Oahu - University of Hawaii

University of Hawaii at Manoa
Honolulu, Hawaii

My First Impressions

I'll say this, I did not know what to expect; knowing that, I felt like I went to a new land (course, that could have just been delirious from the eight or nine hour plane flight from Greensboro, NC). After finding a Taxi, I went to the campus; unfortunately the Taxi driver was not familiar with the campus, causing a nice (but a little more costly) sight seeing tour of the campus. After finding my dormitory (you'll be surprised how tucked away that building was too), I settled into my new home. Soon I met my roommate for Summer School, his name was Brent from Virginia. Brent went to James Madison University and a all-around nice guy.

Brent and I decided to checkout the town the first day there; so after calling home and saying "It's all good," I went with Brent to the closest Bus Stop and took Bus #18. After riding around for a while, we were driven to the holy grail of Honolulu, it was the Ala Moana Shopping Center. Yes, I was in ahh; I knew that I was probably going to enjoy it here.

The Campus

Once I started to sleep normally again (I was waking up around 6am and tired by 8pm for the first week), I started to get into the role as a student in Hawaii. The University took awhile to walk around, kind of big, but squeezed together. Near by my dorm, for example, was this nice little Japanese Garden that was given to the University by the Emperor himself (at least that's what it said on the plaque).

For dinning, I would have to walk five minutes down to the lower campus (everything south of Dole Street) to eat at the Hale Aloha Cafeteria. The food wasn't so good, probably had something to do to the fact that Marriott was catering it. What sucked is that they had other food services on campus (like Taco Bell and Paradise Palms Cafe), but you had to put money either in a auxiliary account on the dinning card or pay cash.

If you have ever seen a map of campus, you can understand what I mean. But I guess it makes sense considering how much space you have in Hawaii. What is also interesting is the different styles of architecture they have used for each building on UH. The Marine Science Building, for example, has a shinny light blue glass that covers the building at both sides. Not far from it is the Korean Studies Center Building, which is patterned after the throne hall in Kyongbok Palace in Seoul, Korea. A lot of old-school and new school of architecture on campus.

One of the things that surprised me was the utter openness of the campus, I mean it was open. When I walked into a building, I wouldn't pass through any doors, I just walked in. I guess when the weather is always perfect, you can build buildings that have no doors, no windows, no nothing. Luckily the classrooms are not the same, they were all self supporting and had very good air-condition (one of only a few places in Hawaii that had A/C).

The Campus Center was no different; matter of fact, I would see birds living inside the Campus Center. Things you can find in the Campus Center included a Taco Bell/Pizza Hut Express, Game Room, and the University Bookstore. Not much, but Waikiki isn't a far walk, so no problem.

One of the things though I did not like was the building I had all my classes in, the Business Administration. I'm not surprised that the building had such a generic name, I don't think someone in their right mind would dare to put their name on it. I personally like to call it the Fortress of Fear, because it had towers and looked like a bunker. I was told that several years ago, they had to take out one of the towers out because it was starting to slide off the hillside; they should have took the whole thing just in case, in my opinion.

Another cool view of the Japanese Garden

Daily Life

Nothing much about my daily routine. I woke-up, took a shower and got dressed (whichever came first). Then I would eat breakfast usually pancakes, I wasn't to big on the rice and eggs early in the morning thing. Went to class for all morning, then go back to the dorm and rest a little. During the afternoon, I would usually go somewhere. At worse it was Manoa Shopping Center near campus where I would get groceries and food from either McDonalds or Little Caesars. At best, I would visit a Mall, chill in Waikiki, or travel around the island to checkout the sites.

The top-left picture is the dormitory I stayed in Hawaii, Hale Laulima. The top-right is the view of the Koolau Range and the cement volleyball court from my dormitory. I was lucky though with that picture of the mountains, usually their would always be dark clouds hovering over them, ALWAYS. The bottom-left picture is a statue of King Kalakaua, which you will see when entering Waikiki. And the bottom-right is a picture of the Honolulu Skyline.

Other than the fact that I would miss my television programs because of its Central Time Zone feel (you know, shows start a 7pm instead of 8pm); it was all good in Hale Laulima. It had a kitchen (though I never used it), TV Lounge (though no cable), and a Game room (with only a piano, Ping-Pong table with no net, and a Macintosh Computer from the 80's); you can say it had that home like feel to it (except it had 200 people instead of four or six).

