Welcome, prospective Hawai'i travelers!

Aloha to rising-sophomore honors students in Hillyer College! If you look through this blog, you’ll get a glimpse of what went on during January 2008. We hope you’ll consider becoming part of the group for January 2009.

First of all, congratulations on your honors status! The Hawai'i trip offers you a reward for doing so well at Hillyer, and an unforgettable experience delving into the culture of the Hawaiian people. You will have the opportunity to learn firsthand from an amazing series of experts in Hawaiian culture: for example, this past year, students worked with
• the director of the Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawai'i, who sang them a welcome chant and introduced some of the complexities of Hawaiian history; many students commented that history books seem distanced, while being in a culture and learning about it firsthand from a member of that culture bring it to life.
• a hula master, who helped students try some traditional hula moves (wish we had a video to post—we were, well, let’s say, . . . beginners!); through her, students came to see hula not in its guise as a tourist art but as a transmitter of the traditional stories of a culture.
• an expert in Buddhism, who told some of its founding stories and history and then led a tour of local temples and shrines, many students’ first exposure to the rich traditions beyond their Judeo-Christian heritage.
• a PBS host, who surveyed current issues in Hawai'i (and even hosted us for dinner at a local Chinese restaurant!)

The schedule often entails morning classes and afternoon field trips, which take you all over the island, from Pearl Harbor to the North Shore. This year's students found themselves surprisingly moved as they stood on the Pearl Harbor memorial above the USS Arizona and speak with a survivor volunteering there. Quite a few students chose to write in their blog entries below about our first experiment in Hawai'i with service learning, preparing food for Honolulu’s homeless. Next year will likely bring more of this kind of experience, taking students further into the “other” Hawaii that tourists don’t see. In their off-hours, students explored a wide range of experiences, from surfing, bodyboarding, and kayaking to visiting the ‘Iolani Palace (the only royal palace on U.S. soil), attending performances, and climbing Diamond Head (whew!).

As one student put it in a course essay, “Upon my arrival on the island of Hawai'i, I believed what I saw on television and what the media said about it. After spending three weeks I have come to the realization that it is so much more.” This process of beginning to look beyond preconceived notions about other peoples on this planet is a great result of the Hillyer in Hawai'i program. Another student adds, “We may not be able to go and undo the past and the mistakes we made, but we can change our attitudes on the importance of maintaining and preserving traditions, cultures, and societal identities. Our lives will be richer for it, and we just might learn a thing or two.”

Prof. Marcia Seabury (January 2008 faculty)

p.s. If you’d like to read/see more, you can check out a website by one of our January 2008 group, Melissa Dion: uhaweb.hartford.edu/dion. Melissa was selected to present her work at the university’s Undergraduate Research and Creativity Colloquium, quite an honor. (Yes, students did essays/journals/websites, etc., both in Hawai'i and after their return—it’s a course, and you get 3 credits for it. A great way to do that!)

Our Last Day In Hawaii

OUR LAST DAY IN HAWAII
Aloha Everyone!
What language only has 13 letters?
I hope that you are enjoying our blogs of Hawaii. It is great here and I had a wonderful time. There is so much to do here that you cannot get bored. This was a worthwhile experience and I recommend that you keep up your grades and come to Hawaii next year if it is offered to you.

I have done a lot of things such as: bodyboarding, touring the island, learned hula and the Hawaiian language, going to the beach, climbing Diamond Head (which was not easy), going to Pearl Harbor, the Polynesian Cultural Center, etc. The music here is quite interesting especially Jawaiian which is Hawaiian music mixed with reggae. I tried Hawaiian food which looks nasty but tastes great and you will eat so much pineapple that you will start dreaming about it (lol). The classes are not so bad they are actually great and some of them you get to interact with the professor and with your fellow classmates. The two classes that I really liked were the hula with Aunty Vicky and the Hawaiian language class. I am glad that I had the opportunity to learn the Hawaiian language, the history of Hawaii, and about the culture itself. We are leaving today and I am going to miss Hawaii.
Mahalo for reading my blog...please comment on our blogs
Answer (for the above question): The Hawaiian language.
Donette S.
Donette Smith

