a new yorker’s year in hawaii
Ah where to begin. K and I went to his wrap party last weekend and it was good fun. The first part was on Waikiki Parc’s rooftop and then downstairs at Nobu. The rooftop was beautiful. The one thing I care to share is that the Nobu hamachi that was passed around on the rooftop was delicious. Most yummy part of the night.
I got an email invite from the Bamboo Ridge list to check out Pidgin: The Voice of Hawaii at UH Manoa. It was a premiere screening and the attendance definitely reflected that. The place was packed.
You can’t see it in this photo but the floor in front of the screen and the back of the auditorium were filled. One of the filmmakers, Kanalu Young, passed away last year. From the introductions, invocations, and songs before the screening you could feel how loved and missed Kanalu is.
When he finally showed up on screen, it felt like I knew him. He seemed to be a very lovely, magnetic man.
It’s rare that I come across strictly pidgin speakers. I think it’s because of where we live and who lives here. But I understand now that it’s an aspect of some people’s lives that they don’t necessarily want to share with non-Pidgin speakers. The filmmaker Marlene Booth said in the Q & A that it was very hard to get people to speak Pidgin on camera much less express strong feelings as an advocate or detractor.
I really enjoyed the film and feel that it, like Noho Hewa, has strongly informed how I experience living here. I’m Filipino American and I’ve spent most of my adult life exploring Asian American issues and identifying as such. Coming to Hawaii and learning about the culture here and all the issues surrounding it has given me a totally different way of looking at being American. It’s hard to explain. It’s a work in progress. But basically there’s a big part of me that feels like I’ve found a home here that I didn’t know I was looking for.
K saw a bumper sticker on the road that he thought was hilarious. It said ‘Eh! Try wait!’ Since then he’s been looking for it. Someone at work told him that he might find it at Town and Country, a surf shop at Ala Moana.
They didn’t have it but a salesperson steered us to a lower level kiosk called ‘You Name It!’ Again, no luck but they did have three ‘pages’ of Filipino car stickers! Incredible! K and I were marveling that there probably isn’t any other place in the US that you can go to the most upscale mainstream mall and find dozens and dozens of Filipino themed car stickers. Hawaii is awesome.
I got one that says ‘Ilocano’ and then I got paranoid and called my mom to ask her if I was in fact half Ilocano and she quipped ‘no your American’. She was on the phone with someone else and said she’d call me back. Later she told me ‘I am Ilocano, your dad is Bikolano and I like to say we’re Bilocano.’ And then she started to go into this whole spiel and I told her I just needed to know if I could put this bumper sticker on our car.
Later I thought about it and told K, ‘so what if I wasn’t actually Ilocano, it’s not like I’m an elephant’ (in reference to our Ganesh bumper sticker). He said that that in fact was very true.
After we finished our deliveries we spotted a Leonard’s truck and stopped to get some malasadas. What could possibly go better with malasadas for lunch than Keneke’s fried shrimp plate lunch? Nothing!
You might think that a fried donut after fried shrimp with macaroni salad, two scoops of rice, and a coca cola wouldn’t be good idea. Unfortunately that didn’t occur to me until I’d polished off the whole styrofoam container.
Today was my first day doing Meals on Wheels. A couple of things went wrong right off the bat. First, K got called into work and couldn’t do the training with me. Second, Gladys (my trainer) apparently didn’t know she was training me. And finally, a few minutes after Gladys and I started the route the car began to sputter in the fast lane of a busy road. We coasted down a hill and got enough juice to pull over on strip of grass along Kaneohe Bay Dr. I think the sign on the dashboard could have had something to do with it. Then it started raining. And then I had to go to the bathroom really bad.
K had finished work by then and came for us. Winnie from Lanakila arrived with a new car for Gladys and we all set off to do the deliveries.
Despite the early obstacles I had a great time with Gladys and the route was very easy. I found that I really enjoyed packing the meals. It’s very satisfying. K did the deliveries with Gladys, meeting all the recipients and in some cases putting the meals away for them in a fridge. I hung back at the car organizing the food and punching addresses into the GPS.
At one point K was taking a long time at a delivery that he did alone. Gladys looked up and said ‘what happen? kidnapping?’ I’m looking forward to seeing her again next week.
Saw this at the register at Boots and Kimos. It looks good: The Puka Guide
Also the new issue of Diner Journal from Marlow arrived today. So cute:
We went to a party for K’s friend’s new restaurant over the weekend. At the end of the night, as things were slowing down, he gave K one of the many leis from around his neck. It’s one of the prettiest leis I’ve ever seen!
The next day I met with writers I’m reading with at the end of the month. They asked me what my plans were here in Hawaii. I told them about the film Noho Hewa, and how it sparked my curiosity in Hawaiian issues like affordable housing. Michelle said that my interests might eventually lead to studying hula as some forms are a way of telling Hawaii’s ancient history.
I asked her about it in an email later and she broke down the different hula hulaus and said there would be performances at the I Love Kailua! town party. She thought I could get a sense of what I wanted to study from being able to see the different styles. I find it tres cool.
We’re going to a restaurant opening tonight and there’s a red carpet. Which is tres fancy because in my experience Hawaii is the anti-fancy. So when it comes to fancy situations Nordstrom at Ala Moana Shopping Center is the one-stop-shop-for-all-your-fancy-needs department store.
The exciting part is that K got his first Aloha shirt:
and I got this delicious thing:
In the parking lot I saw this which I liked alot:
And when we got back to the car there were cookies on my seat which K said were from the Aloha Santa. They were YUHHH MEEEE:
Steven, aka ESKAE , aka Sarah’s boyfriend does a party at thirtyninehotel called Soul Clap every last Friday of the month. FINALLY for the first time K and I went. It was much fun. Particularly because I got to hang out with my most favorite people here in Hawaii and we got to DANCE. I can’t believe it took us this long to go. Great venue, great music. I wanna go again!
Three One Nine 