P2P: Hawaiian Island Discovery

July 8, 2006

This morning we got up and had a good meal at Denny's. There was good service. After breakfast, we got on the bus and headed to Pearl Harbor. My ticket had a guy named Kenneth Marlar Taylor. He shot down two Japanese dive bombers. He served in the U. S. Army Air Corps. and born in Hominy, Oklahoma.We watched a sad movie, and then got on a boat to the USS Arizona Memorial. I took some interesting pictures of the sunken ship, and of some of the names on the memorial. We got back on the boat and took a little break.

When the break was over, we took a trolley to Ford Island, where the USS Missouri was. We took a long tour through the Missouri. It was fun. We had lunch in the mess hall. After lunch, we went shopping and I bought some interesting things. After Pearl Harbor we got on the bus and drove through the Punchbowl. We saw [Challenger Astronaut] Ellisom S. Onizuka's grave. I learned that the graveyard used to be a volcano.

After we went to the Punchbowl, we went to Diamondhead. The hike was short. The view at the top was spectacular. The hike down was even better! We got back on the bus and went back to the hotel.

We got to go to the pool. After the pool, we went shopping. I bought shells for my sister, Ashley. After shopping, we had dinner. I had pizza. Then we had our meeting. Then I went to bed.

First we went to breakfast. I had French toast. Next we went to Kualoa Ranch. There we walked around the place saw and tasted some fruits and nuts. [Photo R: Bobby checking out a "jack fruit" at the ranch. The fruit can grow up to 12 inches in diameter! L: The delegation follows Jarma, our guide, through the orchards.]






Then we took a boat from the ranch to Secret Island. You could swim, kayak, play volleyball, ping pong and badminton. I didn't want to swim so I helped Jarma find Jobe's Tears. Also we found some little seashells. She told me that she collects them. I got quite a few of them for her and some for me.

Oh ya, I forgot before the Island we found Apple Snails and their eggs and squished them. [Below: Ambassadors work with Jarma to scrape snail eggs off the stalks of the tarot plant. The snails are an invasive species and many delegations have taken turns this summer ridding this pond of the snails.]

Ok, back to where I was. We looked for the Jobe's tears so she could play Hawaiian checkers. She gave me a brief description of how to play. Next, we rode the boat back to the ranch then left.

On the bus ride back to the hotel we watched some of the Fantastic Four. The movie kept skipping and we didn't get to see the end.

Well, we arrived at the hotel, we got settled in for about an hour. Then we walked to the international food court. I had Italian food. Next we walked back and that brings us to now. I'm going to sleep!

July 6: by Cole Francetic

I woke up today to find out it was 2:00am and my journal entry was unfinished. So, I started to furiously work on it, remembering all of the things I did. While I was doing that, my roommate woke up and we started talking about the trip. After I finished writing, I started getting ready for the day. We went to breakfast late because I couldn't get a hold for of my parents for a while.

After eating breakfast we performed our plays on the Hawiian history and how it evolved. Shortly after, it was fun in the sun at the beach where we caught waves, dug in the sand and found coral. But there was a big AWWWWW when left to get ready for the Polynesian Cultural Center. After we were ready we walked to the center for about 10 minutes and before you know it we were there. After we got in and were in our groups we went on the flat canoes. It was the guides first day using the boats and they were pretty funny. We learned about coconuts and boy was there a lot to learn. We got to see the games the Poynesians played like bowling and spinning tops. We also got to see medicines, dances and people hurling spears. We all got tattooes.

But nothing compared to the Luau and the show. At the luau people did the hula dances and a lot of other things. The food was spectacular. We even got to see them bring out the pig. What a day!!!!!!!!!!!!

July 6: Alex Miller

Today we got to sleep in for once. Then we went to breakfast. From there we walked to the beach. This ocean wasn't like the first one. The waves were a lot bigger, there were lots of jellyfish and coral and the water wasn't very clear. [Photo: Devon finds the first of many coconuts at the beach.] After that we walked back to the University and rinsed off in the showers. Next we went to lunch it was really crowded.

Then we walked to the Polynesian Culteral Center. It was outdoors and you could just walk from like Hawaii to Samoa. I got a temporary tatoo in one of the places. Also, we learned how to make milk and get the juice from a coconut. Next, we did some shopping.

After the shopping we went to a Lu'au. There were some interesting foods. I had purple bread. The desserts were very delicious. There was hula dancing and it was fun to watch. After that we did some shopping for a few minutes.

Next, we went to a show called "Horizons, Where the Sea Meets the Sky". It showed different cultures and a dance. My favorite part was with the fire, when dance and sit with it, and even ate it. After the show we walked back then packed. That's it for today.



July 6: by Abbey Laber

Today we woke up at 7 am and went to breakfast at 7:50 am. Then we went to the beach. The sand was fine out of the water but when you got in the water it was very rocky. Then we went back to our dorms to take showers. We had lunch in our cafeteria and then we headed to the Polynesian Cultural Center. At the PCC we got to learn about Tonga, Tahiti, Figi, New Zealand, and more about Hawaii.

