Busy. Busy. BUSY!
Who knew moving to Hawaii would be so much WORK?
I registered for classes over two months ago. My schedule was PERFECT! My schedule was consistent and not too overwhelming, with a nice sprinkling of fun classes mixed in. It was a nice 15 credits to keep me occupied.
And then, last Sunday, I had this OVERWHELMING prompting to audition for Concert Choir.
Um... how about I build a boat instead?
Before I continue, check out how AWESOME the BYUH Concert Choir is: Battle of Jericho
If you know me (and I mean, REALLY know me) you know that I'm very insecure about my voice. I sing in choir and in musical ensembles, but I get extremely nervous when it comes to solos. I usually only sing solos very late at night when my inhibitions are out the window. Or when I'm showering and think my family isn't listening (which they are). For three years, I have been working on my voice and praying for an increase in talent. If you knew me three years ago, you know how awful I used to be. If you've listened to me recently, you can see that the Lord has blessed me and there has been quite a bit of improvement. However, I will not claim to be a great singer. Did I consider myself ready to audition for the top choir at BYU-H? Absolutely not!
But I could not shake that feeling. Someone in Sacrament Meeting commented on how nice my voice sounded. I rarely get those kind of sincere compliments, so I cherish every one. When I made a pilgrimage to the temple after a fireside, my jetlag made me so tired that I kept breaking out into song. Surprisingly, the three girls I was with didn't run away screaming, but encouraged me to keep singing. The feeling to audition for Concert Choir was so powerful that I was compelled to action. The Lord was COMMANDING me. He gave me this talent, he wants me to use it.
And thank you, Nephi, for clearing things up in 3:7.
I'm paraphrasing here, but the Lord told me that "He wouldn't command me to join Concert Choir unless He had prepared the way for me to get in."
Maybe I lucked out because a few choir members just graduated (it happens). Maybe I lucked out because they needed basses (surprisingly, I am not a bass, but a baritone. I have only been singing bass for the last year to fill a vacancy in the SHS Show Choir. Coincidence?). Maybe my personal charm won my way in (yeah right. What personal charm?).
What I'm trying to say is that I don't believe in coincidences. The Lord gives blessings to the faithful, even if those blessings are years in the making. As a friend told me today, "There are no accidents."
Three callbacks later, and to make a long story short....
I made it into Concert Choir.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
More Adventures Than I Have Time to Blog
Is it Friday already? Has it really been a week since I've moved to La'ie?
The first thing you mainlanders should know about Island Time is that time moves so slowly here, but things happen so fast. I feel like I've been here for almost a month. I have learned so much about myself and other people from across the world. I have visited the beach everyday (except Sunday) and I have been kicked in the face with tons of spiritual insight (in a good way).
Now I must catch you up on a month's worth of adventure that happened over the course of one week.
Saturday: Sept 11. Second day in La'ie
I slept in as late as I could, which was only until about 5:30. That's when I made my first blog post about week one. Things were pretty chill, I was meeting new people and stuff. Let me show you a typical conversation between me and new people.
Dax: Hi, I'm Dax, what's your name?
(insertnamehere): I'm (insertnamehere).
Dax: (insertnamehere). Where are you from?
(insertnamehere): I'm from (California/Utah/Idaho/Papa New Guinea/Malaysia/Samoa/Beijing/Japan/LA/Canada/etc.)*. How about you?
Dax: Utah.
(insertnamehere): Oh, Utah! What part of Utah?
Dax: Tooele.
(insertnamehere): Umm... where is that?
Dax: The middle of nowhere. Your name is (insertnamehere) right?
(insertnamehere): Yup, you are Daz/Jack/Jax/Dex/etc?
Dax: Dax, D-A-X.
(insertnamehere): Oh that's cool? Are you a new transfer student?
Dax: Nope. Freshman.
(insertnamehere): Oh, where did you serve your mission?
Dax: I haven't yet........ I'm only 18.
(insertnamehere): awkward pause... I thought you were like 25.
Dax: Yeah, I've been getting that since I was 12.
I've even surprised a few teachers with this.
The Point 9/11
Two words: cliff jumping. I've been cliff jumping before at Flaming Gorge and at Moab. It has been a thrilling and rewarding experience each time. However, nothing ever prepared me for La'ie Point.