Pearl Harbor

Our class took a trip to Pearl Harbor on Monday and it
was a different type of learning experience. Prior to coming
here the history of Pearl Harbor was just another page
within a textbook. When we arrived to Pearl Harbor, we saw
a twenty minute documentary about its history. The
documentary discussed the reasons as to why Pearl Harbor was
a target for destruction, the United States entry into World
War II, and what is left of Pearl Harbor. For example, the
U.S.S. Arizona was a ship that was attacked by the Japanese
and it killed hundreds of lives that were on the ship. This
ship remains sunken under the ocean to this day and one can
notice the remains of it through the water. Most of the
ships that once stood prior to the attack now have smaller
representations of the ships as a memorial. In our decade,
there are fewer survivors from Pearl Harbor that are living.
Some of the survivors volunteer their time at Pearl Harbor
by signing autographs and discussing Pearl Harbor history
with people. In the end, I am happy that we came here
because Pearl Harbor is a historic moment that I will always
remember and I had an opportunity to learn about it upclose
and firsthand.

Diamond Head

Irmarie D. Rios
January 15, 2008

Aloha Everyone,
Today we walked up Diamond Head Mountain. Let me be
the first to tell you that everyone but Alex, Tom and
Brittani had trouble walking up the mountain. It seemed like
an endless walk. We first started on stable pavement we then
were all surprised by how quickly the path changed to rocky
and almost impossible to walk. We walked for about 40
minutes. During those long long forty minutes some of us had
to take at least 5 breaks. When we first went up the first
stairs we went underneath a steep tunnel which led to a
surprising and unexpected surprise. As soon as you walk out
from underneath the tunnel there were about 100 more steps
before we reached the top. Once we finally reached the top
we saw the most perfect view. You could see the ocean, the
mountains and the hotels. You could see everything from the
top of this mountain it was incredible. We were all enjoying
the view until like about a million mosquito's decided to
terrorize everyone. Thats when everyone decided to walk back
down the mountain. Walking up to Diamond head was an
unforgettable experience. I would definitely do it again.
Aloha
And Mahalo for Reading this :)

Irmarie D. Rios

work

So...
The dean wanted us, the students, to tell you, the people
back home, about the hard and tiring work we have been
taking long strides-striving to go through. Today, it took
us...over a long painful hour to gradually raise our bodies
up to get dressed, to drag ourselves to pearl harbor, where
we were forced to feast our eyes upon the sites such as the
USS Airizona that had been at the time of the bombing of
Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7th 1941) We then were bribed with a bag
lunch to go to the Audubon Center to go swimming in the
knife stabbing cold water to receive an award for it. After
the bribe, we were promised "if we were good" that we would
go to the Sunset Beach. This took a lot of will power and
walking a Strenuous 1 foot off the bus along with another 6
painful steps to the beach itself. So clearly...we have
been doing a lot of work. :P

I'm just kidding.

We did go to see Pearl Harbor where we did get to see where
said ships (USS Arizona, USS Vestal AR 4, and more) were at
the time of Pearl Harbor. One thing I found interesting was
the back of our tickets had people who died in the time
course of Pearl Harbor. I had a man who was the first
Japanese American to die in WWII.
Then after that we did travel to the Audubon center where 3
of the group went swimming in 67 degree water I believe.
This was by a waterfall. I totally would have gone in if
anyone else was willing to go in with me.
And finally was the beach where we got to see HUGE-GINORMOUS
WAVES!!! ok Probably not as ginormous as they have been
lately. (up to 30 feet apparently) But today...weather at
the beach was ghastly. Obviously there was no swimming
allowed where we were....actually I have a video of some of
the waves...wait never mind...they're on my other
card....sorry to dangle the carrot. But it was amazing.
However it started to rain-for real-like instead of light
drizzle so we had to go back on the bus. Overall it was
great.

