6 Months of Aloha

So we’ve been here over six months—half a year. On one scale that feels crazy that it’s been that long. On another it’s hard to believe it’s been six moths since we packed up and left Seattle. Six months since we’ve seen much of our family and friends back on the mainland.  Six whole months. It’s nuts.

We’re doing well and enjoying the sunnier days as spring arrives (yes, I know many of you will laugh at that statement as the temperature doesn’t vary much throughout the year, but the sun/wind/rain/etc. does).

Here’s a few things we’ve learned so far in our adventure:

1.    Weddings happen all the time

When you live in a tropical vacation destination, people often come to get married. On almost any given day when we’re at the beach we’ll see a bride and a groom dressed in their best, taking wedding photos on the sand. Saturdays, Holidays, Thursdays…it’s doesn’t matter.

2.    “Locals” think that short distances are really, REALLY far.

To be fair this is mostly people who have lived the majority of their lives here, but when we first found our apartment we heard things like “all the way out in Hawaii Kai?” and “The North shore is so far.”  We live about 6 miles from the church, which is a few miles from Waikiki.  Not far by mainland standards.  It takes about 15-20mins to get to church. Erik’s previous job in Seattle often took at least 40mins to get to.

3.    Some words aren’t that important

This is a hard one for an English major, but I’ve noticed here words in conversation often just disappear. Little words like “to” and aren’t important.  Here are a few examples:

I’d say:                              I’ve heard:

I’m going to Kauai             I go Kauai

How’s it going?                  How’s it?

4.    Spiders have been replaced with lizards

This is a welcome change for me, as someone who hates spiders. And I mean hates. In Seattle you see spiders all over. They are in your house, in your yard, you run into their webs on hikes. Blech! Here we see lizards all the time. Thankfully I don’t have a fear of lizards, so I love looking for them on walks with Jude and when I’m out running.

5.    Rice is served at every meal

I’m not sure if this is a Polynesian tradition of not (I’m inclined to think it’s because of the strong Asian influence in the Islands) but rice is served with breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you are hosting a potluck, you need to make rice—and lots of it. As a gluten intolerant person who has many stomach issues with various grains and other things this is AWESOME. I always know wherever I can go there is going to be SOMETHING I can eat.  I’ve learned to use my rice cooker and love it—and am thinking we now might need to upgrade to something bigger and fancier.

That’s it for now…we’d love to have you come visit. Just remember, in Hawaii when you go into someone’s house you must take your slippas (flip flops) or shoes off first.

And just for fun, here’s a picture of a local beach we finally made it to last week. We’d been hearing about it but hadn’t been yet. It was amazing and is about 15-20 mins from our house. Our friends call it “Sherwood Forest” because you walk through a forest of trees before your toes hit the white, fluffy sand.

God is so good to us!