I went to Hawaii as a graduation trip in the first week of February, 2011. I stayed in Waikiki for a week with my friend, Yumi, who is also a member of GP. The reason why we went to Hawaii was that we love Hawaii and wanted to see our friends who we met in Nanzan through GP last year. Although they stayed in Nanzan only for 10 days, luckily enough, we became pretty close friends by the time they had to go back to Hawaii. When I landed in Honolulu, I was very surprised and happy that it was pretty warm enough to wear a T-shirt. I had to put all the jackets back into my backpack. Before we saw our friends in Hawaii again, we enjoyed shopping, lying on the beach, swimming in the sea and walking around Waikiki. We also tried local restaurants and bars and had a great time. The funny thing was that we went to a sports bar without knowing that there was a big event, the Super Bowl, one of the biggest football competitions in America, going on that day. On the 2nd day, we finally met up with our friends from University of Hawaii. We had dinner together and enjoyed our time together a lot. I felt like I had known them for more than a year although it was just 4 months since I first met them. After the dinner, they took us to their college and showed us around. On a different day, we went shopping together and even tried surfing. Surfing was much more difficult than I had thought, but it was definitely something that really made me feel “Hawaiian” and I really appreciate my friends in Hawaii who gave me this wonderful opportunity. Through this trip, I learned how important it is to continue friendship. It’s always wonderful to have friends and keep in touch, not just to have fun together, but also to help each other, get motivation to explore the world, and grow up together. Not to mention, speaking English made the trip much more exciting and fun. If I couldn’t speak English at all, I wouldn’t have been able to become friends with them in the first place. Therefore, I’m going to keep on learning English for a better life.

by Tomoko N