Tomorrow we climb Diamond Head...Hopefully that shouldn't be
too hard of a hike...(then again I have climbed Machu Pichu
and many more mountains in Belize, so how hard can this be?)
We will be coming home (hopefully (in one piece)) -after two
more days of O'ahu
Well hopefully the snow isn't that bad.
-AJN

Hawaii Blog

Aloha Everybody,
I want to thank everyone for taking the time to read
my blog. Today is our last weekend in Hawaii, and we all
made sure that we enjoyed our last weekend too. The weekend
started on Friday night when one of our lecturers by the
name of Dan Boylan offered to take us all out for Chinese
dinner. The dinner was a lot different than I expected.
Usually when I go to a Chinese restaurant I got boneless
spare ribs, pork fried rice, and egg rolls, but I did not
eat any of those foods on Friday. Instead I ate white rice,
duck, duck skin, and egg drop soup. This was not food I was
accustomed to eating, but overall the food was good. The
food was also a lot healthier than the Chinese foods I am
used to eating as the food was not drenched in grease.
Thanks Mr. Boylan for treating us to a nice Chinese dinner.
Saturday was cool as it was the first night we did not have
to worry about waking up early in the morning and going to
two 2.5 hour lectures a day. People took advantage of our
off day in different ways. Some people went whale watching
on a catamaran, some people went snorkeling, and others like
myself just relaxed back at the hotel and enjoyed the
beautiful weather. I went to the beach for a little while
and I stayed outside on my hotel porch and enjoyed the
beautiful scenery that the city of Honolulu has to offer. I
saw cars driving on the main strip, I saw some ocean
waves, and I saw beautiful hotel buildings that surrounded
us. Later on that night some people went to a play to see
the Hawaiian goddess by the name of Pele. Pele symbolizes
lava in the Hawaiian language. While some people went to see
Pele, myself and six other people went to a restaurant by
the name of Offshore. Offshore is a restaurant that is right
on the beach. It is a bit pricey, but it is a nice place to
come to if you want entertainment. A band is singing songs
when people are eating and at 9:30 the band leaves and the
restaurant turns into a karaoke place. What I liked about
the karaoke was that every age was invited to participate,
and I found it weird, because usually karaoke places are
bars for people 21 years of age or older. Also during
karaoke Liz, Melissa, Nicole, and Tanya represented
University of Hartford well when they got up and sang Shania
Twain "I Feel Like a Woman." I was getting ready to sing
Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls", but Hawaii was not
ready to be graced with my wonderful singing so I let them
sing instead. What also made the restaurant unique was that
everyone had to cook their own meat on a grill. All the
restaurant supplied was the meat you wanted, but the amount
of salt, garlic, and how long the meat is cooked is solely
on the individual. I want to thank Chef Michelle as she did
a wonderful grilling all of our food. After dinner was over
we did some souvenir shopping.
Today was another relaxing day, as it was our first free
Sunday and our last Sunday here in Hawaii. Again I went to
the beach for a little bit, and went outside on my hotel
porch and enjoyed the beautiful scenery while surfing the
Internet. Later on that night I and three other people
(Brittani, Laura, Debi) went to the Cheesecake Factory. I
wanted to go to the Cheesecake Factory, because I never had
their cheesecake before. After my dinner I had a delicious
Oreo cheesecake. After leaving the restaurant, the four of
us watched people doing the hula dance we saw little kids
all the way to senior citizens doing hula dancing. It was
nice seeing the hula dancers, as the entire time I have been
in Hawaii I have not seen people perform hula dances until
today. After seeing the hula dancers I went back to my hotel
room, I watched some television, and then I went to bed
because I have to meet the rest of the group in the lobby at
8:45 am as we are going to see Pearl Harbor and the Audubon
Society.
For me this weekend was a fun-filled weekend that I will
never forget for the rest of my life. I want to thank
everyone on the trip that was a part of making this a good
weekend, I want to also thank my parents for helping me pay
for this experience, all the people that donated money for
me to come to Hawaii at a cheaper price, and I want to thank
all of you that are reading my blog for taking the time to
read my blog. Feel free to leave any questions, comments, or
concerns as I will gladly be able to answer anything that is
on your mind.
Alex