Nafe, my Tongan buddy from back home in Tooele, introduced me to his cousin Seo, a local 16-year-old. Following the wisdom of a local teenager, we made our way to La'ie point for some serious cliff jumping.
It was only a 60 foot drop.
We get to the Point and Seo just jumps. I get the urge to follow him into the water, but my brain tells me that is a bad idea. So I turned my brain off and I jumped. I didn't think I would fall for so long or hit so hard, but once I resurfaced with all my limbs intact, the initial fear of the plunge completely left me. Once I climbed back up the cliff, I jumped again without hesitating. Nafe, however, was a little apprehensive.
Now, I do my best to respect people's fears and be considerate of traumatizing situations. I admit, that I was a jerk and used all my available peer pressure powers to get Nafe to jump. He wouldn't budge. I considered pushing him over the edge. I've pushed people into pools before. This was a 60 ft. drop into the raging ocean. I'm not THAT mean!
With each consecutive jump, I grew more accustomed to the rhythm of jump, swim, climb, jump. I jumped often and from different points. Seo and I even did some synchronized jumps to show off for the tourists. But Nafe still wouldn't jump, not even with a crowd of Haole tourists to cheer him on.
Then I had my first near death experience.
We decided to head back, so Seo and I made our "last jump of the day". That is when the tide started picking up. After you jump into the water, you need to swim back to the base of the cliff to a little cave that runs along the rocky shore. From there you wade your way through the oncoming waves, holding on to the cave roof, until you get to a narrow ravine which you climb to get back to the top of the Point. Well, I was making my way through the cave, with the waves breaking against my legs when a monster wave crashed into my chest. The impact threw me into the cave wall and sucked me back out to see. Frantically, I tried to swim back to the cave, but the strong current and roaring waves tossed me hopelessly in the water. My limbs turned to lead as I battled the mighty surf. It wasn't until after I said a prayer that I found the strength to swim back to the cave.
Once I climbed back up, I was done cliff jumping for the day. But I will be back.
Turtle Bay 9/11
I love my new friend Jasmine, and not just because she has a car. But she does have a car, and I love her for it. After an exhausting day of cliff jumping and one near death experience, I really needed a long soak in a hot tub. Where do BYU-H students go to Hot Tub? Well, they sneak into Turtle Bay of course!
So Cameron, Sara, Makara and I piled into Jasmine's car for a super covert sneaky adventure. We had a nice soak and met Tyler, who was staying there, before we were finally caught and asked to leave, but not before I found out Turtle Bay's devious method of stopping non-guests from using the Hot Tubs (it's the Towels!).
Pilgrimage 9/12
Sunday was fulfilling and a nice break from the adventures. My ward, BYUH 1st Ward, seemed pretty cool. The CES Fireside with Richard G. Scott was good, although completely unapplicable to someone in my situation. I was about to go back to my Hale and crash, but Sara, Jasmine and Tala (a Samoan girl with the longest, awesomest hair ever) convinced me to walk to the Temple with them. I decided that my pilgrimage to the Temple would cure me of my jetlag. Sadly, it made me so tired that I started singing Showtunes...
There's a quick recap of the last weekend. The first week of school has been crazy, and I still haven't found time to talk about it. Join the Facebook Group if you want to convince me to update the blog more often.
Aloha
The first thing you mainlanders should know about Island Time is that time moves so slowly here, but things happen so fast. I feel like I've been here for almost a month. I have learned so much about myself and other people from across the world. I have visited the beach everyday (except Sunday) and I have been kicked in the face with tons of spiritual insight (in a good way).
Now I must catch you up on a month's worth of adventure that happened over the course of one week.
Saturday: Sept 11. Second day in La'ie
I slept in as late as I could, which was only until about 5:30. That's when I made my first blog post about week one. Things were pretty chill, I was meeting new people and stuff. Let me show you a typical conversation between me and new people.
Dax: Hi, I'm Dax, what's your name?
(insertnamehere): I'm (insertnamehere).
Dax: (insertnamehere). Where are you from?
(insertnamehere): I'm from (California/Utah/Idaho/Papa New Guinea/Malaysia/Samoa/Beijing/Japan/LA/Canada/etc.)*. How about you?
Dax: Utah.
(insertnamehere): Oh, Utah! What part of Utah?
Dax: Tooele.
(insertnamehere): Umm... where is that?
