It's not just enough to say Aloha. You have to say it like that, as white as possible, and insist that your audience respond like you're in a classroom of kids and you just said "Good morning, class!" and they responded with a mumbled, "Good morning, miss so-and-so..."
Ah, the awkward attempts of white people to assimilate the surrounding culture. It often comes across as a mockery, even if they mean it sincerely.
Yes, that means I played another ceremony this week. It's Navy birthday week!
We are slowly moving in and getting more settled. Since I am getting a three day weekend for Columbus Day, Stephen and I decided to dig in to the last remaining boxes and determine what will stay and what will go. Mostly we just had books and clothes, so we got brutal with our decisions and whittled down our belongings even further.
The library is going to love us, and we're going to love them!
We were then able to get a cheap white bookshelf to house all of our remaining books. I might get a little craftsy with it and see about putting on some doors so that we can hide the piles of photo albums. I'm also encouraging Stephen to think about getting craftsy and building an easy corner bench that we can put outside for outdoor dining.
Our living space, which Mom refuses to call an apartment, is starting to feel like we're moving in!
We even had time to hang out with the new friends we're making. One of the bassoon players in my woodwind sextet is very active and has taken to rock climbing. There's a gym that just moved up to Kailua, so when he goes, he invites us along. It's actually a lot of fun, if tiring and sometimes frustrating.
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| Stephen thinks it's cool to take pictures at weird angles. So I fixed it... |
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| I try to capture the action, not confusing angles! |
This friend of mine is also very into hiking and trail running, so he invited us to go on a 9-mile hike on Saturday morning. Stephen really wanted to play racquetball, so he passed, but I decided to go. I don't know what I was thinking, but I somehow figured 9 miles would take maybe a little over two hours. Nope. It took four. I didn't bring food with me, so I was freaking starving when we were done! Lesson learned!
The views were worth it, though!
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| A view from the side of Maunawili trail |
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| A view all the way down to the ocean! |
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| Obligatory selfie! |
Stephen has no interest in running 9 miles on a trail, and honestly the hike itself had me so sore that I know I would have a lot of training to do if I were going to do that.
With that in mind, I had Stephen look up any real organized Turkey Trot 5Ks. I did them in Newport on the base, and Stephen and I did a huge one in Washington, D.C. for Thanksgiving. Apparently the only one on O'ahu is a 10-miler, at which point Stephen said he'd rather just run the 9 miles on the trail!
So I suppose that I have some training up to do!
Today was just a nice, relaxing day that started with breakfast at the junior enlisted club on the Marine Corps base, where we could get nasty eggs and bacon and sausage and waffles and watch the Browns game. It's become our Sunday morning ritual. Afterward, I practiced while Stephen organized more of the apartment, and then when I started getting really frustrating, we went to the beach.
The view of the mountains over the water never gets old. We've been here for exactly two months now, and I still have to stop and go "Wow."
So yeah, all in all, things are falling in to place!
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