Blog 1-13-08

Malo e lelei! (Hello in Tongan!)
Hawaii has been amazing thus far. I've had so many new
experience these past two weeks. I had never been kayaking
until this trip and might I say, IT WAS AMAZING! Tanya and
I had a double kayak and ran into some bushes, but it was
fun. I tried surfing the other day, but it didn't go so
well. It's a lot harder than you think...trust me. I now
have much more respect for surfers. Yesterday Michelle,
Tanya, Tom, Liz, Mel, and I went on a catamaran. It took us
out to go snorkeling and we saw a lot of interesting fish,
as well as some turtles. We then sailed out some more and
saw some whales. It was such a great experience! Today a
few of us just took the day to rest on the beach. We've
been on the go non-stop, but it's been a fun ride. The
nights here we usually spend walking past the stores up by
the beach and going out to dinner. There's always something
going on, it's such a great place to be. I can't believe
how fast it's going by and I'm not looking forward to coming
home to all the snow. I can't wait for Pearl Harbor
tomorrow! See you all back on the East Coast!

Aloha!
-Nicole Schillizzi

Tom Morgan Hawaii Blog

Aloha from Hawaii...

Let me first just take an opportunity to say what an honor
and privilege it is to be talking to you right now. This
trip so far has been nothing short of an experience of a
lifetime and I am so glad that I decided to go.

Today was our last official lecture class. It was a very
interesting one at that. The lecture was given by a woman by
the name of Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa. It was on the subject of
Native Hawaiian Religious Beliefs, more specifically on an
epic Prayer known as the Kumulipo. The Kumulipo is what is
known as a genealogy. It is over 2,000 lines in length and is
only one of ten of its kind that have survived throughout
the ages. We learned how some of the beliefs followed in
this genealogy differ from those in the West. For example,
the nighttime is seen as a time for their ancestors to
inspire them, whereas in our culture it is seen as a time
for evil and gloom. Also, the shark is seen as a kind and
good figure in this certain belief. In the genealogy, female
goddesses were seen as extremely strong figures. It truly
was an interestng and informative talk.

With the lectures and class time though, comes leisure time.
Today we had the opportunity to chose from a pair of leisure
activities set up for us through the school. Our options
were to either go surfing or body boarding. I chose to go
surfing. We set out with a group of about ten of us. This
was a first for me, and it definitely showed through my
performance. I was not the most graceful surfer, but I was
able to momentarily stand on the board, ride a wave, say
"cowabunga" and that was pretty much it. Nevertheless,
despite my less than noteworthy performance it was fun to
actually get out there and say that I at least tried to do
it. That is what this trip has been about for me. I have
been able to try new and interesting things that I have
never tried in my life.

If you reading this are given the opportunity to take this
trip with the University of Hartford, I 100% recommend it.
This trip truly is an opportunity of a lifetime and one
which should not be passed up. You will experience new
things and meet new and interesting people along the way.
That is all from Hawaii for now. Hope all is well...Please
feel free to leave your comments or questions for me...

Aloha and Mahalo,
Tom Morgan

Aloha 'kou from Hawai'i!

'O Liz Manning ko'u inoa. No Long Island, New York mai
au. Noho au ma Bayport. He 'umik 'iwa o'u
makahiki.

Obviously, you have no idea what I just wrote and neither
did I until about 11 am this morning, so let me help you out
a bit. I wrote, "my name is Liz Manning. I am from Long
Island, New York. I live in Bayport." Today we learned
about Hawaiian language. It was by far the most enjoyable
lecture BY FAR. Our lecturer, Kawehi Lucas was very amused
by our East Coast accents trying to pronounce Hawaiian
words. For those of you who aren't familiar with the
Hawaiian alphabet, there are only 13 letters, which are: a,
e, i, o, u, h, k, l, m, n, p, w, and ' (okina). Seems
pretty small next to our 26 letter alphabet doesn't it?

Our next lecture was le'i making with Pualani Kauila. We
made two different types of le'is. One was a more
traditional le'i made out of tea leaves, to be worn around
the neck and the other was made out of tea leaves, ferns,
baby's breath, and roses, and could be worn as a crown,
bracelet, ect.

All in all it was a pretty eventful day, and if you ever
get the chance to go to Hawai'i GO FOR IT!

Mahalo nui loa for reading!
(Thank you very much for reading)

A hui hou in Hartford
(until we meet again in Hartford)

Liz Manning

January 9

January 9, 2008

Aloha!

