Fun times in Hawaii

Sunday
We all slept in Sunday - it felt awesome! When I woke up, I pretty much felt like I was falling apart. My hips, thighs and calves were so sore from hiking down and up Waipio Valley. Not to mention, I got a piece of sand stuck between the side of my foot and sandal which created a nice sore during the hike up. Okay, enough complaining - I'm in paradise. I can handle stiff muscles and a sore on my foot.

Anyways, I was still practically sleeping when we left the house on Sunday to head to Pololu Valley. I wore a tank top and flip flops. I did not bring a sweatshirt or anything for later in the evening when it gets a little chilly and I did not bring my tennis shoes. In my own defense, I did bring socks with the intent of bring my shoes but forgot to grab them. Pololu Valley was gorgeous! I stayed up top while the others hiked down. This hike is no where near as bad a Waipio Valley. I'll go back (with appropriate foot attire) and hike it with Ryan when he gets here. The whole forgetting my shoes actually turned out okay. I was able to have some time for myself and what better place to clear your mind than overlooking a beautiful valley. (I had just submitted my residency rank list and so I got to sit there and think about my rank and if I wanted to change anything, etc.) I was so nice to be by myself for a while. Not that I don't like hanging out with all my roomies, but we have all been constantly together literally every hour of the day (except for sleeping) since we got here last Saturday (thanks Alamo for the free van upgrade!).

The beach at Pololu Valley

 

Pololu Valley

I could see some of my roomies down on the beach.

After everyone got back up the valley. We went to get some ice cream (this is a daily occurrence for us)! We took a scenic road back home and I wasn't able to take any pictures for two reasons: 1) I was messing around with my camera while at Pololu Valley and it took me forever to figure out what I did and then get it back to normal and 2) it was voggy out. Vog is like smog (you can see it in the picture of the valley above) but it comes from the volcano.

Monday
Yesterday we sent the entire day with Dr. Rama a double board certified psychiatrist/pediatrician who runs her psych practice out of her home! {yeowzers, I don't think I'd ever run a psych practice out of my home} While she was in medical school at Tulane in New Orleans, she became interested in ESP and energy healing. She then studied Reiki while in India spending time with her family. We spent the morning with her developing self care plans for ourselves so we have a stress reduction technique in place when we state residency. We talked a lot about our inner state and how to maintain happiness in our lives especially during residency when demands on us will be high. As part of this, we did some meditation. She told us it was okay to fall asleep and I did. Apparently the meditation only lasted ten minutes but I fell asleep and even had a dream about Kathleen and Sean hooking up a buggy to a horse - weird! We ate lunch at a little local restaurant on the beach. It was nice to be outside by the ocean, but the services was terrible. Oh well, at least we were able to get some fresh air. Then for the afternoon we all received an energy healing treatment which was supposed to bring us more energy. It was interesting to say the least. She started on the face and then went from the feet up. I could feel more 'energy' moving through the right leg than the left. I'm not sure if what I was feeling was energy or her moving. Either way, it was kind of cool to experience but I don't know if I would necessarily seek out this treatment. But none-the-less, very interesting philosophy and at least I now have some knowledge of this technique should a patient become interested in my future practice.

Boys will be boys. Sean and Wade having a little towel fight prior to leaving our house for the day.

They were pretty intense.

Our outdoor classroom at Dr. Rama's house. It overlooked the ocean - beautiful!

We all got to try fresh coconut. Wade got a little excited and wanted to eat it all - lol.

Kelsey at the outdoor restaurant we went to for lunch.

There were a ton of fruity tropical adult beverages on the menu. Sean is displaying everyone's disappointment that we were in the middle of class and couldn't order any.

After we finished up class, we all went and got Hawaiian Ice! It was super delicious!! We then had to run to the grocery store and pick up some produce and then to Costco for milk, bread, etc. The produce at Costco is DISGUSTING (rotten/moldy/bugs-all-over) so therefore we are willing to pay more for it at the regular grocery store. We are hoping to hit up some farmer's markets for fresh produce eventually. Grocery shopping with six people is interesting...

Sean, Kathleen and Kelsey looking for stuff to buy.

Wade informing me I should stop taking pictures in Costco. Nick is in the background chilling with the cart.

We have no sham :)

The fruit of our Costco excursion.

After leaving Costco we had a little run in...

Ironically we were all singing "I fought the law and the law won" when we got pulled over. We were on the highway outside of town, but apparently it was still a 45 mph zone, not the 55 mph as we had thought. Oops. The cop was not pleased with us. He asked for the vehicle rental papers, and we pulled out papers from the previous car renters (note to see, take all personal stuff out of the car before returning it). After he spent a lot of time in his cop car writing out our ticket, he came back and we told him we were all medical students down here for a month. After he learned we were down here for 'class' and not vacation, he was a little nicer. Last year's class warned us about the police as they too received a speeding ticket. Lesson learned I guess. Once we finally made it home and unloaded all the groceries, we had a big family valentine's day dinner consisting of cheese burgers :) Hope everyone had a Happy Valentine's Day :)

~Ashley

PS: all three of us girls on the trip kept dropping hints that it was going to be valentines day and the guys should buy chocolates or something. This is what we got for valentine's day from all the guys....

....a picture of a man of the sandwich islands with his helmet

....and a picture of grocery store roses.