At the age of 24, Juan Peralta have life experience like few others. Born in El Paso, Texas, Peralta grew up in a family consisting of two older brothers and two younger ones. When he was 1 year old, his mom and dad decided to move the family to Albuquerque, New Mexico. This is the town Peralta grew up in. "My mom and dad split up when I was 13 years. My mom was mostly around, she pretty much raised us" told Peralta on his childhood in the "Breaking bad"-city. After High school, Peralta decided to join the army for four years. It was in the camouflaged uniform that he met his bestfriend and current roomate. Peralta said "I was like 18 or 19 years old. Bootcamp, we were roomates. When we went to Afghanistan, roomates. When we came back, roomates. So when we decided to leave for Hawaii, we became roomates here as well." His face lights up when he's thinking back to the army and you can see how much the army has meant for him. "I was in the infantry in Afghanistan. We were in the front lines down there" said Peralta on his time in Afghanistan. He was there for nine months. "Mentally, we were prepared for it. You do a lot of mental training and normal training before you travel down there. It sounds kinda messed up, but when a person shoots at you and you fire back, all you see is a target." In Afghanistan, American soldiers are often on missions with the Afghan army. Even though they didn't understood eachothers languages, they created a special bond with eachother. Peralta said "What impacted me the most was when they said to me that they would take a bullet for me, and that they considered me a brother. The group of dudes we were working with knew why we were there, what our mission was. They didn’t know me, but they knew our mission. And that was enough for them to risk they’re life for me and for us"
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So, this weekend I went to the island Kauai with some norwegian friends. We left Oahu friday morning and we were at Kauai the entire weekend. Wow, what a beautiful island it was! We rented a beatiful house in Princeville, on the north shore of the island. Princeville is basically a gigantic golfcourse and a couple of houses around the course. We had a garden, swimming pool, plenty of space for six people, and a lot of hens. A lot. On friday, we went hiking to Hanakapiai falls, which is on the famous Na Pali coast of Kauai. It was a beatiful hike, but very tiredsome. We spent about 4-5 hours on the hike, including a break to go swimming at the falls. You can go swiming underneath the waterfall, which was an amazing experience. The view along the hiking trail was also spectacular. You walk on the edge of the mountains on the Na Pali coast, with only the ocean on your right side, and mountains on your left. On saturday, we went to Queen's bath. Wich is a great spot if you want to watch turtles. They often come there to eat near the rocks. Sometimes they put their heads above the water to get some air. Queens bath is made of a lot of rocks, which has been shaped by the waves from the ocean over several hundred years. There are also some great spots there for cliffjumping, which was a lot of fun. Sunday was probably our most spectacular day. We went to the Waimea canyon. Wich is one of the most spectacular places in Hawaii. We went hiking along the canyon and stopped at several viewpoints. What seperates Waimea canyon from other canyons is the luxuriant nature at the bottom of the canyon. The top of the canyon is dry sand, but further down there is a lot of green trees and flowers. It's definately one of the most spectacular places I've been to in the world. After Waimea canyon we enjoyed the sunset at Anini beach, on the north shore of Kauai. All in all, it was a fantastic trip with some great places that you should put on your bucket list. Ole Christian Nymoen |
AuthorHi there! My name is Ole Christian Nymoen. I'm a 22 year old exchange student in Hawaii. I major in Journalis and I love taking action photography and writing about sports. Archives
November 2017
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