Submitted by Emily Greco on the 2020 winter session study abroad program in Hawaii sponsored by the College of Education and Human Development…
Each day I spend in Hawaii I feel more and more at home. Spending over a month in a new place seems like such a long time, but as week two comes to a close, I feel like time is going by in a flash. Each day I spend here is full of adventures and new lessons, and it’s been a dream come true. I feel truly grateful to be able to spend time exploring such a magical place. I’ve definitely had my fair share of reality checks being here though. I felt like coming here would be a peaceful, stress free, blissful experience, and while in most cases it has been that, it’s also been quite the opposite. Learning to navigate a whole new place has been the biggest learning curve. My roommate and I who go on all of our adventures together have spent quite a few times riding the bus in an accidental circle after getting a bit too confident that we knew exactly what we were doing.
The energy here in Hawaii is truly like none other and I’ve never experienced anything like it, but week two was definitely filled with some bad moods, rainy weather, and long bus rides. Each week we take a whole group excursion to different places. This week we went to Plantation Village. A huge part of Hawaiian history was plantation life, and a lot of their culture today is based on the mixing of so many different ethnicities during the time of plantations. Each new place we explore that gives me more of a glimpse into the history of Hawaii, the more informed I feel. Immersing myself in the culture, and historical context is very important to me because I want to learn about and respect the culture I get to spend some time being a part of. As week two comes to a close, I feel truly blessed to call Hawaii home for this short span of time. I spent some time this week in a place called The Valley of Temples, and visited a replica of a Japanese temple. It was the most beautiful, serene, peaceful experience I believe I’ve had so far on this trip, and it gave me another glimpse into the different aspects of Hawaii that make its culture so unique.
