Monday, October 24, 2011

Marathon Training: 1 Week in

Kelsey and I had this crazy idea one night as we were browsing through a book about Hawaii to train for and run the Honolulu Marathon.  We decided it would be a great way to get into shape since we have a goal in mind.  The marathon is the second Sunday of December (the 11th) which is about a week before I leave for home.  Perfect timing.

As of last Monday, we had 52 days to train for the 26-mile monster.  I had never run more than 3 consecutive miles before.  Ever.  In my life.  I have some fun times ahead of me.

This first week wasn't as bad as I thought it was.  Kels and I started eating healthier and running every day.  We ran on the track 3 miles every night and lifted weights a few times afterwards.  Every workout ends with a 5-minute ab circuit.

We really don't have a clue as to what we're doing.

Which is why I need to google now how to train for a flippin' marathon.  That will be taking place in 47 days.

I also bought a knee brace and have been using that as a precautionary measure so I don't cause any extra damage by running on it.

And I should probably google some physical therapy exercises for that while I'm making a list of things to google.

Last night we ran 4.5 miles and I felt pretty good.  Slowly but surely my mileage is getting up there.

If anyone has any tips on how to train for a marathon, PLEASE comment/email/facebook me so I don't die when December rolls around.

Aloha!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Things I'm Missing Back Home

As much fun as being in Hawaii is, there's always going to be a part of me missing home.  I didn't realize exactly how much I was giving up by coming here.  Not just a semester back at Illinois with my friends and the club softball team and seeing my family and dog.  I'm giving up things that I can't get back.

I missed my sister's 21st birthday.  Her one and only.  I would have loved to have been there to celebrate it with her (for obvious reasons).

I missed my brother's 13th birthday.  His one and only.  He's finally a teenager, but I still won't be able to see him for a few more weeks.

I'm missing my brother's first concert in jazz band.  He plays the drums and is really good at it.  Last year he tried out for and made jazz band, and I'm so proud of him, but I'm not going to be there the first time he plays.

I missed my little cousin David in his very first play.  He's the funniest little guy and adorable as anything, and I would have liked to see him up there performing.

I'm missing the Victoria's Secret Pink party at Illinois that's happening right now I believe.  Every year VS has a competition with all the colleges to host their annual campus party at, and Illinois won it this year.  I even voted as much as I could to help us win it, but I'm missing out. Although it's not as important as...

...Thanksgiving.  I will be missing it this year.  This will be the first (and hopefully only) time I won't be able to spend a Thanksgiving with my family.

Also, I'm missing the annual East Peoria parade of lights, a tradition my family does that happens every year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  It's always freezing outside, so we bundle up in our winter coats and snowgear, make a couple thermoses of hot chocolate, eat at Monical's pizza, and sit in the same place.  Every year.  I have never missed a parade of lights.  I've gone every year since I was born.  And this year I will miss it.

I am grateful, however, that I won't be missing my grandmother's birthday, another tradition in my family since it's so close to Christmas.  We all get dressed up and go out to eat and just have a great time with each other.

And I am very happy that I will be spending Christmas at home with the people I love most.

Miss you guys!

Aloha!

Mopeds

We had a mission: Get to the north shore.

Our plan?  Rent mopeds early Sunday morning and beeline it to Sunset Beach.

Challenge accepted.

The week Kelsey's two friends Anna and Andy were here was the perfect time to put our plan into action.  We searched online for a moped renting shop, booked and paid for Sunday, and mapped out our plan of attack.  It was very intricate.

Sunday comes around and we walk to the moped shop right when it opens at 10 am.  Okay we were there at like 9:40 but we had places to go and were eager beavers!  We wait until ten for someone to show up.  Nada.  Looked into the window where all the mopeds were piled on top of each other, and it appeared to be a shop to fix up the bikes.  Fail.

We walk to the second store that was posted on the website, about a half hour walk.  We get into the second store, same deal, lights are off, nobody is in.  The second shop even looks like the first shop, it doesn't appear that you can rent mopeds from this place.  Sketch.