Though at times I did get homesick, I just remembered that I was in Hawaii, around five or six thousand miles from home. Well, that didn't make me feel that much better, just showed that I was stuck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean without a paddle. So I had to deal with paradise, isn't that just terrible.

The Gang

It took a while at first, but eventually I started to hang with a group of people constantly in Hale Laulima. My roommate Brent played guitar and took several side classes to learn how to surf and windsurf, his usual place to be was in the TV lounge or in the room. Josh was from Atlanta and was going to UH for a co-op at some grass farm on the other-side of the island. For this reason, he was the only person there who had a car. Josh was probably the most popular person there.

Armijn Verweij was from the Netherlands and was going to UH for the same thing I was going for (PAMI Program). A humorous person and loves to ask all sorts of questions, Armijn probably got a bigger kick out of the whole Hawaiian experience than I did. Another international student, Cedric Tisserand was from France who studied sharks and other marine biology. Very good with computers, and like having fun too; most of the time though he would be with his girlfriend.

David Henderson was a friend of mine from WCU who decided to also go to UH for the Summer. He was the only person who didn't stay in Hale Laulima, but in Hale Noelani, a apartment complex in the lower campus. He probably also had the worse luck while there: rooming with a druggie from Cali, got his bike stolen within' 24 hours of buying it at Sears, constant money problems, and even propositioned a prostitute for fifty cents. Nonetheless, he was always in good spirits and made the evenings more interesting; just never separate him from his basketball.

Another David, from Tulsa, also hung-out with us from time to time. He was probably one of the most interesting person to see when drunk. Devo was from New Jersey (or some place like that) and got a job working at the California Pizza Kitchen while in Hawaii. Devo was mainly a show-off, always trying to look cool and always chased the ladies. Amanda was the girl of the gang, hailing from Texas (and proud of it). Amanda was a big flirter, and pretended to be miss virginal. One interesting story is that Amanda and Devo had a one night stand together. Even though Amanda thought there might have been an relationship, Devo bragged about the whole thing and brushed her off; you can imagine that most of us didn't get along to well with Devo after that (I also hope that neither find this page and see that I've been telling the world, then I would be in big trouble ^^; ).

Last is Lars, who was a big computer geek. He had the top-of-the-line Dell Computer, expensive toys, and a very cocky attitude. Lars and I had several arguments from computers to women. One of his big problems was just plain money management, he was getting a lot of money from his parents and was still constantly broke.

Finally, we come to all the people that I met in Hawaii, which whom I forgotten their names. From the Housing Staff at Hale Laulima to the regular people sitting in the TV Lounge. I thank them for making my stay just a little more interesting.

The Tale of the Dutchman in the Trunk

One evening, Josh, David (Tulsa), Lars, Amanda, Armijn, Devo, and I decided to go down to Chilies in Waikiki for dinner. One problem, the car was a little small and everybody knew it was going to be tight. Then Armijn has a crazy idea that he will go into the trunk. The picture you see here was taken after Armijn just got into the trunk (The dark tan girl that you can partially see on the right is Amanda). This is also the only picture I have that was taken by David, I was trying to get a front seat.

Anyway, we are all in the car and Armijn in the trunk as we started to roll out of UH. One of the things UH has on campus is speed bumps SEVERAL SPEED BUMBS. Josh decides to have a little fun and goes over a speed bump at 35mph, next thing we hear is a big thump in the trunk followed by murmurs of bitching. Being evil, Josh speeds up to the next couple of speed bumps and then slowly crawls over them, teasing Armijn.

After pulling out from UH, from University Avenue on down to Waikiki, Josh does several sudden stops and excelerations. After a while, Josh didn't want to do that anymore, but he continued to anyway because everyone else in the car pushed him to continue. Four miles later in Waikiki, we finally arrive near Chilies. You can't imagine how many swear words he kept yelling at us when we finally let him out of the trunk, he was pissed. Luckily he cooled down by the time we sat down at the table in Chilies. He did not ride in the trunk on the way back, learning a valuable lesson for the day.

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