Week Three - The City that Never Sleeps...In.

As if the 6-hour time difference and the six lanes of traffic outside my window weren't enough, it is physically impossible to sleep in in Hawai'i.

No one is sure why, but everyone on the exchange program agrees; it's impossible to sleep in. The latest is 10:30 which is nothing for college students. My personal record is 9:30, which three years ago may have been a victory, but since I've been away at school is child's play.

The lack of sleeping in on this island can be attributed to a number of things. First, there's too much to do during the day that waking up early is almost a requirement. Every Tuesday and Thursday I don't have class until 2pm, but I'm always up before 8am to catch the bus down to Waikiki for our Tuesday/Thursday Beach Mornings. Neil, Travis, Ed and myself try to get down there early to catch the low tide which is better for snorkeling and to maximize our time at the beach before class.

What do you do before class, Eric?

I ride a bus to the beach to snorkel and lay in the sand. Why? What do you do?

Another obstacle in our way of early afternoon wake-ups are the NFL games on Sunday. Sunday is the day of rest, but not when you live in Hawai'i. You have to wake up before 7am to get over to the nearest Steeler Bar (The East Side Grille on University Ave.) for a 1pm EST kick off. Yes, a Steeler Bar, because no matter where you are, you are always a short walk from Steeler fans.

It's nice that football is over by 5pm every Sunday, but its unfortunate that Sunday's start so early. I actually feel myself get physically tired after Sunday Night Football, in part because I think my body is used to going to sleep after football. I'm not kidding.

Other than Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, I have class on MWF at 9am, so I'm up early for that which only leaves Saturdays as the day of rest. Even though it's impossible to sleep in even if you have nothing to do. It's like the little kid in the Disney World commercial: We're too excited to sleep. There's something we should be doing, or could be doing.

It's hard to stay up late most nights as well and I find myself going to sleep around 11pm everynight. So I'm sleeping enough, just not as late as I'm used to.

In other news this week, the Dayton Crew down here in Honolulu celebrated a birthday this past week. On Sept. 6th Garrett turned 22. We didn't get to go on Booze Cruise Double Two's as originally planned (the water was too rough that day) but it was a good night of fun starting at 5pm at our new favorite bar, Varsity, featuring $1 dollar beers, 50 cent beers for the birthday boy and all the Hawai'i football you could watch (big win over Weber St.).

Sidenote: If you're a promising QB talent and U. of Hawai'i is interested then you need to get here. Everyone worships UH football, it's Hawai'i and it's a decent football program with multiple nationally televised games and a solid reputation. If this isn't in your top-5, you're dumb.

Also, on the "Let's Get Local" front: We've suffered a few setbacks. Most notably of which occured today. Neil, Travis, Ed and myself were asked if we were lost. (Do we look like tourists, buddy?). Don't worry. We weren't.

As promised, this post marks the first of many to include a small profile of someone mentioned in this blog. It might give some personality to the names thoughout the stories. We start with Neil, who is not from Dayton, but might as well be.

Neil is originally from Illinois and attended a small school in Wisc. for three years. He transferred to Chaminade this semester and is here for two more years. He sat next to Luke (from Dayton) on the plane from Chicago and loves to have a good time. He wants, more than anything, to be local and aspires to direct movies. He loves to party and is always in a good mood.

More profiles to follow in furture posts. That's it for this week. Hope your week is as good as mine. Until next time, Aloha.