!". It's fun being special because of where I come from :) I love being able to represent my favorite city (and the best city) in the whole world.

Saturday we woke up, determined to get to the beach and catch some sun. When we got to the beach right before 11 in the morning, we were very pleased with how empty it was. There was plenty of sun, not very many people, and the perfect weather. Since I have to come home to below freezing temperatures, I figure it's my duty to come home and have something to prove I soaked up my time in Hawaii. So what better way than a good, natural tan? The advice here is: WEAR SUNSCREEN. You can achieve a tan with sunscreen! And it skips the whole painful part of a sunburn! I was out in the sun for 5 hours. The sun in Hawai'i is stronger too, or so I've heard. So I was at a huge disadvantage right off the bat. Being light skinned and fair haired it's as though I'm holding a sign pointing to myself advertising to the sun that I'm ready to get a good sunburn. It didn't help that I was pretty nonchalant about sunburn before hand, I was always just like "eh, it's not too bad. It'll just turn into a nice tan afterwords!". Never ever ever EVER justify only putting on SPF 5 at the beginning of a beach trip. Take that SPF 30 and love it and cherish it and use it to your advantage. Take me for example:

10:53- we arrive at beach

11ish- ask to borrow "sunscreen" (anything below SPF 30 should not count as sunscreen)

12ish- get in water

12:30ish- go and lay out (probably texting Logan)

1ish- really feeling the heat of the sun

1:15ish- get back in water

2ish- go lay out to dry, trying to gain optimum sun exposure (Bad Idea)

2:30ish- notice shoulders are getting pink

3ish- get back in water 

4ish- realize sunburn may be occurring, leaves

Unfortunately for me, I was right. I had gotten EXTREMELY BURNT. Like if I was a slice of bacon I would probably be that one piece that got a little too much heat and is now black and shriveling off to the corner. I looked like a good ole lobstah. I'm pretty sure I got some sun poisoning because man my shoulders are killing and they're blistering a little. The first few nights were horrible, I could barely sleep! I kept waking up in the middle of the night because I would try to switch positions in my sleep but the new position would cause excruciating pain that woke me up. It's been pretty manageable these past few days but holy cow did I learn my lesson. Never again will I underestimate the power of the sun.

Now it's back to classes and homework (ew) but it's nice to start to get into the full swing of things. I'm in the middle of orientation for my job and I can't even begin to put into words how incredible the PCC is. I didn't really realize how lucky I am to be able to work somewhere so cool and powerful. I'm really looking forward to it, even if it just is a table setting job :) 

♡,

Nina

Good News!

Aloha!

Guess what!? I got a job!! Remember that setter job I mentioned in my last post? The one where we set the tables and the food and decorations up before the island buffet opens at the PCC? Well they want to hire me! I'm super stoked because it is seriously the perfect hours! It's 1-4:45 pm, about 19 hours a week which still leaves me the rest of the day to play and do homework and whatnot. It's seriously the best job I could ask for. Now I'll be able to invest in a rain jacket when the rainy season comes in November :) And I'll be able to buy some trinkets to bring home to mi familia and friends. I'm so excited to have a job because it'll also get me to procrastinate less. Also the PCC is way cool.
I have found that even if you don't know someone, it's totally normal for them to say hi to you. For example, I was walking back to the dorms from my Political Science class and this guy yelled "Aloha!" to me and came up to shake my hand. He introduced himself and asked me about my major and how long I've been at BYUH. He then told me about how he loves it here and then continued on with his day. It was the sweetest thing ever. I didn't think much of it until a little later when it hit me that it's become normal to me for a complete stranger to go out of their way to say hi and introduce themselves. Even if they're an upperclassmen. It's the coolest thing. Later, I was walking to the PCC HR office to check to see if I got the job and some guy waved and said hi (Okay maybe that time I had actually previously met him somewhere, but I'm still not exactly sure. If I did I certainly do not remember him and I apologize).
I love Hawai'i and it's diversity so much! I am so excited to be able to be surrounded by it everyday and now at work too!

♡,

Nina

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