Hawai'i (It's how they spell it).
First, a few interesting tidbits about the islands:
1. There is no ethnic majority. The highest percentage of a demographic group that there is hovers around 20%. That makes Hawaii officially the most diverse place on the planet in cultural, religious, and culinary traditions. Walking down the sidewalk, you have to be careful as Americans dodge to the right and everyone else to the left.
2. 80% of the population lives on Oahu: the third largest island. Oahu is fundamentally different from the rest of the islands in that it is very urban. The statement that everything is ridiculously expensive in Hawaii does not apply so much there. While real-estate prices are comparable to Seattle or New York, food is not that much more expensive than in Little Rock. And anything having to do with fish and rice is actually quite a bit cheaper.
3. The "Aloha Spirit" is pervasive. People really do say aloha instead of goodbye or hello. They say mahalo instead of thanks. Most everyone I interacted with tended to be outgoing and friendly.
Now, my post:
On Saturday morning, Kerry and I flew to Honolulu, which pretty much swallows the South coast of Oahu. We watched Wall-E in flight. We arrived early afternoon, thanks to the time difference. We rode a shuttle to Waikiki, a two-mile long, five-block wide tourist trap that hugs the seventh most famous beach in the world. I've never seen such a large collection of tall buildings. Even Houston has it's business districts and "downtowns" sequestered into little groups. But the entire Southern Oahu coast is a sea (really more a maze) of vertical edifices.
Post-arrival, we settled into our hotel. I was immediately struck by the beauty of the city. From our Southern-facing balcony, I could see the mountain ranges to the East and West. To the Southwest, there is a huge, isolated dormant volcano crater. And to the South, the most beautiful aqua blue ocean I've ever imagined. Pretty, pretty, pretty. Between all the buildings, or course.
After settling in, Kerry and I ventured out to a hole-in-the-wall Korean ramen shop for some soup. It was delicious--subtly different from Japanese ramen. A bit spicier, a bit heavier on the onions, and much thicker. We also explored, figuring out our way around Waikiki and discovering the beach. We discovered the ABC store...over and over. You think Starbucks saturation is bad? You've seen nothing. The ABC store is everywhere and you love it because it has everything. I crashed very early after sampling some of the local Hawaiian ale.
On Sunday, we we had most of the day to play. We slept in, enjoyed $3.75 breakfasts (mine of buttermilk pancakes, eggs, and bacon--hers of honey walnut pancakes), and walked along the beach. We ended up buying chic new swimwear, piddling around in the ocean for a bit, and grabbing sushi from a market to eat on our balcony for lunch. Then we napped and discovered the hotel pool. At first, Kerry was curious why people would use the pool with the ocean so near. The conundrum of the ocean, though, is that you have to take things with you. You don't feel comfortable walking across five city blocks barefoot in swimwear. So when you get to the beach, you have worry about what to do with your clothes, shoes, and hotel key before venturing into the waves... Paying the beach boys to watch said stuff isn't worth it unless you are staying for a very, very long time. Plus, the pool has a bar and grill. And you can see the ocean from the pool, so it's kindof like being on the beach...
It was on Sunday that I finally sampled the famous local Kona coffee. Grown in volcanic soil at a very specific altitude, it is extremely special and extremely expensive. While I don't doubt how special it is, it didn't really float my boat. It didn't taste any different from standard Latin American coffees to me. I brought home some beans, anyway, wondering if it might taste better pressed rather than brewed. That remains to be seen...
Sunday night, we went to dinner with residents from the psychiatry program at a seaside bar and grill. It was an interesting little restaurant where they won't take your reservation until everyone is right there and you have to cook your own food. Everyone was confused as the chief resident was out of town. Nobody really knew what was going on, the residents decided not to cover my ticket (after them inviting me and me being the only one able and/or willing to talk to the hostess and get us seated), and I don't think Kerry would mind me saying publicly that it was pretty much a disaster as far as interview dinners go.
Monday was business day. After a hasty breakfast of coffee and fresh-baked pastries, Kerry hitched a cab to the Queen's Medical Center and I caught a bus to the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I'm not sure what all I'm allowed to post, so I'll sum up Kerry's experience by saying that the psychiatry program is solid, the child psych program is so-so, and that we're fairly certain that we will end up living in Honolulu if she ranks their program first.
