CAN'T TAKE THE PRESSURE FOR LONG

I had an amazing summer break! i know what your thinking..."you needed a break?!" well, maybe not but we got a 5 week break from school anyways and it was very nice! One of the best parts was that i was able to move off campus for the break and live in 'the back-bridge house'. all the houses here have  names that they are commonly known by, as opposed to using addresses. My apartment was right across the street from Hukilau beach! I could literally walk from my front porch to the beach in a minute or less! waking up to the sun rising on the ocean outside my window was incredible! My biological clock woke me up most mornings at 5:30 am to say hello to the new day! i love and cherish those mornings!

The next great thing about break that I needed more than anything was one of my best friends coming to visit. I can't begin to express my thanks for this friend coming to me at a time that I just needed a girl around to be crazy with me! (emphasis on the crazy). 

Maddie, my tender mercy! 

I was lucky enough to have Maddie with me for 13 Glorious days, 12 Incredible nights, and countless adventures had! Many of the things we did were to put more check marks on my "Hawaii summer Bucket list".  first of which was "China man's Hat". I think the picture illustrates pretty well why this small island is called that! we snorkeled out to this island then hiked to the top and watched a storm pass on by! it was beautiful! ....also the warning sign of the Portuguese Man-Of-War should have been taken more seriously on my part, i got stung and still have a scar on my ankle to prove it!

On top of China Man's Hat! the Humidity does wonders for hair. 'nough said. 

This was in the PCC (it's the number one paid attraction in HI, so it's kind of a must do especially since i work there and can get us in for cheap!) we also did a luau that night in the Samoan village which was pretty fun! gotta love shirtless men throwing around sticks on fire!

this is paddle boarding, also on my  bucket list. It was my first time paddle boarding and it was pretty fun! we went to Haleiwa- seriously one of my favorite towns in Oahu. I just love the pace and the feel of all the little local stores and surf bums walking around. North Shore is where it's at. Period. 

unofficially on the bucket list: catching one of these cool green geckos!

This is taken on the "stairway to heaven" hike on the morning of the 4th of July! i can't think of a better way to be more grateful for the country i live in then to greet it from such great heights! 

i LOVE this picture! me and mads!

If you look closely you can see what kind of conditions this hike consisted of. Small slick (from the moisture) metal steps going up the ridge of a mountain. cliffs on either side! This hike has to be started at late hours of the night or early hours of the morning (however you want to look at it) in order to avoid the security guard since this hike is technically illegal. On the way down the security guard was fast asleep in his truck! i've been told that he often asks hikers how the hike was coming down! because it was the 4th of July there were over a hundred people with the same idea as us to hike that night!

BRIDEVIN-Brittney, Maddie, Tavin combined?

The next thing that was on my bucket list was to make a human size sand castle! and two hours later we did it! This was also on the 4th of July. It was a busy day along with snorkeling at sharks cove! 

Next on the bucket list: Snorkel at Hanauma Bay! it was a lot different than sharks cove. a lot more varieties of fish but i think i still like sharks cove better because of the caves...and sharks cove was free!...but so was this for me since I'm a local now and have ID to prove it!:)

Maddie and I got to rent some scooters for over a day for super cheap thanks to her banks "thank you points" and we literally went around the ENTIRE island with the exception of the west side. we made all kinds of stops along our way back to home from the opposite side of the island in Waikiki where we picked up the bikes. we stopped at Hanauma Bay, The blow hole, Chinese memorial, the light house hike, past Lani Kai, and back to Laie! next day back to Waikiki going through North Shore, went to Dole plantation, swap meet, pearl harbor (basically all the touristy spots) I highly recommend scooters to go exploring! it was a blast! wind in our faces and being one with the road!

Light house hike

I would have to say one of the best purchases I've made since being here in Hawaii is this lovely hammock! words can't really explain the way i feel laying in the sun by the ocean in this thing...  it's freedom. oblivion to pain, worry, and the external world....NIRVANA.