Dax: The middle of nowhere. Your name is (insertnamehere) right?
(insertnamehere): Yup, you are Daz/Jack/Jax/Dex/etc?
Dax: Dax, D-A-X.
(insertnamehere): Oh that's cool? Are you a new transfer student?
Dax: Nope. Freshman.
(insertnamehere): Oh, where did you serve your mission?
Dax: I haven't yet........ I'm only 18.
(insertnamehere): awkward pause... I thought you were like 25.
Dax: Yeah, I've been getting that since I was 12.
I've even surprised a few teachers with this.
The Point 9/11
Two words: cliff jumping. I've been cliff jumping before at Flaming Gorge and at Moab. It has been a thrilling and rewarding experience each time. However, nothing ever prepared me for La'ie Point.
Nafe, my Tongan buddy from back home in Tooele, introduced me to his cousin Seo, a local 16-year-old. Following the wisdom of a local teenager, we made our way to La'ie point for some serious cliff jumping.
It was only a 60 foot drop.
We get to the Point and Seo just jumps. I get the urge to follow him into the water, but my brain tells me that is a bad idea. So I turned my brain off and I jumped. I didn't think I would fall for so long or hit so hard, but once I resurfaced with all my limbs intact, the initial fear of the plunge completely left me. Once I climbed back up the cliff, I jumped again without hesitating. Nafe, however, was a little apprehensive.
Now, I do my best to respect people's fears and be considerate of traumatizing situations. I admit, that I was a jerk and used all my available peer pressure powers to get Nafe to jump. He wouldn't budge. I considered pushing him over the edge. I've pushed people into pools before. This was a 60 ft. drop into the raging ocean. I'm not THAT mean!
With each consecutive jump, I grew more accustomed to the rhythm of jump, swim, climb, jump. I jumped often and from different points. Seo and I even did some synchronized jumps to show off for the tourists. But Nafe still wouldn't jump, not even with a crowd of Haole tourists to cheer him on.
Then I had my first near death experience.
We decided to head back, so Seo and I made our "last jump of the day". That is when the tide started picking up. After you jump into the water, you need to swim back to the base of the cliff to a little cave that runs along the rocky shore. From there you wade your way through the oncoming waves, holding on to the cave roof, until you get to a narrow ravine which you climb to get back to the top of the Point. Well, I was making my way through the cave, with the waves breaking against my legs when a monster wave crashed into my chest. The impact threw me into the cave wall and sucked me back out to see. Frantically, I tried to swim back to the cave, but the strong current and roaring waves tossed me hopelessly in the water. My limbs turned to lead as I battled the mighty surf. It wasn't until after I said a prayer that I found the strength to swim back to the cave.
Once I climbed back up, I was done cliff jumping for the day. But I will be back.
Turtle Bay 9/11
I love my new friend Jasmine, and not just because she has a car. But she does have a car, and I love her for it. After an exhausting day of cliff jumping and one near death experience, I really needed a long soak in a hot tub. Where do BYU-H students go to Hot Tub? Well, they sneak into Turtle Bay of course!
So Cameron, Sara, Makara and I piled into Jasmine's car for a super covert sneaky adventure. We had a nice soak and met Tyler, who was staying there, before we were finally caught and asked to leave, but not before I found out Turtle Bay's devious method of stopping non-guests from using the Hot Tubs (it's the Towels!).
Pilgrimage 9/12
Sunday was fulfilling and a nice break from the adventures. My ward, BYUH 1st Ward, seemed pretty cool. The CES Fireside with Richard G. Scott was good, although completely unapplicable to someone in my situation. I was about to go back to my Hale and crash, but Sara, Jasmine and Tala (a Samoan girl with the longest, awesomest hair ever) convinced me to walk to the Temple with them. I decided that my pilgrimage to the Temple would cure me of my jetlag. Sadly, it made me so tired that I started singing Showtunes...
There's a quick recap of the last weekend. The first week of school has been crazy, and I still haven't found time to talk about it. Join the Facebook Group if you want to convince me to update the blog more often.
Aloha
Sunday, September 12, 2010
The First Adventure
Before I start my next epic tale, you should know that I have an official BYU-H mailbox. If you love me, you will send me goodies.
Daxon Levine
BYUH #1704
55-220 Kulanui St.
