Aloha

Okay, so I moved 5,500 miles from home a month and a half ago. I moved from a city in Tennessee to a little island that had just as much people crammed onto 1/5 of the land Nashville covers. I was all "yeah---I'll start a blog!", because (duh) that's what EVERYONE does these days when they move 5,500 miles/have a baby/get married/get a terminal disease/start a diet/get a haircut.

So I set up this blog just before moving.

Then I got here. And I continued to live life without blogging. What can I say? That's just my normal. Until now.

So this first post is verrry long. I won't promise (and shouldn't) that updates will always be like this. This is a month and a half of my life. I don't just sit on my thumbs all day everyday, just Monday-Thursday.

A lot of these pics are from facebook, I just put them on here again mostly for my Aunt Lynn and other non-facebook users.

Getting here was pretty smooth. Except that I decided to save money by booking my flight out of Seattle to Hawaii myself instead of sticking with one airline. So I did have some hang ups and ended up staying in Seattle one night (it wasn't fun- in a cheap hotel near the airport, catching a plane at 4 am). Luckily Peter met me at the airport. I was surprised at how humid it was. Honolulu is, as predicted, beautiful. Just enough green, but still very much a city. The diversity of skin tones, food, architecture, dialects, everything is amazing.

It was a long day of travel but I knew I wanted to see as much as possible. After seeing where I would be living, we headed out to The Sandies, where the waves were intense and crashed right up on the shore and the sand looked like cornmeal. After some sun and lunch we headed towards Waikiki.

And met some friends along the way. They were too needy though, we shortly parted ways.

Later, we found out where many of these guys live when they aren't wobbling around scavenging. This house was situated in the middle of Waikiki, surrounded by taller buildings and "Beware of Dog" signage.

The first weekend we relaxed and I didn't really pull out the camera until later in the week; here are some things that caught my eye as I was traveling in my neighborhood and nearby. We live in Kaimuki, which is in the Southeast portion of the island (I'll never escape the Southeast!) just north of Diamond Head.

Here are some pics of the house/yard:

940A 12th ave

The pomegranate tree

The fig tree. We also have a dying dead guava tree and a papaya tree. Peter attempted to bring me back a koala from Australia, but apparently there are rules and regulations about that?!

Hawaiians seems to love dogs (they are everywhere, and people are very affectionate towards them) and fear them at the same time. Most homes in our neighborhood (which is pretty safe) make this claim.

Since I've been here, the idea of a "urban paradise" often comes to mind. You can be walking down a street and come across a patch of land that is so raw and lush, only to be surrounded with the presence of urban decay, and the trash that people are so great at creating. This "trash" often includes old-style box TVs. I think everyone must have gone out and bought a flat screen TV between Halloween and Black Friday, TVs are sitting out all over the place like yesterday's newspapers.

I wish there was a smell-port on computers. Inside this shop there were girls making leis, many of which were stored in the coolers.

(The tall buildings in the background are closer to the ocean. I'm a few miles inland on a major avenue.)

If you are not facing the ocean, you are facing the mountains. They change color throughout the day depending on how the sunlight hits them.

And another Ghandi statue enters my life (The first being at Millsaps). Behind him is an example of my favorite tree here: The Indian Banyan. They are huge, and look like clusters of trees grown together. When you look closely, you can see that roots dangle like thick moss from the limbs and as the tree grows, they anchor themselves into the ground. There are groups of these trees around the parks, a great number of them near Waikiki and in Kapiolani Park (where Pete plays soccer and I don't everyday). The Banyans often emit suspicious smells and noises, and everyday at dusk I see groups of people in a large pow-wow near one or more of them. One day when I'm curious/bored enough I'll join them. I'll report back on my findings.

Turns out I didn't need to bring aloe with me (Mom). The stuff just grows wild all over here. Although our backyard only hosts fig, papaya, and [dying] guava trees, aloe can be found on the side of the road here and there. Not sure why it's red, but the soil is much more red here. This aloe came in use when Pete returned from Australia covered in itchy red bumps. Who knew you could be allergic to the outback?

This was taken at Diamond Head Beach. There were so many surfers. The water feels great here. It's not cold, just warm enough.

A sunset I caught while not playing soccer with Peter.

Peter in Kailua

I've yet to observe a storm here. So far, it's just my thighs that bring the thunder to the island.

Maakapuu, one of my favorite beaches. Peter's talking to Helen, behind them walking is Evan, our two other housemates.

Peter and I share something in common aside from our house: this view is among our favorite.

Halloween in Waikiki was insane in the membrane. But not because of all the crazy costumes, not because of the people upon people situation (though that did have something to do with it), but because of the Asian tourists. Halloween seemed very novel to them, they were constantly stopping people for pictures. It was funny. I went as a butterfly garden, Peter as a tourist?

This is Johnny Sharpe. If you were to look up the polar opposite of what Peter is physically, you would get Johnny Sharpe. It should be noted though, that both love chicken wings. Then again, who doesn't? This was at some bar where there were also models made up as jungle animals. You just have to take things in stride.

Okay, so I grew up in Louisiana. Where the water is soft and the sno cones are shaved sweet cold balls of bliss. But this, this was the best sno-cone ("shave ice") I've ever had. There were lines going out the door for what looked like a general store, but it sold solely shaved ice (and shaved ice-related souvenirs). Heaven in the North Shore (much more rural part of the island).

I'm hoping to make a point to keep this thing updated with mine and Pete's adventures (I'm thinking there will be more of them when football season ends). There's a lot yet to be seen, and I'm looking forward to seeing more and more outside our hood, and beyond this one island (within the scope of reason---some places aren't so safe for us "haoles"). I've never been so good at pulling out a camera to document people and things, but I'll work on it.