We’re in Honolulu for the next three months! And here’s what we’ve been up to: weddings, apartment-hunting and a job!

I know I technically have already posted about Honolulu, but I also know I owe you guys a proper update. The thing is, life has been, well, insane, to say the least. I’m an organizational maniac, so I think bullet points will work best since so many different things were happening at once:

• On February 15, we traveled 15 hours from Panama to Hawaii — with a three-hour layover in LAX filled with Baja Fresh (sad they didn’t have Taco Bell) and these.

• We spent our first night in Honolulu in a rather dingy hotel. My parents had booked Eaman and I a nice hotel room at a Marriott for the wedding Thursday through Monday and despite their insistence, I told them they did not need to spend more money on a room for Wednesday night since we were getting in at 10 p.m. anyway. We figured we’d just book a hostel for one night. Cut to two days before we left for Honolulu and ALL THE HOSTELS WERE BOOKED. And all the rooms at our Marriott were booked. So we ended up spending $108 on a dingy hotel room. Believe me, we considered sleeping at the airport or on the beach.

• I got my first cold in 5 months of travel. Yes, I’ve had food poisoning, but a cold — an annoying, pestering cold — is sometimes worse. Dang recirculated air in airplane and too-high A/C in dingy hotel room.

• We went to my cousin’s beautiful Hawaiian wedding.

It was a three-day event, filled with impeccable dinners, song and dance and some of the best slideshows I’ve ever seen at a wedding. (And I really love wedding slideshows.) Now I don’t know my cousin’s new husband, Craig, (a.k.a. my new cousin) all that well, but I do know my cousin, Pratt, and what I loved so much about this particular wedding was how true to her personality it was. Unfussy, stylish, relaxed, so genuinely sweet with touches of Hawaiian culture (Craig and Pratt actually live in Honolulu), it even involved yoga, which she teaches here in Honolulu.

We started the weekend with a beach day of paddle-boarding, badminton and, yep, yoga; we were treated to a brilliant dinner at Iolani Palace, then got to show our best moves at the sangeet, which is kind of like a talent show at Indian weddings; and we witnessed the union of two beautiful people at the ceremony and reception. And my god, the attention to detail! Fans — in the wedding color scheme — for guests during the balmy afternoon ceremony, tasty vegetarian options, which I can’t imagine are that easy to find in pork- and SPAM-loving Hawaii, and jars of local honey for wedding favors. Such a love-filled, beautifully planned event. Here, some snaps from the weekend:

Eaman, taking part in event one during beach day — a paddle-boarding competition moderated by Craig’s uncle, ESPN’s Brent Musburger:

Dinner at Iolani Palace, the official home of Hawaii’s monarchy:

Sangeet at Kathy Ireland’s home in Honolulu, which she rents out for weddings:

See? Kathy has an obsession with Liz Taylor, as I saw with all the Liz Taylor pop art in the house. Weird.

My cousin’s adorable daughter, Janaki, on the d-floor:

Lavender-cucumber water:

With the bride-to-be and my other cousin, Runjini. There are 20+ cousins in my family, so I understand if you’re confused:

The couple’s getaway vehicle, a 60s VW:

Ceremony and reception at — wait for it — a home owned by Dolly Parton:

Typically, an Indian groom enters the ceremony via white horse and a drum band. Craig came in on a boat!

The happy couple!

Janaki, again:

Mochi ice cream:

Hair straightener, I’ve missed you:

Sunset before dinner and dancing. I dare you to find a more beautiful setting.

• We found an apartment! It was simultaneously easy and mind numbingly difficult to get. I’ll explain in the next post — and share pictures of our new place, which we moved into on Tuesday.

• I found a job!

The idea in coming to Honolulu — a place not really on most RTW trip itineraries — was to push pause on the constant movement, take a break from the whole “here’s what you need to do in [insert country here] in two weeks,” slow down and live in an island paradise. We considered the Caribbean but figured that’d be much too expensive. Hawaii would give us what we wanted and, being a U.S. state, we wouldn’t have to get work visas. (It didn’t hurt that Craig and Pratt are a wonderful resource and live here.) Because you see, friends, Hawaii ain’t cheap and in order to stay for a few months, I’d need to get a job to alleviate costs.

While Eaman is still considering what kind of job he wants, I, of course, could’ve tried for a magazine gig and gone back to what I know. But the idea was to do something different. I applied to jobs at Whole Foods (mostly to get a discount for groceries), Barnes and Noble (though they wanted someone for the cafe, and I wanted to be around books and work the floor), a cupcake shop (that could’ve been dangerous) and a local juice/smoothie shop. Both Eaman and I had that instant feeling of knowing that the last one — at the smoothie shop — would be the job I’d get. And as it turned out, our hunch was right! I started training this past week and will be working part-time so I still have time to 1.) blog, 2.) get back in shape,  3.) get back into cooking and 4.) enjoy Hawaii. So far it’s a blast — working with fruit, learning recipes — but don’t kid yourself, it’s actually more work than you’d think. I’ll tell you about my adventures in juice-making as my time in Honolulu goes on.

Speaking of, I have work tomorrow, so time for bed. So that’s all for now…mahalo!