Laie, Hawaii 96762
Friday (cont'd)
After 2 1/2 days cooped up in Honolulu watching little girls (I can't complain, can I?), I was dying to get outside and start adventuring. Luckily, my new roommate Cameron is something of an adventurer himself. I unpacked, ate lunch, picked up my ID and my mailbox key, etc. and then Cameron asked if I wanted to swim out to Chinaman's Hat. What is Chinaman's Hat? Click this link to find out! That is when I began my first official adventure on the North Shore.
Chinaman's Hat
To get to Chinaman's Hat from Laie, you need to take the bus, so Cameron and I walked down to Foodland to catch it. While we were waiting I bought some reefwalkers. Then Kylie and Sara showed up to join us. Fun Facts about us: Cameron is from Arizona, Kylie is from California, Sara is from Texas and I am from Utah. We caught the bus and the ride was long, but I was in good company and high spirits, even though the waves out the window where tantalizingly close and painfully out of reach.
We made it to the beach and I jumped in the water for the first time. Oh, how I have missed the ocean! It was a long wade/paddle/swim to the island, but I was just glad to be in the water. Once we reached Chinaman's Hat, we started the climb to the top. Cameron showed us the easy way up the mountain, but I was constantly taking detours and shortcuts, always looking for more challenging terrain. It made me miss Stansbury Island back home. It was a fun climb, and the view at the top was Gorgeous! We were enveloped by ocean, looking across multiple shades of blue water across the bay as the sun started setting behind the cloudy mountains to the west. We would have stayed longer, but daylight was quickly running out and we made our descent.
On our wade back to the shore, I was walking next to Kylie as she disturbed a little ocean creature. I noticed this little black cloud in the water behind us. Then, that litle black cloud expanded into a flurry of ink shooting straight at me! I sidestep and narrowly avoided the attack. Then Cameron noticed an octopus furiously swimming away from us. Kylie spooked an octopus and it nearly inked me! First day on the North Shore, not bad.
By the time we made it back to the bus stop, it was officially dark, with no bus in sight. Sara tried to hitch hike, but Kylie and I both had a horrible feeling about it so we waited at the bus stop for a while longer. Three PCC buses passed us, getting our hopes up and crushing them in turn. We finally saw a city bus coming our way and it totally blew us by without even slowing down. We knew it would be 30-60 minutes before the next bus came, so we started walking. The horrible feeling about hitch hiking was gone and we let Sara flag someone down.
I'm glad we didn't hitch hike right away. When I get a feeling like that, I follow it. We could have been picked up by crazy people. After the buses passed us, the prompting was that we would be okay. I'm glad we listened, because a few minutes after the Spirit gave us a green light to hitch hike, a BYU-H Alumni on his way to a Scouting event in Laie picked us up. The car was small, but he was the nicest guy and had the funniest stories about life at BYU-H. I'm really glad we ran into him, and thankful that we made it home safely. Thank you, mysterious nice guy!
After making it back to campus (having missed dinner at the Caf) we made our way back to Foodland to buy pancake mix to make at Kylie's Off-Campus apartment. Nothing like late night pancakes after a day of hitchhiking, regular hiking, swimming, rock climbing, bonding and overall adventuring!
First day on campus, and I already had two girls' phone numbers.
I think it was a great start.
Daxon Levine
BYUH #1704
55-220 Kulanui St.
Laie, Hawaii 96762
Friday (cont'd)
After 2 1/2 days cooped up in Honolulu watching little girls (I can't complain, can I?), I was dying to get outside and start adventuring. Luckily, my new roommate Cameron is something of an adventurer himself. I unpacked, ate lunch, picked up my ID and my mailbox key, etc. and then Cameron asked if I wanted to swim out to Chinaman's Hat. What is Chinaman's Hat? Click this link to find out! That is when I began my first official adventure on the North Shore.
Chinaman's Hat
To get to Chinaman's Hat from Laie, you need to take the bus, so Cameron and I walked down to Foodland to catch it. While we were waiting I bought some reefwalkers. Then Kylie and Sara showed up to join us. Fun Facts about us: Cameron is from Arizona, Kylie is from California, Sara is from Texas and I am from Utah. We caught the bus and the ride was long, but I was in good company and high spirits, even though the waves out the window where tantalizingly close and painfully out of reach.
