LAX alphabet

Ok, I gotta share this picture. One of the things to do when you're bored that I saw on a website was to take a picture of every letter in the alphabet on the various signs. I have to admit, I definitely got some weird looks, but here are all the letters:

For the sake of all those traveling, if you have other cool fun cheap things to do in an airport, comment! Make the airport a fun experience :) Peace. Outtttttt.

Goodbye for a few weeks

Well dedicated readers (because I know there are millions of you), I am leaving Hawaii tomorrow evening. I will be going home (TX) for a few weeks to be with my family for Christmas and New Years. Here are a few pics on my last beach trip from Saturday

The beach is so peaceful. I've determined that one of my New Years Resolutions for 2013 is to read 1 book a month. I'm not so dedicated (yet) to make that 2/month or to do 1 a week like some people, but this is a good start for me. If you have any suggestions, feel free to comment. And, because I live in the most beautiful place on earth, I'm going to be spending some time on the beach to do this. (FYI - I'm kind of a non-fiction guy for now. Books on business and leadership and stuff. Those are interesting, but I'm open to anything)

SO, to celebrate the end of the semester/to relax, I went to someone's house who owns a mansion on a hill on the north shore. Seriously amazing. Here is the view from his house. 

 That's Tim. He's from Taiwan. Also, that's the ocean. 

Beautiful!

And that's the amazing hot tub and pool we were chilling in. I want one.

So, it was fun. Tomorrow, I will be getting on a shuttle to go to the Honolulu airport at around 8pm. My flight leaves Honolulu at 11:30pm for LAX and then I have a 5 hour layover in LAX!!!! What is there to do in an airport for 5 hours?!?! (Answer: http://www.dontmindme.com/6mis0507.php)

I'll be landing in Tejas around 5pm. One of the ideas as I was googling "what to do in an airport" is to find the person who is writing a blog on their laptop. I may do that. And if I do, I'll make sure to write about it. Much love everyone

My philosophy on finals

December 10th to December 14th is Finals week here at BYU-Hawaii. Some people are already done, some people will finish this week as well. I don't think many people have finals next week, but here are my thoughts on finals week. Let me share with you some pictures/posts from my friends about finals week, which I find amusing:

"Sleep during finals week? Ain't nobody got time for that!"

"These are those moments when "The Little Engine That Could" becomes shockingly relevant for adult life. Gotta keep chuggin'... 2 done, 4 to go. "

"they just found out that the new leading cause of cancer in people ages 18-26ish is actually finals week"

I have one message to people stressed about finals: Relax! Holy cow, it is not the end of the world! And even if it was (which ironically is supposed to be in a week a half), finals wouldn't matter! I firmly believe that if you study hard throughout the semester, finals week will just be another week with an emphasis on studying instead of actual assignments. The idea that finals week consists of red bulls or monsters, staying up all night, and stress is wrong. When you surround yourself by people who do this and if you do this, you psyche yourself out. Even if you stay up all night studying, you don't need to be stressed out when you do it. Be confident in what you know. Move on with life.

Relax = Less Stress = Better Grades

Don't get me wrong. You should not slack off. You should study hard all week. Spend as much time as possible studying, but just relax. Take one evening to just have fun. Take breaks in the midst of studying. Relax, work hard, and you'll do great on your tests. Be confident in yourself. Mahalo!

Best/Worst hike ever

Welcome back. I went on an adventure with Sariah Anderson and Courtney Bow today. It was quite fun. It was definitely the worst hike ever. But, it was fun. And we were happy. Let's start with 9:30 am. We meet in front of my dorm and start walking to the trailhead. Sariah says, "Oh, it's this other way" And I say, "ok" but then it wasn't. So we asked this guy who Sariah knows and he said, "Oh go that way (the way we were going) and follow the road all the way down" so we start walking again. But, we couldn't find the street that he was talking about, so we wound up next to a cemetery, which happened to have a dump right behind it (weird spot, I think)