So we called them, but of course nobody answered because nobody was there.  So we called a third shop on the website.  Someone answers, but tells us they are not affiliated with the shop we rented from.... even though they have the same name.  Super sketch.

Turns out that shop was in Maui, not Oahu, so we accepted defeat and went to the beach for the day instead, determined to solve this problem and ride mopeds to the north shore before Anna and Andy had to leave.

We planned for the upcoming Friday after everyone got out of class.  But we postponed calling them and asking about our reservations and if we could switch them until Friday morning.  Whoops.

Anna called the place, ready for a battle with the guy who answered,  but he was really nice about it.  Actually he was like, "Oh shit!!  Man I'm sorry nobody was there on Sunday, m'bad".  But he said he didn't deal with reservations....?  So he took down the phone number and said the guy in charge of reservations would call us soon.  Little sketch.

The second guy called reasonably soon and basically said that he doesn't have mopeds to rent right now (or ever...? not sure about that whole deal) but he did say that he knows a buddy that rents out and we could rent from him.  Perfect.

The next thing this second guy says:
Yeah, his name is Jack, he can come pick you up and take you to his place in downtown Waikiki.  I'll give him your number.  Don't worry, he has a pickup truck.

Uhhhhh sketchiest thing I ever heard in my life!!!

But we did it anyway.  By the time Kelsey got out of class and Jack With The Pickup got us (who ended up being very nice and friendly) and went through the paperwork and tutorial on how to drive a moped (because none of us had ever done  this in our lives!) it was nearing 2:30 before we even left.

Our plan was to cut through the island and head straight to the north shore and then wind our way back  home down the east coast.

But we ran into a roadblock when we realized the road we wanted to take merged onto the freeway for a while, and our 35 mph mopeds weren't allowed to join all the grown-up vehicles on that road.

At this point, its quarter til 3, our plan is not working, and we didn't know what to do.  That's when we decided to just hang loose, go with the flow, drive down some roads and see where it takes us.

One of our best decisions on the island.  Best day ever!

We wound up  the east coast and saw Koko head, Hanauma Bay, Pele's Chair, Sandy Beach, and the most incredible views of the ocean.  It was absolutely breathtaking, I can't even describe the gorgeous scenery around me.

We strolled into Kaneohe at about 5 as the sky was getting cloudy and it started to rain.  We made a team decision to start working our way back once the rain had passed so we'd make it back to Waikiki before dark.

So we didn't make it up to the north shore, but we were okay with that.

On the way back, we got another spout of rain, and it kind of sucked because we were out in the open getting absolutely pelted by rain drops and there was nothing we could do about it.  But that subsided in time so we could once again enjoy the scenery.

Once we got back to the Waikiki area, we just drove around like hooligans racing each other and doing some probably illegal things, but it was the most fun ever.  We rode aimlessly around because it was so much fun, and we wanted to get our full 24 hours in that we rented them for.

Once it started to get dark, we went back to the apartment to grab sweatshirts and hit the road again for the rest of the night.  There was a tiny mishap as we were parking our 'peds when my leg brushed up against the muffler or whatever (something that was really hot.) Anway, it burned my leg all up.  But I didn't let that get me down!  It didn't stop me!  I went on like a champ.
< Day 1
Day 2>
Yummy, right?

I threw hydrogen peroxide on there, bandaged it up, threw on my sweatshirt, then we went riding on into the night.

We got some good time in before the rain came back and forced us to retreat back to shelter.  By that time it was 11 anyway and we were zonked.

Another great perk about the whole experience was that it took me less than 3 dollars to fill the gas tank back to full when we returned the mopeds the next day.

An overall very satisfying experience, one that I must do again before leaving  this island.

Maybe we'll make it up to the north shore next time.

In any case, it will still be fun!  For only 30 dollars!  Can't beat that.

Anna, Janelle, Kelsey, and Andy

What a fun group!

Aloha!

Halfway Done

I can't decide how I feel about this.  It's a bittersweet feeling that I'm halfway through my semester in Hawaii.  On one hand, I'm a little upset because everything is going by so quickly and my time in paradise is half over.  But on the other hand, I'm ready to get back to Illinois and resume "normal" life.  See all my family and friends that I've gone two months without.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I believe this is the longest I've ever been without seeing my parents/family. Unless you count Skype.

