Aloha Hawaii!

Greetings everyone!

This year for volleyball we were lucky enough to get to go to Hawaii for our first preseason tournament. I am so grateful for this amazing experience and opportunity. The journey there was a long one and it just so happened that on every flight, there and back, the person in front of me decided to put their seat back all the way. This would be fine if I wasn't 6' 2" and the flight was only an hour, but each flight was four hours or longer. When we arrived our host had supplied leis for everyone on the team, beautiful purple orchids strung together.  

We then went to Nuuanu Pali lookout. It was breathtaking, partly because it there was severe wind which made it hard to breathe but mostly because the view was gorgeous. Many of the girls could not control their unruly hair that was being blown in the wind which led to some interesting pictures. After a drive we arrived at the gym to practice which sounded impossible at this moment since I was extremely jet-lagged because of the 6 hour time difference. Our host supplied fresh pineapple, bananas, and this Hawaiian juice for practice that was all refreshing.

The day that we were scheduled to go snorkeling had finally arrived. This is what I was most excited for on the trip since I had never been before. I had bought an underwater disposable camera to take lots of cool pictures of the different creatures. We departed for Hanauma Bay and got our snorkel and fins and got in the water. As soon as I put the snorkel and goggles on I took a deep breath in from my nose and realized with a shock that this was not possible anymore. It was difficult for me to remember to breathe through my nose in the beginning but I soon got the hang of things. The coral reefs were amazing; I had never seen anything like it in person before. Before we got in the water we watched an instructional video about the animals that live in the reef and which ones we should stay away from, they stressed the importance of not getting close to the eels that live in the reefs. As I was swimming along and taking pictures the current got strong and pushed me on top of the reef, the water was very shallow which made it difficult to swim and then it happened. I saw a long skinny fish under me and realized it wasn’t a fish but an eel. I started to kick away as fast as I could and get away from the reef, but during my escape I lost the fin on my left foot. I didn’t look back for it and kept going because of the eel. I caught up to my teammate Shelby and told her what happened and she soon helped me find my missing fin. I would recommend snorkeling to everyone but to always be cautious of the creatures around you.

The next day we got to go to Pearl Harbor Memorial. It was a very somber environment and an interesting experience. I really liked the design of the memorial; I thought it was a great way to honor what had happened there. If you are unfamiliar with the design, they created a white curved structure on top of the ship Arizona that had been sunk during the ambush. The most impactful thing to see at the memorial was the list of all the names of the men that had lost their lives that day.

On the volleyball side of the trip we got to play San Diego State, Arizona State, and Hawaii. The match against Hawaii was definitely my favorite even though we lost. The environment in the gym was very comforting even though the entire gym was filled with their fans. Their fans were great and would cheer for both teams because they just loved good volleyball. I had never experienced this before and appreciated that the audience did this.

We finished 1-2 for the tournament; even though we should have won the tournament our team still learned a lot and will continue to grow as the year goes on. I want to thank everyone involved in our trip to Hawaii, I had a great time! Mahalo!