Then we went to a luau. They did dances including the hula. I loved the luau. After that we went to a night show at the PCC. There we got to watch people from every culture do dances for us. Also, there were some men who sat on fire. Another man lit his tongue on fire and juggled a stick on fire. At the end of the night we walked to our dorm rooms where we had a quick meeting that was over at 9:45 pm. Then we went upstairs and packed our stuff. I loved this day at the PCC.



July 6: by Amanda Lauer

Today my morning started at 4:00 am, 10:00 am Ohio time. I got up and got ready. We went to breakfast and it wasn't that good. We went to the ocean. The water was warm and we made sand motes. This was fun. Koti got stung by a jelly fish. I felt bad for her. We went back and ate lunch and it was ok.

We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center after lunch. We went to Tonga, Tahiti and Fiji and got stamps in our passports which was neat. If you got four or more stamps you got a free prize. We went to dinner and people danced and the host played the ukalaly behind his head. It sounds pretty. We went shopping and that was fun too. After that we got to see each island war dance and another dance too. We got to see a fire dancer and a fire twirler. We couldn't take pictures but it was really neat to watch. We saw some other different types of dances. Then our day ended and we had to pack up and go to bed. I had to stay up because my room mate had to pack and Susan was standing right in our door way making sure she was actually packing it all up. After she was done packing I finally got to go to bed.

July 6: by Stazi Fitzroy

Today we went to the beach and found a giant rock! Wes, Koti, Emily Eddie, Taylor
Demetria, and I stood it up and built tunnels, waterways, and resivoirs around it.
I only went in the water a few times but I still saw two jellyfish alive and burried.

After lunch we went to the Polynesion Cutural Center. We walked around after
spliting each of our three small groups in half to make six small groups. The small
groups each walked through different cities/culture areas where we could see some
of the early polenesian cultures in action. We first went to the I-Max on Great Barriar Reef. Right after we got out we went shopping and watched a parade. Then we browsed around
the cultures and watched a guy teach us to open a coconut and in that same area
we got to make fire and juggle batons that would normally have fire on the ends of it.

After that we got tatoos and took a picture with our tatoos. From there we had to hurry to the luau which was where we would eat diner we had poi, and purple bread and other stuff. While we were eating we watced a few dancs performed by hula dancers.

From there we went to a theater like place where we would do nothing but watch hula dancers. We watched tons of shows and that’s when people started falling asleep.
The last show was my favorite three men each had a fire in front of them and tried
to put them out but all they seeded in doing was burnig there butts since they tried
to sit on them in order to get them out. When it was over we walked back to the
campus to get ready for bed and then go to bed it was a great day!

THURSDAY, JULY 6, 2006: by Bobby Kirchner

HONOLULU - POLYNESIAN CULTURAL CENTER (PCC) I woke up today, got dressed, and went down to breakfast. After breakfast, our group walked to a beach a mile away. At the beach, I dug holes in the sand and played in the water. The tide was high and it was strong when it pushed you ashore. When we left, it was lunch time so we went back to the University and ate lunch. The food was great. They had hamburgers and fries.

Then after lunch, we went to the PCC.At the PCC, we learned the culture of Polynesia. First, we took a canoe ride to Fiji. There we got tattoos and saw a boat. Then we went to Hawaii where later in the day we would see a canoe rally. We went to Tonga where we learned how to fish out of grass. They also showed us how to throw spears. They had a game where you throw a spear into a circle far away. After that we went to a place to watch a man show his people's culture. We went back and saw the canoe rally. There we saw the dances of the islands today and yesterday. Then we went to the I-max theatre to watch a special on coral reefs. It showed all the different things that could harm a coral reef.

We went to a festival called a Luau. At the Luau, we saw more types of dances and we got a lei. They had great food there. It ended before I thought it would because I didn't see any fire dancers. It turned out that the fire dancers were in a show later that night. They were awesome. When we went back to the University, we were very tired.

July 5th, 2006: A long plane ride through Chicago and on to Honolulu, Hawaii to our accommodations at Brigham Young University. What a day we had!

First, a trip to the Byodo In Buddhist Temple, at the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park. The temple was established in 1968 to commemorate the first Japanese immigrants to Hawaii. Byodo-In tranlates to "temple of equality - not to discriminate". The golden Buddha inside the temple is the largest carved wooden Buddha in the world.

Next onto the Dole Pineapple Plantation! "Can I get a toot-toot?!" Founded by James Dole, we had a chance to learn how to choose and slice the perfect pineapple, then onto the Pineapple Express for a train ride through the plantation. We saw how and where the pineapples were grown. When we arrived back at the "station" we ran through the largest maze in the world to collect stencil characters at the different maze stations. A little shopping, then off to the North Shore.


Our first trip to the beach! Waimea Beach on Oahu's North Shore. The sand was smooth underneath the calm waves as many students ran into the ocean for their first time. The sand was warm and clean as the students splashed and built dams and fortresses out of sand. A refreshing end to an exciting first day.




Back at BYU, most of us slept with the windows and doors open in our dorm rooms to keep cool. As we slept the first night, we could hear the songs and drums of the Polynesian Cultural Center next door.