Thank God for technology.

On a scholastic note: MIDTERMS ARE OVER!  It's incredible how much I studied for this week from hell.  I had two quizzes and an exam last week, an exam Monday, a midterm Tuesday, and a midterm today (Thursday).  I studied like I'd never studied before.  I even stayed in on a perfect beach day Saturday to study.  The scores I've gotten back so far have rewarded my hard work and reflected my time put into those classes.

My midterm today was for my hardest/most hated class - Genetics.  I always seem lost in that class and no matter how much I study there's always some small detail my prof puts into quizzes that I have no idea about.  But that midterm went surprisingly better than I thought it was going to be.  I'm praying that I get a decent grade.

Getting away from academic  territory, my family is going to be here in... 15 days!  Less than two weeks!  I've been studying so much focusing on school I didn't realize how close this date was.

Now I have to make an itenerary for them on what to do.  Hopefully my school load won't be that big so I can have some fun with them!

Speaking of family, Tawni's family is here right now.  They just flew in a few days ago and I haven't seen them much but I'm sure they're having a blast.  I knew Tawni was so excited about them coming and now they're here reunited in the beautiful paradise island.

All I know is that time goes by very very quickly on this island.  Take it as you wish.

Aloha!

Maunawili Falls

I always claim that I'm adventurous and thrill-seeking, but I'm actually very level-headed (almost too much).  I know when things are too dangerous or risky to try.  I'm also very paranoid.  I go through every scenario possible (always worst-case scenario) and plan my next steps accordingly.

And in Illinois that's okay.

There's nothing scary to do in Illinois, except jump off 15-foot bridges into disgusting little rivers so you can dislocate some body part.

Here in Hawaii, it's a whole different ball game.  Beaches with hefty waves to swim, mountains to climb, cliffs to jump off, huge trees to climb in the jungle.  Life in Hawaii is a giant adventure, and if you don't take risks you won't do anything fun worth talking about (or blogging about).  All you'll have is stories about laying out on the beach and visiting Pearl Harbor and the aquarium, which is all fine and dandy, but being in Hawaii is about taking advantage of the nature.

Friday, October 7 was one of those days.

Kelsey's friend Anna had just come the night before to stay with us for a week, so we wanted to start her vacation off in the most badass way possible - Maunawili Falls.

Maunawili Falls is a waterfall with cliffs at different heights to jump from.  All I knew going in was that there were 20-foot, 40-foot, and 60-foot cliffs to jump from.  My adventurous mindset got my all excited and not even a little frightened by these heights.  Like I said, the highest thing I've jumped off of was a 15-foot bridge.

The hike to get to the falls was absoultely gorgeous.  It was also long, and a bit of a workout.  At one point, you get to the top of a mountain and the view is breathtaking.  I posted a picture of it in the PIKCHAAAAAS section.  There's also a point in the journey to the falls where you have to ford through a little stream before you can get back on the path.

When we finally got to the falls, all you could see was a waterfall off a rock about 12 feet high and a giant pool all the water collected in.  Nobody else that was there was jumping from the cliffs.  Then again the people that were there consisted of little families and high school girls taking pictures of themselves with the scenery.

Finally, we figured out that there was a path barely visible enough to  be called a path that winded up the side of the hill.  There, my friends, was the 40 foot cliff, complete with a rope to hold on to so you didn't slip off the mud.

How ingenious.

I looked over the edge of this cliff, and it was a LONNNNG way down.  I wasn't sure if the pool was going to be deep enough for us not to hit the bottom once we landed in it.  Kelsey asked if I wanted to jump first.  I told her she could go first (AKA be the guinea pig, but I wasn't about to tell her that).

Kelsey barely hesitated, screamed "Look out below!" and plunged.  She made it out alive, which was reassuring.  So it was my turn.

