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