Our last holiday weekend

Holidays are a big part of Hawaiian culture. There is not a month that goes by without a 3 day weekend, and Memorial day is exceptionally awesome because of all the fanfare here for WWII vets.

We had a pretty good weekend. Here are some pictures of our last big weekend of fun.

Saturday: Hartlenz Lab going away luncheon at the Oahu Country Club:


Magnified view of my awesome orchid lei (I absolutely love the tradition of giving leis. They are so beautiful!):


Sunday: Polo match on the North Shore (K's student gave us free tickets)

Monday: We went to the movies (Iron Man) and hung out in Waikiki. I am going to miss being able to walk to the beach. I know you feel sorry for me...

Almos pau

Done with school, almost done with work, our stuff is slowly getting packed and shipped. Phew. It is really happening. We're leaving.

The Hawaiian word for "end, completed, finished, etc" is "pau". We use this word a lot.

"Pau hana": Happy hour
"I'm pau": I am taking my cleats off because I don't want to play frisbee anymore.
"Almos pau": Not quite done.

In the last case, pau is coupled with "almos" a pidgin word for "almost". It is hard not to pick up some of this vocabulary. My favorites:

da kine: this can mean virtually anything but typically means something so totally awesome it can't be expressed any other way.

ono kine grindz: really awesome food; see the food blog if you don't believe me:

hana hou: do it again; one more time; an ovation; also, play one more point at frisbee

howzit: coupled with bruddah, this would be a way to say hi to a dude

da menehune cockaroach my tent pole: Menehune are the mythical creatures that lived in Hawaii before the Hawaiians. They like to steal things. The menehune always steal things when we camp.

I wonder what kind of new languages we'll learn in Ohio? Hmn, maybe Seneca (Ohio means "beautiful river"). Or maybe not. Either way, last day on Oahu ("the gathering place") is June 13th. And if you're around Tucson, we'll be there until the 24th. Let's hang.

One thing I won't miss about Hawaii

Thursday afternoon town-bound traffic. Today was my last day making this drive. Good riddance.

A big mahalo to those of you who tolerated my phone calls while sitting in this madness. You kept me sane.

Our new house.

The Moaʻa are back

We played our league frisbee games at Waimanalo beach last weekend. This is what a typical day at Sherwoods looks like:


This is how it looked last week:



Notice how you can't see Rabbit island. Or the top of the ridge.

Was it a storm? A forest fire? Industrial pollution? No, it was vog. The Kilauea crater has been spewing sulfur dioxide gas now for weeks. When the Moa'a- the northeast trade winds- are not present, the gases collect over the islands instead of blowing out over the Pacific. Last week the levels got higher than usual, and many people, as written about in this NY Times article, have trouble breathing. Despite the air quality, we played three games of beach Ultimate, and even managed to win one after being back by 5 points and playing savage.

Speaking of Ultimate, this Friday's game included the allotment of game points to the fastest sprinters on each team. Each person would have to run the length of the Ulti-field, against the tradewinds that had since reemerged, uphill. Lo' and behold, our practice team race was won by K, which meant that he would run against the fastest guy on the other team. It turns out that the gentleman he would be running against was not only the fastest man on the red team, he was also recently voted as the fastest guy on the island by an unofficial poll done by the women on the island, myself included.

You probably know where this is going, but I could hardly believe it. I have NEVER seen K run so fast, or so well. He came from behind and charged ahead, winning by at least 2 feet. Boy, was he excited, and, admittedly, I was pretty excited for him. Later he informed me that he almost puked beforehand (thank goodness no blueberry bagels or purple gatorade were involved), remembering all the jitters of mountain bike races of the past. But he swallowed his puke, ran that race, and WON that race.

Good job! Way to be a winner. They'll always remember you on Oahu.