I have the coolest roommate.

So yesterday I was just sitting on my computer and my roommate was walking out. She said "Here Zoe, I made this for you!" She taught herself how to make these heart things out of one dollar bills on youtube and just gave it to me! She's so sweet. You should all be jealous.

VOSAC visits me!

Yesterday was my first day back to school in a week because thursday and friday we had no school and I only have class on tuesday and thursday. I woke up and was of course late to Music 101. Happens like every day. Never again will I take a 7:30 class. SO I went to the last like 40 minutes of class and then went to political science which was right after. My professor is having a baby so we had another political science teacher in there. It was pretty much pointless to stay because I had turned my assignment in and we didn't really have to know anything she wassaying. I get a text from Emily Dahl that the Shadow Mountain choir was pulling up on campus. So I left class and met them in the front of the school! It was so fun to see them! Talk about reunion! Emily, Shane, Karleigh, David, Eric, Jake, Jason and a few others that I knew! They went on a tour around campus and I just followed them because I left class and had nothing else to do! They sang a couple songs and I listened. After their tour, they went to Hukilau beach! You better believe I went with them! It was a ton of fun to see everyone. Wejust swam most of the time but Jake, Shane and I went and walked along the beach and talked and stuff. It was good catch up time haha. Never in a million year did I ever think I would see these people in Hawaii. Its crazy to see where life has taken me, but I couldn't be any happier. Oh, and apparently I have changed races?

Blur.

This entire week was kind of a all meshed together. I don't know exactly what day I did what but I'm going to do my best! This post is a lot of words and not very many pictures...I apologize in advance!

On wednesday, Erica and I wanted to ride our bikes to Ted's Bakery because she had never been there before and after that we were going to go to sunset beach! Well, plans didn't really go like we thought they would. Its supposed to take around an hour to ride to Ted's Bakery, BUT my bike of course had a flat. At first I thought that I was insanely fat and out of shape because I was not going fast at all and it was hard to pedal but then I found out that the back tire was flat. I was a lot happier...in a way haha. So it turns out that it took us 2 hours just to get to turtle bay which is only half way to Ted's so we stopped there and went to the beach, got in the water, and got smoothies. There was no way we would make it all the way to ted's with my bike and be back on time for the game. Not a chance. After all that, instead of riding our bikes back, we just got on the bus. It took about 10 minutes to get back on the bus. Unbelievable. The bus driver didn't like us. We were apparently too loud even though there were like 3 people on the bus. Oh well. We got back in time for the basketball game. It was the first game of nationals! The school was playing it in the CAC so we went and watched it with a bunch of other students on the big screen. We won! Good day, fun adventures, life is good.

Thursday. Thursday. Ummm, oh! Ok, so thursday during the day was kind of just a get my life in order day. I got a lot done like organizing, planning, cleaning, all that good stuff. Then I went to work. Right after work was the winter ball....haha. This is a funny story. I was on Facebook one day and this tongan guy friend requested me. I had never talked to him but I knew who he was because I've seen him around so I figured there would be nothing wrong with adding him. So I did. The next day, he messages me on the Facebook chat. We just talked for a couple minutes and then he asked me if I had a partner for the winter ball. Right then, I knew exactly where this conversation was going. Yes, he asked me to the ball, and yes, I said sure. A lot of people were surprised that I actually said yes, because I guess most girls would have said no. Thats when I knew I was in for treat. Wednesday, when I was in the bathroom getting ready for work, Ilocked myself out of my room which made me 30 minutes late to work. I went to clock in and guess who was there? He was! Ok, put yourself into the situation. The day before a date with someone that you have never ever talked to in person and you randomly run into them when you're half an hour latefor work and all you wanna do is get there. Yeah, not the ideal situation, but I couldn't just walk right passed him. We had a slightly awkward conversation but we exchanged numbers and it was all good. It was a good thing that I had locked myself out because if I hadn't, then I honestly don't know how this date

thing would have worked. So Thursday night was the ball and I wasn't really sure how it would go. I figured dinner might be a little quiet but the dance would be fun because I would be around other people too. It happened exactly like that. Dinner was a little quiet. I tried to make conversation, but it didn't really work so I ended up talking to the other girl in our group. After dinner was the dance and a bunch of other people showed up. The dance was actually pretty fun. Karla, Shonteri, Taylor and some otherfriends showed up and I stuck around them a lot. Even though this wasn't the ideal date situation, I figure hey, I got asked to come...Im going to have fun no matter the circumstance. SoI did. Im glad that I made the most out of the situation. It ended up being pretty fun since all my friends were there too. Im glad I got to go. It also helped me step out of my comfort zone for a night. So that was thursday. Oh, I think there was a game today too. We were in the final four and won again! Go Seasiders!

