by Aria Kerebs

The days are long here in Hilo, Hawai’i. With the sun rising around 6:00am and setting around 6:30-7:00 pm there’s a good 12 hours of daylight to soak up and enjoy. During the week my days are primarily taken up by university classes, with Mondays and Wednesdays having a 12:00-1:00 pm class, Tuesdays and Fridays having four classes spanning 9:30am-4:45 pm, and Friday having a 12:00-1:00 pm class followed by a 1:00-4:50 pm lab!

On days where I don’t have an early class however, I like to take advantage of the Olympic sized swimming pool here on campus, after which I head to the Campus Dining Hall and pick up a delightful bagel with cream cheese and jam! The Campus Dining Hall is also where I go to spend my “flex points” and pick up some lunch. Dinner however, always involves me walking across campus to the Hale Kehau Dining Room where I use “swipes” off my meal plan to access an all-you-can-eat buffet.

In being in Hawai’i, it seems only right that my weekends are dedicated to adventuring! Not only does this enable me to see more of the beautiful island, but it also helps balance out my uni workload. So far my weekends have included beach days, trips to the local farmers markets, group adventures to various waterfalls, and hikes through and around tropical rainforest!

So I would have to say that while a good proportion of my time is taken up with classes, readings, assignments, and general uni work, the other time spent exploring, and taking advantage of being here are beyond enriching and well worth any quantity of uni work I might be given.