End of week one

A very cool tree nearl Nu'uanu Pali Lookout

Hard to believe I left a week ago! It's been a pretty cool week. Here's a disjointed account of things I've learned about Hawai'ian culture that I'm pretty sure you wouldn't learn if all you did was stay at a resort. For instance, I didn't realize that Aloha shirts are worn by men all the time. That's what men wear to work. There is nothing kitschy abut it. I also learned that only 10% of Native Hawi'ians get a bachelor's degree. Out in remote areas, little kids might get on a public bus at 5:30 am to be able to get to a good school. It rains almost every single night. It's raining right now, but I'm secluded on my little lanai surrounded by vegetation. Speaking of vegetation, bananas and papaya are never tree-ripened. As they get ripe, birds eat them off the trees. So dont complain about green papaya and banana in the grocery store. If the tree was in your yard, you would pick the fruit and let it sit for days to ripen anyway! We have papaya off the front mountainside/yard tree ripening on the counter now! Tomorrow, the movers will come. That means everyone in the neighborhood will be inconvenienced for a chunk of the day. Not sure how they feel about it, but surely anyone who lives on the side of a mountain would understand that a moving truck will have to block a good portion of the road in order to make the move happen. Not sure how the move will affect my weekend plans to go tailgating and stay with Marie. Fingers crossed!

I did it!

Since I can't post a lot of pictures, I picked the one that best represents my day. I rocked out some data crunching yesterday and today, and was able to submit another conference abstract. Woot! Woot! Talk about productivity. Tomorrow I will shift back to older data and try to finish a manuscript.

Right now we're talking dish washers. I don't know much about dishwashers except that I hate washing dishes. This is a fantastic learning experience. At first I tight $1000 was outrageous, but given that I really, really hate doing dishes it's starting to sound pretty reasonable. Id gladly fork over a dollar a day to NOT do dishes. In less than 3 years, the dishwasher would practically pay for itself! Who knew I would learn so much about dishwashers today? Did you know Kenmore is made by Kitchen-Aid? And evidently, Kenmore/ Kitchen-Adenis the best brand right now.

Google hates me...

One heck of a fantastic weekend!

I spent the weekend with my friend, Marie. It was not your average weekend in Hawai'i! Well...actually, I suppose it kind of was a pretty average weekend. It was not a touristy experience though. We saw Jack and Jill (not recommended), ate good food, ate more good food, ate papaya picked from a tree in her garden, and today we really crammed it all in. Started around 8am with a 12 mile hike. We were covered in mud, and I have a very sore bum from the tumble I took, but it was worth it for the view at the summit! This isn't the summit view, but it's my favorite picture of the day. A single wild orchid along the trail with the mountains and ocean in the back. Gorgeous! And...since BlogPress is still waiting for iTunes update approval, I'm pretty limited to the number of pictures I can post.

Tenting

Now this is one of those things you just can't believe unless you've gotten to see it with your own eyes. Tenting. Because bugs are a bit of a problem in the Hawai'i climate, they have to do some serious extermination. Basically, an entire house is covered with tarps. They are even clipped to the ground some way. Then, the insecticide is pumped into the inside. Not really sure how long the whole process takes, but just getting an entire house tarped in the winds has to take some time. The house I'm staying in was tented before my adviser moved in. I would assume that between tenants would be the ideal time. Not sure how more permanent folks handle it. Crazy, right?