We slept over night in these. 

sunset from my porch

Thanks Maddie for making my break memorable and wonderful! I'm grateful for the light you carry, and for you entertaining my child-like, adventure-seeking spirit! only great friends can do that kind of thing for each other. The people worth keeping around in life are the ones who stick around through the pain, the challenges, the sometimes drama, the laughter, the tears, the times where your being good, and the times your being dumb, the ones you can be your complete self around for better or worse and they still love the ever changing and imperfect you! 

(Title from "Officer"-Slightly Stoopid)

WE'RE PAYING WITH LOVE TONIGHT

well my worst nightmare at work came true. before I go too far into this let me give some background. I currently am a waitress at the Prime Dining restaurant in the PCC (Polynesian Cultural Center) and it is absolutely awesome!!! my co-workers or other people will ask me all the time if i hate my job or if i like it at all...and I always respond with an enthusiastic "heck yeah! I LOVE it!" and they usually respond with a..."really? why?" and the truth is, this is the first waitressing job i've ever had and i happen to love serving people and trying to make them smile and make their experience fun and enjoyable. The PCC is a very special place. The spirit is there so it makes it easy for me to be happy there.

here are a couple views of inside prime dining

 Ever since my first day a couple months ago my number one greatest fear was spilling my drink tray all over a customer... this is where my actual story begins. A typical number of guests to be taking care of is somewhere between 22-28. well fortunately for me i'd been placed in "no numbers" section all week by myself which is normally covered by two people giving each 24 people...so alone i had 48. I was a little stressed by that because i was really struggling to stay on top of drink orders and clearing dirty dishes. They were piling up faster than I could move, while also helping the copious amounts of people with their other random needs. There was one family of 4 that were seated, went up to get their food (it's buffet style), sat back down and began eating before i was able to get over to their table at all to even introduce myself and get their drink orders, so my tardiness in helping them already made them a little irritated with me when i finally was able to make my way over to them. As i got their order and briskly made my way back to them i began apologizing for the wait and setting some glasses down on the table and then....slip...SPLASH...BANG!!!... "CURSE WORD!" (from the guest)... I had spilt a drink on the mom of this family...it was an orange drink nicknamed POG (passion-orange-guava) and she was super upset. I apologized as much as i possibly could but i can't even express how embarrassed and awful  i felt that i had probably ruined this woman's day! I offered to take her to get a clean shirt to wear as we did her laundry so she could continue eating. well i found my manager and turned her over to her so i could clean up the broken  glass and go back to serving these people who were now looking at me like "oh shoot, here comes the girl that spilled all over that woman!...LOOK OUT!". In between the time the woman i spilled on had gotten a clean shirt and was give brand new sandals to replace her old now sticky ones- there was a dead fly found in the pitcher of POG i had brought them, i swear it got in there AFTER i had served it because there is no doubt in my mind that i would have seen that. but nevertheless I went and replaced all of the drinks. 5 minutes later they told me that one of the glasses i brought them had a nice big crack in it and was now leaking...at this point i was definitely wearing my frustrations and stress about how terrible of an experience this family must be having and one of the daughters says to me "I dont mean to offend you, but are you having a bad day?"..."do i look like i'm having a bad day?"...."yeah kinda...you just seem very stressed out" ..."well i was actually having a really good day until i spilt ALL OVER YOUR MOM!" that got them laughing a little. we exchanged some more funny, sarcastic chatter and they told me several times that it's fine, it was an accident and I shouldn't worry because PCC was making it right. They ended up tipping me $10 (which i wasn't allowed to keep because we don't accept tips, but i took it as a gesture of accepting my apology to them and that meant a lot to me). My manager later on after work was making some announcements to all of us and told the story of what happened with me, that family, and she began to cry...i still don't fully understand her tears as she relayed the events of the night, but they were definitely tears of gratitude for the way i responded to the situation- I was just grateful she wasn't ticked at me!

