Diamond Head at all angles and a great weekend overall

Well, it just keeps getting better here in Hawai'i. I had a truly wonderful weekend, and I got to see a little more of the Island.

This past week, I made a friend from the area (coincidentally also named Maya), and she has been graciously taking the Haverford gang around a little bit. On Saturday, we went to Diamond Head beach, which was absolutely beautiful. It was nice to get to a beach spot other than Waikiki. Here's the view:

The sanded beach area was pretty narrow, so as we were lying there, we periodically got a nice rinse from the ocean (especially the later we stayed as the tides got higher).

Sunday, Anna Womack, the director of the Almost Abroad program, organized a hike up Diamond Head peak, one of the most popular hiking spots in the area. It was a little crowded, given the Sunday morning and large number of tourists and families, but the views were gorgeous the whole way up.

This is the group about half-way up the hike:

This is a view of the beach I was lounging on the previous day:


Overall, it was a good, tame hike. And taking the bus there definitely helped me get better acquainted with the system.

After the weekend ended, I was still feeling excited about school. At the end of this past week, I made a last-minute change to my schedule. I dropped my Women's Studies course, (which was a good class, but I feel that I could take a course like it when I get back to Haverford and the Bi-co), and instead signed up for a Hawaiian religion course. So far, it's a very good class, with great readings-- written mostly by the professor himself! So now I'm looking forward to taking two classes on Hawaiian culture. I really want to take advantage of learning as much about the culture as possible while I'm here.

In other news, I'm only a week and a half away from taking my trip to the Big Island and going to the KECK observatory on the peak of Mauna Kea! This past week, I've been stressing out a little bit, because my Geology field trip to the Big Island was scheduled to be the SAME WEEKEND, and I was planning to try to do both. This morning, though, I received an email from my professor saying that volcanic activity was low, and the field trip would be rescheduled. This means I'll get TWO trips to the Big Island! Also, I got a wonderful email from the Haverford INSC yesterday saying they would fund my travels when I go to KECK. So all is working out!

My final piece of news is that I made an excellent purchase last week on Amazon, and it arrived in the mail this weekend. Here's a picture:
Ahhh, perfect. (Plus Isaac in the tree above!)

Thanks for all the love and support about this blog! I'm looking forward to giving you more wonderful and exciting updates!