Hawai'ian life because Heather has asked! Mar. 8th, 2009

Well I was going to blog today anyway, but Heather also asked me to say a few things about this rock I live on.
I went surfing today, it was cool, needed the time to do some thinking out there on the pond.  I rode a nice wave, went under and busted my foot on the reef.  It looks bad, but it will be alright.
As for Hawai'i, there are a lot of homeless people here.  They are everywhere.  There is also a lot of racism towards white males  (heole; pronounced how-lee).  That is what I am, a heole.  Anyway, Waikiki is a tourist part of town, a lot of travelers moving through there.  So the prices of everything are very high compared the rest of Honolulu.  After you get over the Ala Wai Canal and into real Honolulu, at least real to me, then it is more urban.
The locals dress like gangsters, and act like gangsters.  But I don't see any real thugging per se.  Actually it is quite comical coming from Chicago and seeing this out here.  The local women are usually nicer to me than the local men.  Everyone seems to have a happy attitude, but you can see in most faces that there is something negative behind those eyes.  I mean negative like fears of the economy, maybe divorces, who knows, but there is pain behind the "Aloha Attitudes". 
Beyond that, this is obviously a diverse state.  A lot of Asians, Pacific Islanders, Europeans, Africans, etc.  I mean almost every country of the world is represented here because of the schools and the long history with trading and commerce globally.
Work is hard to find for me.  I have been trying to labor for daily pay, but it took me a long time to find the place where trucks pick up laborers.  Now that I have found it though, it will be on the to-do-list at least 3 days a week.  University of Hawai'i is cool, and I have been spending some time on that part of the island (Manoa) because it is closer to my house than my school is.  U of H. actually has better facilities too, not to mention our librarians tell H.P.U. students to use their library for more in-depth research.  That doesn't bode well for the H.P.U. perspective, but it is what it is...i.e. U. of H. is 100 years old, while H.P.U. is only 40.
Anyway, rents are about the same as Chicago, the price of food is the problem.  Everything has to be shipped here, and the consumer covers the extra cost.  My friend Dave has overcome this a bit by shopping at Don Quixote, which is like Cub foods in Chicago.  I don't drink milk or buy bread because it is too expensive.  I rely on tortillas and other staples for my grains.  They are cheaper, and the ones I buy are made here so they are obviously cheaper.  Actually anything made here is cheaper.  Water, pineapples, etc.
I can't really think of anything else, except you don't need a drivers license to drive a scooter, nor do you have to register one with the state.  But you do have to register a bicycle?  Go figure!
My buddy Robert said there was a dead homeless guy at the bus stop on Friday.  The stop he gets on that is, I walk everywhere.  I guess it is not that unusual for dead homeless people, they die a lot on this rock.  The City Council is trying to ban park napping, and other stuff to prohibit the homeless from congregating.  Where are they going to go?  Dave said into the mountains, and I said, yeah so they could be arrested for trespassing on Government Property.  It is just another way for the government to sweep the trash under the rug instead of actually cleaning up what they created.
Anyway, if other stuff becomes apparent I will surely write it down here.  I am actually waiting for a response from a Chicago school, because I was wrong about being able to afford living out here.  Although divorce is cheap, and it is almost worth it for me to get my residency here to file the papers...BECAUSE THAT IS A PRIORITY!

Alright well I hope you enjoyed it, good luck Heather on your applications...And for the rest of you who read, keep coming back...

Later
Kenny