maloha!

Last week, I went to Kauai with Rebekah and Courtney. We were there for a little over a week, and it was great. Here are some of the highlights:

1.We learned that the words "Aloha" and "Mahalo" can pretty much mean anything you want them to mean. Not just "hello", "goodbye", and "thank you". For instance, here's a typical conversation we had in Kauai:
Courtney: "will you pass me the mahalo (sunscreen)?"
Rebekah: (handing it over) "aloha"
This is why we came up with the catch-all Hawaiian word: Maloha (a combination of the two words). Feel free to use it in place of any word, at any time.


2.These guys are EVERYWHERE!----->

Apparently, there was a big hurricane in 1992, and a bunch of chicken coops on the island (many of them housing fighting chickens), were destroyed and now there are chickens all over the island. Just roaming the streets at all times. And they're still "confused" from the hurricane, which causes them to crow at all hours of the day/night. They would wake us up at 2am, then again at 5am...very annoying.

3.I have a thing with foreign products. Specifically foreign candy, and foreign beauty products. So needless to say (and I realize Hawaii doesn't count as "foreign", but there's a huge Japanese influence there, so I'm counting it), I discovered some great products on this trip. One of them was this candy:
basically they are dried mango, rolled into little balls, and then covered in sugar. Yum.


4. I learned something new about sunscreen on this trip. It turns out that putting 15spf on top of 15spf, does not equal 30spf. I found that out the hard way. Actually, I already knew that, but I thought that re-applying would get me somewhere. Needless to say, it did not. So my legs got really sunburned. They were really hot (temperature, not looks) for days. So I wore jeans, to keep them out of the sun. It's fun to be in Hawaii, in the sunny weather, with friends who are wearing cute summer dresses, and be wearing long jeans (not really).



5.Lastly, we had a photo shoot on our deck on the last day. This is one of the pictures where we were playing ANTM, and Courtney's challenge was to try to make herself stand out, even though Rebekah was in the background, trying to steal the attention. I'm not sure she pulled it off, even though she used her glasses as a prop, which was a nice move.

I thought that was the last thing, but then I remembered this: 6. We (only Rebekah and I-- Courtney thought our obsession was "disrespectful to the natives") became completely obsessed with the "forbidden island" (Niihau). It's right next to Kauai, so we could see it from one side of the island. We heard that sometimes the inhabitants will take a big barge over to Kauai just to go to McDonalds. It could just be a rumor, but I like to believe it's the truth.

So anyway, it was a great trip. I am peeling, and have no tan left, but I still have some Mango Balls, so I'm happy.