Hawaiian Poge

Things are good! I climbed Diamond Head yesterday on my last day of freedom before I started work.  http://www.hawaiiweb.com/html/diamond_head.html  Diamond Head is the big “mountain” you see in the background of most Waikiki pics. 

It’s a dormant (thank goodness) volcano.  You can drive into the crater and then climb from the inside. It’s a nice hike with amazing views (pics to come in the future), but it’s weird.  There are tons of man-made stairs and tunnels and bunkers so that you can get to the top. It was used as a harbor defense fort back when the US first annexed Hawaii. 

I started my job today.  On my way I was waiting for the bus and asked the only lady sitting there if I’d missed the bus I was waiting for.  She said, “Ich kann kein Englisch”, which means “I don’t speak English” in German.  Which as luck would have it, is the only other language I DO speak.  So, without prefacing anything by saying that I do speak German, I just repeated my question in German.  She looked very confused that some random red-head in Hawaii was talking to her in German, but we got past it and had a lovely conversation.  She was waiting for her son to come back and pick her up after he went back to the hotel to get a pen (?).   I had a bad feeling he wasn’t coming back, but she wasn’t at the bus stop when I returned from work so that’s a good sign. 

Work itself was great.  The people are amazing so far, they really believe in the mission and people work there for really long periods of time. I’m excited. The guy I work most directly with has been there for 33 years. 33 YEARS!

 David and I hung more stuff up in the apartment and bought a futon.  We’re “nesting” as my Dad would say. 

So that’s my story for now.  Now that I have a job (cramps my style!) it’ll be harder to reach me since the time difference is such a pain, but don’t give up on me.  Lunches here (5 or 6 on the east coast) or after work (10 or 11 on the east coast) might be the best times. You could try me early mornings, but really, that’s not good for anyone involved.

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K people.  Lots of change here in Hawaii. 

First, I got a haircut.  I tried to put up a picture, but it didn’t work.  Rest assured, though, it looks good. It’s just shorter. It’s the same cut I always get when I actually bother to get my hair cut.   You’ll see pictures of it soon enough, I’m sure.

Second, the apartment is pretty much fully furnished. We need chairs for the table and a futon for the guest room, but otherwise it’s quite comfortable if I do say so myself.  (Project Apartment Beautification is underway Erin!)  It’s nice to have everything I need if I want to watch movies or cook or compute.  I rarely have to steal things from Mom anymore. She would maintain that it’s because I’ve already stolen everything, but you know, whatever.

Thirdly and lastly, I got a job. Yes people, I, Karen Q. Poggi am gainfully (?) employed. Where you may ask? I have made the HUGE jump from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay to… Big Brothers Big Sisters of Honolulu! It’s a whole new world.  http://www.bigshonolulu.org/aboutus.php

I’m really excited though actually. I start Wednesday and everything I know about the agency so far makes me think it has the parts of BBBSMB that I loved, but is different in the ways that I want it to be. We’ll see! I don’t want to get too excited.

This is what I mostly loved and miss about the last Big Brothers:

My coworkers at BBBSH will definitely be different in terms of age and background and nationalities, which I’m really excited about, but I hope it’ll be as closeknit a community.  So far so good. I met a few people briefly during the interview and when I saw them a week later at a big event, after I’d been offered the job, they hugged me! That bodes well.

The event was a Volunteer Appreciation Event and it was really cool. Very down to earth and fun.  There was a talent show where Bigs and Littles danced and sang and did magic. It was hilarious and awesome and exactly what I think the whole program is about.  And it really made it obvious that the volunteers are appreciated for the time and effort they give, which I thought was cool.

Speaking of Volunteer Appreciation, my good friend Katie (heretofore referred to as KTO) is becoming a Big Sister…. today!  I am so excited I can’t even tell you how much.  She is one of the coolest people and knows so much about everything and is just ridiculously determined and open-minded. She’s going to be one of the coolest Big Sisters. I’m actually kind of jealous of her Little. I wish she’d do arts and crafts with me.

This is her.

A few years ago- and for some reason I’m attacking her.

When I asked if she’s excited she said, ” No comment.”

She’s so modest.  She meets her Little Sister today for the first time.  Good Luck KTO!!! I can’t wait to hear stories.

And I’ll keep you all posted about the new job.  Life is good.

Hi everyone! I’m back… and better than ever.   Sorry it’s been so long since my last blog.  It’s been really busy lately, but great. 