I woke up this morning and I couldn't believe that we
have been in Hawaii for ten days already. It seems like I
have been waiting for this trip to come forever and now it
is almost over. So far I am have a great time and seem to be
learning so much about the Hawaiian culture that I would
never be able to experience back at home. Today our first
presentation was about Sovereignty Issues in Hawaii. Going
into the class I didn't know how I felt about the topic
but when I walked out I was so amazed and interested in it.
Back at home we never would learn about how much a certain
amount of Hawaiians don't want to be a part of the United
States. This is one thing I learned about the people of
Hawaii that I didn't know about before. Later we all
walked in the beautiful weather over to get lunch on the
other side of campus. Since we are at the University of
Hawaii I thought it was appropriate to bring some clothing
back to remember my trip by. Our next presentation was also
interesting which was about Current Issues in Hawaii. Here
we learned about the major problems that are important on
the islands of Hawaii right now. As our trip has been going
on, I have seen that there are a lot of people that aren't
that fortunate as others. One of the main problems in Hawaii
is that the cost of living here is so expensive that even
the people that work forty hours a week can't afford to
pay to live here. We also got to see how the people of
Hawaii want to preserve their land and will try and do
anything to keep it the way their ancestors once had it.
After class, a couple of new friends that I made on this
trip all went out to the Cheesecake Factory. It was a great
dinner and I enjoyed it very much. From being on this trip,
I can see that some people can't afford to find food, so
instead of throwing out our leftovers, our group gave it to
the less fortunate. At this point in the trip I am have a
great time and think that this is an amazing experience that
I am going to remember forever.

Michelle Lewkowicz

my blog~Nicole Leal

Our service learning project was to go to the First
Methodist Church and make food for the homless and then
distribute it. The service learning project was known as
the H-5 project. At first i wasnt sure what I was up
against but after learning about the extreme amount of
homless people living in Hawaii, i was ready for anything.
When we go to the Church, we made 120 taco's and a few of us
packed into a van and went around the surrounding area and
handed them out along with some dessert (cupcakes!). Just
knowing that we were able to help those in need in the short
time we were here made me feel like what one person or even
18 people do can make a difference.
Some people think of homeless as non workers and who stay at
a shelter and recieve free food; this is not the case in
Hawaii. Most homeless people in Hawaii are hard working
citizens but are unable to afford a house or an apartment
due to high rent. Rent for Hawaii for an average apartment
is at least $950 to $1000 a month (and we thought our rent
was high!). The cost of rent is so high because materials
that are needed to make living space have to be imported to
the islands. After understanding the curcumstances, i have
gained a greater respect for the less fortunate and know
that we can all make a difference no matter how little the
gesture is or how many people participate.

video

so here is a video from when we went on the island tour.

In the mean time... The last couple of days have been fun.
Sunday, we made food for the homeless/houseless/poor and
drove around and gave the food to those in need. We ended
up having so much food as well as at least an hour and a
half or so left that we not only drove around near the
Methodist Church (Saint Andrews), but we got to travel back
to Waikiki and carry around A LOT of extra food to the
homeless people on the Waikiki strip. However, we didn't
find many people that night, so we ended up leaving it at
one of the parks for all of the people there. These people
were actually very nice. I ended up giving one of them my
left overs from La Cucaracha the next night and she was glad
to see me again as well as receive the food.
Yesterday we (dressed in drag and) did the hula. OK we
really just did the hula. I wanted to add the dress in drag
part because it is a quote from The Lion King. The first
dance we did was the Pele (about the volcano goddess)(who I
ended up writing a poem about in my Hillyer Goes Hawaiian
journal) and the next dance we did was about having fun and
celebrating friendship. This one was a more modern Hawaiian
dance while the one about Pele is more ancient. We also got
to play with the uli'uli'(s) and the puili (two types of
instruments.)
We also went kayaking yesterday which was fun because going
through the trees and having to go single file down a river
made us feel like we were in the Jungle Book. I really wish
I could have brought my camera for it, but these were open
kayaks, so bringing anything you didn't want to get wet
would have been a bad thing...especially if you worried
about flipping over. (In all honesty you have to try to
flip over.)
Today we had a lecture on Buddhism, which by the way was
very interesting; our speaker was EXCELLENT. The tour along
with the lecture made things even better. We learned about
the types of Buddhism as well as the ideals behind Buddhism.
I found this experience very enjoyable.
Well I've got to go and try to prove that one of the
professors here that doesn't like drinking bottled water
*cough* has-in fact- done so.
(AJN)

