30 December, 2006
The day started at the un-holy hour of 0800, and to Big Fat Paulie, this was purely unacceptable, seeing as how he had purposely gone out of his way to avoid ever having a class that early in the morning. Of course, technically, it was High Noon back in the great state of Texas, but he would have none of this strange rationality that I was spouting that early in the morning.
At 0800, we rallied to gather around what would later be referred to as the ultimate vehicular embodiment of cool, the Ford Windstar. From here, we set out to the original seat of government in these tropical isles, and of course the caravan was a gross example of pure American driving skill at it's finest. After loosing the main van, who by the way was supposed to be leading the group, we arrived somehow ahead of them and cruised a parking garage looking at the accomplishment of what Modern Man was able to do out of steel and concrete. Once the others arrived and we parked along a street, and after feeding a meter of parking an exuberant amount of quarters to pay for time, we set out to cross the street. Misty has never been able to cross a street with the gusto of the other members of the group, perhaps because she has a police officer in the family, or perhaps she has some errant fear of being hit by an automobile. But this fear was not shared by the other members of the group, so we stepped out into traffic, showing these crude metallic beasts that we were not to be trifled with. Once we met up with everyone else, we proceeded to listen to Professor Ronnie Littlejohn, whom we started to refer to as Big Littlejohn since it quickly became confusing distinguishing between the two.
We stood before a statue of immense stature, dedicated to the late Kamehameha, the local tribal king who had diversified his bonds and united all of the islands under his command. After this, we walked across the street and came to the first missionary church on the islands. We were allowed inside, where we saw a picture of a Hawaiian man that had a striking resemblance to Stephen F. Austin. After getting over this shocking revelation, we moved outside to look at several missionary homes that were brought from New England on ships to Hawaii. Strange did this seem to me, because I could not figure why they didn't just contract some locals at the Home Depot to build them homes.
We left this spot and then began to traverse the island, ever winding deeper into the jungle depths of the island. Several times I saw a waterfall on the cliff face, but before I could point it out, trees would hide it. This strange behavior soon made my cohorts in the van think that I was crazy, but I know what I saw. Certainly there was a waterfall there, with Elvis himself using it as a shower. once we reached the top of the mountain chain, we parked at a State Park, coolly named Nauuanu Pali Lookout. The wind here was excruciating, yet so was the view. Here we learned that people once jumped to their deaths instead of give in to an invading army, and some say that their spirits are still in the area. While this may be so, I did not see any ghosts, or ghostbusters for that matter.
We then proceeded to leave the lookout and went to what was called a Heiau. Now this Heiau at first seemed like a strange unnatural formation, with rocks piled high in the formation of a pyramid, but with it's top cut off, creating something like a man made mesa. Here we learned that ancient locals would bring offerings to their gods, in favor of a good harvest, or a favorable war, depending on which type of Heiau it was. The one that we saw was one for agricultural purposes.
From the Heiau we left to go on a program lunch, which in essence was a lunch that Professor Littlejohn picked up the bill for. We were each chartered with a monetary limit of ten dollars, which was ideal since we were eating at a McDonald's. Many people were choosing to get meals that bordered near the ten dollars, but Charlie and me had the true brains of the outfit. We saw that regular cheeseburgers were only a dollar, so he got 6 while I got 4. Together, our combined bill was ten dollars, so we saved the amount for the Professor to spend on something else later on during the trip.
After eating the meal, which I was informed was packed with all sorts of strange chemicals intended to make you want more, we left to go towards the Polynesian Cultural Center. But, when we arrived in the general area, we first stopped at the Brigham Young University. Some say the reason was to show us the school, others say it was to use the bathroom. While it did not matter to me, I took the opportunity to use the facilities since I did not want a repeat of the previous day. When I exited the visitors center, several of the group were talking with one of the Mormon students, and though she was quite friendly, I couldn't shake the notion that she was plotting to steal my brains with one of those ancient Egyptian tools that enter through the nose. We then proceeded to leave to head towards the main attraction, but I kept my eye on that student, just in case she snuck up behind me with that tool.
