Quick highlights

Malo!

I know it's been about forever since I last posted; Internet has been infrequent. So much has happened since my last post, I don't even know where to start! I've decided the best way to do this (and the easiest for you to follow, since I don't think anyone wants to read a novel about my life) is bullet point format. Here goes:

Hawaii Highlights:

• farming taro in a running-water taro patch
• seeing "lava" flow, watching ancient hulu dances, and hearing traditional Hawaiian folktales at the Bishop museum
• having a bouncer at a club think I'd been drinking and taking away my ID, which I think he thought was a fake, although it clearly says I am only 20 (okay, not a highlight. but kind of a funny story.)
• meeting a woman from Vermont on the beach in Waikiki and having an hour-long conversation with her and Lindsay (another girl on my trip, who is from Middlebury and goes to UVM) about how awesome Vermont is
• going on a day-long tour of Oahu in the bed of a pick-up truck, stopping at view points, fruit stands, and beaches all around the island

 Random/Strange/Different Things about Samoa:

• showers are cold. There's no running hot water
• it's okay because it really hot all the time. and it's so humid that it feels like you're taking a hot shower. 
• most people live in fale Samoa, which are roofed platforms, basically. They only have "walls" when the inhabitants roll down cloth blinds if it's raining or for privacy (very rare).
• Most fale are painted bright colors and are adorned in all kinds of designs.
• 50% of the country's population is under the age of 18, so there are kids everywhere (and they're adorable!)
• white people are called "palagi" (with the "g" pronounced as in "song" or "tongue") so the kids will all shout "fa palagi!" as you walk by. they think it's hilarious.
• they also therefore call sunblock "palagi lotion." You can't find it anywhere so I'm glad I brought three bottles of it with me. 
• instead of putting trash out on the street in garbarge cans for collections, like in the US, they put little bags of trash on raised platforms about five feet off the ground. I have no idea why.
• family members are buried in raised graves right outside houses. People kind of just sit around on grandma's grave. 

Samoa Highlights:

• going to a Samoan Catholic church with Jackie (our Academic Director) last sunday. I finally realize what it's like for people who aren't Jewish and don't speak Hebrew to go to Shabbat services. 
• eating the traditional Samoan Sunday lunch, or To'ona'i. Men wake up early in the morning to build the outdoor oven and the food (described in the next section) bakes while everyone is at church. The kids sit and fan your food while you eat so no flies get in it.
• buying/ wearing the traditional Samoan clothing. Lavalava are very comfortable!
• exploring Apia, the capital city (about a 10-minute drive from Alafua, where I live).
• buying fresh fruit from the fruit market and speaking to the women in Samoan ('E fia le tau?-- What is the price?; Pisi le aso?-- Busy day?)
• staying in a beach fale in lolomanu this weekend. For less than 35 US$ I got three delicious meals, a comfortable room on the sand with waves breaking four feet away, the tradtional fiafia (fire dancing show), snorkling in the reef, dancing at the "disco," and more!
• visiting the Bahai temple (amazingly gorgeous grounds, fantastic views of the island)
• seeing the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum and hiking to his grave, then swimming in the creek at the bottom with some local kids
• walking to Sliding Rock, where, you guessed it, we slid down rocks! Awesomely fun natural water slides and jumping rocks. 

Amazing Samoan Food:

• oka: raw fresh fish (literally caught that day) with veggies in coconut milk and lemon juice
• palusami: taro leaves and cocnut milk wrapped in banana leaves and baked in the umu
• something I don't know the name of: chicken and onions baked in coconut milk, in the coconut
• fresh fruit from the market downtown: papayas, three different types of bananas including red ones, passion fruit, pineapple, oranges, lychees, star fruit, mangoes, things I don't know the names of
• baked breadfuit and taro to dip in palusami
• fresh-caught fish
• whole roast pig
• fe'e: octupus (soo good)
• unfortunately, the food in the dining hall is not as good. We got hot dogs and peanut butter for breakfast today.

I'll try to write more later. Sorry I couldn't get into details/ analysis/ thoughts/ feelings/ etc., but I have a research paper to write and the library closes in 20 minutes!

Fa'afetai lava mo faitau! Tofa le soifua!
(Thanks for reading! Goodbye and good wishes!-- it sounds better in Samoan)

love,
Leah

Limos, escargot, and palm trees... oh my!

Aloha from Honolulu!

It's the end of the first day and the adventures have already begun! The flight was uneventful, which is a good way for a flight to be. I made my way to the taxi dispatcher and told the woman the address of my hostel. As I busy myself with an intense game of Words With Friends on my phone (obviously I'm not in Samoa yet) I hear the woman say that my cab is ready. I look up to see a stretch limo waiting for me at the curb. Um... what? After making sure I didn't have to pay extra for this stylin' ride (I didn't. Apparently the Honolulu airport has limos in its cab rotation) I hopped in to cruise off into the palm tree-ridden landscape.


A few hours later I had my second adventure/ first time experience of the day. After the majority of our group arrived at the hostel (located across the street from the University of Hawaii Manoa) and we had pretended to learn each other's names, we walked down to Kit n' Kitchen for dinner. The foodie in me (which, let's be honest, is most of me) was immediately satisfied by the menu. And so, with all us Samoan adventurers attempting to prove our bravery, we soon found four plates of escargot on the tables in front of us. We devoured each and every buttery, garlicky morsel, feeling very proud of ourselves.

This morning we woke up and walked to a classroom across campus in the East West Center, and just in case you forgot where I was, here's a picture I took at 8:45:

We had an eventful day of class including a lecture/ concert from one of the professors of Hawaiian history here at UH, learning a few basic Samoan words and phrases (I can count to 100!), and discussing some of the upcoming highlights of the program.

Most of us headed over to the huge carnival at Punahou School after class, where I got a Hawaiian plate for dinner (including poi--a not terribly edible taro mash-- some kind of salted salmon salad thing, some kind of pork and leafy greens wrapped in banana leaf thing, pineapple, and some kind of coconut milk pudding/jello) and a malasada (kind of like a donut but Portuguese and so much better).

We then made our way to Chinatown, where they always have giant street parties on the first Friday of the month. We went to a few art shows, got Mexican food (I'm still confused by the Hawaiians serving Mexican food in Chinatown), and attempted to get into a karaoke bar.

Bedtime now, for tomorrow only holds more excitement (taro farming, palace visiting, and our first drop-off sessions-- where Jackie, our Academic Director, chooses a random place, tells one of us to get out of the van, and expects us to meet her a few hours later in another part of the island with a story to tell)!

Tofa for now!

-Leah

I'm leaving, on a jet plane...

Hey everyone!

So I leave for Honolulu tomorrow and I've yet to pack. My room is in utter disarray, though I keep trying to convince myself the mess is made up of orderly piles. My backpack sits in the corner, with only the gifts I'm bringing for my home stay families inside. Looks like I have some work to do!

I'll start the blog off with a way-too-intense-for-what's-actually-going-on-but-kind-of-has-to-do-with-travel quote, for all of you who will be living vicariously through me as I spend the next few months of my life somewhere in the South Pacific:

"There is no way back for me now. I'm going to take you on journeys you've never dreamed were possible." -Alexander Mcqueen

Although there is a way back (it's called an airplane), I do hope to have adventures of the super-somnium sort. So keep checking in for updates, photos, etc. if you wanna see what life is like in Honolulu, Samoa, Fiji, and American Samoa!

Tofa!
-Leah