Blog from Megan

I can't believe that there are only a few days left in
Hawaii. When we all arrived to the University of Hawaii it
had started to rain. As we walked into class we were
excited to get the lesson under way. Today's lecture was
Hawaii Economy with the professor Sumner La Croix. His
lesson taught us about how Hawaii changed over time.
Starting with the understanding of the sugar plantations.
How they were stated and who was brought over to work on
them. Working on the sugar plantations, and the hard work
that it required. Then over time the sugar
plantations started to disappear and oil and military became
the new thing of Hawaii. Through out the 60'/70's/80's
traveling to Hawaii brought new challenges to the Hawaiian
people. They did not have the accommodations for all of
the people that were coming over on the jets. Than Hawaii
increased airports, roads, hotels, restaurants, and tour
companies to help people find things to do around the
island.

After this lecture we all went to lunch and had a lecture by Dan Boylan who spoke about current issues. This lecture was interesting and insightful. He included us all
in his lecture, asking questions, making jokes, and
involving both the students from Korea and Hartford in the lesson. He
explained to us why there are so many homeless people around
the island and what the government is trying to do to fix
the problem. Also that it is hard for people afford housing
because of the value of the land. I learned there is more
people then houses, and we need to learn how to fix the
problem. Both lectures gave me a good insight of what the
Hawaii economy is like and how it is similar to our states.