Super-Late Post!

One last scenic photo. I'm going to miss such beautiful water!

I've been home from Hawaii for a few days now, which means I've had a little while to reflect on the time I spent in the southernmost state of the union. (Trivia is great!) Hawaii is absolutely amazing—but everyone knows that, so I won't attempt to trigger your jealous impulses by rhapsodizing on its sheer awesomeness here. Instead I'll provide a different list, one with a few reasons why I'm glad I'll be spending the next four years in New England!

Reasons why Hawaii is not so awesome:

Everyone is beautiful. While eye candy is great, it has the tendency to make everyone else feel inferior. Not only was I constantly hating on myself for not being adequately tanned and toned, but I also had to listen to my mom sololiquize how everyone there was skinnier than her. Which is, for the record, UNTRUE. She's tinier than Koala. 

Sporadic raining. The tropical weather makes for some beautifully lush plant life, but it's also a royal pain when you walk everywhere. Because even though the climate is absolutely wonderful, for some reason the rain feels like little needles of coldness piercing through your pores and dropping the temperature ten degrees within the space of a minute. It happens randomly throughout the day, and you never know whether you're going to get a light drizzle or torrential downpour ... and dammit, the rain makes my hair look bad!

Humidity. Ack.

Sun, sun, sun. Have I mentioned before that I hate sunscreen? By the last day in Hawaii, I was ready to give up a day at the beach just so that I wouldn't have to wear sunscreen. I KNOW. I am an ungrateful, sunscreen-fearing child.

Too many Asians! I liked this at first, then realized that I kinda liked being a minority. Granted, I think Harvard's Asians compose some 30% of the total student popoulation by now ... but still. The one good thing about this was that there were so many Japanese people that the bookstores' manga sections are gigantic beyond belief. WHOO MANGA!

Everything is expensive. Well, it is a giant tourist trap ...

I'm keeping this list short, because rumor has it that my mom will be moving to Hawaii permanently in half a year or so—which means that on school breaks, I get to come home ... to Honolulu. And despite the humidity and sunscreen and overabundance of Asians, I'm pretty sure that's actually the greatest thing ever.

I move up to Cambridge in less than two days! Packing has been surprisingly painless; it's saying goodbye that's hardest. Still, I'm not sure there are enough words to describe how excited I am—I can't believe I'm actually going to study* at Harvard University. 

*Well, only a little. I'll surprise myself if I study more in college than I did in high school. :)