Friday was a good day. Me, Erica, Sean, Nate, Cooper, and Cameron all went to play sand volleyball at turtle bay! We went all the time last semester and hadn't played in a while. It was

a super sunny, beautiful day. We played for a few hours and swam in the water after. Its moments like these when I think about how truly blessed I am. I've made some amazing friends here that I will share memories with forever. After that I went to work. I love work. The people are the best and so much fun. I think this day we had a training right after because I guess our restaurant is too dirty? We had a training on how to organize in the back and front and how to clean certain things. The ironic part about this was that while our supervisor was talking to us about it, one of my co-workers Caesar screams RAT! There was a giant black rat running around on the shelf. All the girls started flipping out while two of the guys tried to catch it. I don't know if we ever got it out or not to be honest haha. I just thought it was funny that we were

talking about how our restaurant is too dirty and we find a huge rat running around. After work I went to a small dance thing that was at pcc for anyone that wanted to go. There weren't very many people there but I knew most of the people so it was kinda fun. I went with Erica and Jaymee. We stayed for a couple hours and then they left. I stayed longer and hung around Karla, Yuna and Brandon. We just sat around and

talked but I figured it was better than sitting in my room doing nothing which is probably what would have happened. The whole party/dance thing ended at like 12:30 and as we were walking out everyone starting singing happy birthday to me! It was nice haha. I think Yuna had planned it. She's so adorable.

Saturday was my birthday!! To start it off, I woke up at like 6:45 to watch the national championship basketball game! Most. Intenese. Game. Ever. We were playing Bellarmine, which is somewhere in Kentucky. We had an amazing first half, but then our players started getting way too many fouls. Erica and I were like jumping up and down the entire game. Probably the most emotional thing ever. It was fun though. We ended up losing by 3 points. It was so sad. HOWEVER, we had an amazing season. Our team wasn't even nationally ranked and to end the season getting second in nationals....? I'd say thats pretty good. Im very proud of our team. I guess you could say we were the under dogs. No one expected us to even be part of the sweet sixteen, or the elite 8, but you better believe we were! After the game, Jaymee, Erica and I got ready to go into town. We had a lot of plans for the day but knew they probably wouldn't all get done. We wanted to hike diamond head, go to waikiki beach, and shop at the 3 story forever 21. When we got there, we realized that we didn't even know where diamond head was so we're going to do that sometime next week. We ended up just shopping. We went to Ross for a bit and then it took us a while to figure out how to get to forever 21. We stopped at Sam's Club to pick up pictures for Jaymee and ate all the free samples. By the way, popcorn chips....zoo delicious. And then stopped at the frozen yogurt place because it just sounded reaaallly good. So pretty much, the summary of our day was walking around town goofing off and shopping! It was fun and relaxed. I didn't really want to do anything extravagant for my birthday so it was perfect! And we all got some super cute new clothes! Jaymee has all the pictures from this day. Ill get them as soon as I can!

Sunday was church. We all wore our new outfits. Man did we look good! haha. At lunch we all got in trouble because we were "out of standards." The lady came up to me and was like "Umm...your whole knee is showing. Thats not appropriate. Don't come to dinner with that on." I just started laughing in my head. My skirt was plenty long. Honor code is ridiculous here. Gahh. The lady must have been in a bad mood or something. She literally talked to like every girl that was eating lunch that day. Something was wrong with everyones outfits. Even though I could, Im not going to rant about how annoying honor code is here. All I'm going to say is that they are going way overboard with it all. Sunday night all the basketball boys came from from nationals in boston! They were supposed to get here when the fireside started but they came an hour later like right after the fireside got out so pretty much everyone and there mothers were outside when the basketball team got back. I think the team really liked all the support. They came back with really good attitudes about the final game and the season in general. It was really good to see.

Holy?