I held onto the rope and looked out over the edge once again.  I knew the longer I postponed jumping, the more I was going to freak myself out and be less likely to even jump.  So I pulled myself together, let go of the rope and jumped.  Right after I jumped off the cliff I remember thinking,"What the hell have I just done?  I can't believe I actually jumped."  I was very surprised with myself and proud that I hadn't psyched myself out or prolonged the jump any longer.

Right when I jumped off, I screamed like a little girl.  I admit it.  But hey, I jumped and I jumped early, and that's all that matters.

The trip down to the pool of water lasted foreverrrrrrrr (insert Squints from The Sandlot). I had never fallen that far in my life, and it was scary.  Also thrilling.  But more scary.  I was in the air for so long I had to flail my arms (like a freak) to stay upright and balanced.  Can you be balanced when you're falling?  I felt like I was losing my balance, hence the flailing.

But I will tell you, my first landing did not go so smoothly.  I will say this for the whole world to read: I got the biggest wedgie of my life when I landed in that water.  You know when you're at the water park going on the highest slide the "life guards" (or whatever they are) tell you to keep your legs together and arms crossed?

I think the same rule applied for this 40-foot monster.  And I forgot about it.

I believe a normal body when faced with this particular danger, would clench every muscle in their body and become stiff as a board.

Not I.

I believe this whole wedgie business could have been avoided had I clenched my gluteus maximus (ASS).  I also believe that would have spared me from the unnecessary enema I received.

It was like water skiing on vacation when Grandpa drove the boat too fast all over again.

What a nightmare.

Anywayyyy.  Point is that I survived, and can now proudly say that I, Katherine M. Lenz, have jumped off a 40-foot cliff in Hawaii and lived to blog about it.

I'm allowed to say this because the second time I jumped was a lot more courageous and I did not shriek like a child.

Here's the vid!


Aloha!

Monday, October 17, 2011

NOTICE

I'm sorry I haven't updated in an eon or two. I've been crazy busy the past week and a half with visitors and school.  I have midterms all this week so I won't post anything for a few more days still.  But please hold out.  I have three posts in the works.

...Annnnnnd my study break is over.

Aloha!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Parents in T-Minus One Month

Warning: You do not have to read this.  Only read if you extremely bored and have nothing better to do with your time (which I'm assuming now is true because why else would you be here?)

So I just drank 5 glasses of orange juice at 11 at night and the sugar is running rampant through my veins right now and I want to blog about something instead of doing homework, but the problem is that I have nothing to blog about, so I thought long and hard about what would interest all my 2+ readers out there, and then it hit me that my parents will be here in exactly one month which I am very excited about because they are my parents and I love them and miss them and because they will be renting a car so I can abuse that for a week and also I just wanted to see if I could make the longest run-on sentence ever by using poor grammar and too many prepositions which makes me think of when I first learned about prepositions in my eighth grade English class and I remember watching that video called Grammar Rock I believe with the song about prepositions and ants marched along trees and at one point the song-singing man sang "over the raiiiiiiiinbow" and I thought that was really funny so now I'm going to try to find the video to post so you can watch it and laugh at the parts I just mentioned or think I'm a complete dumbass from being entertained by a video about grammar.

Yes I am a nerd.

My apologies for making the longest run-on sentence ever.  But it was kind of fun.

And here's the video:

Now I have several options concerning what I can do with my time.
1) Go to sleep.  It's eleven, and past my bedtime (which is usually at 10)
2) Be productive and get homework done
3) Jam with Kelsey to classic music like Save Tonight by Eagle Eye Cherry
4) Learn to french braid my hair
5) Clean my room
6) Keep thinking of things to add to this list
7) Do an ab workout
8) Count to 1000 in spanish
9) Think about what I'm doing with my life
10) Take hilariously embarrassing pictures of myself
11) Calculate the number of hours until my parents arrive on the island
12) Read my novel
13) Write my own novel
14) Drink a sixth glass of orange juice
15) Kill time on Stumbleupon
16) See if Allie or Adam updated their blogs recently (hyperboleandahalf and booksofadam)
17) End this list on an awful number
18) Think of two more things to get this list up to a nice multiple of 5
19) Write down all of my mannerisms that fall under the category of obsessive-compulsive
20) Creep on Facebook

Wow I'm really surprised I thought of creeping on Facebook last.  It's probably because I'm doing that anyway.  24/7 I creep.

