Time to say Goodbye

Dear Travel Diary

Tuesday, June 8, 2021

For the last three school days, I have decided to take a later bus. This means everything shifts by at least 45 minutes (depending on the punctuality of the bus). Being three-quarters of an hour later than usual also means being at least 15 minutes late. But since Hawaiiantime is capitalized and I already warned Mike last week, I don't see a problem. Luca was always about 20 minutes late anyway.

So I had breakfast alone, walked to the bus, and went to school. On the way, it felt like I stopped at every traffic light and arrived in the city much later than usual. But actually, it was only 20 minutes later plus the walk to school. So with 25 minutes, I entered the school, said "Good morning" politely and full of feigned motivation, and received a terse "Hi" from Fabienne. But I don't really care since she already has it in for me. However, Mike was really happy to see me and put a little smile on my face.

Nevertheless, the school is not the same without the "old-fashioned" students and it's pretty boring. After boring grammar topics and discussions that made me want to climb the walls, my third-to-last day of school was finally over.

Jasmin picked us up at school for lunch since she finished school last week. Together we walked to the Cheesecake Factory because we had a craving for pasta. On the way there, I made another stop at the Apple Store because my charger suddenly stopped working.

The pasta was delicious as always and enough, but Chantal and Jasmin couldn't leave the restaurant without cheesecake for dessert. So they had a cinnamon cheesecake.

After eating, we took the bus to Hale'iwa. Another two-hour journey with stops and transfers. Every Tuesday, the Bistro "Surf n Salsa" hosts Taco Tuesday in the evening. You can order five tacos for eight dollars. You are accompanied by a live band in a cozy garden with lots of fairy lights and cute decorations. This is the running joke of our school and therefore a must-do before we leave Oahu.

Arriving there after a long journey and another nap on my part (I thought I was finally well-rested), we arrived at our destination and sat down at a table with a drink. A few minutes later, Jasmin and I stood in line for tacos as the restaurant slowly filled up. We returned with chicken, shredded beef, and pork tacos and enjoyed them, or rather I did. They were a bit too spicy for Chantal and Jasmin's taste. This meant more for me, even though I had already had enough.

The plan was to order an Uber for the return journey since we didn't want to take the long bus ride again. Naturally, as expected, it remained just a plan because there were no Ubers available at the desired time. So we had to get on the bus in no more than 20 minutes, otherwise, we would have had a five-hour bus ride and three-hour walk home. Unfortunately, this meant missing out on the beautiful ambiance of the fairy lights and live band.

The journey home took a way too long again. Fortunately, shortly after getting off the bus, our bus arrived and we didn't lose much time changing buses. In the bus itself, two old men were arguing and at some point, the bus stopped for a few minutes for no reason on the side of the road. Then there was a construction site, which caused traffic to slow down, and finally, we arrived home. We had a chat with Tony and Debbie, but then I had to go to bed right away.

Wednesday, June 9, 2021

Today, too, I went to school later, but I couldn't sleep longer than usual because of the barking and whining of the dogs. They were making a racket from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m., driving me crazy early in the morning. I would have liked to let them out into the wide world because I was so annoyed. But thankfully, I'll be rid of them soon.

When I arrived at school, Fabienne said that Griff was looking for me because of the exit test. He then said that the others had already started, and I could just join them and do the listening part afterwards. So once again, no problem being late for school today.

I took the exit test, which was partly the same as the entrance test, and I even knew some of the answers before returning to my regular class. Today, in my opinion, we weren't very productive in class, and the hours felt extremely long.

For lunch, Chantal and I treated ourselves to a visit to the Thai restaurant, which was very delicious. Now Chantal asked me if I wanted to just lie on the beach. I replied that I didn't really feel like it and would prefer to crawl into my bed. She was relieved by my answer because she didn't really feel like it either.

Since we had to kill time until our bus arrived, Chantal was able to do some souvenir shopping, and I asked Footlocker about my shoes again. The employee said they no longer had that women's shoe, but then ran off anyway and asked me to wait. He came back with the desired shoe from the children's section, size 36. Too small. He asked for my size and then handed me the exact shoe I was looking for, and said they still had these two sizes. It was a stroke of luck, and I was surprised that there was still some luck left in me. ;)

Thursday, June 10, 2021

One last time getting up for school, one last time taking the bus to Waikiki, and one last time entering the classroom. Eventually, the day of the last time comes, sometimes earlier, sometimes later, and sometimes unconsciously. So today, I probably experienced many last times without even realizing it.

But now back to my day and away from philosophy: Before school, I bought iron tablets from the pharmacy below the school to do another iron cure. I suspect that my constant tiredness might be related to my iron deficiency and since you can get almost anything over the counter in America, it was a good opportunity. Now I hope to enjoy the next seven weeks with plenty of energy.

Since tomorrow is a holiday, today was our so-called Friday and therefore the weekly test. For once, we even received homework instead of just studying for the test. Yesterday, I was still firmly convinced that I wouldn't do the homework and would use my homework pass. But this morning before class, my guilty conscience started to bother me, and I still did it. Theoretically, I shouldn't have it anymore since Luca took it from me a week ago. He said, "Oh, can I have it? You won't need it anyway." and that was it. Well, in the end, I didn't need it after all.

Before the end of school, there was the traditional honor for the departing students, and it was Dominik's and my golden hour. We received our certificates along with a shell lei and posed for our graduation photo. After more photoshoots in the classroom, there was a photo with all the graduates of this week. When we were almost done and ready to leave, Mike came to me with a plastic bag and took out something orange. I could hardly believe it because he gave me his Charmender plush toy and said I should use it for my future class and think of him. Well, by now I had to fight back tears because I never expected such a gesture.

Outside the building, I said goodbye to Luca, Yuno, and other classmates, and we made our way to lunch. We had to wait for quite a while for this, but the udon noodles were worth it.

When we were done, we accompanied Jasmin to a COVID test provider because she needs a negative result for Big Island. Unlike in Switzerland or Los Angeles, you have to do the nasal swab test yourself here. I doubt whether this is an effective testing method, but that's not my problem.

Afterwards, we walked to the apartment one last time and waited there for our bus because, just like yesterday, we didn't really feel like water and sun today either. So we took a bus ride home with another bad bus driver and threw our first load of laundry into the machine.

Friday, June 11, 2021

Today we slept as much as possible since Uncle Randy flew in from Alaska late yesterday and it got a bit noisy. At some point, we got up and had breakfast. I had leftovers from yesterday (swordfish) since I like it so much.

Later, we washed the rest of our clothes while watching a series together in my bed. It wasn't until mid-afternoon that I finally started packing. Actually, it's not a big deal because everything just has to go back into the suitcase, but I still put it off. Now I have my suitcase and backpack to take with me and my bag with leftovers that I will leave here.

In the evening, we unfortunately had dinner without Debbie as she still had something to do, and then we took a commemorative photo with Lehua and Daniel, who happened to stop by.

After dinner, Tony served us ice cream for dessert one last time, and after returning the keys, we went to bed for our beauty sleep.