Sean and I left Vancouver early Sunday morning to our stopover in San Francisco. The flight was pleasant, that is, until it came time to land. It seemed San Fran had a turbulent weather system blanketing the area in fog and winds, which provided us with the bumpiest landing I’ve ever endured. You might know my stomach doesn’t handle g-forces very well, and it wasn’t long before I had the air sickness bag clutched in my sweaty palms – just in case the need arose (I didn’t have to use it).

Luckily, the plane eventually landed and I staggered into the airport, directly into the convenience stand for some anti-nausea pills. I rarely eat on, or before flights, so while I was starving, Sean graciously chowed a Subway sandwich next to me while I wallowed with my unsettled stomach. The next leg of our journey was the much larger Boeing 777 plane (9 rows of seats!) and carried us across the Pacific in 5.5 hours to Honolulu.

From there, we stopped for an hour before boarding another small plane that hopped us over to Hilo on the Big Island, Hawaii’s second largest city, and our final destination. Unfortunately, we had somehow timed our trip to coincide with torrential monsoon rain, and this third landing proved to be almost as adventurous as the first. Amid the darkness and drenching weather, we touched down with our pilot adding an amicable “Aloho!” through the crackling speakers. “Glory to the Big Kahuna”, I mouthed, and disembarked.

Waiting for us at the airport was Tammy, our host for the next two weeks, and her son Judah. She was a fan who got involved with the One Week Job project after reading about it on Yahoo.com. My first disappointment upon our arrival was the lack of locals with leis in their hands, as I’d always pictured in the movies. (Perhaps it was the rain that kept them away that night). Luckily, Tammy and her son had leis in hand and draped them over our necks, immediately making us feel welcomed to their island. We collected our bags and drove to her house, a picturesque home near the ocean.

Monday, Sean was on the agenda to deliver talks to the local high school kids about his adventures in career-exploration – but the rain washed away those plans. Yes, the torrential rain of the night before continued until late the next morning. This was the first time I’d ever heard of classes being canceled over water. So instead we met up with Sean’s boss for the week: a hyper-intelligent astromer named Gary Fujihara who leads the outreach programs at the University of Hawaii.

Today (Tuesday) Sean was sent to some local elementary schools to help give a slideshow/telescope building workshop that helps kids envision astronomy as a viable career choice. As part of our welcome, the kids gathered on the steps of the school and sang us a welcome chant, before we were “leied” once again.

In the afternoon, we visited their state-of-the-art planetarium, featuring one of the world’s only 3D projectors. (It was almost as exciting as the giant rubber earth ball in the lobby). Finally, we spent the evening at a celebratory dinner at the Hilo Yacht Club, held in honour of the “Journey Across the Universe” program, which is the name given to the outreach activities all this week.

Meanwhile, the torrential rain continues. If the weather let’s up, we’ll be able to visit the Mauna Kea observatory – a truly one in a lifetime experience that will forever have me cursing the rain gods if they take this opportunity away from us. (Maybe there’s such a thing as the “anti-rain dance?”)