Hangin in Honolulu

Tomorrow will be my one week mark! We're still doing orientation in Hawai'i, I'm writing this from my hostel and the sounds of a Hawai'ian prayer circle singing traditional songs with a ukelele is floating through the bedroom window from next door. It's a bit difficult to articulate exactly how great our group of 12 is and how perfect Pacific living has been so far. The most overwhelming feeling of this all is, "This cannot really be America." 

The Hawai'i of Waikiki and the Hawai'i beyond the tourism are two entirely different places, and my eyes are being opened to so many issues that I never knew existed. Did you know that Hawai'i was annexed through force and against international law? Or that many Pacific islands are sinking into the ocean, that their groundwater becomes salinated so their crops fail and their people starve and that our government does nothing to aid them? Yeah, me neither. 

But while we're dealing with some heavy issues in class, we're still adventuring all over the place-- yesterday we harvested taro in a traditional lo'i (which translated to stomping around in the mud and learning about the Hawai'ian tie to the earth) and hiked Diamondhead. Life is wild here and the stars keep perfectly aligning for all of our adventures. So far Saturday was the most serendipitous day.

We had a late meeting time (10:30 am), so we all woke up and explored a bit on our own and got coffee. Also, I can't wake up any later than 7:30 am now, this place has made me a morning person, it's just too beautiful to sleep in. There's one park that we tend to gravitate towards, and we did some yoga and meditation next to my favorite tree. 

Aforementioned favorite tree bein' his bad self

Following our mini adventure we met an alumnus from the first ever SIT Samoa trip, Joe, and his friend Billy, who majored in Hawai'ian history and geology (a walking fairly-inappropriate history book). They were both hilarious and so welcoming and friendly--the two traits that completely encapsulate everyone I've met here so far.

We started out with a trip to an old battlefield on these beautiful cliffs that looked out to the whole harbor, and then we went to the Byodo-In Temple, which is a smaller scale replica of the temple of the same name in Japan, and it was built to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the entrance of Hawai'i's first Japanese immigrants (Hawai'i has a pretty diverse population). Not a single nail was used in its construction. Being an expert carpenter (I made an almost-functional bagel cutter in Woods I), I appreciated that detail.

Cloudy Honolulu from the top of the world

Frighteningly aggressive koi

My first underwater picture... hoping my skills become refined in Samoa

Our next stop was Laie Point, these beautiful cliffs near the North Shore. This was our first wildlife-spotting, we saw some crabs and then lucked out when a fisher caught an octopus and let us play with it-- he inked on Billy, and I was in the splatter zone.

Billy's war wounds

Commemorating my first inking

After we left Laie and washed off our ink, we stopped at a local fruit stand to eat some crazy thangs that I'd never heard of (dragon eyes were my personal favorite), and then went to the beach at Pipeline. We ended up lucking out and there was a huge surf competition going on-- the famous surfer Kelly Slater walked right by us (with an embarassingly small dog and a very shiny bald head). And the best part (besides the killer waves) was that we were literally sitting in Jack Johnson's backyard for the whole thing, so you know it was paradise.

Jack Johnson's lair in the background

That day concluded with a wildly exciting thing that's deserving of its own post, so once I get enough focus to tear myself away from Hawai'ian happenings again I'll post those pictures. Now I'm getting ready to go to a surf movie premiere tonight (where Jackie J will also be), so aloha my palagis!