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.