fun filled weekend

Oh man,
what a fantastic 5 days. For those of you who don't have facebook and spotted my pictures, there are a lot from this past weekend so I'll try and post them on flickr as well so that you can view them too.
Starting with Friday, I woke up and went hiking with 2 awesome people. We went to Koko Head which is on the east part of the island. It was a pretty epic hike. It wasn't super song but it was REALLY steep. It was an old military railroad that we walked on that they used back int he day to carry goods up and into this giant crater on the other side. The hike took less than 2 hours one way but it was intense, BUT the view was amazing! Totally worth the pain. haha. After, they took me out to lunch and drove through town a bit. We had some dessert and then I came home and took like a 3 hour nap. The evening consisted of the youth service. THey have a bus shuttle that goes around and picks up the kids so I got to experience that. It was amazing. The group of kids that I had gotten to know from going to their middle school were there and it was a great feeling seeing the excitement on their face when they saw that I was there.
Saturday we had this college event called cool down. We basically just hung out at this park by the beach all day. Super fun! We played volleyball and a bunch of other team games, ate lots of food, and got really burnt by the sun. haha.
Sunday after the morning service, we had their baptism celebration which was awesome. They had about 5 pools set up along with other giant jumper things with water. I believe over 70 people got baptized! Then after that long afternoon we rested and prepared for the college service which was also pretty great.
Monday was in my opinion one of the highlights of my visit so far. Pearl Harbor!!! I finally got to go visit and see the USS Arizona memorial. I have been wanting to go since I was a little girl. WOW. To be able to finally go and see this place that has such importance in our history, was beyond words. The thing that really amazed me was the fact that there is still oil that leaks from the ship. I've always read about it but to see it, then hear that people refer to it as "tears of blood" was crazy. I mean, there are soo many bodies that are forever trapped there and that just blew me away. Such an amazing experience that I will always remember.
Tuesday we had a class fun day at the beach. We started with shaved ice, I enjoyed it. Then headed to the beach. It was pretty cool. THere were turtles everywhere!!! Plus, for those of you who are LOST fans, it was the same beach that they filmed the show so that was pretty cool. We had so much fun. We also had our own little BBQ there and had some fish, shrimp, and chicken. Delicious! Then on our way back, headed to DOle Plantation and were surrounded by pineapples. We all ended the long day with some spectacular dole whips... soo good.
Now back in class, finishing up the week and getting ready to start he internship part of the school next week!
Hope everyone is doing well!!!