We made it to the beach and I jumped in the water for the first time. Oh, how I have missed the ocean! It was a long wade/paddle/swim to the island, but I was just glad to be in the water. Once we reached Chinaman's Hat, we started the climb to the top. Cameron showed us the easy way up the mountain, but I was constantly taking detours and shortcuts, always looking for more challenging terrain. It made me miss Stansbury Island back home. It was a fun climb, and the view at the top was Gorgeous! We were enveloped by ocean, looking across multiple shades of blue water across the bay as the sun started setting behind the cloudy mountains to the west. We would have stayed longer, but daylight was quickly running out and we made our descent.
On our wade back to the shore, I was walking next to Kylie as she disturbed a little ocean creature. I noticed this little black cloud in the water behind us. Then, that litle black cloud expanded into a flurry of ink shooting straight at me! I sidestep and narrowly avoided the attack. Then Cameron noticed an octopus furiously swimming away from us. Kylie spooked an octopus and it nearly inked me! First day on the North Shore, not bad.
By the time we made it back to the bus stop, it was officially dark, with no bus in sight. Sara tried to hitch hike, but Kylie and I both had a horrible feeling about it so we waited at the bus stop for a while longer. Three PCC buses passed us, getting our hopes up and crushing them in turn. We finally saw a city bus coming our way and it totally blew us by without even slowing down. We knew it would be 30-60 minutes before the next bus came, so we started walking. The horrible feeling about hitch hiking was gone and we let Sara flag someone down.
I'm glad we didn't hitch hike right away. When I get a feeling like that, I follow it. We could have been picked up by crazy people. After the buses passed us, the prompting was that we would be okay. I'm glad we listened, because a few minutes after the Spirit gave us a green light to hitch hike, a BYU-H Alumni on his way to a Scouting event in Laie picked us up. The car was small, but he was the nicest guy and had the funniest stories about life at BYU-H. I'm really glad we ran into him, and thankful that we made it home safely. Thank you, mysterious nice guy!
After making it back to campus (having missed dinner at the Caf) we made our way back to Foodland to buy pancake mix to make at Kylie's Off-Campus apartment. Nothing like late night pancakes after a day of hitchhiking, regular hiking, swimming, rock climbing, bonding and overall adventuring!
First day on campus, and I already had two girls' phone numbers.
I think it was a great start.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
First Week Recap
First off, let me start by saying that Oahu is everything it's cracked up to be, but at the same time like nothing I ever expected. Here's a quick recap of every day so far.
Tuesday I said goodbye to my family and caught my plane to Seattle. When I landed in Seattle, I had exactly 5 minutes to catch my plane to Honolulu. They were already boarding when I landed. The flight from Seattle to Honolulu was long and boring. Luckily, the seat next to me was empty I was a able to stretch out for the entire flight. I read a few chapters of the Way of Kings, watched the in-flight movie "A-Team", played Plants and Zombies on my laptop, ate some homemade sandwiches, listened to BNL on iTunes, and drank lots of OJ. I landed at about 8:10 Hawaiian time (which is midnight back home) and then I was adopted by a loving Hawaiian family, The Kais.
Wednesday I woke up in the Kai's living room, sleeping diagonally on the tiny fold out mattress in the couch. Because of the jetlag, I was up by 5 in the morning. Ridiculous. I showered and read before anyone else was even up. Then the girls, Liana, Taylin, Aleena, Naysa and Kezley all woke up and started getting ready for school. They were all pretty excited to see Uncle Dax after 4-5 months.
If there is one thing I learned about women this week (and I always try to learn new things, as there is too much to learn in one lifetime) it's that all women are pretty much the same whether they are 2, 5, 7, 9, 10, or even 17, 20, 30, 99 etc. Girls LOVE to TALK, constantly. They also DEMAND your UNDIVIDED ATTENTION. It's pretty hectic when 4 little girls all clamor for your complete attention all at once. The oldest, Liana, had a book, so I never had to fight off 5 girls at once. Unfortunately for her, no 10-year-old is too cool to hang out with Dax! Kapua (their mother, and my old babysitter, long story) and I took the girls to school and walked them to their classes.
Then, Kapua, Kezley (2) and I went on an authentic Hawaiian experience. Wal-Mart. Thanks to Pua, all my sheets and bedding color coordiate. It's some kind of green, I forget the exact shade. She even talked me out of buying a fan that would have clashed horribly and convinced me to buy and a nice tan(?) one that matches well. Where would we be without women?