When we entered the Polynesian Cultural Center, we had to wait while certain details were worked over. After much bad noise, we were given our tickets, and proceeded to take the ride. The group instantly split up, and everyone banded with others and we went our separate ways inside. I remember traveling to a place where a young man wearing only a loin cloth was instructing people how to use these balls and string called Poi-Poi. After swinging them around like some drunkard from an early Irish novel, I decided to save myself the embarrassment and continued on.
At 1430 there was a boat show, where each of the Island nations had a boat and would proceed to dance in one fashion or the other in an attempt to recreate their cultures. After watching several of the boats, we decided to move on, but then we saw another boat approaching. This boat had nothing but females wearing yellow grass skirts and strange puffy balls in their hair. Misty said they looked like Who's from Whoville, but I noticed that they were from Tiki. At first we were going to move on, but I noticed that they were some sort of belly dancers, so I decided to watch them, purely for cultural understanding.
Once this was over, we looked for something to do in the shade, for it was getting mighty hot outside, or at least the humidity from the water was kicking in full force. We found a shaded area where an attractive young lady was instructing little kids on how to weave a fish out of coconut palm leaves. After dismally failing to construct the fish, an older worker there quickly folded it for me, and looked at me as if I were some sort of simpleton. Perhaps she was right, after all, I still can't fold a fish out of coconut leaves to this day. After the fish fiasco, we moved on and went to see a drum show, which was quite amusing since they got this Japanese man out of the crowd who really got into the show. After this, we proceeded to go to the buffet where we were to eat our dinner. The food was good, especially the ice cream.
After dinner was over, we had about two hours to kill before the place put on their final showing for the night, so Misty, Roger, and myself decided to go watch an Imax movie over the disappearing coral reefs in the Southern Pacific. The movie theater was quite enormous, and we sat towards the middle, since that's where the best seats are for something of that magnitude. About halfway through the movie, I was surprised by Greenly tapping me on the shoulder saying that everyone else wanted to leave, so we had to go. To this day I still wonder 2 things: What happened to the coral reefs, and just how did Greenly spot me in a theater of 300 people.
After this we left and journeyed back to the hotel. There, we began to have a fiesta since we did not have class the next day. Needless to say we did not get to bed early, nor do any memories of that night seem pertinent to mention here.
Prompt Answers:
Prompt 5
Westerners probably found the Hawaiian system of religion to be odd and paganistic since they seemed to be sacrificing human lives to gods that were embodied in a wooden idol. These kahunas were probably seen as holy men to Westerners, but they also probably saw them as being some sort of aristocracy that ruled the people. There were similarities between the Christian faiths and those of the Hawaiians since the story of Christ is one of a sacrifice. Also, since churches were always built near the holy sites of Hawaiians, they could easily adapt to the notion of the church being a holy spot.
Prompt 6
Out of all of these terms, I would think that the best one describing the Polynesian Cultural Center would be “revise”. As we walked around and saw the many different cultures that were presented, they seemed to be showing the more “nicer” side of their cultures, and even seemed to show the darker sides with a playful light. One of the island’s boats during the boat show had the men splashing large clubs into the water for show, but what is not said was that those clubs were used to kill during wars with other peoples. Many of the activities that you could participate in were also using tools or weapons that honed a warriors skills, but they were portrayed as only being exercises for personal fitness.
The day started at the un-holy hour of 0800, and to Big Fat Paulie, this was purely unacceptable, seeing as how he had purposely gone out of his way to avoid ever having a class that early in the morning. Of course, technically, it was High Noon back in the great state of Texas, but he would have none of this strange rationality that I was spouting that early in the morning.
