Submitted by Emily Hansell on the 2020 winter session study abroad program in Hawaii sponsored by the College of Education and Human Development…
I’ve been in Hawaii less than a week and I have already met so many different and wonderful people. This past Sunday, I arrived at Honolulu International Airport after about 18 hours of traveling. My parents dropped me off at BWI at 4am EST on Sunday and I arrived in Hawaii at 5pm Hawaii time. To say I was exhausted was an understatement. My excitement took over the exhaustion for the first few hours. I couldn’t believe I had finally made it to the place I had eagerly been waiting for months to get to. Not only have I met the diverse individuals in my program, I have met several native Hawaiians and a number of people from other cultures. I knew there were a variety of cultures in Hawaii, but now that I am seeing it with my own eyes, it really is so diverse. It’s incredible!
The second full day we had here, after class, a group of people from my program took the island bus down to Waikiki Beach. There I was able to play beach volleyball with a few native Hawaiians and another boy from my program. I learned a lot more about volleyball and the proper techniques, that I didn’t know before, from the Hawaiians.
Before coming here, I already knew my roommate which was comforting. If I am being honest, I was still extremely nervous to meet all of these new students and spend five weeks with them. On the first night, I met a girl named Taylor who just happens to live in the same town that I do. My family had just moved there so it was awesome to meet someone and finally have a friend back in my new unfamiliar home. It’s funny that we had to come all the way to Hawaii to meet each other, but I’m definitely not complaining!
Since I have a race coming up in February, I’ve been running around here a lot. It’s very hilly which was a change from Delaware. I had been used to running on flat trails. Here I run around the campus and the city before class and it’s already so much warmer! I am super excited to explore more routes and maybe find some neat trails overlooking the island.
One of the coolest things we did this week was go to the Bishop Museum. Here we learned so much about the Hawaiian culture and history. One thing that really stood out to me was that in Hawaiian history, gender had nothing to do with power, it was always about whoever could get the job done. In fact, we discovered and learned more about women in power than men. In this next coming week, I am looking forward to access surf with individuals with disabilities and exploring more of the island and the many treasures it has to offer.