One of the cool things about Hawaii is that a lot of people want to come here, so even if they’re not visiting us we get a lot of visitors.  It’s pretty great.  (I still expect visitors who come here to see us though!)  We’ve been here a month and a half and 4 groups of people we know have been on the island, separate from coming to see us.  Three of them were work colleagues of David, soo.. boring. BUT one of the guests was my friend Kristin from Notre Dame. That was awesome. 

She lives in Alaska now, but she and her husband were on another island, Kaua’i, (smaller, less populated, beautiful, where most of Jurassic Park was filmed) for Christmas with Kristin’s family, but then they came over here to Oahu for about a week to meet up with Jeremy’s brother and his girlfriend. (Jeremy’s brother’s girlfriend, not Jeremy’s. That would’ve been awkward.) It was so fun to see them. They spent a few days here on Waikiki and then spent the rest of the time on the North Shore so they could surf. 

The first night they were here we met up and went to First Friday in Chinatown.  http://www.chinatownhi.com/?q=node/7  I hadn’t been before so that was really cool. The first Friday of every month they keep all of the galleries and restaurants in Chinatown open late, have a craft fair and different musical acts outside, and give out free refreshments. It was really neat, and there were a ton of people out. Apparently it’s the “hip place to be seen if you’re a twenty something”.   One cool thing that I learned is that there’s a building in Chinatown built entirely out of bricks from Boston.  They used the bricks to balance the ships when they came to Hawaii back in the day.  It’s in downtown Chinatown on Oahu and looks like it should be in Charlestown or Beacon Hill.  It’s bizarre.  I’ll go there if I get homesick.

A few days after First Friday David and I drove up to the North Shore to see Kristin, Jeremy & Co before they headed back to the mainland.  It was an eventful trip because we got a little lost on the way and then when we finally got there we saw a surfer on a bike get hit by a car.  David called 911 and we waited for the ambulance. They got there really fast and it seemed like the surfer will be fine, but it was an interesting way to start the night.  (See David’s blog for more info.)  Then we met up with Kristin and walked down to Sunset Beach to meet up with the other guys.  This is one of the beaches you hear about a lot if you’re a surfer. That’s where the biggest waves are. It’s beautiful.  They have tournaments here sometimes. The waves weren’t so big this day.

Sorry the pictures are so dark.  This is me and David.

David and Kristin

Kristin, Jeremy, Chris and Haley after surfing

After the beach we went to Haleiwa http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.asp?trailid=XGP005-012 for dinner and ate at a small place called Spaghettini’s.  A fun day all in all. It was really nice to get off Waikiki and so fun to see Kristin.

I’ve known Kristin since freshman year at Notre Dame. We went to Innsbruck together our sophomore year, which really solidified our friendship. 

Our host families were close friends so we got to spend a lot of time together.  She and I and our host brothers Matthias and Georg came to Hawaii together our junior year. That was a blast.  

So it was really cool to see her again here. It felt like it came full circle.

So who’s coming to visit next?!

I’ve gotten a lot of requests lately for more Hawaii pictures.  I aim to please.  I’ve actually been waiting to post about this hike until I got the pictures. I’m the lame friend who hates to carry her own camera and so I wait until other people send me theirs. It works out well for me. (Thanks Chris!)

David and I have been here for over a month and have been so busy trying to get stuff set up that we haven’t done a lot of real Hawaii stuff.  When my brother Chris was here for a few weeks around Christmas I got the chance to go into tourist mode though and just relax more. 

Chris and our old friend Karyn and I went hiking to the westernmost point on the island a couple of weeks ago.  “Kaʻena or Kaʻena Point is the westernmost tip of land on the island of Oʻahu. The point can be reached by foot from both the south (Waiʻanae Coast) and the north (Mokulēʻia) coastlines”

It was amazing.

It’s one of those situations where the pictures don’t do it justice at all.  It was so pretty there, and the best part was that there was ocean on one side and mountains on the other the whole way.  The best of both worlds.

There was a wildlife reserve at the end where a ton of albatross nest. That was neat. There were supposed to be seals in the water at the end, but no luck. 

This is Karyn.

Our Dads have been friends since we were kids so we’ve been friends a long time.  She’s hilarious.  In an earlier blog I mentioned the time Mom and Dad met all their Hawaiian friends b/c Mom hit on Harvey by mistake thinking he was Dad.  Karyn’s Dad Wayne is one of that group.