So in the words of a friend now that my worst fear at work has happened I "have nothing else to fear!"...except for maybe doing it again :)

I really love my job. I love the funny little things that happen between me and my co-workers. I love my co-workers. I love that I am one of the two white girls that works there. I love my little friend from Hong-Kong that for some strange reason she just LOVES me. I did nothing to her to make her like me or want to be my friend. She is just genuinely sooo sweet and everytime she sees me she hugs me and treats me like i'm her favorite person in the world to see. I take no credit for this. She's just that kind of person and has so much love to give and spreads it to someone who really honestly needs the love shown. So every day i look forward to seeing this girl who brightens my day, but really i like all of my co-workers.

Taro Rolls...I'm a little addicted to these things!

I love that Sarah has no shame, helping me have no shame - eating the pieces of prime rib too fatty to feed the guests, from a pan basically on the ground like a bunch of ravenous wolves. 

I am grateful for the PCC and for my experiences there. I am grateful for the opportunity that i have almost everyday to bring up my mission and the gospel of Jesus Christ and talk to people from all over the world about the restored gospel. I really love serving people even though I DON'T love having to wear lip-stick while doing it. Last but not least I really enjoy riding my bike home each night with my headphones in and jamming out on my bike. Singing out loud (probably pretty loud), and dancing while riding my bike with similar dance moves that you would do while driving in the car! Even though the people standing our in their yards look at me as though i'm a patient escaping from the crazy bin it makes me so happy to walk in the door every night dancing and singing! sheer bliss!

(Title from "Price Tag" - Jessie J)

ON THIS CINEMATIC NIGHT

          Another eventful week running on by. I woke up this morning thinking...whoa, it's already saturday? thats nuts! time is flying so fast... probably because its summer break and good times seem to slip away faster, where as times of struggle seem to last for eternity. Here's a glimps of my week..


MONDAY

Snorkeling at sharks cove!

adorable!!!

TUESDAY

Scuba Diving at sharks cove! It was my first time diving in the ocean and it was a whole other world down there. I thought of a friend of mine the whole time that loves to dive. She would show me videos and pictures of her dives every now and then and the way she talked about it, i could tell she absolutely loves the ocean and belongs in it exploring. Now I can see why and hope to be diving again soon! Seriously the best purchase i've made recently is the underwater phone case that can go down to 130 ft below water! amazing!:)

WEDNESDAY

Hike to PCC falls. It's a fairly short hike and a small water fall but it was the perfect swimming spot on a hot day! and unlike other falls i've been to it was actually deep enough to jump into!

Me and sam! she's great!

the gang

THURSDAY

temple day! :)  

..

these are the coolest gecko's i've seen yet!

FRIDAY

finally knocked this one off my "Hawaii bucket list"...JUMPED OFF LAIE POINT!:) 

Woke up just in time to see this sun rise! thank goodness for weird biological clocks!

....

That brings us to last night which i have no picture documentation of- but went camping...at the most absolute worst time ever!....as we decide to go it begins to POUR rain... we waited around for a bit...and it stopped! halelujah! we decided to camp across the street at the beach across from my apartment which turned out to be a really good thing. as soon as the rain stopped we made a break for it across the street to set up our tent....well mother nature is a delight and has a funny sense of humor. just as we got over there it started to rain cats and dogs again! it was raining so hard i couldn't see the ocean which was 15 ft away! and it rained just long enough to soak all of our clothes, blankets, pillows, and inside our tent as we tried to quickly set it up. The funny part is as soon as the tent was set up. the rain stopped and it didn't rain again the rest of the night. oh the good times you have in Hawaii!:) 

That brings us to today. I'm happy to say it's 2:15 pm and I haven't done a single thing all day worth mentioning! just relaxed. it's been nice. i work in a few hours and that's my life this week! Whew! and next week is gonna be better since one of my best friends is coming to visit for a couple weeks! let the party begin...

(title from "A Minute or Two"- Cider Sky)

GO, SIT, DREAM, FOREVER AFTER.

           Memorial day weekend was really amazing!  sometimes so much happens here that i can't believe it all can fit into one weekend!...and much less fit it into one post but here it goes! last weekend was kicked off with a really amazing morning in the temple with a couple of my best friends here. I love the Laie temple. There was a talk given last October General Conference that really hit a chord in my heart that i'm still trying to fix and apply in my life and it talked about the Laie temple, so i think of it every time I see the temple (Temple Standard - Elder Scott D. Whiting). After the temple I took my friend Sarah to the beach to teach her how to surf. It was a blast! ...duh.

