Out with a Bang

I have been having a phenomenal final week in the states. Everything seems to be going my way. I randomly got in touch with someone who works a resort where I'm looking to find a job and I'll be meeting him within my first couple days. I also managed to get in touch with someone living in the city I'm flying into (Manila) and they are happy to take me as their guest for a few nights. I can't thank either one enough for the help they've offered.

I picked up several thousand Filipino pesos (not much money), my visa was approved and shipped back in time, packing is coming along, and I'm finishing up the last few things I wanted to take care of here (minus going to Pearl Harbor).

Meg took me to Waikiki a couple nights ago and I had a hard time leaving. We went to the international market where we practiced our haggling skills, sipped pina coladas next to the beach set in front of a setting sun, went to a rotating restaurant overlooking the entire town, and finished up indulging ourselves at half-priced sushi night in a spectacular sushi/karaoke bar. We ended the night fat, happy, and exhausted, not to mention Meg let me drive her manual 6-speed car all the way home on the other side of the island which was the cherry on top of one unforgettable night. For anyone who knows me well, I have a little bit of an obsession with driving stick-shift cars which is heightened by the fact that I don't have one thus am rarely ever able to drive one.

The car was only the beginning of my driving adventures recently however. I was able to finally meet up with Mark and he took me flying with his wife Claire. Allow me to attempt to describe the things I set eyes upon today:
There were sheer cliffs painted with lush vibrant growth rising with pride 2000ft vertically from the frothy blue ocean below. Ridges farther inland folded and cut back into the mountains where streams of water sprung from the high volcanic rock. Around the ridges we would see the water courageously cascading down the mountain with the vigor of a stampeding herd of wildebeest. The gorgeous black jagged shoreline covered with greenery was sprinkled with mansions - resort-like houses of the wealthy far from the hustle and bustle of regular American life. The climate change within the islands was spectacular. Flying not 20 miles from the lush rain forest climate of an island would often reveal a harsh, dry, and seemingly unforgiving desert with sparse houses along lonely dirt roads. These are the kind of roads and homes one might picture when imagining moving as far as possible from society. However, continuing another 10 minutes around the island would transform brown into green, dry into wet, and barrenness into abundant life. On the way back to Honolulu Mark gave me a brief lesson on flying and a "crash course," so to speak, on stalling. After demonstrating, he told me to pull out of a stall. I absolutely love roller coasters, but there is something about not being on a track and completely at the mercy of wind and gravity that makes weightlessness in a puny 4-seat plane particularly thrilling.

Diving with Mark on Monday and going to Coconut Island (Gilligan's Island) on Tuesday will round out my final domestic activities. Wednesday morning I leave for Manila and will be out of the states indefinitely.