Today Google posed some problems for me that I am still not sure how I got around.  Something about my hawaii.edu portal account whatever won't let me use blogger?  So I couldn't sign in to write this post for like 1/2 hour because I am technilogically illiterate.  I don't know how I finally managed to sign in but I did so if I don't post in a while blame it on Google and their attempts to take over the world.

No but seriously.

Now I've just realized that this post really has nothing to do with my parents coming to see me.  I may want to retitle this blog post to Please Don't Read Because it is Pointless.

Fun fact of the day though.  I learned my last name is old German and means "spring".  Didn't know that before.  I feel like I've discovered something about myself today and am hereby changed.  Too radical?  Thought so.

In other news: This weekend is pretty unpredictable and could get routy.  First, Kelsey's friends from school are visiting at the end of this week, so we'll probably do a bunch of cool things that even after a month and a half I still haven't done (like cliff jumping).  Secondly, its Rachel's birthday and she's turning 21 and who knows how that's going to end.  We're thinking boat ride??  This weekend should be an anything goes/do as much as possible/hang out with anyone and everyone/have a good time.

I'm going to feel like a Lame-o when I sit around and do nothing productive this weekend.

Remeber Rocket Power, anyone?

Okay my computer is overheating now.  I swear this thing has neverending problems.  I literally just had the motherboard replaced on this  thing 2 weeks ago.  I need people who know about computers.  The heat radiating from my computer is probably a sign that I should end this post and turn this bad Johnny off.

Aloha!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Week/end # I've Lost Count: My Birthday!

These past few weeks have flown by.  I can't believe I've already been here a month and a half, and only have 2.5 months to go!

Last weekend (September 24-25) was not extremely chaotic.  Kelsey was away all weekend on a geology field trip to the big island to study volcanoes.  Friday Janelle and I heard about this fall festival that the RA's were putting on so we decided to check it out.  They had country line dancing, caramel apples, and a sad excuse of a "dunk tank".  There was a hula hoop on a rope thrown over a tree, and if you threw a football through the hoop after it had been spun around you got to dump a bucket of water on one of the RA's.  And of course I accomplished this.  First try.

After the fall fest a bunch of kids got together to play glow in the dark capture the flag.  Janelle and I got painted with glow in the dark paint and the "flag" was a glowstick.  The grass was really wet and everyone kept slipping and falling down and getting muddy.  It wasn't as fun as I thought it would be.

Janelle and I then retreated back to our room to watch The Last Song and fall asleep.

Saturday we went to the 6pm football game vs. UC Davis.  We took the convenient shuttle over to the stadium since it's not on campus and tailgated in the parking lot until the game started.  By halftime we were absolutely murdering them so we took city buses and trekked back to campus.  Then we proceded to pass out.

Success.

Sunday we did absolutely nothing productive and that's all I'm going to say about that.

Onto my birthday weekend!
Well first, Annie's birthday.

I was so upset about missing my one and only sister's one and only 21st birthday.  I still am upset actually.  Hopefully we'll make up for it when she comes to visit me in a little over a month!  For her gift I got her a game called Sobriety Test, where you do all kinds of silly shenanigans in a not-so-sober manner.

Here's the link if you wanna check it out.


I also told Annie that when she comes to visit I'll buy her a shot glass from Hawaii (...because she collects them...) and something else she wants from here.  I try to be a good sister.  But she is a better one.  Yes I just admitted that.

Onto my birthday weekend!  Friday may have been the best day ever from a cumulation of reasons, the first one being that one of my two classes got canceled, I found out I aced my microbiology exam, and I was out of class by 10:15.  Hell. Yes.

Second reason for an awesome Friday: Gifts.  Duh.  After class I skyped Annie and opened the gift she got me which was this GORGEOUS bracelet.  I am in love with it.  Seriously going to wear it all the time.  She also got me yummy cocoa roast almonds and Dove milk chocolate.  So appreciated.