Today I did a photoshoot with the same guy that took the pictures with me and some friends at the temple. It was a lot of fun but I realized that I will never be a model haha. I cant work the camera. Its just not really my personality I guess you could say. In a way I guess I'm shy when it comes to this stuff. Maybe it just takes time and practice. I don't know. But thats not what I wanted to write about. I was approached by a guy in the photography club that came to get some practice with professional photographers. He told me his name and that he was from Vietnam. I told him my name was Zoe and he asked if I was from Utah. I laughed because everyone from out of the United States thinks that every white mormon person is from Utah. I told him I was from Arizona and (this is the best part) he said, "Oh. You look holy. So I thought you were from Utah." Is that a compliment? I didn't know how to respond to that. I honestly don't even remember what I said to him. It was the strangest thing anyone has ever said to me.

Time flies.

Its hard for me to believe that I have been living in Hawaii for this whole school year and I only have 3 weeks left. Its even harder for me to believe everything that has happened in this amount of time. I have loved every moment of this journey. As you may or may not know, the beginning wasn't exactly what I expected. Originally, Lindsay had convinced me to come with her just for a semester and then we would both go to Provo together. We both were accepted here and that was the plan. But life doesn't always go as planned. Last summer, when we were getting excited to come here in the Fall, she met Spencer who has changed her life forever, as well as the rest of my families. They got engaged which left me coming to Hawaii alone. I was honestly considering not even coming anymore. Going to a place that I knew absolutely no one wasn't exactly my ideal situation. Little did I know, it came to be the best decision I have ever made. I couldn't be more grateful for the chance that I got to be able to come here for a year. At times I feel ungrateful for leaving. Its hard to explain to people the reason why I am leaving Hawaii because no one can completely comprehend it unless they've been here. It was probably the hardest decision I have ever made to decide to move back to Provo to be with friends in family and I hope that my family and friends will support me in that decision. At times, I keep thinking that I am going to come back. I'll always want to be here, but I think that in the long run, going to BYU provo is better for my future. People always say to follow your heart, not your mind. They seem to be meshing together, which is what has made my decision so hard. I know that I will love it there too, Im just having a hard time saying goodbye to everything that I have come to love here. I'm hoping that I chose the right thing. I have met some of the most amazing people here and I am going to miss them a lot. I feel like I have learned and grown so much in these short 9 months, and I wouldn't have been able to had I not come here alone. I've met people from all over the world, worked at the Polynesian Cultural Center, which was in and of itself one of the most amazing experiences I have ever gotten, and learned of the different cultures of the world, while living on the most beautiful island of Oahu. Its hard to believe that in 3 weeks, I wont have much of this anymore but I know that I am just moving on to more new and exciting things in my life. I found this quote thats very simple, but it has a lot of meaning to me.

"The purpose of life is a life of purpose."

I know that there was a reason why Lindsay met Spencer the time she did, and that I came to Hawaii alone. Even though having her here probably would have made the experience 1000x better, I think that there are a lot of things that I may not have learned because there was someone else here that I could depend on. I definitely learned a lot about independence and surviving on my own. Im 3000 miles away from my home, and I'm in the middle of the ocean. Its hard to sat that I could still be dependent on someone. I know that there was a purpose for me being here. I've learned a lot about myself, patience, how to be more outgoing, independence, the true meaning of friendship, had multiple testimony building experiences, and have had the time of my life in the process.

"Time is what we want most, but...what we use worst."

Its hard for me to think back to the times that I just sat in my dorm room on a rainy day. I feel like I lost so much time when I could have been sitting on the beach just admiring the ocean and everything else here. Time is so precious and my time in Hawaii is coming to a close. I want to be able to make use of every second here. I cant express how grateful I am to have been here. It has been such a blessing in my life. I know that everything that I have experienced and learned here will help me in the future. I have overcome so many fears and gotten over things that probably would have stuck with me had I not moved so far away. This was part of my plan all along and I hope that I'm following the right promptings in going to Provo. Hawaii will always hold a place in my heart. It has made a huge impact on my life and I am excited to see what else is in store for my future.

The randomness of my life.

Today I went with Erica to decorate Jordan and Mustapha's door because they were coming home from regionals in Washington. We won! Anyway, we went and decorated their door which was fun and then I went to my Book of Mormon class but I was a little early. The stake center doors are always locked except like one so obviously I picked the wrong one first. When I got the right door, I walked in and there were two guy sitting in the lobby. They stole the couch I wanted. They said hey and asked me how I was. I responded by saying "Im good, thanks!" After sitting there for 10 minutes or so, several people did the same thing I did and every time these two guys would laugh. I think they just sat in the lobby to watch people choose the wrong door and then say hi and ask how they were when they walked in haha. So I asked.... and thats exactly what they were doing haha and they made sure I knew that they laughed at me too haha. Just a random moment of my day that I wanted to share with you...

