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

Goodbyes

Aloha!

Yesterday was my last day in Mass until December. Even as I type this waiting to board my plane to Honolulu from Dallas, it still has yet to really sink in that I won't be back for 3 months. I spent my day finishing some last minute packing and started to say goodbye to my family. Every year since we moved to Massachusetts, we have gone to Joseph Smith's birthplace in Sharon, Vermont to go camping with our ward. My dad packed up the car and my 4 younger siblings and by 11:30, they were on their way out. It was hard saying goodbye to all of them, but I'll see them in just 3 short months :)

Later that day I took the commuter rail (my first time doing so in my entire 17 years of being a Massachusetts resident) into Wellesley and had dinner at the McQuivey's house. They're seriously the best! I'm definitely going to miss Lachlan and his craziness. After dinner, Logan and I met up with some other friends from my stake to go ice skating at a rink that's open year-round. It was kind of funny thinking about the idea of ice skating the night before I left for sunny Hawaii. It was a great way to end my 2 weeks back home :) But it also ended in a lot of sad goodbyes. I'll miss my friends a lot but I'll hopefully make some good ones here in Laie. Saying goodbye to Logan was probably the hardest. I already miss that guy. But, like everyone else I had to leave behind in Boston, I'll see him in December.

The nice thing about goodbyes is that a lot of the times they're just "see you laters". And in my case, all of my goodbyes so far have been "see you laters". It's pretty reassuring to know that I'll be able to see everyone again in just a few short months. Hopefully I won't get too homesick from now until then.

♡,

Nina

Last Days

Aloha!

It's surreal to think that in less than 48 hours I'll be headed on a plane to start my adventure in Hawaii. I am excited to finally start school again after my great time as a visiting student this past summer semester at BYU. Yet, I want to cling onto the little time I have left of my summer in Boston. Since being home from BYU I have been really soaking up and enjoying spending time with family and friends.

Today, I spent the day in Boston with Logan. We went to Boston Commons and laid out in the grass and may or may not have fallen asleep haha. I love Boston Commons because it is so spacious and green. The atmosphere is wonderful and laid back. People are spread out all over the grassy lawns, enjoying the lovely summer day. It's also not too far away from Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market, the quaintest little Bostonian historical site and shopping center. So, after our nap we hit the streets to try and navigate our way to get some food and do some last minute shopping. Being a native Bostonian of 17 years, I like to think that I know the ropes around town. Unfortunately, we both came to the conclusion that neither of us knew where we were going. After reluctantly consulting a map, we finally got a good sense of which direction we should've been headed in. The benefit to being lost was being led in the direction that allowed us to walk through the Holocaust Memorial. The memorial was definitely really cool and I would say it's one of those must see sights that isn't as well known.

After walking through the memorial site, we finally got to Faneuil Hall. We quickly went to Quincy Market to grab something to eat. Quincy Market is this really cool indoor shopping center filled with tons of random food shops. They've got clam chowdah at one stall, gelato at another, pizza at the next, a juice bar at the other, etc. It is seriously one of my favorite places in Boston, even if it is seriously over priced.

We then ventured a few blocks over to the North End. The North End is home to some of the best Italian food on the East coast (at least in my opinion). With great Italian food comes great cannolis! Our favorite place to go is Mike's pastry, but Modern pastry is also excellent. It was a perfect way to end our day in Boston.

I'm grateful for the all the chances I have had to enjoy the beauty of Boston. Even after 17 years, I have yet to get tired of aimlessly walking around and taking it all in. I think out of everything the things I'll miss the most (in no particular order) are:

1. Apple picking & apple cider donuts

2. Pumkin Spice flavors at Dunkin Donuts

3. Fall foliage

4. TREES (though palm trees are nice too)

5. My family 

6. Wesley

7. Logan

8. Fall clothes

9. Apple Cider

10. Panera & Chipotle

Obviously I probably will get a little homesick being so far from home but I am itching to start my new adventure! I cannot wait to see what is in store for me at my new home :)

♡,

Nina