My Lovely Engagement Ring

George and I picked this ring out together and I love it because it is so unique. I love that it has rubies in it and I especially love the flower-shape. I just got it back from being sized at the jeweler today. I feel like I am wearing a big hug from my sweetheart on my ring finger!

We're Engaged!

Well - everybody else is doing it! But seriously, George and I are really happy together and things just click. So this past weekend, we got engaged! We got engaged at sunset on Waikiki Beach after eating yummylicious cheeseburgers at our new favorite seaside restaurant. The ring is really purdy and I will post pictures of it as soon as possible. Its at the jeweler being sized right now, but I should get it back today. I can't wait!

We are going to get married legally on Saturday, but we will have a formal ceremony in a year or so because our marriage won't really be official until we celebrate with and receive the blessing of our friends and families. Location and date, TBA. Anyway, I hope you can see just how happy we are together. While these pics are not from our engagement evening, we went back to the same restaurant/locale with our friend, Jason, another Army fellow who is stationed in Hawaii in George's same unit who also just arrived in Hawaii. We got him to take some pictures of us and we got some others as well. To see them click here. In particular, check out the album entitled "Cheeseburgers in Paradise."

Some Quick Observations about Oahu

Rather than going into detail, I'm just giving little thoughts/observations I've had in the last few days on Oahu. If you want to know more, just ask!

• Little sprinkles of rain that come out of nowhere, last for 5 to 10 minutes, and then disappear.
• The reality of traffic on the H1 and in Waikiki
• Seeing four or five rainbows in a day
• The excitement of finding a gallon of milk that cost only $5 in the PX!
• All the crazy and beautiful Hawaiian streetnames
• The way everything looks like it could be a postcard
• Being caucasian and being a minority
• Hawaiian music everywhere: in the airport, in the shopping mall, in restaurants
• The stunning beauty of the beaches and water and mountains
• Ukeleles for sale in the grocery store
• The value of a lanai
• My willingness to be super-clean out of fear of the so-called B-52 Bomber flying cockroaches
• Missing my friends and family
• The way days seem to last for such a long time and don't just fly by in a rush
• The serious intensity of the midday sunshine
• The clarity of the sky
• Fish!
• Exploring it all with my sweetheart

A Waikiki Morning

I just posted some pics I took this morning. Check out my new picasa album called a Waikiki Morning.

Day One: Venturing Out and Quincy's "Hotel"

Its about 5am local time and I'm blogging. I would say I've still not recovered from the jetlag.

Anyway, my first day here was quite full. By the time I got back to my hotel last evening, I was ready for some serious sleep. I had started the day around 6am by heading out to find a grocery store. It was an absolutely gorgeous morning. Flowers and birds everywhere, the mountains in the distance, and a blue sky I haven't seen in a long long time. I found a grocery store and got a bunch of things to stock my kitchenette. Boy, they aren't kidding about the price of groceries here! I saw my first-ever $7 gallon of milk! As much as I love milk, I didn't buy any. Many of you may realize what a sacrifice with was for me. I'm sure I'll treat myself at some point, but considering my budget, I have to be really careful. What I did get a lot of was fresh fruits and vegetables. I can honestly say that I ate the best bananas of my life yesterday. WOW. Smaller than the ones I'm used to, but sweetness packed in.

After venturing out for groceries, I came back to the hotel and crashed for a few more hours. After lunch, I made the loooooong trek by foot and bus and foot again to see Quincy at the Animal Quarantine Station. He will be there until next Wednesday - the 23rd. He seems to be healthy, though the vets there were not able to give him a proper exam because he was "vicous"! That was actually written on his chart! I hung out with him for an hour or so, though he really didn't seem happy to see me. I think he is still mad at me for the plane trip. I spoke with the animal caretaker and the vet and they both said that cats are often moody for the first few days they arrive. Hopefully Quincy will mellow out. He was gladly eating treats out of my hand one minute, but then hissing and growling at me trying to gently pet him the next. Anyway, If you'd like to see Quincy's accommodations, visit my photo album of the outing.

