Aloha from Hawaii

Aloha! Today, January 13th, is my 20th birthday and I want to say thank you for all the wonderful birthday wishes! Yesterday, I spent the whole day in Hawaii, on the island Oahu as we ported in Honolulu. I traveled with my physical geography class, and we hiked Diamond Head, explored an arboretum, and also hiked a trail to Mānoa falls, one of the tallest waterfalls on the island of Oahu.

After seven days of looking out of our ship and seeing only ocean water, arriving upon land made me really happy, especially since our day consisted of spending the whole time outside or riding the bus through the city. At Diamond Head, our professor talked about the geology of Hawaii, and how the aging of islands affects the nutrient richness of soils. The restoration and preservation of native plants in Hawaii is something I am thankful for, and I hope to learn more about the roots and indigenous culture of Hawaii in future visits. Our tour guide David, works with horticulture for the University of Hawaii, where he restores native plant numbers. He also is starting his own sustainable clothing business! I enjoyed talking to him about travel, the environmental movement and its ties with preserving cultures. Talking to locals within the countries we are traveling to and learning a few words or sayings of their native language are a few of my goals for each port. The waterfall was beautiful, and getting covered in mud and rain along the way was so worth it. It rains 140 inches a year in the rain forest area we hiked in, which is much more compared to the beaches of Hawaii, which is only 10-20 inches a year. November to April is their rain season, but the day we were in port was extra rainy. Unlike Washington, this rain was in very warm humid weather, and I was happy to experience my first warm rain since being away from home.

The past week has had its ups and downs… I’ve missed family and friends from home, walking through campus, and of course my dogs. However, I have made a solid group of friends who I’ve been making travel plans with, watched movies with, and we’ve talked about the amazing experiences we will be undertaking for the next few months while at sea and land. We spent the evening tonight watching the sunset and eating birthday cake 🙂 Today is my first of 12 days before hitting Japan. Well, it’s actually 11 because we are crossing the international dateline, so no January 16th for me! We have had a few nights of gaining an hour of sleep, our third hour gained is tonight, but the night of January 15th we will be losing 23 hours. So, our clocks will go back one hour and our calendars will jump a day forward.

After the 11 days, the time between countries is much shorter, so more blog posts will be coming!! Thank you all for reading and thanks again for the birthday wishes! My seamail is ellie.potts.sp20@semesteratsea.org if you want to chat 🙂