Friday, August 15, 2014

Visits Home

My old roommate Grace came to visit as well so I got to play tourist for a few weeks.  Here are some of our adventures.  I wish I had pictures of working our church's annual luau which is always an interesting experience but I was too busy in the imu pit!

Photo
Makapu'u Tidepools

Arizona Memorial


View from Punchbowl Crater

Polynesian Cultural Center



And of course its always great to see old friends.  Love them!


Sunday, August 3, 2014

Birthday Adventures in Chefchauoen

I turned 23 this weekend and got to spend birthday in the Blue City.  This city was incredibly picturesque so I think I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.  I love Google photos because they create a lot of cool things from panoramas such as this to photo compilations called stories.  Check it out I really love this one!



My Google Story of Chefchauoen

I really enjoyed my weekend because although this is somewhat of a tourist city, it has a small town feel and I found myself interacting with shop owners and other locals along the way.  The stories and banter we shared were told in a mix of English and Arabic between bartering sales and learning about childhood years I enjoyed this town the most thus far because of the people who made it special.  So thank you to my travel companions for the celebratory drinks (yay for Ramadan being over!) and for the many engaging strangers I met along the way.  This morning was a peaceful morning filled with a stroll by myself through the town and the images came out beautifully (I'm no photographer but seriously check out the photos in my Google story!).  I also ended up wandering to the base of the hiking trail where Erik, Kasey, Ross, and Tim went hiking yesterday evening so I decided on a quick hike to the Mosque at the top before I left.  Along my way I passed a curious dog who decided to join me on my hike and met a loquacious primary school teacher who told me all about his passion for environmental sciences and eco-friendly technologies.  We had some great conversations and stories about teaching and our students, and frankly we got a little carried away by our conversations that I ended up cutting it a little too close to our departure time.  However, luckily he was a Chefchauoen local because he was able to escort me back to the hotel in the shortest possible route although my power-walking amused him because the rushing is not the Moroccan way. Our route took us through this oasis in the middle of the town and I made it back just in time to grab my suitcases and load them onto our bus by 10.