Aloha!

Aloha!

Sorry for the delay, the ship was surprisingly busy during the last few days at sea: we had a Talent Show, a Hawaii preport, a choral concert, a "P is for Party" party, and a Comedy Show. Not to mention regular work days (that have started to include a little more and more relaxing time outside on the back deck).

A few words about all those events:
- The Talent Show was great - one of my students did some HILARIOUS stand up comedy that was absolutely outstanding; there was a trio that did a mash-up of some late 90s songs that was very impressive; at the end one of the 10 year olds did a big dance number to a variety of songs with the 3 basketball players from the University of Rochester as her backup dancers (Single Ladies, etc). It was a great night.
- 2 people had a Dec 2 birthday but a Dec 1 party and themed the party "P is for Party" so we were encouraged to wear something with "P." A lot of people participated - Chris wore a piece of paper, Jodi wore purple, another girl put a dodgeball under her sweater and went as "pregnant." I put on my Panda hat. It was quite popular.
- The preport for Hawaii featured a "12 Days of Christmas" type song that highlighted a number of different notorious injuries & illnesses suffered on the voyage. The highlight of the song was either the Global Studies professor singing "I detaaaached my retinnnnaaaaa" instead of "five golden rings" [He really did - the night before we got to Cape Town - he had to stay there for a week and met us in Mauritius. He was very lucky it happened within hours of us being in Cape Town] OR the nurse putting on a blonde wig and singing "a malaria mosquito bit meeee" instead of "and a partridge in a pear tree", referencing our poor student who got a horrid strain of malaria and left us in India. She actually just got back home to Seattle 2 weeks ago and is doing well.

So that's ship life. But you don't care, because I've spent the last 2 days in Hawaii!

I've technically visited Hawaii before, when my mother was several months pregnant with me. Thanks mom! I didn't remember much of my first time around, so it was like a whole new place.

We arrived in Honolulu (on the island of Oahu) VERY early on Friday morning and I had to go help out with Immigration. We did NOT go through Customs, which was a bummer because that meant that we couldn't ship anything home from Hawaii, and it means that we need to do that in San Diego. I was one of the first people off of the ship because I had to go lead a trip to Pearl Harbor.

I have wanted to visit Pearl Harbor since I was pretty young, so I was VERY excited that it would be the first thing I would do in Hawaii. As we pulled out on the bus, we were welcomed to Hawaii by a double rainbow. Perfect! [I did NOT start crying and saying "what does it meaaaannnn?"]

Upon arriving at Pearl Harbor, we first stood in line to watch a 25 minute documentary about how we got into the war, the attack, and the memorial itself. I was unaware that footage existed of the USS Arizona exploding, but it does and it was intense. If you are unfamiliar with the attack on Pearl Harbor, I recommend you pause here and go Wikipedia that.

After the video, we headed over to a small boat that brought everyone out to the actual memorial. The USS Arizona still rests on the shallow bottom of the harbor and pieces of the ship stick out of the water. The memorial floats above it, like the cross on a lower-case T. The memorial itself is beautiful and simple. I was impressed with how well done it is. It is very bright and open, and you simply just walk through the 3 small halls: the first has the flags for the different states of the battleships that were bombed that day [ie Arizona, Utah, etc]. The second room is the main room that shows diagrams of the Arizona and what is what under the water. There are also giant windows through which you can look out and see the buoy designating the stern and the bow of the ship. There is also a viewing well. The third room has the names of all who perished in the attack.

I spent my time mostly in the middle hall. I was absolutely fascinated by the oil that still leaks from the USS Arizona. The guide said that these are the tears of the Arizona, and they will stop only when the last survivor has passed. I remember my mom telling me as a kid that the oil still bubbles up, but I assumed it would've stopped after almost 30 years (nearly 70 in total). However, I learned that the ship had refueled on Dec 6, 1941, so there was quite a bit of oil in it.

It was a very heavy feeling, standing mere feet above the graves of nearly 900 men (over 1100 died in the Arizona, and 900 remain entombed there). The USS Missouri sits nearby, bringing a very cyclical feel to the whole memorial. [The USS Missouri is the ship on which Japan gave its unconditional surrender on V-J Day].

After about 20 minutes, we headed back to shore and walked through the gift shop area. Several survivors were there that day and Shannon and I talked to one of them and thanked him for his service. There aren't many survivors left, and many of them still come out for the anniversary each year (we visited Dec 3, 4 days before the anniversary - we actually saw them practicing for the big ceremony which is being held to commemorate the date AND open a new portion of the memorial).

Our guide told us that many survivors request their ashes be returned to Pearl Harbor and brought down to rest in eternity with their fallen brothers in the Arizona. The Navy sends divers down to bring the ashes of these men to their final resting place.

I highly HIGHLY recommend you visit if you ever come to Honolulu.

We had a bit of a city tour after leaving Pearl Harbor and saw the war memorial cemetery, the capitol, and the palace (the only palace in the US). We were all exhausted since the Comedy Show had gone so late the night before and we had all gotten up so early.

We got back and I made a couple phone calls (back in the US meant turning my telephone on!) I met up with some friends and we decided to head to Waikiki Beach for the last several hours of sunlight. I called Holly to see where she was on the beach and she said that she took the bus but that they saw another SASer who said it was a 20 minute walk. We obviously decided to walk, and it turned into a 75 minute walk. Yikes!

We grabbed some (very expensive) lunch and laid on the beach and watched the sun set as the sailboats came out for awhile. It was such a beautiful day and it was an amazing beach and extremely relaxing. We walked around Waikiki for awhile and finally found a place to have dinner and some Kona beers while sitting outside, watching everybody walk by. It was pretty late by the time we finished and we walked back to the ship, another 75 minutes. We were confused because we had heard the beach was 2 miles away, but it certainly doesn't take that long to go 2 miles. I looked it up when I got home, and it turns out it was 4 1/2 miles away. We had covered some serious ground (and in flip flops too... ouch!)

This morning I woke up and we headed out to the beach again (though we took the bus), this time to Kuhio Beach on Waikiki to see some surfers. It was again a beautiful, beautiful day and we had a very relaxing day laying outside and swimming. We grabbed some lunch nearby and again walked home. It was a perfect day, and it was so refreshing to feel like it was okay to relax and enjoy the beach.

It definitely feels weird - but nice! - to be back in the US. Highway signs (specifically, INTERstate signs, which is hilarious because there's no other state nearby), postal trucks, license plates, general traffic laws being followed, US money, US prices, English spoken everywhere - it was all kind of reverse culture shock. I had a hard time remembering that people around me all spoke English. My inclination was to try to figure stuff out myself to avoid the drama of communication, but we could easily ask for directions or recommendations, and it was very nice.

People are definitely filled with the Aloha spirit here - very friendly, very helpful, very laid back. I wish we were spending more than 2 days in Honolulu. We had to reboard the ship and we are in the process of sailing to Hilo, on the big island. We'll get there in the morning, and we have already rented a car so that we can drive around and go see some VOLCANOES!

More on that later!

Also, I'm 4 hours behind Central Time right now. Getting closer!