Hawaii blog entry

Aloha from Waikiki!
The beginning of my Hawaiian adventure did not start as
wonderful as I expected it to be. After my three flights to get
to this warm sunny island, i found out that my suitcase did
not leave Chicago the same time i did. Which kind of brought
me down a little and had me worried. That added to my bad
jet lag. The day later after I came back from breakfast
and my suitcase was sitting in my room next to the door, i
was so happy that i could have hugged it. After the first
couple of days i was pretty fine afterwards. Our first
lecture was really good i thought. It was about the History
of Hawaii and the native people. The lecturer Mr. Osorio was
so passionate about the subject and made you feel like this
history happened to real people not long ago. He had a real
connection to the the history because his grandma was around
from most of the recent events that happened to the native
hawaiians in the 20th century. I learned so much about the
other side of Hawaii that most people do not know about
because they only come here as tourists.

Our bus tour was also very enjoyable because we met a woman
named Aunty Mae. She was a really sweet woman who shared with
us a lot of history. She talked about her life on the island
and her families. We went to Dole Plantation, which was
really fun. We saw where all those pineapples are
grown.

Yesterday was the one of the most amazing days we had
because we learned the Hula from Aunty Vicky who, translated to English has a PhD in Hula studies and dance.
She was such an amazing and nice woman. I think everyone had
a blast learning the hula. I was very excited to learn it
and had so much fun once i did. It really was a great time.
We also went kayaking which was a great time but later my
arms hurt so much i couldn't even move them!!

Today, we had one of the funniest and most entertaining
lectures about Buddhism. The lecturer Mr. Tanabe made
everyone laugh so many times. He made the lecture really
interesting-- the time really flew by. I knew a couple of the
things about buddhism but some of it was new to me and
extremely interesting.
I really can't wait to go to Pearl Harbor. i am the most
excited about going there.

We have gone to some really good resturants while we have
been in Waikiki. We ate at Uncle Bo's and i had this amazing
chicken marsala and caesar salad. It was really really good
and i think i have to go back before this trip is over. We
also went to Cheeseburger in Paradise which was an awesome
place. It had really cool stuff on the wall and was a really
neat place. I would recommend both places to anyone who came
to this area. Wolfgang puck places good food as well i had
a bbq pizza and it was delicious. Yesterday people were craving
mexican food so we found this place called La Cucaracha
where i had an excellent beef quesadilla.
I will stop rambling about our nice warm time in Hawaii
while everyone up north is freezing to death.
Mahalo and thanks for reading
Katie Leonard

Aloha readers!!



This past weekend was the group's first time off to do whatever we wanted. On Saturday, a few of us decided to go snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. With only a few bucks, I was able to see the beautiful coral, fish and sea turtles. It was such a great experience being able to swim along with the fish and take pictures of them (with my underwater camera) at the same time. This was my first time snorkeling and I enjoyed every moment of it.

Sunday was a totally different experience for me personally because I got the opportunity to feed the homeless. We prepared chicken tacos!!! Honestly, they looked really good. We prepared over a hundred tacos and it was a lot of work. The guy that assisted us, Kevin, told us that he usually prepared food for over 600 people by himself. We thought that we had did a lot of work but compared to what he did alone, we had no reason to complain. When six of us, including me, went to deliver the food, the people were so appreciative and nice. I felt so good knowing that I helped make a difference here in Hawaii!



