Teacher Aboard

For those of you who "tune in" regularly, I suppose you were wondering if I took a surfing holiday and was washed out to sea! It's been awhile since my last log. No chance! Actually I have been visiting schools and touring the island. The wheels are still on the road and I'm leaving nothing but a trail of dust. My apologies for those of you who have been patiently waiting for news of my explorations. But wait till you see what "this bear found over the mountain!"

ISLAND TIME

Speaking of "waiting" brings to mind the issue of time. Here in Hawaii we are five hours behind Eastern Standard Time used on the east coast of the US. If your life focuses around those important moments in life like meals, then we are just diving into our pancakes at 7 AM as you are munching on fries for lunch at noon. By the time we are making a PBJ sandwich for our lunch, you are throwing steaks on the grill for dinner at five. The reason is pretty simple actually.

Find yourself a globe and shine the flashlight directly on Maryland at a distance of two or three feet. How much light is shining on Hawaii? Pretend you were standing on Hawaii. You would not look straight up to see the flashlight, but low along the globe. In the real world, you would be looking along the horizon at the sun rising at dawn. Now check out China? Is any light shining on Shanghai? Would this be day or night in China?

FIRING ON HONOLULU

After a long night of watching the island of Oahu in the wind shadow of the mountains on the west side, we set sail for the harbor of Honolulu. Rounding Diamond Head volcano, our first true glimpse of Honolulu unfolded with a string of hotels perched along the beach front. With dawn quickly giving way to a sunny day, the crew scurried around to rinse the decks and load the cannons. The wind was brisk as we "threw in" a few tacks (change of sailing direction) before approaching the harbor. To prevent any accidental grounding, a local captain, called a pilot, was brought out to our ship to help us navigate through the narrow channel that leads to the harbor of Honolulu. The harbor is lined with office buildings, hotels, and a marketplace which is very similar to HarborPlace in downtown Baltimore. Hearing us fire our cannons, folks ran out to line the balconies and docks to watch us charge into the harbor. (Yes, we called to let the towns people know that we were friendly!) Although when I considered all the heavily armed military ships which shared the harbor, it did feel a little like our own version of "The Mouse That Roared."

BEING "COOL" IN HAWAII

Do as the natives do - in other words lose the "hi" and "bye." It's "aloha" from now on. We also need to get one of those Hawaiian shirts which is actually called an "aloha shirt." I know, I know - you guys are saying, "This is a tourist thing." Wait! Everybody wears them. One weekday at lunch time I happened to be in downtown Honolulu. People are everywhere and there was not ONE businessman in a suit.

What gives? Apparently an aloha shirt or any collared sports shirt is acceptable even for business. If they need to be more formal, they wear a sport jacket over the aloha shirt.

There is also an Hawaiian/ English slang expression you might enjoy. Need a word and can't think of it? Use da-kine as you might use the word "thing" - as in "Where did I put that dakine? If you want to give them the big "thumbs up" over here, you hold out your thumb and little finger and fold in the middle three. It means "hang loose" or "good job". And as we meet friends along the way, let's not forget ma-hal-o which is "thank you."

SURFING ON THE NORTH SHORE

Surfs up! I'm not kidding. The week before we arrived, the waves were reported to be thirty feet on the north shore, the highest they have been in years. After flattening out to only twelve feet over the weekend, they were predicted to be twenty feet on Thursday. I've been told that traffic crawls along the north shore beach road at 15 miles per hour as people pack in to experience the big waves. Parked cars line both sides of the road as spectators seek out the best places to watch the action. And make no mistake, this is where the surfing action takes place. Waimea Beach, Banzai Beach, and Sunset Beach are just a few of the surfing hot spots which dot the north shore. Winter is the season for these big waves which are caused by winds and storms far out at sea. When the waves are thirty feet, the lifeguards close the beach since a mistake surfing in these conditions could be deadly. I traveled to the north shore when the waves were moderate and the crowds more acceptable.

As I traveled through the town of Hale'iwa which serves as the surfing "capital," I wandered into Matsumoto General Store, the local's favorite place for flavored shaved ice. What a refreshing stop on a warm sunny beach day in February.

SCHOOLS, SCHOOLS, SCHOOLS