Hawaii, my Ku'uipo

Last night I found the Israel Kamakawiwo'ole CD, "Alone in IZ World," and played it as I fell asleep. Ever since I've been homesick for Hawaii, my sweetheart, my Ku'uipo. So in honor of Pink and Blues Girls Flashback Thursday I'm going to indulge myself a bit and write this lovepost in honor of the place I once called home and am missing dearly today.

Have you ever had that odd sensation of coming home? I don't mean returning home from college for Christmas break, although the feelings are similar. I mean landing in a place you've never been before and feeling like it was the place meant to be the setting for your life? And like a tuning fork your heart resonates whenever there? Hawaii was that for me. It's the only place I still have reoccurring dreams about, and when I wake up I feel melancholy and apart.

But enough of that. On to the good stuff. As I closed my eyes last night and listened to the very local Hawaiian music I remembered so many things:

• I could hear the ocean through the open louvers, either in my dorm room or my bedroom off-campus, and didn't realize just how loud it was until I returned to the mainland.


• The airport smells like a flower fest with the scent of carnation, plumeria, and orchid so strong you carry it back across the ocean with you.


• Polynesians raise their eyebrows intermittently throughout a conversation to let you know they're listening.


• POG (passion, orange, and guava juice) is thicker and sweeter than your average juice.


• No matter how long I lived there, poi still tasted like kindergarten glue paste.


• However, the taste of breadfruit grew on me and for the longest time I couldn't imagine eating chicken without it.


• When you're a starving college student there's nothing like being invited to a traditional wedding reception complete with a luau (which includes a double breasted buffet line with real Kalua pig).


• McDonalds has a special Hawaiian menu that includes the teriyaki burger (yum!) and rice as a side dice.


• Oh, and since I'm talking about food, my favorite thing to eat at the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) was the Spam roll (like a California roll only with Spam).


• My favorite job EVER was as a Japanese tour guide at the PCC.


• Every evening as I walked from the cafeteria to the library I was serenaded by the loud music blaring from the PCC night show.


• Pulling my hair up in a bun with chopsticks was considered uber-cool.


• Every slack-key guitar or ukelelei song sounds like love to me.


• The hula. Ah. What more can I say?

Like a love-sick girl I could go on and on forever, but I'll spare you. Still, I hope you've caught the Aloha spirit from this one little post and will have a better day because of it. And here are my pictures. 1)BYU-Hawaii, 2)The LDS Temple as seen from Hukilau Beach, and 3)Hukilau Beach