The fact that we have the same name has always been problematic. In Hawaii she’s Karyn #1 and  I’m Karen #2. People actually call us this.  In New York I’m Karen #1 and she’s Karyn #2.  Luckily, and completely coincidentally, our families have opposite nicknames for us in real life.  I’ve always been Kare (alternate spelling = Kar) and she’s been Wren. (Ryn?)

Apparently I went around for a week when I first met her calling spelling my name with a “y” because I thought it was cooler.  Chris put the kabosh on that when he saw it and said, “You can’t even spell your own NAME?”. Ah, brotherly love.

One of the coolest parts about the hike to Kaʻena was the very end.  We’d been warned before going that that part of the island isn’t as safe for tourists.   A lot of people live in that area on the beach in tents and make-shift houses.  Definitely different than the Waikiki we’re used to.  So we were encouraged not to leave anything visible in the car, etc. 

At the end of the hike when we got back to the car we found out it was stuck on a dune. Within about 30 seconds 8 people were at the car helping us get it out.  5 guys were pushing it from the back and it was immediately hooked up to someone’s truck. It was unbelievable. Everyone was so friendly and helpful. It really neat to see. It could’ve taken us forever to get the car out otherwise.  It was just a neat Hawaii moment. It’s the aloha spirit you hear so much about. People really are amazing here.

Does everybody remember Flat Stanley? It started out as a children’s book where this guy named Stanley is flattened by a billboard.  

It turned into the Flat Stanley Project where kids make their own Flat Stanleys and send them to relatives and friends all over. The relatives take pictures of Flat Stanley where they live and send them back.  It encourages kids to write letters and learn about different places. 

My little cousin Molly sent Mom Flat Stanley a few years ago.  She took some hilarious and elaborate pictures in HI

and then sent him to me in Boston to take more pictures. My friends Megan and Mekayla and I went all over Boston taking pictures. It was really fun. 

This inspired me to do my latest project with the hippo.  At my last job at Big Brothers Big Sisters in Boston, the best team player on my team (the Volunteer Enrollment Specialists, or VESes), or the VES who went above and beyond, received the ULTIMATE VES AWARD.  This is just a goofy toy award we made up, but each VES who won added something to the award before passing it on to the next winner.  One month he got a pet hippo.   I won the award the last month before I moved to Hawaii (yes, I am that cool) and so the hippo moved with me and sent some pictures back to my fellow VESes.  I thought you’d appreciate them too. For those of you who’ve been asking me what my daily life looks like here, this is pretty much it.  Getting a job is definitely going to cramp my style.

Happy New Year!

2008. I hope it’s better than 2007.  So far so good. 

David and I went to a New Year’s party at his friend Warren’s uncle’s house.  (We don’t make friends that fast- Warren is a friend from NH who’s from here originally.)  New Years celebrations here are typically big family parties at someone’s house.  It’s really neat.  Warren’s whole family was there - his parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and friends of everyone. The kids and teenagers spent the whole night out in the driveway setting off fireworks, which are a New Year’s tradition and are set off to fend off evil spirits.  You could hear and see small fireworks being set off all over the island. It was cool- and smoky. 

Inside the house there was a TON of food- sushi, sashimi (which is a big New Years custom too), pork, rice, seafood salads… It was a crazy spread. Every family brought more food, and they kept trying to feed David and I.  We spent most of our time talking to an older man (Warren’s cousin’s Mom’s husband?) who gave us a ton of tips for Hawaii living.  It was great.  He wants to encourage us to be locals and not tourists and really understand the customs. He was funny. 

At midnight instead of singing Auld Lang Syne we all went into the driveway and watched everyone set off HUGE rolls of small firecrackers and drank champagne.  They save the best fireworks for midnight.

One of the coolest parts of the night was that we got lost and ended up in what appeared to be a rainforest. It was gorgeous. And really creepy- since it was night and we had no idea where we were.  But I definitely want to find it again.

Today was a good 1st day of the year.  My Mom had a small party at her house because the Hawaii Warriors were playing in the Sugar Bowl. We lost spectacularly, but it was still fun to watch.  Everyone here was so excited Hawaii was undefeated this season, and so psyched they were in a bowl.  We had some neighbors and friends over and ate a ton of food.  

Good start to a New Year.