Mahalo for reading,

Brittani Greene

blog for the 6th

Aloha! On Sunday the 6th all of us went to help out the less
fortunate here in Hawaii. We went to a church where there
was a large kitchen for us to prepare chicken burritos for
them. By the time we were done with all the chopping of the
tomatoes, lettuce, and onions along with peeling chicken off
the bones and adding seasoning we ended up with about 140
burritos that could then he distributed to the people who
need it the most.
Uncle Kevin taught us about the "homeless"; however, here
is a bit different than the homeless we see back on the main
land. Here the cost of living is so high that they have a
large population of working class people who have jobs but
can not afford to be living with their own roof over their
head. Unfortunately we could not all go around to the less
fortunate to deliver the food--only six students got a chance
to go. I'm sure they got an experience that they will
never forget. Even though we did not get to see the faces of
those who were receiving food I think we all felt good about
the effort and help we did in just those few hours.
- Tanya Kilty

BLOG

(no title)

So yesterday, I was going to write a blog apologizing
to everyone for holding them up the other day when we went
on the island tour. However last night, my computer
wouldn't let me connect to the Hartford website for some
reason. So I will post what I can about the day before
yesterday.
That day... We went on the island tour exploring and gaining
knowledge about the birthing stones, hearing stories of
Pele, swimming on the beach that can get waves as high as 45
feet! I must add as a personal note that swimming on a beach in
your clothing....NOT A GOOD IDEA. SAND. That is all that need be said. Let's just say that when you go out into the
ocean then come back, you come back with a present that you
can share with the rest of the group. :). So that was the
first hold up was me washing off the sand as much as
possible. The next one was going into the Dole Plantation
which I should have never gone inside in the first
place...or at least ignored the pearl bargaining. Never
doing that again. Yeah the reason for the hold up there was
because they were having issues with my credit card. So
again I apologize for the hold up.
As for yesterday-aside from my phone falling 8
stories...I went snorkeling with Laura, Debbie, and Brittany
which was amazing because we got to see all different types
of fish. In fact there was one point in time where we were
at a spot where a hug piece of coral lay below us and all of
a sudden these striped (sorry I can't remember the name
right now) fish started schooling at the area we were at.
So this was not only amazing, but it was scary as well
because we were worried about the fish swimming right by
(like right next to) us. But it was interesting needless to
say.
Today we are performing a service project where we cook
food and give it to the homeless (or houseless however your
preference.) We hope to have interactions with these people
and understand their points of view. Some have said that
being homeless is like being free, but on the other hand,
you do not have the comforts or basic needs. They are needs
that you/one must make for yourself in order to survive.
That is all for now. I hope everyone back home is
enjoying the cold weather while we become bored to tears
that we have to resort to soaking up the sun. ;)
(AJN)

EDDIE WOULD GO.

Yesterday January 4, 2008 the Hillyer Goes Hawaiian group
set out on the O'ahu Island tour. The day began in downtown
Honolulu where we saw sites such as 'Iolani Palace (the only
royal palace in the United States), Kawaiha'o Church,
Washington Place, and St. Andrews Cathedral. We continued
the tour heading towards the Pali lookout but there was a
problem with the locks on the gate and we were not able to
proceed up. Our next stop was the Byodo-in Temple. We left
the Byodo-in Temple and proceeded towards the Kahana Valley
fishpond. There Aunt Mae told us Hawaiian legends and talked
about the role of fishponds, lo'i, and taro in Hawaiian
culture. Aunt Mae said something that really stood out to us
all, when Hawaiian's living by the water had fish they would
give some fish to those living in the mountains, in the same
way when those living in the mountains had taro they would
give it to the Hawaiian's by the water. This wasn't a
trading system, they just shared whenever they could. After
the fishpond we headed to Waimea Bay. This is where we
learned the story of Eddie Aikau; Eddie was a Hawaiian
surfer, lifeguard, waterman, and legend. Eddie was a
lifeguard in Waimea Bay, when Eddie was on duty notone
person died in the water. Eddie would use his strength,
knowledge and skill to rescue those who found themselves in
the trouble no matter how dangerous the situation. Eddie
died when the Hoklulea, a double hulled ocean going canoe
was capsized. The 16-member crew was thrown overboard, Eddie
got on his ten foot surf board figuring that it would take
him five hours to reach land and help for his crew. Eddie
was never seen again. Every year Quicksilver sponsors a
surfing invitational the "Quicksilver in Memory of Eddie
Aikau" at Waimea Bay, this invitational takes place sometime
between November and January when the waves reach over 20ft
in height. This year they are still waiting for the waves
and hopefully it was happen when we are in Hawai'i. Our tour
ended with stops at the Dole Plantation, and the Birthing
Stones.

