Sunday, April 29, 2007
Things you should do in Hawaii
1. Soak up the culture. ( There is just so much going on there. Experience new things.)
2. Enjoy nature. (Hawaii has some of the most beautiful natural environments in the world. I really loved those mountains.)
3. Go to the beach! (This sounds like a no-brainer, but with so much going on it is easy to forget it is even there.)
4. Eat lots of Kalua pork. (This is manna from the gods. Who knew pork could be so good. We ate it by itself, on nachos, and every other way they would serve it. I really miss it.)
5. Avoid tourist traps. (If you look hard enough, you will find places will local flare not set up to serve the tourists.)
Things you do not do in Hawaii
1. Eat at a Chinese buffet geared towards tourists (This is just bad news altogether.)
2. Try to go swimming at the North Shore (Common sense tells you that 10 - 15 foot waves are not a good sign. Yet I still saw parents letting their kids just run up to the water. Thank God for the lifeguard.)
3. Attempt to climb Diamond head if you are out of shape. (I admit I struggled to reach the top. Then some old lady passed us several times on the "stairs of death" doing her normal workout routine. Talk about depressing.)
4. Offend entire cultures by your actions. (I saw this happen several times, stop and think about your surroundings before you do or say something.)
5. Refer to the islands as the "Third World". ( I said it as a joke to a waitress, she did not find it funny. But in some regards I was right.)
6. Give a server a tip. (No matter what, every place we went to added gratuity to your check. It took a couple of days for us to realize this and stop double tipping.)
16. Food and Meals as a Cultural Experience
Some of the best orange chicken I have ever had! The whole lazy susan concept of serving food was interesting. I enjoyed trying other peoples choices. This makes the meal more of a sharing expwerience and promoted converastion. I understand why the Chinese do it this way. Rather than sitting there eating your food in silence, you socialize more. I could have done without the chopsticks though. Give me a fork anyday. The menu was in English, so I did not have to randomly guess for food and pray it wasn't some odd animal I would be eating. In realty, none of the food was so exotic that you thought to yourself," how could they serve that?". I guess in this day and age we have accustomed ourselves to a more worldly palate and actively seek new foods.
15. Excursion to Chinatown
Is it possible to just cross a street and experience a whole new world? Chinatown gives you that feeling. The vendors were polite and helpful, something I am not used to. The goods are cheap, yet everyone is bound to find something. I was amazed at the amount of jewelry stores in the area. Some of the tackiest jewlry I have seen could be found there, yet some of the most beautiful also. Sure, this is an Americanized version of a Chinese business district, yet themes from the Asian culture prevail. Traditional herbs sit on shelves alongside aspirin, acupuncture can be done for a modest fee, and exotic foods (or what seems exotic to us) are easily attained.
14. Confucianism and the Shaping of Chinese Culture: "To Live"
To Live is a film set in China that attempts to show the cyclical pattern of life. The gambling father loses the family home, is forced to fight in the revoultion and returns to be with his wife and children afterwards. His constant hopes are that life will be better for subsequent generations, if only they work harder to provide for them. The communist regime enforces communal values and a rigid work ethic that must be adhered to by Chinese of all ages. It appears the Chinese are well adapted to these notions, but the loss of freedom remains a concern. While most of the Chinese blindly follow their government and give allegiance, some attempt to hold onto what makes them an individual.
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