Bruised Bottom

It's been a busy first week in Hawai'i!

Hoping our computer makes it here in one piece. There won't be any posting of pictures until that happens. Sorry!

The first week has been mostly filled with....(wait for it)...errands! Whoo! Lots of Craigslisting. Trying to get furnished on a dime. Still holding out for a few things, but we're getting there!

Stocking the kitchen with real food has been one of the biggest hurdles. I can't stop thinking about how much I paid for milk this week (About $7 for half a gallon that was on sale). Fortunately, I'm already learning about the best places to shop and CSAs and roadside produce stands. The produce out here is really wonderful. Things I've never heard about before required one taste to get me hooked. Tasted an unripe Guava yesterday...the ripe ones are good, but I really like the tartness of an underripe one, too.

The cost of living is constantly shocking me. We run into and hear about so many people who live here without jobs and just surf. I don't know how they do it without starving to death. Trust funds, perhaps? I dunno. I'm on the hunt for a job this week. Every little bit will help.

Did a hike yesterday and hurt myself. They call the hike "The Commando" because, as the locals who showed it to us said, you have to be a commando to do it. You first walk up a slippery stream (I seemed to be the only one on the hike who had a hard time not slipping all over the place), then free climb up two waterfalls. After climbing those falls, there's no turning back because it's not safe to climb down or jump. After that, we climbed through a pitch-black lava tube filled with pool after pool of cold water. Then, we broke out of the tube into the sunlight, and made a quick hike to the first of three waterfalls that we had to jump off of. The first was about 15 ft. No prob. The second, 50 ft.

The 50-footer is where I hurt myself. I was told to jump, get my balance with my arms, then go in straight like a pencil, arms at my side. 50 feet is totally enough time to do that, right? Right...unless you're Natalie and time seems to go faster for you than for others. I went in, all bent and clumsy, and landed right on my butt. It hurt. There were physical repurcussions that might make your stomach queasy, but I guarantee you that I have never had such an enormous, dark bruise on my body as I have today. Laughing, sneezing, leaning forward, sitting, and um....going potty, all hurt.

The third waterfall we had to jump off was 35 feet, and you had to jump several feet out to avoid turning into red sauce all over the lava rocks beneath. After being in pain and a little shock, I couldn't muster the confidence to jump that far out. Everyone else jumped, I climbed down the roots of a tropical tree into the water. The bonus: fell upon a patch of wild ginger that would have been otherwise undiscovered!

Despite my bruised bottom and whiplash, I have to say: amazing hike. Really wish we had a waterproof camera that I could have taken along. Some of the other guys did. If I could find a way to get in touch with them and get copies of their photos, I may end up posting some from it, after all.

So, that was my first big adventure in Maui! There has been a little bit of beach time. The only swimming I did was through the streams and waterfall pools on that hike. Next week I'm hopefully going to start learning to surf. Looking forward to that! Hopefully I will be able to keep up with Isaac.

This week: job hunting, resume perfecting, and non-stop painting! My goal is to have this place painted to perfection before Isaac gets home from Kauai on Tuesday so he feels really comfortable and at-home when he returns. Lots of manual labor, but maybe it will give me some nice arm muscles to start paddling a surf board with. :-)