Honolulu, Hawaii

Aloha!!
The past two days i spent running around Honolulu and it was fabulous!  After we got on the boat in Hilo, it moved to Honolulu.  Our first day in Honolulu was Wednesday and we had all day.  Me, Jamie, Erica and Andrew were going to go to Diamond Head but after we found out it was an hour bus ride, we decided to skip that and head to the beach!  We went to Waikiki beach and just laid out all day.  Tess and Stephanie met up with us on the beach and Wednesday was actually steph's 21st birthday!  So they met up with us on the beach and then me, steph and andrew decided to get some surfing lessons and go surfing!  Our teacher was Tony and we were literally on the sand for about 3 minutes, and then he was just like.. alright lets get in the water!  Paddling out is not fun AT ALL!  my shoulders were on FIRE from paddling so much.  Once we got out there though we caught some waves.  I got up each time but the first couple times i would only be up for like 3 seconds before falling down.  After my like 3rd wave though i could ride one.  it was awesome!  and me and stephanie actually caught the same wave one time and rode it for soooooo long!  it was kinda annoying though because i could have rode so many waves longer, but there were so many people that i had to jump off before i crashed into them.  but it was awesome!!  After surfing, we went back to the ship and showered and we actually stayed in a hotel in Waikiki wednesday night for stephanies birthday.  So we went to the hotel and got ready and then went out to dinner at Duke's, which is this awesome restaurant on the beach.  It actually kinda reminded me of Hollister on the inside.  I had Huli Huli chicken which was sooooooooooooooooooo good!  everyone said how their food was amazing and the service was amazing too (stephanie made sure to tell the hostesses that it was great service, great food and our waiter nick was awesome).  They also brought out this HUUUUUUUUUUGE ice cream cake slice to stephanie, which we all ended up eating because it was soooo big, and it was free!  how awesome is that?! hahaha.  After Duke's we went to Senor Frogs.  It was fun and i actually met people from Belmar there!  what a small world. we stood there and chatted about monmouth and the jersey shore for a long time.  and if anyone has ever heard the song "i'm on a boat"... it came on last night at senor frogs and everyone from SAS got up and was dancing on the stage because that is our life!  we're on a boat! hahah. After senor frogs, we went to zanzabar but decided not to go in because it was late and no one wanted to pay a cover charge.  We then just went back to the hotel and crashed. 
This morning, we woke up and went back to the ship and then went to Wal-mart where we stocked up on snacks!  On the ship, we only get 3 meals a day and then you can buy snacks from the pool bar all day but that can get expensive.  After wal-mart, we came back to the ship and then me and Tess went out to buy a Japan railpass.  A railpass can only be purchased in the united states and not japan, and its a train ticket that is valid for 7 straight days and you can use it as many times a day you want on any train besides the fastest bullet trains.  Since we want to do a lot of travelling in Japan to many cities, we decided that would be the cheapest thing to do instead of just buying tickets at each train station.  Also, Japan is VERY expensive and you could easily spend 100 dollars on 1 train ticket one way and that is on a sleeper train... not a bullet train.  so it will be really convienent and now we dont have to worry about transportation and language barriers in that department.  After we got our rail pass, me and tess just wandered around Honolulu and the Aloha tower stores and then eventually went back to the ship around 4.  When i got on the ship i wrote some post-cards out and made some phone calls... since i wont have my phone again until May 5th.
The ship pulled out at 8 tonight.  I was up on the 7th deck while we pulled out and its weird to think that...
a) we wont be seeing land for another like 10 days
b) we are leaving america until may 5th
c) the trip basically is just beginning!
everyone on the deck was waving goodbye to land and yelling bye to it because we wont see it and wont see america til may 5th.  its crazy to think that!  I've heard that this stretch is going to be a little rocky weather and wave wise but once we are in japan, it will be smooth sailing between countries.  also i have a feeling that once we get to japan, this trip is going to flyyyyyy which i'm nervous about. hahah.  and its just so weird that like... our school is a ship!  this whole trip so far still amazes me and i love every second of it. 
wow, today was a long post! 
oh!  my email adress too is cmtammany@semesteratsea.net
email me if you guys have any questions or even just to say hi!  getting emails is the highlight of my day.  oh! and i was on facebook today and it was odd because i havent had it in so long that i wasnt even on it for long! shocking i know, since im ALWAYS on it haha but im getting used to not having it.  so yea, emails are great because i have no contact with the outside world. hahah.  i should be posting pictures soon too.  probably while at sea ill buy some internet minutes to do it and when i do i'll post the link on here if you arent already my facebook friend or don't have one. 
well, i need to go to bed... i'm EXHAUSTED and there is no such thing as sleeping in either which sucks. hahah.
so until next time!!
captain tam!