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The Explorer stopped in Hawaii today for one day! What a tease... it was kind of like making a pit-stop on a long road trip from Japan to Costa Rica. It was really a great day and I definately would look forward to going back someday. It was my first time on US land since I left Florida on January 18th and although I had never been to Hawaii, there was a sense of the familiar there. People spoke English, took US$, drove on the right side of the road, we didn't have to worry about reading mystery menus or if the water was safe and I didn't have to carry my Passport around in a money belt.
Overall, it was a great day! I woke up bright and early (well, not exactly bright since my cabin is like the batcave) and was thrilled to see that my cell phone said "Verizon Wireless" on it and proceeded to immediately call Andrew, followed by my Mom, Dad, Heather and Grandpa. I wal also up so early since we had to be at the Faculty/Staff Lounge at 6am to assist with Immigration. Once again, putting 800 people through a US Homeland Security check after travelling abroad for 3 months was alot of fun. At least they didn't take our temperatures to make sure none of us had Bird Flu or SARS. Once that was completed, I got some breakfast and LE and I headed out on the island.
My one and only goal for our time in Hawaii was to go surfing! A ton of SAS'ers went skydiving and asked why I didn't do that but I decided that there will be plenty of time for jumping out of airplanes back in NY in just a few weeks and surfing is definately something that is better in Hawaii than in NY. We got off of the ship and took a public bus over to Waikiki Beach and it was beautiful. Found a place and set up a reservation for a group surf lesson later in the day. After that, we went off to run some errands and enjoy the beach. They have these stores called ABC Stores on every corner. Its basically a combination convenience market-souvenir store and they are everywhere.
One surprise was while walking through a bunch of jewelry stands and looking at some necklaces and such, I had asked the woman working how much a toe-ring was. (I had lost mine way back in Puerto Rico I think) She told me $25. I said no thank you and proceeded to walk away. I was in shock when she followed me, grabbed my arm proceeded to say "good price for you, good quality" and I immediately had flashbacks of Vietnam and China! I did not think that bargaining was a part of the US culture so I said no thank you and once again moved on. She continued to ask me "How much you pay? I discount for you" like she was reading a script from Ben Than Market in Saigon so I thought I'd try to play the game with her. Let's just say I have honed my Asian barrgaining skills and now have a toe ring for $4.
We returned to the beach area at 1:30 for our surf lesson and I was so excited. If you've ever seen the movie Blue Crush, I wanted to be that girl for one afternoon...knowing full well that I do not look like that and I was destined to be a totally awkward new surfer! But it was fun!!! There were 7 of us total in the group lesson and two instructors, a cute little old man they called Uncle Billy and Josh. After a 15 minute lesson on the beach, we paddled out in to the ocean on our soft top beginner surf boards to catch some waves. Basically, the instructor positioned you in to the wave, gave you a push and yelled "Paddle Paddle....Stand Up" and we'd either stand up or fall off! It was great. I managed to get myself up most of the time actually. Don't worry, I'm well aware that someone pushing you in to baby wave does not make you a surfer...but I had fun and definately want to go again! LE wasn't as thrilled with the surfing but I'm so glad she tried. I totally owe her an afternoon of para-sailing since that was her activity of choice and we didn't make it. After surf lessons, we got a really late lunch of mexican food which tasted great but was no different for me than any other first meal in a port Walked around some more and headed back to the ship since I had to be back at 6pm for gangway duty.
Gangway Duty was not fun at all. It never really is but this one was particularly awful and I was really disappointed by the behavior of the students, by the SAS response to it and that I had to end my fantastic day in Hawaii like that. To make a long story short, there were many intoxicated students but the bigger problem was that at 8:30pm, there were still at least 200 students needing to board for an On-Ship time of 9:00pm. They stormed the gangway and caused some serious chaos of pushing and name-calling etc... I think it was handled poorly, which only rewards poor behavior and makes my job harder. Great! O well...not alot I can do about it.
Overall, our stop in Hawaii was awesome and and I very much needed a fun day to break up these long stretches at sea. 10 days to Costa Rica.
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