The roommate.

I just thought I would show the world my roommate. This is Lindy. She is from Taiwan! She's pretty quiet but if you watch her, you can catch her doing some really funny things haha. I already mentioned this earlier, but one day, I was sitting on my bed minding my own business but I kept hearing things. I look over and she's watching a youtube video on how to whistle with your fingers hahahah. It was so great. Actually, the thing that makes me laugh the most to this day is that the first time we met she told me she didn't speak english. They way I found out that wasn't true? When she was skyping with someone in perfect english. Soo good haha. Please take note that she has the peace sign down. Classic. My roommate is awesome haha.

The things that occupy my life.

BASKETBALL GAME!

So last Saturday I called in sick to work and went to the basketball game with Erica at Chaminade. We got a ride on the spirit bus. I think thats what they call it haha. We jammed out to music all the way there. It felt like high school again. Sitting on a school bus, going to a

sports game with a bunch of loud students. When we got there, the

school looked like a resort. I began to rethink my choice of schools haha. Not really. It looked super nice on the

outside...the inside however was a different story. I dont even

know how to explain. The thing that confused me the most was that in the bathrooms, everything was automatic. The toilet, soap, sink, and paper towels. All of it. But there were no mirrors! Like what the heck? What bathroom doesnt have mirrors? Oh, and I dont think the stall doors had locks. Maybe that was just mine. But there were only 2. Oh well. It was a strange bathroom. Then the gym...I didnt think a college gym could get smaller than ours but apparently they do. The chaminade gym was like a high school gym too I think. And during half time, some random group of girls did like a zumba class on the court. It was the wierdest thing! I thought it might be like their cheer time or something but I dont even know! But I'd have to say that they funniest part of that night was there were 4 missionaries at the game in the row in front of us! I'm not exactly sure if theyw ere supposed to be there but oh well haha. They would get up and cheer and scream and

everything. It was funny and shocking. The game was super intense and really close. We lost by 2 points, which is a bummer but we

still made it to regionals! I swear there were

more BYU fans than chaminade fans there haha. At the very end of the game, one of the players on the other team threw the ball in the crowd as like a "take that!" kind of comment. Someone just chucked it back at his face haha. I kinda feel like I'm in high school when I talk about stuff like this because that just sound like something an immature teenager would do haha. I still sort of feel like Im in high school which is part of the reason why I am going to BYU provo next year. Im super excited! Anyways, it was a great game and well worth skipping work for!

TSUNAMI!

So I stole this idea from Erica but I don't think she'll mind :)

8:30 sitting in my room probably doing nothing and found out about the devastating earthquake in Japan and that we were on tsunami watch.

9:30 went over to Ericas for a girls night!

9:50 Jaymee left for an RA meeting about the tsunami watch. Erica and I begin to

freak out.

9:58 tsunami alarm goes off on the island...scary!

10:00 went back to my room to shower and grab my 38 hour survival kit that my mom made me before coming to hawaii :)

10:15 called my parents

11:00 another tsunami alarm

11:15 went back to Erica's room and took pictures and videos and whatever else you do when

there is a tsunami

11:30 watched the news

11:40 sent out a really sarcastic and kinda funny but informative text to family and a couple other people. apparently I freaked them out a little but. not my intention...

11:50 found out that there could potentially be 6 feet of water which would wipe out my room

wince I'm on the bottom floor. got a text from spencer saying that I probably wouldnt see any

of my stuff every again. that put things into perspective so erica and I went back to my room and packed my suitcase with whatever could fit in there and threw it in a random room upstairs.

12:00 another tsunami alarm

12:20 back to erica and jaymee's room

12:40 watched the news, proceeded to get scared

1:00-3:00 earthquake? watched the news, took more pictures, made more videos, watched the clock and waited forever. oh...and more tsunami alarms.

3:00 every had to move upstairs

3:20 nothing

3:30 still waiting

3:40 watched more of the news and what had happened to other parts of the island

4:30 sleeep

(Through all of this I was constantly calling and

texting people what was going on. Its hard to text like 15 people at the same time.)

Woke up the next morning with 6 missed calls, 10 text messages and 7 facebook messages and t

o find that there was no damage from the tsunami! Thank goodness. We got lucky

considering what just happened to Japan and the other islands of Hawaii. That's the story folks. Hope you enjoyed. I've certainly got my fair share of adventures here in Hawaii.

