kammi deanne: September 2010

Yesterday was definitely a full but very awesome day. In the morning, I caught the bus with Kellie and my roommate from last year, Micaela, to go Skydiving!!! We took the bus to a town called Haleiwa to a McDonalds where the Skydive Hawaii van picked us up, which was very convenient since we don't have a car here and the bus doesn't go by the Skydiving location. Micaela and I were going to Skydive but Kellie didn't have the money so she ended up being the picture taker. When we got there we had to watch a ten minute video on skydiving and basically sign our life away on seven pages saying that we were ok with taking the risk that the plane may malfunction and that the parachute might not work and that we were willingly risking our lives doing this :) Pretty scary... especially when we realized that we were doing this on 9/11 haha. But about five minutes after that, our tandem partner guide strapped us up and we were on our way to the runway to catch the plane! I wasn't nervous at all but just completely excited!! We loaded the plane and there were two benches we sat on. I was sitting right in front of my instructor and we were hooked together. The view from the airplane was amazing flying over the Hawaii coast and looking through the clear water. Then they opened the door and it was time to go! The first tandem group jumped and that's when I got a little nervous thinking "Holy crap they just jumped out of an airplane... no big deal!" I was like the 4th person to go. We actually jumped out backwards and did two back-flips out of the airplane. It was nuts! But as soon as we straightened out we were free-falling for about 20 seconds before the parachute came out and then we glided to the bottom. It was sooo crazy but so incredible. The adrenaline rush mixed with the view of the mountains and ocean right below me was the coolest thing ever. My instructor gave me the reigns and I was able to steer the parachute for a little bit. We came to our landing and I safely landed on my feet. It was the coolest thing I have ever done!
After that we shopped around in Haleiwa and then ate lunch at a Thai food place called Haleiwa Eats. After that we rode the bus home and went to the beach. Pretty much the best day I've had yet here in Hawaii!!

This was the sweet rainbow van that picked us up from McDonalds!

Micaela and I

Signing my life away!! EEEP!

Getting ready to go!

Micaela and her instructor

Micaela, me, and Kellie

Walking out to the plane

Getting on the plane! No turning back now :)

Micaela on her way down

Me!!

We landed safely! So awesome :)

Hahaha look at our messed up hair

We were so excited we did it! We even got a certificate to prove it :)

Well I am officially back in Hawaii for my junior year of school! My bestie Kellie Morgan came along with me and we are rooming together. We are very excited for the new adventures this year :) Our house is only a couple blocks from campus, a couple blocks from Foodland, the grocery store, and a couple blocks from the beach! So it is pretty much the most perfect location. Our house was pretty sketchy, dirty, and ghetto when we first arrived. I definitely had to readjust back to the Hawaii living conditions. Not to mention that there are six girls living in our house with two bedrooms and one bathroom. But as Kellie and I started unpacking, our room started to look more "homey". We also made a run to walmart to get some things for the house like rugs, towels, lamp, and decorations to spice things up. And when I say "make a run", I mean a 6 hour run... including the time waiting for the bus, the actual bus ride, shopping, and heading back. It ended up being a pretty long day!! We are getting used to the house and are starting to actually enjoy it. Today we went to campus to get our ID cards, talk to our counselors, and try to find jobs. Slowly but surely, things are coming together and by Wednesday of next week, we will definitely be ready to start up classes!!