I also opened the gift my grandparents got me.  A really really pretty bracelet that they put a lot of thought into.  In the middle of the flower on the bracelet is the color of my star on the Cousin Tattoo.  How adorable, right?

My parents, as thoughtful and adorable as they are, sent me a GIANT Edible Arragement Friday afternoon that my 3 roommates and I still haven't finished.  On the phone my mom reminded me that I wanted one and they got it for my graduation party but I didn't get to eat any of it, which is good because that means all my guests loved it.  So now I get an entire one all to myself and my roommates.  Delish.

My grandmother on my dad's side sent me a lemon cake, as she does every year.  She also sent a matching hand-knit scarf and hat set.

I can't decide which gift was my favorite.

A group of us were planning on going cliff jumping after everyone got out of class, but by the time that happened we realized it would take too long to get there via The Bus and it'd be dark and that's dangerous.  So I went to Walmart while Kelsey and Janelle were off doing secret things for my birthday that I wasn't allowed to know about.

Since I was born Central Time, I decided my birthday started at 7pm here on the Island.... and lasted until midnight Saturday.  It's all right to tack on another 5 hours to a day, right?

3 hours after Kelsey and Janelle were done doing their secret mission, I was allowed to come back into the room.  We proceded to rock out to girl anthems (AKA Avril Lavigne) and munch on the Edible Arrangements.  Then we heard of a party our friends were having, so Kelsey and I decided to go.  Tawni came too and we had an absolute blast.  Many pictures were taken.  At midnight we all cheered and it was precious.

Friday night rocked.  Saturday morning?  Not so much.

It was the last day of my aquarium volunteer training class and I had to be there at 9am.  I had set the alarm on my phone, but it died in the middle of the night from all the texts I receieved for my birthday.  So I woke up at 8:18.  The girl that picks me up was going to be there between 8:20-8:25.  I booked it out and met her just in time.  Class was rough, I had a hard time staying awake.

Since it was the last day, it was kind of like "graduation".  Everyone got a certificate, and when I went up to get mine, the girl that takes me to class spilled that it was my birthday that day, so everyone was really excited about that.  The coordinators had brought champagne and a carrot cake to celebrate our graduation.  They made a toast to all the graduates, then everyone sang happy birthday to me.  They even had me cut the cate.  It was actually really cute.

After I got back from class, Kelsey, Janelle and I went to the beach and took fat naps for the better part of the afternoon undr a shady palm tree.

A group of us girls went out to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown Waikiki, and it was really nice.  It was also embarrassing when Kelsey told the waiter it was my birthday, he had me get up on stage and have everyone in the restaurant yell "Happy birthday!" at me.  But we got a free hot fudge sundae out of the whole thing, so I'm not complaining.

When we got back from dinner Kelsey and Janelle revealed the surprise they were working on for three hours the day before.  They had crafted a homemade ice cream cake with funfetti cake and all kinds of ice cream, plus oreos.  Most delicious thing to ever come across my tastebuds.  They were so awesome in helping make my birthday the best one I've ever spent away from home.  I love my roommates!

After the delicious cake was consumed, we went to another party our friends were having, which was appropriate because it was my birthday that night and another girl's birthday the next.  After a while, though, I was kind of partied-out (which I've realized is quite possible), so Kelsey suggested we go to the beach.  At midnight.  I was pumped about that.

Such a good decision.  The sky was so clear, there were no clouds and you could see all the stars.  I saw one of the dippers and Orion's belt... I think.  If I knew more about star constellations I probably could have picked out a lot more.  It was one of the most relaxing, peaceful hours of my life.  I want to spend all my evenings on the beach.  I decided that night that before I leave the island I want to actually camp out on the beach with nothing but a blanket and the sound of the waves crashing.

Then, like most other weekend nights here, we put on a romantic comedy and fell asleep.  Perfect ending to my birthday.

Sunday was sleep in/lounge around day.  It was also workout for 3 hours day from the weekend spent consuming cake and other unhealthy morsels.

Now back to regular life of classes and the beach.  Rough life.

On a more positive note, 364 more days until I turn 21!  Get psyched.

Aloha!