Home sweet home!

Here I am, about a week into this.  I'm still loving it, even though it does get pretty hot and sweaty out.  I've really lucked out on housemates, as well as roommates.  There's 7 of us in the house, with all but 2 being in their mid to late twenties, and the two being in their forties or fifties.  I find myself eating a lot better, cutting out gluten (because everyone else did), meat, and a lot of dairy.  I went for a hike today, and we're often heading to the beach, or out for a walk.  This really is an amazing, beautiful oasis that I wouldn't mind spending more time in...

 A path I use most days...

Our pet chickens.  Fresh farm eggs, anyone?

SO MANY BANANAS!  These hang from our front porch, so if you want a banana - step outside.  We've been making a lot of dehydrated bananas, which have been amazing thus far.

My humble abode.  It isn't much, but it's got what I need.

The next door neighbors' horse.  Wouldn't let me pet him until I gave him a treat.

Some cows from down the street, I found while on a walk.


Wednesday, we decided to take the morning off and head to the beach.  And so I went into the ocean for the first time ever.

We then had some gluten free brownies and ice cream.  Yummy!


Fast forward to Friday, we worked early, went back to the beach...

Then my roommate and I bought a couple cans and headed out to a secluded peak to watch the sunset over Maui.

While sitting up there, we also had the chance to see a few sea turtles popping their heads out of the waves.  It was 4th Friday in Paia (a big celebration with music, good food, sales and FREE SAMPLES!), so we grabbed a bite to eat, headed to the liquor store for some beer and headed back to the farm.

That night, we had ice cream cake (for my hosts' sons birthday) and played some crazy ping pong.

A couple of the wwoofers in a friendly game of ping pong.

Today, we drove up to Kula for their farmers market, came back home, ate some lunch and went to go hiking in the rainbow eucalyptus forest.  The actual rainbow eucalyptus trees were not on our hike, but rather just across the street.  We hiked on.

Rainbow Eucalyptus tree!!

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Water was SOOO cold!!  I didn't have the guts to jump from up there.

 

Sitting on a throne of moss.

 

Words cannot describe how happy I am to be here.  The work is hard and sweaty, but I find myself not minding too much.  I have a bit of heat rash, but it comes with the territory.  We'll see where the rest of the weekend takes me.  I'm excited for all my adventures, big and small!

Aloha!

So here I am, first day here.  I woke up early, didn't sleep great last night - due to the windy weather last night.  Ate some oatmeal with peanut butter and a nice cup of coffee.  My morning view is the chickens wandering around, which is awesome...

The view from my window.


I visited a little, then went for a scenic walk.

There's my humble abode for the next 6 weeks!!

Fly Fly Away

Well, here I am in Maui, hanging out in my new room.

We'll start out with this morning.  I got to the airport about 5, got all my boarding passes, went through security and waited at the gate.  I thought I was in the clear, until TSA asked me to step over for a random search.  Then I set their alarm off, which required a full search.  Awkward, but I got on the plane, so I didn't care.

Fast forward to my first layover in Denver.  I got there fine, slept on the plane, and made my connection in JUST enough time.  Plane ride to LA had me reading, napping...not so bad.


LAX is a gu-hetto airport with nothing good to eat.  So, I got some "Pirate Booty" and a protein bar, and called it a day.  The plane ride from LA to Honolulu seemed to go on forever, since I finished my magazines and my book with a few hours left.


Honolulu, here I come!  It was hot there - really hot.  I guess I built up the tolerance for it being in Michigan and it being wintertime and all, but not gonna lie, I'm working up a sweat here.

I picked out my seat special so that I could look out the window on the flight over, but I picked out the one seat that had the jet blocking the window.  FAIL.  But, I still snapped an okay pic.

Once I got to Maui, Jeff - my host - picked me up from the airport, and we stopped by a little grocery store to pick up some basics.  I got in there, and couldn't think of anything.  So, I got greek yogurt, milk, tomato sauce and pasta.  I brought oatmeal, peanut butter, clif bars and tuna over with me...

Speaking of the oatmeal, that bad boy exploded in my suitcase.  Oatmeal everywhere.  So, I salvaged what I could and zipped my bag up to take care of it later.

Everyone here seems really nice, and I'm excited for this adventure!  I'll keep everyone updated as the weeks go on.

Packing...

Well, here it is, 9 hours away from leaving, and I'm creating a blog instead of finishing packing.

Just in case you weren't aware: I'm going to Hawaii for 6 weeks to work at a bed and breakfast in Maui.  How'd I come across this, you ask??  Well, I decided I wanted to go to Hawaii, so I did what anyone my age would do: sign up to WWOOF (wwoofhawaii.org) and work for 6 weeks to get free housing.  I'm excited and ready for whatever comes my way!




Well, I'm just about packed.  Trying to decide what to bring and what not to bring is near impossible, and I'm sure I'll forget something ultra important, yet bring something I won't use at all.

I've gotten everything into a backpack, and a suitcase.  I feel like I'm packing too much, but then I remember that A. I'm packing for six weeks, and B. some of this stuff doesn't come back with me (food, especially, and maybe some books.)


I'll keep everyone updated with pics and posts starting...maybe tomorrow.

Thanks again for all the great advice and stories everyone has been willing to share!!  This is the first place I've ever gone where 95% of all people had places for me to go, friends to visit, things to eat...and I'm ready for all of it!!