As for my experience, meh. It only took me 20 minutes via city bus to get to the university. While there, I wandered around campus in the sweltering heat. It was odd to be on a campus that wasn't predominantly dark red brick. UCA, ASU, UofA, Hendrix, Harding--all dark red brick. UH Manoa is bright tan blocks--like high school. Talk about a turnoff. The campus is about twice as big as UCA with the same proportion of students. I didn't really have a plan when going to the campus--I was just playing it by ear. I went to the campus center, where they directed me to student affairs, where they directed me to the graduate affairs offices, which were crammed onto the third floor of an old dorm. Not very charming. And once there, they simply gave me a recruitment packet and sent me on my merry way. I glanced around the history and philosophy/religions departments, and they seemed very...undergraduate. Maybe it was just because of the heat and cheery nature of Hawaiian culture, but it literally seemed like a high school with the clamor, the clutter, and general grade of the facilities. Nothing like the subdued majesty or Irby. :)
After exploring the main campus, I went into the East-West Center. It, also, turned out to be a bit of a let-down. It isn't so much of an academic institution in and of itself as much as a facilitator. You don't study at the East-West center. You live there in a multicultural student population and they help fund your university education in exchange for participation in research projects deemed worthwhile by a cartel representing American and Asian banks. All-in-all not what I was expecting.
Then I tried to find my way back to the bus stop, got insufferably lost before realizing that everything in the general vicinity is made of light tan blocks, and ended up drenched in sweat from head to toe before finally hobbling my way back to the bus stop. It took the bus 2 hours to get back to my hotel. I finished my book and started to wonder if I was on the wrong one... Apparently, it makes three different routes that all connect to the university. I hitched my ride back at the wrong time and got to enjoy all three of them.
After our day of business, we decided just to kick it at the Chili's under our hotel. My knee was hurting, Kerry had cut her foot on some rocks the day before, and neither of us felt like going anywhere. I was hungry for comfort food after my stressful bus experience, and that means a Southern Smokehouse Bacon Big Mouth Burger. Oops! In Hawaii, that costs 13 bucks.
Then came Monday. We had to vacate the hotel before noon, but our flight didn't leave until 10:30. That's a lot of time to kill. I ate the leftovers of my burger for breakfast (it really was a fabulous burger, even if Kerry's was sub-par), while Kerry feasted on cream puffs. We got our things together, checked in our luggage with the bell-hop, scheduled an airport shuttle to come get us at 8, and commenced wiling away 8 hours in Hawaii. First, we did a bit of wandering--through markets, malls, stalls, and streets. Unfortunately, my knee was pretty much shot from the day before. So we looked for a place where we could comfortably spend a couple hours and settled on a sexy, second-floor Japanese restaurant with a nice breeze. Kerry ordered a fabulous sampling of sushi, and I enjoyed my best culinary experience on the island.
Allow me to describe: I got a giant bowl filled with sushi rice. On top of the sushi rice, in a radially symmetrical pattern, were laid eight giant most giant slabs of Mahi-Mahi sashimi. Two different sauces were drizzled over the dish--a mayonnaise wasabi drizzle and an extremely hot chili-based drizzle. So in practical terms, it was like a piece of perfectly spiced sushi the size of a friggin plate. It was awe-inspiring.
We hung out at the Japanese restaurant for a good long while before meandering to the beach. We sat in the sun, watched people play, and observed as an elderly gentleman played a game of "feed the finches, not the pigeons." It wasn't a very hard game, as the sparrows would flock toward anything he threw out like a lightening-fast hive mind. The pigeons, on the other hand, are slow and dumb, despite being much bigger. Furthermore, when a pigeon did manager to get a piece of bread, the poor thing couldn't figure out how to eat it.
Eventually, though, it got too warm to chill on the beach. We wandered back to the same seaside grill at which we endured the resident's dinner for fruity beverages underneath a fanned awning. We timed it perfectly. After enjoying our fruity beverages, we got "lunch" right before they switched to the dinner menu--we shared a teriyaki burger and a plate of fish'n'chips. While we were finishing this up, Polynesian came in and started playing Hawaiian music while the sun set over the ocean. The server was a long time in getting us our ticket, but we didn't mind. For about two hours, it was obvious that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives on the island.
Then, of course, we had to go back to the hotel, get our luggage, make our way to the airport, and endure the absolutely miserable flight home. It took about 8 night-time hours to get from Honolulu to Houston, during which we watched a House Bunny for lack of other options and did that thing where you nod off to sleep and immediately wake up and end up more tired than you would have if you had just stayed awake. Then a four-hour layover in Houston and losing 5 hours to the time-zone monster...yeah. I was tired today. I was going to go to sleep an hour ago, but I got caught up in writing this post and making muffins.
Longest post ever? Maybe. We really did have a fabulous time. It'll be something to think about when we start ranking institutions in February. So far, we have Lexington, Cincinnati, and Hawaii to consider. I think Kerry has interviewed in Indianapolis, but my sleepy, fuzzy brain honestly can't remember right now. She still has UAMS, Austin, Worcester, and Salt Lake City to go...and more interview invitations still coming in.
Time for bed. Nighty-night.
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