Aloha

Right now I am sitting in the courtyard area of my Hostel in Waikiki, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii. Earlier a big gecko type lizard (15cm long!) ran up the wall that I'm sitting by (need to be plugged in) and then again a few minutes ago it reappeared and chirped at me. Bastard.

So let me bring y'alls up to speed. The flight from Vancouver last night felt long and I was in and out of sleep for most of it. When I arrived it was dark and even though it was only like 8pm it felt more like 2am so when I finally got to the hostel all I wanted was horizontal sleep. I am in the lower bunk in a room of 3 bunks, so thats 6 people. The guy above me last night was a restless sleeper and tossed and turned all night and I thought I was going to die should he toss too hard and come crashing through. He left this morning though, so now there are just 3 of us in the dorm room. The place is clean (the bathroom smelt of bleach this afternoon, a good sign in my opinion), just a little old and rundown. There is free continental breakfast of coffee, tea, toast and jam/PB, and for 35cents you can have oatmeal, weeeeeeeee! and free wireless and free locker use and a bunch of other shit that you can borrow for free (like boogie boards, snorkels, beach mats, etc). Anyways, a lot of the people staying here appear to be in couples or groups and many are ESL. I'm still feeling a little jetlagged and thus have not put in much of an effort to make friends, but my time will come. I've also overheard the staff commenting on how quiet it is around here (the hostel), I guess it's usually hopping? Maybe this will change this weekend, Halloween is supposed to wicked fun here.

Today I spent most of the day wandering around Waikiki and a couple hours on the beach. My SPF8 sunscreen did a wonderful job, however the spots I missed are feeling mighty warm right about now, haha. I wouldn't say the beach was crowded today but I was somewhat surprised by the number of tourists. Well I guess they're all tourists... and this is Waikiki, mega tourist hot spot. I think I was picturing a more quaint version of Hawaii. I'm going to see if that exists on the North Shore later in the week. But the shopping around here is pretty sweet. I wish I had a bigger bag, haha. There is an area a few blocks from here called 'International Market Place' which is an open air mall filled with little kiosks full of cheap souvenirs. There is also a Lesportsac store; I might be getting myself an early Christmas present there later!

Anyways, I had some bad news today, it turns out that my timing is not as perfect as I thought, as Diamond Head Trail is in the middle of being closed for a month for repairs and that was one of the top things to do on my list. I'll have to see if there is a smaller dormant volcano to climb on this island.

In other news, I was wandering around a few hours ago trying to decide what I wanted for dinner. I wanted something warm as I was experiencing somewhat of a chill from too much sun. I was about to cross the street when a random girl asked me if I was from here and knew of any good places to eat, as she was by herself. I told her I wasn't from here and that I was also looking for a place to eat and was also on my oddy knocky. In truely awkward fashion we somehow decided to eat dinner together and ended up going to the great American eatery known as Chili's. It turned out that she was from Vancouver and was in Hawaii for the third time in a year and wants to move here, but is trying to figure out the whole working situation with Visas and all that shit. It was... err... an interesting meal and although the company wasn't really my scene, the food really hit the spot.

Well it is almost 10pm and I am fading fast. I'll try to stay up another hour but it will be tough! I finished 'Angela's Ashes' today and am now on to the Barack Obama memoir- "Dreams From My Father." I will be reading it in Obama's home state (thanks Aunt Cathie), so maybe he will have suggestions on things to do and places to eat ;)