I miss hugs

The cat that drives me insane. Argh!!!! She likes to jump on me when I'm typing, or drink out of my glasses of water, or lick me, or lay on me when I'm trying to read. I've honestly never been more annoyed at a cat in my life. Her name is Sammy, but mostly I just call her "STOP!"

The view from my apartment. The mountains are really beautiful in the morning, and at sunset. I'm always glad when the sun goes down, because it gets really hot in here!!!
Today I had "cultural understanding training." I'm sorry, I could have taught the class myself after a semester of Cultural Anthropology 102 freshman year of college. It was really redundant for me to be there, plus I had to pay $5 out of pocket... grrrr. But it was in Honolulu on a beautiful day, so at least that was good. Plus, we went to Kailua to check out the other center site... it's a lot nicer than ours. In that they have full electricity and computers and desks and paper and space...

I work at the Church of Restoration, which is an Assembly of God thing, and the minister is INSANE... and not just because he's AoG, but just because I think he'd be that way anyway. But I really love my coworkers. It's working really well with them, I think I'm a good fit with the team. My boss Catherine likes me a lot, I think, and I know my other coworkers do, too.

Even though people keep telling me my living situation is "bad", I don't think so. For the most part, I'm comfortable here, and while I could stand to be a little better neighborhood, I'm not living in the hood or anything. I'll move when the time comes, when something better comes along, and I have all my coworkers helping me (since housing is sort of their specialty), so it'll all be OK in the end.

Still getting used to the temperature and pace of life here. The bus drivers get off at stops to buy coffee and cigarettes, leaving the bus in the middle of the road. On Tuesday it was crazy trying to get to work because there were 90 people on the bus trying to get to the 50-foot waves... I went to a parade in downtown Wahiawa, and everyone moved into the street so that there was only one lane for the parade to go down. People pretty much do what they want here, and for them, it works. I always think "This would never happen on the mainland..."

That being said, with the exception of my coworkers who seem fascinated with where I come from, most people say "Mainland" like it's a dirty word. Sometimes I don't feel welcome here because I'm pale and an outsider. Hopefully that will change, but from what I heard at the "cultural understanding training," I don't think that will happen unless I stay here for 10 years. Most of the people at the training definitely needed it.

I'm still dealing with spotty internet, so I'm doing the best I can, and hopefully I can get hooked up soon. I got recommended to one company today, so I'm going to check into it. :-)

I love you guys, and I'll try to update soon!!!