Aloha UHA!

Aloha UHA,
In Hawaii still and were living it up. I'm so thankful to be
here and having the opportunity to be with such great
people. My professors are amazing and funny. We've seen so
much of the culture since we've been here and I've never had
such a deep apreciation for nature as I do since I've been
here. Mother nature really is goreous and it's a shame that
we have been taking advantage of it.
The stores are crazy! Gucci, Coach, and all these other
stores I can't afford! It makes me want to be so rich in
the future so that I can live a life style of wealth. Now we're
waiting for the Dean and I can't wait. My sister has been on
this trip before and said it was so great to be with the
Dean and her professor.
One thing that we have done that was an idea of my roommate
and mine was a morning walk.
Every morning to start of our day we take a power walk up
Waikiki and enjoy the morning. Imagine waking up and having
to walk at sunrise in Hawaii where the water is crisp and
clear. I'm so happy that it's only been 3 days and we have
so many more days to go.
That's all and I recommend everyone to get good grades while
in Hillyer so that you can go on this trip. This is truly an
experience that no one should miss out on. When do you get
to go at 20 yrs old with a bunch of your friends and still
study at the same time...

Aloha from Hawaii,
Susan Bellido

great third day in Hawaii

Aloha to everyone that will read this,

This is officially my third day in the magnificent islands
of Hawaii. After all that has happened to us in the past
couple of days, with battling snow storms in both
Connecticut, and Chicago, I would do it all over again just
to be able to experience eating the delicious pineapples. I
really never cared for pineapples back in New York, but the
sweet juices from the fruit keep me coming back for more.
Today we all went to the University of Hawaii, attending
our first lecture by Jon Osorio, on the history of the
native Hawaiian people. This lecture was very interesting to
me, because Mr. Osorio talked with great passion and feeling
when it came to his people. I vividly remember looking into
his eyes and seeing great pride when he talked about how his
early people were not a literate group of people but they
were very smart when it came to navigation and hunting. He
stated that " any myth that you had about us pacific
islanders being slower than others take that out of your
mind because we are not." I found these words to be very
powerful because even though Hawaii land has been taken from
its people, their sprit still lives on within their
ancestors.

Aloha to all, I wish you were here to share this wonderful
experience with me.

Debi Destina

first journal entry

Well Aloha from Hawaii!

If this note should sound tired in any way, it is
probably because we are adjusting from jet lag. Even
thought it is about 8:03 pm here in Hawaii, it still feels
like it is 1:03 in the morning. For all of you in eastern
standard time, it is still January First here in Hawaii.
Let me start out by saying Happy New Year and
congratulations to the rest of the people who finally
arrived in Hawaii today. I was one of the first people to
arrive at our hotel, the Queen Kapioloni-in fact, I believe
I was the VERY first person to arrive. This is because I
had a flight flying out of Boston on the 30th to LA and then
on the 31st from LA to Honalulu. (This would have never
happened if weather problems had not occurred.) This
resulted in students slowly being knocked off the group
flight into separate flights.
In any case I arrived 2:30 at the hotel and talked to
everyone on the phone-letting them know I arrived and to
wish them a happy new year. Finally Katie arrived at 11 PM
and she and I went out to the beach to watch the amazing
fireworks. Afterwards we walked to Cold Stone to get
icecream. As we sat outside, some people who had been
imbibing were giving us High fives for the new year.
Today we met up with the people who had been stuck in
Chicago and missed out on the new year here. They seemed
well-what would you be after being stuck in an airport for a
while? In any case we all got our leis and packets of info.
The rest of the day we were free to do what we pleased.
The final result after going to Teddys and walking on the
beach, the result is ending up here in Starbucks!!!
(So now I have two excuses for the way this entry is coming
out: 1. jet lag 2. rushing to type because I have about 6
minutes of battery power on my computer.)
Tomorrow ....will be another day.
Thus ends my journal entry.
Aloha!
(AJN)