BEACH DAY!

Not the day after the tsunami but the day after that me, erica, jaymee, shonteri, and molly

went to the beach! Our original plan was to go hike diamondhead that morning but no one woke up so that idea was a bust. Then, we were going to drive to sharks cove and snorkel but molly's car wouldn't start so we resorted in going to hukilau beach! Can't go wrong there! We laud out for a while and then attempted boogy boarding with 5 people on 2 boards. We were semi successful but not really. I'm just trying to be positive :) Erica and I left around 1:30 so that we could go eat at Hukilau cafe and then go watch the basketball team at regionals online! Apparently the cafe is only open for breakfast on saturdays so we went to foodland and got food there instead. Erica of course went to get an apple...part of her daily routine. None of them fit her qualifications that day so she didnt get one haha. We watched the game online and we dominated! We're going to finals on monday and Im really sad because I have to work for the second half of the game! But if they win, then they go to nationals in Boston! Good luck seasiders!

PHOTOSHOOT!

Today was a goood day. It started off a little rough. I don't exactly know what I was thinking this morning when my alarm went off. Im pretty sure I thought it was a saturday so I just kept

sleeping. I have 8:00 church, and if you know me...you know I'm not exactly a morning person. the thing that woke me up was my roommate rushing out out the door at 8:45 to get to church. I don't know why the school even makes some wards go that early because obviously not everyone is making it there on time. It's so hard that early! So I didn't go to sacrament meeting but I went to gospel doctrine and relief society.

They sang to me during relief society for mybirthday because they were doing it for all march birthdays. And I got hi chews from them. If you don't know what they are, they're some sort of asian candy that I am obsessed with! They're so good. What a wonderful birthday present haha. At 4:00 me, erica, shonteri, jaymee, molly, and rhonda went to the temple and got pictures professionally taken! They're soo cute.

I only have a couple of them right now but we are getting the rest tomorrow. The best part about it? FREE!! I have made some really great friends that I am going to miss a lot next year. I sometimes feel like I'm crazy for leaving hawaii and probably always will but we'll see. I'm so grateful for my life and everyone in it!

Domination.

This post goes to all you Grand Canyon University friends that read my blog (none). Last night our basketball team creamed GCU. It was an amazing game! We were on FIYAAA!! I met up with Erica and Rhonda there. I didn't have work yesterday so I got to see the whole thing! It was a miracle haha. Im gonna miss coming to these games. After it was over, Erica and I waited for Jordan and Mustapha to come from their team meeting or whatever they do after games. We went over to their house and watched Starsky and Hutch. It never gets old hahah. But of course I fell asleep at the end. So theres one more game on Saturday, but its in town. I really want to go but I've got work. I think I'm coming down with the flu or something....I think I'll call in sick. :)

$0.00

Yesterday was National Pancake Day or something like that at IHOP so you better believe that I spent 45 minutes on a bus one way to get my free stack of pancakes! So good. Its nice to get a receipt that says $0.00 at the bottom of it! I went with a few friends...Karla (middle) and Taylor (right). Karla is in my ward and I work with Taylor. When we got back, they had work and I finished watching the last episode of bachelor! Oh my gosh. I am obsessed. To all of you that do not watch it...you are missing out.
Anyway, then I went to work. Work was pretty laid back because we didn't have a ton of people come in and we got done super early. It was nice. After work I went over to Erica's for a couple hours and we just hung out, talked, and overloaded onPhotobooth pictures. We took like 50 of the most random pictures. Oh well. It was fun haha. She is going to Utah State next year and so wewill still be able to hang out because i'll be in provo!

So this morning I woke up and went to breakfast with Erica. There wasn't like anything good. After that we went on a little run around Laie. We ran past the temple and through the

neighborhoods. Then we went to the bathroom in the elementary school haha. We decided people probably thought that we were like pedophiles so we got out of there as soon as we could. Then we ran to the point and sat and admired the ocean and Hawaii. It was soo nice out...perfect to just sit and relax. Then we "ran" (walked) back to campus and did a short zumba workout to Waka Waka. The best part about that was that I was doing it in front of a mirror. I looked ridiculous. We're going to try to learn the whole thing haha.

Tonight is the last home basketball game. Its kinda sad, but it will be fun! Last game as a Seasider because imma COUGARR BABBYY!