Hawaii can be described in one word, the paradise. Waking up at the dorm of University of Hawaii campus for six months was truly the best part of my life. The sun shined everyday and the sky was extraordinarily sky blue. This great weather had given me energy to do anything: I went to enjoy all kinds of water sports, made whole bunch of friends, volunteered to teach at an elementary school and I even studied harder.
For the beach goers, I have to say Hawaii has the most beautiful beach in the world and it is very close to the UH Manoa campus. Every Friday I went to school wearing my bikinis underneath. As soon as the classes were over, I ran to the bus station and took the bus heading to the Waikiki beach. If I had to take a nap I would do it on beach.
If I had exams coming up next week, that can also be studied on the beach. If I wanted to enjoy lunch, that also was the best on Waikiki. I didn’t want to miss one Friday afternoon. I enjoyed the peaceful Friday afternoons on Waikiki and on the weekends it was the time for adventures. I tried out all kinds of water sports: surfing, body boarding, sailing, jet skiing, kayaking and snorkeling. Most of these can be done at low prices through the leisure center at UH.
Another great aspect of Hawaii is that it is the place where people from various cultures mix. Unbelievably, people who travel to Hawaii for vacation tends to fall in love with it. So I ended up making friends from Europe, the mainland, Asia, and South America. This gave me different perspective on the world: there are millions of ways to live a happy life and I’ll be making one that just fits me.
What is more attractive about going to Hawaii as an exchange is that the quality of classes offered at UH Manoa is great. The school has over a hundred of majors which offer more than five hundred courses. These classes are conducted in small classes of 10 to 20 with high student involvement. Thus, UH is a great place for students to search what their interest is and actually take classes on it. My roommate found her interest in gallery management and I found my one in language testing development. Especially for English Education majors, the curriculum is very concrete and the classes are very creative and interesting. Also, there are famous professors like J. D. Brown, Richard Day at the department.