I still think surfing is one of my favorite things i've done here in Hawaii. I feel so at peace at the ocean, in the ocean, by the ocean, etc. I'm happy to say that I think we have one more person addicted to surf rush! we chilled at the beach after surfing which we haven't done in quite a while...like a couple weeks....

yeah, she IS totally asleep! MERMAID!

Can you see the turtle she is sleeping on?

She later told me and our other friend that we were really nice to let her sleep and fry there...A lot of Aloe was used this weekend. We both work together at the Polynesian Culture Center and after work we went camping! definitely one of the most interesting camping nights ever! I love these guys! 

our NEW tent :) 

Sunrise on the beach 

Saturday was full of stuff for my marine biology class. We went to the other side of the Island to Hawaii Kai and looked for different types of animals to take back to lab. My professor spent the first few minutes walking with me and giving me advice on being a good teacher ( it's what career i've decided on) so i missed the part where everyone split into groups to look for different things out in the ocean. so i walked alone for a couple minutes just kind of looking past the water in to the ocean floor when all of the sudden i see the biggest fish i've seen since i've been here on the Island. so i start to scream..."holy cow, big fish.... HOLY COW BIG FISH!" my TA's call to me wondering what kind it was and we identified it to be a puffer fish...like a big one! someone throws me a bucket and tells me to catch it! so here I am chasing this puffer fish in the ocean running around with it while a classmate tries to corral it towards me...and yes, i sure did catch this big puffer fish with nothing but a bucket! He was super cool! and had giant eyes like a cow! He was a beautiful and amazing creature! my whole class thought i was pretty bomb...a guy said "you're the man!!".. i wasn't really sure how to take that so i decided it was a compliment. we got a picture but its on someone else's camera so maybe i'll get it in the future.

    Memorial day, was epic! one of the biggest adventure days yet! me and some friends woke up early to go hike "Seven Falls". The joke that quickly developed as we began hiking was that on our way up to the seven water falls that we were supposed to hike that day we were each going to have to fall down seven times, get seven bruises, and one friend mentioned maybe seven words of profanity. As we began the hike it began to POUR rain! making swimming through freezing waterfall water a little more painful than i'd like, thankfully i have friends who are patient with my body's intolerance to being cold. This was a beautiful hike though. It really is a jungle out there! the kind of things I imagined when i was a kid. 

This picture is a little blurry from water. oh well

This was the second of seven falls. the next three falls were about 60-80 ft. high and yes. we had to use a rope like the one used in the above picture to scale up each of the waterfalls.. my arms were pretty exhausted by the time we got back down! I wish i could have taken pictures of the other falls but i don't have a water proof camera yet and we had to swim so this was as far as i dared take my camera. the higher up we got with the more extreme the falls became. My friend Sarah began to make some pretty awesome commentary that had me laughing to tears. favorite quote of the day "and why are we risking our lives climbing up slick water falls with unstable ropes and freezing water below?!...because were in Hawaii, were young, and dumb, and we don't give a [crap]!" haha. It was much funnier in person. 

I wish I could say I was cool enough to back flip off this fall...but at this point in the hike i was so cold i was just dreading even having to get back in the water at all! but this kid is pretty legit!

I love being outside. I love the warm breeze that makes my already wavy and tangled hair more out of control. Getting to meet new interesting people and see new things or even the same things just never seems to get old. Once every couple days I get this crazy realization feeling that says "oh my gosh, i live in Hawaii?!"... I can't see myself getting sick of it any time soon. I thought about today how grateful I am for my body and that i'm healthy and able to do all the crazy things i do. I'm grateful for a Heavenly Father who has kept me safe all these years. I know one day when i'm old and gray i'll look at a large waterfall like the ones we climbed and remember how I used to be able to pull myself up a rope with ease and probably wish that I was still so agile. But for now, I'm just grateful for my adventurous, active body and spirit! taking it one day at a time.

(Title from "A Minute or Two" -Cider Sky)