Jellyfish

When we went to the beach yesterday afternoon, there was a warning sign about jellyfish in the water. As there were tons of people in the sea we decided to go in anyway, and just not go too far out, so if anyone started screaming we could escape quickly! Then we watched the news last night, and apparently there were 363 jellyfish spotted at Waikiki Beach yesterday, and by 3:30 (we got out of the water at 3:45), 61 people had been treated for stings. Scary.

The rest of yesterday was good too - unbelievably hot, but then again it usually is here. We went to Ala Moana Shopping Centre for the first time, which is absolutely VAST. There are three or four floors, and it must take up so much of Waikiki. I normally have a pretty good sense of direction but we both got so disoriented that it was almost impossible to get out! We had gone in search of adaptors and sim cards, but the sim cards had terrible international rates and the adaptors were like $11 each, so we gave up and just wandered around. There was a Lego store, which Tom of course adored, and which we spent about twenty minutes in while he wandered around ooh-ing and aah-ing. We spent a while chatting with the assistant in Lush, who was lovely and jealous of us studying abroad - he wants to study in England, although why anyone would want to do that beats me =)

I'm trying to take more pictures of life here but as Tom gets embarrassed every time I whip out my camera, it's difficult, to say the least! I might just take pictures all day for the next couple of days, and post them up here soon.

We had our first Monday evening classes last night, and although we left the flat 45 minutes before (and the bus takes 20 minutes), we both ended up being a few minutes late - forgot to really factor in the rush-hour traffic. I went to British Comic Literature, which was amazing (we watched Blackadder!), and just had a great time; Tom went to State & Local Government, couldn't find the right classroom, asked some of the teachers nearby where it should be, and then gave up and came home - once he checked his HPU email, it turned out that the class had been cancelled at around lunchtime. Some people are just irresponsible =) It was fantastic for me though, it meant that by the time I got home just after 9 dinner was ready and waiting for me! We could afford to buy chicken stock last time we went shopping, so the shepherd's pie last night had flavour! It was almost a miracle! Oooh, and we have a mini oven on the way, so we should be able to start making more interesting stuff soon as well. Tom got an enchilada recipe off Ashley, a study abroad student who lived with us in our very first term at Essex, so that should be first.

Tom was probably late for class this morning - at about 10.30 he started wondering what time his class started, and it turned out that he was working on the basis that it ended at 12.15 instead of starting at 10.50. Again, some people never think!

Right, now I have to rush off to class.