The Aloha State

So, what does a little ol’ Southern gal like me know about a place like Hawaii?  Well, when we found out we were moving, I knew pretty much NOTHING.  I didn’t even know which island we were going to be living on.  I just kept telling people we were living on Honolulu, like that was the name of the island.  WRONG.  I might as well have also said that I grew up “on” North Carolina – huh?  Oh, the locals would have had a time with me (and I’m sure they will still get their chance, probably lots of them).  Thankfully, Flyboy was on top of things.  He’d ordered 3 books and a GIGANTIC map from Amazon by the end of the night that we found out.  (Side note:  he also brought home a full sushi spread, tropical flowers and piña colada mix.  I don’t deserve him.)  

For clarification:  Hawaii is the state, Oahu is the island, Honolulu is both the county and the county seat (much like Currituck) and Kaneohe is the city/township.  That’s a LOT to keep straight.  But you guys are smart – you’ve got it!

So what can I tell you about this place to help you better understand where we live?  There’s so much to learn – although we’re still in the US, the islands are home to a very loyal people rooted in tradition and history.  Along with the massive influx of Asian tourists, it can sometimes seem that we are in another country altogether.  

The Basics                                                                                         

The Hawaiian Islands consist of 8 major islands, listed from west to east (seems backward, I know).

Map is from here.

Ni’ihau (The Forbidden Isle)

Kaua’i (The Garden Isle)

O’ahu (The Gathering Place)

Moloka’i (The Friendly Isle)

Lana’i (The Pineapple Isle)

Kaho’olawe (The Target Isle)

Maui (The Valley Isle)

Hawai’i (The Big Island)

We live on Oahu, it’s the island where the state capital of Honolulu, Pearl Harbor, and the majority of the population are located.  I’ll tell you ALL about Oahu in some later post (translation: I’ll tell you once I’ve learned more about it myself).

History

Westerners didn’t discover Hawaii until 1778, during which time the islands were commonly riddled by bloody battles between resulting in constant turmoil.  It wasn’t until 1810 that King Kamehameha the Great was able to unite the islands under a single dynasty, as it remained until 1887.  At that time, The Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii was drafted, stripping then-King Kalakaua of most of his imperial powers.  In 1893, amongst rumors of a new Constitution being drafted, the Kingdom was overthrown and the Republic of Hawaii was established.  The Republic remained for 5 years, until Hawaii  was acquired as a territory of the US in 1898.  More than 60 years later, in 1959, Hawaii finally gained statehood under President Eisenhower.  Hope that explains it…history is not my strong suit.  If you have any questions, just ask my dear friend Wikipedia – he knows everything.

Life in Hawaii

In 2010, the state was home to 1.4 million residents…not to mention the hundreds of thousands of visitors and military members who are in and out each year (like us).  The cost of living here is exorbitant – just under that of NYC and San Francisco.  But that doesn’t take into account the additional shipping costs, excessive cost of travel, or limited brand selection that we experience.  Real estate is an eye-opener, too.  Average home pricing runs around $250,000, whereas it’s more like $119,000 for the rest of the country.  Both English and Hawaiian are the state languages.  Hawaiian is a Polynesian language with lots of vowels and not so many consonants.  All the island names above are traditional Hawaiian.  You'll notice I put the traditional apostrophes in the names of the islands above.  Those are "glottal stops" - pauses in pronunciation that are often overlooked by non-native speakers.  But there’s also another language spoken by locals, particularly those of Native Hawaiian descent, called Hawaii Creole English.  It sounds like a cross between Jamaican and Louisiana Creole dialects.  They call it “Pidgin,” it’s the accent you hear on TV and in the movies.  You’d know it if you heard it – I promise.

So that’s a WHOLE lot of info about Hawaii – two wordy posts in a row.  Really, I promise they won’t all be like this.  I just want you guys to learn the things I’m learning along the way.  Since I feel so bad about all these words, how about a rainbow to hold you over until the next post?

Aloha!

- Kristin 

Can you guess why I’m loving this place?

Welcome

Hey there, Blog-land!  This is my first little venture out into the world of blogging, and I’m creating this page as a way to keep our family and Mainland friends updated and included in our Hawaiian adventure.  I hope this can be a place for us to share the things we are learning and experiencing as we settle into “island life” over the next 3 years.

When we found out we were moving, the first thing I thought when I finally stopped crying, I realized how cool our new life would be – luaus, hula skirts, and saying Aloha to everyone all day long.  And when we got off the plane – what was the first thing I saw?  You bet – a big fat sign declaring, “Aloha, welcome to Hawaii!”

Yeah, I was straight up giddy.  I almost fell off the escalator scrambling for my camera to take a picture.  I’d already bought a flower for my hair back in San Diego, and I was completely scouting out the places to get my first REAL lei.  And when we got to the hotel, I was indeed greeted with a bright “Aloha” from the front desk staff (who have been my true saviors over the past month, by the way).  And, they say it again on your way out – because it means both “hello” AND “goodbye”, of course! 

But it was when I was picking out some little trinkets to send back to my parents that I found this mug, and it certainly had more than just the two meanings of Aloha that I knew of.  That’s when I started to realize how much we had to learn if we really wanted to get to know this island like the locals do.

So, I looked it up.  And that’s what brought me to the name of this little blog project I’d been thinking of starting.  At its most basic, the literal translation of aloha is “the breath of life.”  But it also means love and affection, and can be combined to translate to good morning, good afternoon or good evening.  But it is so much more than a greeting - here in Hawaii, it is a way of life.  They call it the “Aloha Sprirt” and its an expectation of all public servants and government officials, and a place of spiritual being.  Aloha is a place of balance and positive being that radiates to others.  It is a harmonious way of life that focuses on positive thoughts and feelings and the local belief is that these thoughts and feelings will pour out of that one person and multiply and spread to others around that person.

“To hear what is not said, to see what cannot be seen, and to know the unknowable.”

 - Queen Lili’uokalani

What a beautiful concept, for such a beautiful place (more on that later, you guys are not going to BELIEEEEVE some of the pictures actually came from my camera, and they don’t even do it half the justice it deserves).  What an amazing thing to aspire to.  I believe that a smile will take you far, and I think that treating others fairly and with kindness is a must, but I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a happy, smiley basket of fun after standing in line at the post office for 45 minutes or when somebody cuts me off in the mall parking lot.  What I (and all of us, actually) need to remember is that those sour moments aren’t getting me anywhere.  My poor attitude isn’t going to make that line any shorter, its not going to get me a spot in the parking lot, and it’s not going to make me any friends while I do wait.  The only thing negativity is going to get me are some early wrinkles on my forehead and more often than not, it’s just going to rub off on the people around me – no good.  Instead, if I (we) were to aspire to achieve this elusive state of Aloha, not only could I spend my day without wasting my time fuming, but instead it could be happiness rubbing off on the people around me.

I would love to bring happiness to those around me, especially my husband (we’ll call him Flyboy for now).  Flyboy’s around me far more than anybody – and I want those moments to be the happiest they can be.  We’ll have plenty of time apart when he deploys this summer, and it’s all the happy memories we’re banking up now that we’ll be relying on to pull us through those 6 months.  He is my best friend, what if I could impart positivity and happiness on him every day when he gets home rather than venting about whatever stressors I’ve been working through that day?  So, as we embark on our Hawaiian adventure, I’ll be doing more than just soaking up the sun like I expected – I’ll be on my own personal journey…to achieving Aloha.

P.S.  Sorry for the extremely wordy first post…they won’t all be like this.  And as for the gratuitous palm tree photo – well, there might me lots of those!