Then it was back home with Kezley, playing blocks and watching Barney.
After the older girls came home from school it was homework time for them. It was 20 minutes before I realized that I was being a huge distraction. So I read while they worked. Once they were finished, everyone wanted to play with Uncle Dax. Taylin thought her Kung Fu was better than mine, which it wasn't. Aleena kept fabricating new games to play, but I was better at cheating than she was. Naysa followed me EVERYWHERE, wanting to play whatever her sisters played. Liana had her book, but even she couldn't resist the charm of my legendary shoulder rides. By 6 o'clock, I was exhausted. Stupid jet lag. I held on until 8 when the girls went to bed, and then I crashed... hard.
Thursday I woke up bright and early, but decided to do my own thing. I ate breakfast with the girls, but when they left for school I was watching the Season 2 Finale of White Collar. If you aren't addicted to White Collar yet, you should be. As for the Season 2 Finale, all was going well, and then all of a sudden ****** gets ****! This is even crazier than the Season 1 Finale when the ***** ******** with **** inside! Man, for someone who has been following White Collar fanatically since the Series Premiere, I am officially rocked to the bone.
Kapua came back from dropping off the kids and set about- wait for it- folding laundry for her husband Kauwe! Then Kezley started watching Barney again. Luckily for me, I have my laptop and I played StarCraft II to pass the time. I have the most epic comeback story for a 2v2 player match that I totally won! I would give a complete play-by-play, but I'm sure most of my audience doesn't care. Don't worry, bros, I'll update you guys another time!
When the girls came back home from school, it was the same story. "Do that to MEEE!" "Look at MEEE!" "Play with MEEE!" x4! I love those girls to death, but I think I just about died. Bros, if you are ever in that situation, your best defense is to play dead. Seriously, I played dead and they thought I was sleeping. Sweet relief.
Before bed, Kauwe and I played Super Mario Bros on the Wii with the girls. It was fun, but someone needs to teach those girls how to play video games as a team. Still, they cheered loudly when I saved them all.
Bed. Zzzzzz.
Friday! Disclaimer, Friday was EPIC!
I woke up, got ready, and hung out with the girls before I walked them to school and said goodbye. They all surprised me with goodbye cards and wished me luck at college. I'm going to miss them. Pua cheered them up by saying that I would pay her back by babysitting for her on the weekends. Oh joy! What a wonderful family.
So, everything was packed and Friday was supposed to be a big day. New Student Orientation. w00t! Kauwe, Kapua and I (with little Kezley in tow) ventured forth to La'ie, my new home. We stopped at a fine Hawaiian dining extablishment for breakfast (McDonalds). After an hour of breathtaking scenic route, we arrived at the BYUH campus and made our way to Hale Malo, my new dorm. To put it lightly, my dorm is TINY! Seriously. I couldn't breathe until everything was in drawers and out of the way. Orientation consisted of getting signatures at various booths and getting a TB clearance shot. Pua played the role of mom, in the absence of my Mom, who wouldn't stop trying to call me. I told Pua to keep her updated with picture messages and everyone was happy.
I finally said goodbye to the Kais with the promise of hanging out again and I was officially on my own.
Then I met my new roommate and the adventure finally began.
to be continued....
Stayed tuned for my next post, when I disclose the full epic details of Friday Night's adventure.
Tuesday I said goodbye to my family and caught my plane to Seattle. When I landed in Seattle, I had exactly 5 minutes to catch my plane to Honolulu. They were already boarding when I landed. The flight from Seattle to Honolulu was long and boring. Luckily, the seat next to me was empty I was a able to stretch out for the entire flight. I read a few chapters of the Way of Kings, watched the in-flight movie "A-Team", played Plants and Zombies on my laptop, ate some homemade sandwiches, listened to BNL on iTunes, and drank lots of OJ. I landed at about 8:10 Hawaiian time (which is midnight back home) and then I was adopted by a loving Hawaiian family, The Kais.
Wednesday I woke up in the Kai's living room, sleeping diagonally on the tiny fold out mattress in the couch. Because of the jetlag, I was up by 5 in the morning. Ridiculous. I showered and read before anyone else was even up. Then the girls, Liana, Taylin, Aleena, Naysa and Kezley all woke up and started getting ready for school. They were all pretty excited to see Uncle Dax after 4-5 months.
