Aloha Hawaii

Welcome to the islands of aloha! After 8 days at sea, land was a very welcome sight. It was also nice to be able to turn on my cell phone and have it find a signal and dial up the family. It almost seems unfair that we only got 14 hours off the ship to enjoy a place that people try so hard to visit for weeks at a time. But, we all made the most of it. Everyone was itching to get off the ship as quickly as possible, and the different student seas were vying for the privilege to be the first off the ship once we cleared immigration. The contest centered around which sea could sign up the most people to join “The Shipmate Program,” the alumni organization for Semester at Sea. True to form, the Aegean Sea was very competitive, and came in 3rd when 93% of our group signed up. Turtle Power. This meant that my kiddos were off the ship by about 8:30am, and had plenty of time to enjoy the island. Me and the other staff folks all agreed we would go off with the Faculty/Staff Team in whatever order they finished. Little did we know that the F/S group would finish dead last. Ugh! Luckily we were still off the ship by about 9:45am

I’ve heard so many nice things about Hawaii from all the folks at UCI who come from HI, and from my RD friend, Lesley, who lives on Oahu and gushes about her home state whenever the opportunity arises. Our Logistical and Cultural Pre-Ports also got me really excited with conversations about the Polynesian influence, the cuisine, the traditions, the language. I was psyched for my 14 hours in paradise. During our pre-port a group of the women on the ship presented a traditional hula dance, and a group of men learned a Haka dance and performed that as well. The Haka is actually a tradition from New Zealand and the islands of the South Pacific, but was an interesting Polynesian cultural tradition to see. Our Kiwi Professor, Simon Nicholson, taught the guys the dance. Very cool indeed.
One of the coolest things about our time in Hawaii was that a big group of 15 of us were all going to travel around the island with Lesley and her fiancé Matt. They had planned a whole Oahu itinerary that was special and chock full of fun times. Lesley has been missing Matt a LOT during the voyage. I think she started a countdown to Hawaii when we got to South Africa! It was so cute to see them together. We began our island adventure by driving out of Honolulu to the windward side of the island where the two of them live. On the way over the mountains, we stopped at a popular look out and saw some amazing views, and learned about the battle that took place there when King Kamehameha united the island chain and became the first king of the Hawaiian islands. We then went to Lesley’s hometown of Kailua and stopped at the bank and then her favorite coffee shop, Morning Brew. After we all got our lunch/coffee fixes we headed out to the beach where we got in tandem kayaks and rowed out to the Mokulua Islands. The Moks are only a bit off shore, maybe 20 minutes of hard kayaking. The water was crystal clear and a bright blue/green color. It was so beautiful, even more so than in Mauritius. Beth and I shared a kayak, b/c Beth was worried about falling out, and since I’m a strong swimmer she made me promise I would save her life if we tipped over. I love Beth, and I know she wanted to pull her weight as we rowed out to the island. I never let on that I was doing almost all the work. She did, after all, provide some great conversation, ad took the brunt of most of the waves as we rolled over some pretty big swells.

Along the way, as we were rowing, I felt a sharp pain on my arm and looked down to see a blue tentacle wrapped around my arm. It turns out that my oar had whipped a Portuguese Man-a-War up out of the water and around my arm. It stung SO badly, but since we were in the middle of the water I had to push through and get us to the island. The man-a-war actually landed in the kayak, and I spent a good two minutes just trying to flick it out, while my arm was burning, trying not to get stung even worse. It was a comedy display I’m sure, since Beth, who was sitting in front of me, couldn’t turn around to see what was happening. Once we got to the shore, I immediately ran around a bend in the beach to deal with the sting. The best thing to do to ease a jellyfish sting is to put urine on it, so I went and pee’d all over my arm. Darn good thing I had to go to the bathroom, or else I would have had to ask for volunteers. Luckily the pain eased after that, even though the sting left a big welt on my arm for a couple days.

When we arrived on the island, we found a big stick in the sand, and an X made out of stones. Matt told us a host story about Hawaiian pirates and had us dig under the stones to find the “buried treasure.” The treasure turned out to be a cooler filled with beer, fruit juices, and pineapples. After our beverages, we hiked around the tiny islands and snorkled in the clear water. It was a nice morning. After a couple hours we rowed back across the water to Oahu and returned the kayaks to the rental agency. That’s when everything took a turn for the worse.

We returned to the van to discover that while we were on Mokulua, some people broke into the borrowed van, a church van no less, and stolen all of our valuables. People had cameras, passports, and other things stolen. I lost my Drivers; License, my Credit Card, my ATM card, my health insurance card, my shipboard ID, and $380 I had taken out of the bank to clear my debts with folks on the ship. I was so frustrated I wanted to cry. I know we all felt that way, and I did take heart in the fact that I wasn’t the only one who was upset, but I felt so disconcerted and victimized. We called the police and filed a report, but since there were a lot of thefts, especially in that area, they weren’t very hopeful that anyone would ever figure out who had done it. None of us could believe it, especially not Matt or Lesley. I can’t believe that I traveled around the world. Was traveling in countries like Brazil, South Africa, Vietnam, and India and never once had an issue with theft of any kind… but that in Hawaii, in the UNITED friggin’ STATES I became a victim. Even now, typing up about it, I am pissed off all over again. It’s almost as if my homecoming was a big “screw you” making me want to turn around and go the other way, rather than return to the states. Grrrr. Ok, sorry, I just had to let off some steam. Anyways, we returned to the ship and got cleaned up. I was moping around, unsure what to do with myself. All my plans for the afternoon had suddenly disappeared. I could no longer buy souvenirs, or go get good Hawaiian food like the Spam Musubi I had been waiting for. Eventually, my friend Dia convinced a bunch of us to go into the mall area near the pier and let her buy us dinner. It was really nice of her. After dinner, a few folks went to Walmart to buy some souvenirs, but I wasn’t really feeling it, so I window shopped a bit, sat down with a couple older staff members who were having a drink in one of the bars nearby, and then returned to the ship and welcomed the students back for the last time. It was a sad night.

You know, I was so prepared to fall in love with Hawaii, and be sad to leave, and ready to return soon. After the day I had, I was glad to see Hawaii disappear into the distance. I wish we had never stopped there to begin with. Maybe someday I will be lucky enough to return under much better circumstances, but for now… I won’t miss it.

So there you have my Hawaiian experience. Not so good. We’re now in the middle of our last 6 days at sea before we return to San Diego. I’m sad, everyone is sad… but we’re also extremely busy. I’ll write more soon about how ship life had been moving along, and how things go as we prepare to end our voyage of discovery. I love you all and will be back home to see you soon.

XOXO,
-Drew