My trip to Hawaii!

 Hi guys, it's Silje - long time no write! 

In the spirit of school starting back up again, I figured it was the perfect time to talk about what I did this summer, just to hold on to summer for a little while longer. 

For most of the summer, I worked as a commercial Mortgage Loan Intern for a financial company in Bellevue - it was exciting to enter into the corporate world and build connections with business leaders to expand my network! If you can get an internship during your time here at PLU, I totally recommend you do so, no matter what you're studying. But, moving on to the fun part - my vacation. During the COVID pandemic, I wasn't really able to travel anywhere except for back and forth between Norway and the US for holidays like Christmas. So, I was really ecstatic to find out that my boyfriend and I were going to Hawaii! I had never been before, and our trip was booked to go to Kona, Big Island for 8 days! 

Horseback riding in Hilo, Big Island (The brown one in the
back was Kiwi, and she's the one who kicked me off. She
freaked out when a group of motorcycles rode by us.)

Our trip was full of adventure, and we were out and about almost every single day. We went to the farmers market and tried some fruit I never even knew existed (ice cream banana and strawberry papaya to mention a couple), went horseback riding on the other side of the island (and got kicked off the back of the horse), snorkeling (saw hundreds of Dory's), hiked up an active volcano (really hot over there), hiked to a waterfall (really hot over there too) and saw lots of beautiful sunsets by the pool. 

Hike (more like just walking up stairs actually) to the waterfall

  

One thing I noticed about Big Island was that there are a lot of lava rocks there - like, a lot. Big Island has 4  active volcanoes, and we visited Kīlauea which is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. On average, it erupts every two to three years, most recently a year ago (September 2021). What's even more interesting is that the different eruptions have caused the island to grow - just during the last eruption, it added one square mile of coastland - and this volcano alone has erupted more than 30 times in the last 60 years. That's a lot of extra coastlands. 

We definitely had a great time in Hawaii, and hope that sometime next year we'll be able to go explore another Hawaiian Island; Maui is on my bucket list. In the meantime, enjoy some photos of our trip! 

Until next time,

- Silje

Steam coming from the volcano 

The hiking trail up to the volcano 

Sunset view by the pool

No vacation without margaritas

Our view from the balcony (random lava rocks in the middle)

Beach day

My Okinawa Trip in Japan!

Hi everyone! It's Rei :) I hope you all had a great summer! During this summer 2022, I was back home in Japan! Since it's still hard to travel to some Asian countries, I would like to share some of my experience in Okinawa, which is southern-most prefecture in Japan. 

A little bit of Okinawa

Okinawa is a prefecture in Japan consisting of more than 150 islands in the East China Sea between Taiwan and mainland Japan. It is known for its tropical climate, wide beaches and coral reefs, and World War Ⅱ battlefields. The largest island (Okinawa Prefecture) is home to the Allied invasion of 1945, and the Churaumi Aquarium, home to whale sharks and manta rays! 

And here is where I went and what I did!

Scuba diving in Okinawa is one of my most memorable experiences! Many Japanese beaches are dark-colored and not very beautiful (in my opinion), but the ocean in Okinawa is clear and nice! 

Clownfish!!

It was bigger and cuter than I had imagined. We got close to the fishes while feeding them, so we were surrounded by them too. It was very exciting to see the fishes up close.

After exercising by scuba diving, we went to eat shaved ice recommended by locals. The tropical shaved ice with mango and pineapple was a perfect combination of sour fruit, condensed milk, and fluffy ice!

What I wanted to do but couldn't😭

Visiting Shurijo (Shuri Castle)! Shuri Castle was the political, diplomatic, and cultural center of Ryukyu Kingdom, which was established in 1429, It flourished for about 450 years until 1879, when the last king, Shoutai, handed it over to the Meiji government. The castle was built it in the middle to late 14th century. The main hall and other buildings were designed national treasures before the war, but were destroyed by fire during the Battle of Okinawa. The castle is often restored, and right now it is in the middle of a long-term restoration project that will continue until 2026, so I was unable to visit this summer :(

It would take a long time to tell you everything I did in Okinawa, so I will end it here. I hope I have been able to share some information Okinawa! If you would like to know more about this area, come into our Office and ask me about it! Good luck on the new school year!! 

-- Rei