Honolulu After 1 Month

Family, friends, others - aloha! I still feel weird saying aloha, but people do actually use it here so I suppose I should too.

Though I've been living in Honolulu for a little over a month, it still feels like I'm on vacation, which is a feeling I hope to keep in my life as much as possible. It probably helps that five friends from college have already visited Honolulu for one reason or another.

Home here is the East Tower at Moana Pacific (pictured below), fifteenth floor. It looks and feels like a hotel, and I've accidentally referred to it as a 'hotel' at least twenty times.

I live with three people: Kevin, Ray and Mitch. All of us graduated from Pomona in May and though we didn't know each other that well there, it's definitely a good rooming situation and we've acclimated to one another fast. Kevin and I had plans to come here and so did they, so we figured we'd combine forces in the "real" world. Below is a picture of the four of us at our friend Alyssa's house. From the left: Mitch, Ray, me, Kevin.

As far as employment goes, I was hired as a host/setter at Keo's in Waikiki, a Thai restaurant in the extremely tourist-oriented section of Honolulu. I've been there for about three weeks now, and I really like it. Everyone is very friendly, work is generally enjoyable and goes by fast, and I get free Thai food (my favorite kind of food) all the time. I also hope and think that I will get to wait some tables soon. Below is a picture of the restaurant and a fairly-recent write-up on Keo's.

Picture wasn't working so go here -> http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/specials/bestrestaurants06/advertisers/keos.jpg

Outside of work, I've explored a lot, both within Honolulu and all around the island. It only takes about 45 minutes to drive to the other side of the island, although many locals (understandably) consider that to be a really really long drive...they would love driving around LA.

My favorite beach so far has to be Makapu'u, which is about a twenty minute drive from the apartment. I've done a lot of bodysurfing there, and the waves get pretty big. I usually catch the waves pretty well, but I've also been harshly washing machined a few times, including one wave that made me do a full front flip and landed me on my feet. Below is a picture of Makapu'u from the last time we went.

I'm gonna end this first post here, but I plan on posting a few times a week about whatever's on my mind. I think subsequent posts should be a little more detailed/specialized and a little less broad summarization.

Oh, and happy birthday to my mother! Only 11 more years until I'm half her age!