If there is one thing I learned about women this week (and I always try to learn new things, as there is too much to learn in one lifetime) it's that all women are pretty much the same whether they are 2, 5, 7, 9, 10, or even 17, 20, 30, 99 etc. Girls LOVE to TALK, constantly. They also DEMAND your UNDIVIDED ATTENTION. It's pretty hectic when 4 little girls all clamor for your complete attention all at once. The oldest, Liana, had a book, so I never had to fight off 5 girls at once. Unfortunately for her, no 10-year-old is too cool to hang out with Dax! Kapua (their mother, and my old babysitter, long story) and I took the girls to school and walked them to their classes.
Then, Kapua, Kezley (2) and I went on an authentic Hawaiian experience. Wal-Mart. Thanks to Pua, all my sheets and bedding color coordiate. It's some kind of green, I forget the exact shade. She even talked me out of buying a fan that would have clashed horribly and convinced me to buy and a nice tan(?) one that matches well. Where would we be without women?
Then it was back home with Kezley, playing blocks and watching Barney.
After the older girls came home from school it was homework time for them. It was 20 minutes before I realized that I was being a huge distraction. So I read while they worked. Once they were finished, everyone wanted to play with Uncle Dax. Taylin thought her Kung Fu was better than mine, which it wasn't. Aleena kept fabricating new games to play, but I was better at cheating than she was. Naysa followed me EVERYWHERE, wanting to play whatever her sisters played. Liana had her book, but even she couldn't resist the charm of my legendary shoulder rides. By 6 o'clock, I was exhausted. Stupid jet lag. I held on until 8 when the girls went to bed, and then I crashed... hard.
Thursday I woke up bright and early, but decided to do my own thing. I ate breakfast with the girls, but when they left for school I was watching the Season 2 Finale of White Collar. If you aren't addicted to White Collar yet, you should be. As for the Season 2 Finale, all was going well, and then all of a sudden ****** gets ****! This is even crazier than the Season 1 Finale when the ***** ******** with **** inside! Man, for someone who has been following White Collar fanatically since the Series Premiere, I am officially rocked to the bone.
Kapua came back from dropping off the kids and set about- wait for it- folding laundry for her husband Kauwe! Then Kezley started watching Barney again. Luckily for me, I have my laptop and I played StarCraft II to pass the time. I have the most epic comeback story for a 2v2 player match that I totally won! I would give a complete play-by-play, but I'm sure most of my audience doesn't care. Don't worry, bros, I'll update you guys another time!
When the girls came back home from school, it was the same story. "Do that to MEEE!" "Look at MEEE!" "Play with MEEE!" x4! I love those girls to death, but I think I just about died. Bros, if you are ever in that situation, your best defense is to play dead. Seriously, I played dead and they thought I was sleeping. Sweet relief.
Before bed, Kauwe and I played Super Mario Bros on the Wii with the girls. It was fun, but someone needs to teach those girls how to play video games as a team. Still, they cheered loudly when I saved them all.
Bed. Zzzzzz.
Friday! Disclaimer, Friday was EPIC!
I woke up, got ready, and hung out with the girls before I walked them to school and said goodbye. They all surprised me with goodbye cards and wished me luck at college. I'm going to miss them. Pua cheered them up by saying that I would pay her back by babysitting for her on the weekends. Oh joy! What a wonderful family.
So, everything was packed and Friday was supposed to be a big day. New Student Orientation. w00t! Kauwe, Kapua and I (with little Kezley in tow) ventured forth to La'ie, my new home. We stopped at a fine Hawaiian dining extablishment for breakfast (McDonalds). After an hour of breathtaking scenic route, we arrived at the BYUH campus and made our way to Hale Malo, my new dorm. To put it lightly, my dorm is TINY! Seriously. I couldn't breathe until everything was in drawers and out of the way. Orientation consisted of getting signatures at various booths and getting a TB clearance shot. Pua played the role of mom, in the absence of my Mom, who wouldn't stop trying to call me. I told Pua to keep her updated with picture messages and everyone was happy.
I finally said goodbye to the Kais with the promise of hanging out again and I was officially on my own.
Then I met my new roommate and the adventure finally began.
to be continued....
Stayed tuned for my next post, when I disclose the full epic details of Friday Night's adventure.
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