But, we saw some cool stuff. It was fun. All this time, I call my roommate Khai No (who is the coolest roommate ever) and he told us where to go. We crossed over this creek

And then laughed at these signs which is right next to the trailhead:

So we get on our way. We find a mango on the trail and eat it! Because we're cool like that. And then we walk. and walk. and walk. and walk some more. I don't remember when it started, but all of a sudden everything we did was uphill like crazy!! Not fun. But, we keep going and going and going. And eventually we find a sign that says, "Pools -->" We were trying to get to the falls, we figured it was the same thing. SO, we go down this CRAZY forest. Super slippery. Long story short, we get to the waterfalls and there is NOTHING THERE!!! There is a pool, but it's kinda gross and the waterfall isn't going! It's not falling water! Super lame! So we start hiking. When getting to the falls, I took off my shoes and walked barefoot and when I was putting my socks back on, it accidentally fell in a gross pool of water. So I got mad and threw my other sock in. RIP beautiful socks. Then my friend Courtney Bow stubs her toe....twice! Sad. But, we make it back down the mountain and some couple in a truck gives us a ride back to campus. People are so nice :) But, here are some pics from the hike

Sariah on the left; Courtney on the right

That's Laie!

So beautiful, right?

Well, I hoped you like another adventure in my life. Until next time...

The Temple

Hello again. I still haven't told anyone about this blog. Maybe I will. Maybe I won't. But, in any case, I just wanted to say how much I love this place:

This is a temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. For those who are unfamiliar with temples, click here. But, as a summary, the church (aka Mormons) build temples for a few purposes. We literally believe that it is literally the House of the Lord and that He is there, although we may not see his physical presence. In the temple, Mormons make sacred promises with God to live up to a high standard of moral conduct. Many Mormons go to the temple to seek answers to their prayers or to simply feel more at peace. Yesterday, I went to this temple. This one is in Laie, Hawaii, but there are temples all over the world. I went to receive an answer to prayer/to be given direction in life. While I was there, I didn't feel like I received a direct answer to my prayer, but I felt peace and comfort more than I had in a long time. Even though I didn't get what I wanted, I got what I needed. God helped me in a way that I wasn't expecting. I love going to the temple. It's amazing.

Welcome to my blog! I'm new to blogging. I decided that I was gonna start doing this when I decided to step back from facebook. I still want to be connected to friends and family (or at least think that I'm connected), but facebook was distracting me from important things, so I wanna use this blog to tell people about my life. So....let me tell you about my life, because I know 100% of the people who read this will be family and close friends who know nothing about me.

P.S (But actually M.S (middle script))- I was inspired to start a blog also by my good friend Ali who started one.

SO, I live in Hawaii. I love it. It's the best. Do you disagree?

In Laie from the temple

Waiting for the bus on my way to go skydiving

More pictures to come later. Speaking of skydiving, I love it. I want to go again. Unfortunately, I don't have money to go again. I do, but there are more important things that I need to worry about getting before I do that. But, maybe in a few years when I have a real job and stuff I'll go again. Way fun. I recommend it. 

You may ask why I chose BYU-Hawaii to go to. A combination of my dad telling me that I should consider applying and a friend in Tucson, AZ who went here and telling me all the cool things about it here, plus a feeling from the Spirit that I definitely should come here after already saying I would. I love coming to school here because I get to meet people from all over the world. My roommate is from Myanmar (Burma). The 2 guys who lives on one side of me are from Sacramento and Indonesia. The guys on the other side are from Korea. A couple doors down a guy from Philippines. I've met people from Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Australia, Canada, China, Japan, and many other places. It's cool. I didn't talk to him, but I was in a conference with a guy from Kazakhstan. Way sweet. 

That's a taste of what's gonna happen in this place. No guarantees on how often I'll write or what I'll write about, but I guarantee it'll be worth it. 

-Nathan Cunningham (I should come up with an alias, any suggestions?)