(blog title in reference to the fact that I can't re-arrange my blog the way I want)
-had one job interview, with two more set up for the next few days
-looked at over 8 different apartments, none of which I am madly in love with, all of which I could live in if necessary
-nearly wrecked three times, to the consternation of Kyle
-visited the beach only once, but with plans to go much more often
-mispronounced nearly everything
It has been a whirlwind week, and Kyle and I are looking forward to an easier day tomorrow. I have one job interview with the Hawaii Yacht Club tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m., but after that we are planting ourselves at Waikiki beach, and possibly going to a movie in the afternoon.
Back to the beginning though...the flights here were essentially smooth. Max, surprisingly, was not as well behaved as Luna. He would emit whines that were very audible to me (I was hyper-sensitive, as he is my dog), but not so noticeable to other passengers. I think he just can't handle not being on my lap if he is within the vicinity. As far as importing them to Hawaii, when we landed in Honolulu, the dogs were ripped from our hands (not literally) and taken to quarantine, where they were subjected to horrors we cannot even imagine. Actually, they probably were just in a loud room with barking dogs. But still, it was hard to have them taken away when they were already feeling pretty worked up over all the flying. However, the quarantine gods smiled on us b/c they released Luna a day before she was technically able to leave quarantine and we were able to get out of the airport about an hour after landing.
Our hotel is certainly not with any frills, more efficiency than anything, but the location is amazing and it suits our needs for the next week and a half (possibly a bit longer depending on when we can move into an apartment). Our view is pretty great too, looking at the mountainous side of the island. The picture at the top of this post is our daily view. We are right along the Ala Wai canal, which is great for my morning power-walking (I'm building to start jogging) and Kyle's run. One day (hopefully soon), we will own a kayak and do some kayaking along this canal.
Our rental car has been priceless these last few days, allowing us to get acclimated with the greater Honolulu area. We found Walmart already, and we will definitely be visiting that bastion of affordability when we get our place. I am not looking forward to giving it up.
Air conditioning appears to be a luxury here. For the most part, it is no big deal, because the island breezes are constant and amazing. However, our first night here, we attempted to have our hotel rooms AC try to keep us cool, and this piddly little window unit just couldn't keep up. It wasn't until we opened every window, as well as the patio door, that we got a livable temp going. Most of the places we have looked at have either no AC or only one small unit. I'm not too worried about this except when next summer rolls around and the temp's are at their highest.
I will wrap it up here, as I could go on and on about the small differences. I will instead, save that for a future blog post. Hopefully, I will be gainfully employed the next time I blog, and we'll have an apartment to move into at the end of the month. Kyle and I have been chanting "job, apartment, car" like it's our list of horcruxes or something. It will be nice to have a couple of them out of the way. In the meantime, aloha.