I promise I will take pictures of other stuff today. Honestly, the main reason I didn't take more pictures of the scenery is that it is so beautiful pictures just wouldn't do it justice. As I was walking down the main street of Waikiki yesterday looking for breakfast and groceries, I was nearly in tears the place is so beautiful. Still, I'll take my camera out today and capture some stuff on film. :-)

I made it!

Last night, around 9:45pm local time, I took my first steps on the island of Oahu! I feel like I haven't seen much yet as it was dark when I arrived and it is still dark now. Still, everything is exciting to me. It is about 5am local time as I type. Quincy and I survived the flights, although I am eager to check in on him at the Quarantine station, where he will be until next Wednesday. He cried a lot during the second flight (understandably), but the airline personnel whisked him away before I have a chance to check him over properly.

Despite my worries over Quincy, I am very excited to be here. For one, this is as far to the West as I have ever been in my whole life! And even though I am still in the U.S., I definitely feel I am in a different culture. Instead of signs being written in English and Spanish (as I am accustomed to in D.C.) they are in English and Hawaiian or Japanese or Korean. The airport and lots of other buildings from what I can tell, are largely open-air structures. I've already heard lots of Hawaiian music: in the airport and on the bus ride to Waikiki.

Speaking of the bus ride, because I am staying in a super-budget hotel, I needed the help of the driver to get my heavy bags to my third floor room. The driver gladly helped me, but as a courtesy to the other passengers, I had to be the last of his drop-offs. As a result, I got to ride all over Waikiki and see all the fancy and not-so-fancy hotels. I am already putting in a vote for the Hawaiian Hilton Village. It looked cool, though expensive I'm sure!

Well, I'm sure I will have a lot more to report once the sun comes up and and I can walk around and see everything in the daylight. That said, my new island home looks very promising and I can hardly wait to explore it! I will report more and post pictures as soon as possible. Thank goodness for internet connection here at my hotel! Aloha.

The U-City Loop

Last night, my mom and I went down to an area of St. Louis called "The Loop." It is a funky-cool little part of town with one-of-a-kind shops, a vintage movie house, an array of local restaurants and artisan shops alongside the occasional chain outfit. It is a great little neighborhood where people from throughout the city mix: locals out for a night on the town, funky young folks with crazy-colored hair, city-dwellers and suburbanites, and college students from nearby Washington University. For those of you familiar with D.C., imagine a less pretentious, less overpriced version of Georgetown without the traffic jams. One charming little feature of the neighborhood is the Hollywood-style stars which are embedded in the sidewalk featuring names and bios of famous St. Louisans. To see more pics from our excursion, click here.

The Jeff Smith Movie

We made the trip the old movie house in the Loop (see above entry) called "The Tivoli" to see a movie that documented the recent experience of one of my high school classmates, Jeff Smith. In 2004, Jeff made a bid to win the Democratic nomination for the Congressional seat opened up by the recently retired Richard Gephardt. Watching the movie and seeing all of Jeff's hard work made me so proud of my old school and my graduating class which yielded a diverse collection of people who are engaged in wide range of worthwhile pursuits. I remember Jeff as a kind person (whom I had a crush on in 6th grade!!), who everyone got along with. He was (is) a unique guy: a 5'6" basketball player who was the only white guy on our school's varsity basketball team. In college, he majored in African American studies and eventually earned a Ph.D. in political science. He has been a strong proponent of education and has helped start several St.Louis-area charter schools with rigorous math and science curricula. He ran his Congressional campaign on a platform of equity in public education. As a future teacher myself, his campaign focus captured my attention and support. While he lost the nomination in a close race to a member of a well-known Missouri political family (the Carnahans), he went on to win a State Senate seat in the most recent election. It was an inspiring story about a person who is really attempting to use his life to make a difference in the world around him. I have no doubt that he will do great things in service of my home state and hopefully in service of the country someday.