At 0800, we rallied to gather around what would later be referred to as the ultimate vehicular embodiment of cool, the Ford Windstar. From here, we set out to the original seat of government in these tropical isles, and of course the caravan was a gross example of pure American driving skill at it's finest. After loosing the main van, who by the way was supposed to be leading the group, we arrived somehow ahead of them and cruised a parking garage looking at the accomplishment of what Modern Man was able to do out of steel and concrete. Once the others arrived and we parked along a street, and after feeding a meter of parking an exuberant amount of quarters to pay for time, we set out to cross the street. Misty has never been able to cross a street with the gusto of the other members of the group, perhaps because she has a police officer in the family, or perhaps she has some errant fear of being hit by an automobile. But this fear was not shared by the other members of the group, so we stepped out into traffic, showing these crude metallic beasts that we were not to be trifled with. Once we met up with everyone else, we proceeded to listen to Professor Ronnie Littlejohn, whom we started to refer to as Big Littlejohn since it quickly became confusing distinguishing between the two.
We stood before a statue of immense stature, dedicated to the late Kamehameha, the local tribal king who had diversified his bonds and united all of the islands under his command. After this, we walked across the street and came to the first missionary church on the islands. We were allowed inside, where we saw a picture of a Hawaiian man that had a striking resemblance to Stephen F. Austin. After getting over this shocking revelation, we moved outside to look at several missionary homes that were brought from New England on ships to Hawaii. Strange did this seem to me, because I could not figure why they didn't just contract some locals at the Home Depot to build them homes.
We left this spot and then began to traverse the island, ever winding deeper into the jungle depths of the island. Several times I saw a waterfall on the cliff face, but before I could point it out, trees would hide it. This strange behavior soon made my cohorts in the van think that I was crazy, but I know what I saw. Certainly there was a waterfall there, with Elvis himself using it as a shower. once we reached the top of the mountain chain, we parked at a State Park, coolly named Nauuanu Pali Lookout. The wind here was excruciating, yet so was the view. Here we learned that people once jumped to their deaths instead of give in to an invading army, and some say that their spirits are still in the area. While this may be so, I did not see any ghosts, or ghostbusters for that matter.
We then proceeded to leave the lookout and went to what was called a Heiau. Now this Heiau at first seemed like a strange unnatural formation, with rocks piled high in the formation of a pyramid, but with it's top cut off, creating something like a man made mesa. Here we learned that ancient locals would bring offerings to their gods, in favor of a good harvest, or a favorable war, depending on which type of Heiau it was. The one that we saw was one for agricultural purposes.
From the Heiau we left to go on a program lunch, which in essence was a lunch that Professor Littlejohn picked up the bill for. We were each chartered with a monetary limit of ten dollars, which was ideal since we were eating at a McDonald's. Many people were choosing to get meals that bordered near the ten dollars, but Charlie and me had the true brains of the outfit. We saw that regular cheeseburgers were only a dollar, so he got 6 while I got 4. Together, our combined bill was ten dollars, so we saved the amount for the Professor to spend on something else later on during the trip.
After eating the meal, which I was informed was packed with all sorts of strange chemicals intended to make you want more, we left to go towards the Polynesian Cultural Center. But, when we arrived in the general area, we first stopped at the Brigham Young University. Some say the reason was to show us the school, others say it was to use the bathroom. While it did not matter to me, I took the opportunity to use the facilities since I did not want a repeat of the previous day. When I exited the visitors center, several of the group were talking with one of the Mormon students, and though she was quite friendly, I couldn't shake the notion that she was plotting to steal my brains with one of those ancient Egyptian tools that enter through the nose. We then proceeded to leave to head towards the main attraction, but I kept my eye on that student, just in case she snuck up behind me with that tool.
When we entered the Polynesian Cultural Center, we had to wait while certain details were worked over. After much bad noise, we were given our tickets, and proceeded to take the ride. The group instantly split up, and everyone banded with others and we went our separate ways inside. I remember traveling to a place where a young man wearing only a loin cloth was instructing people how to use these balls and string called Poi-Poi. After swinging them around like some drunkard from an early Irish novel, I decided to save myself the embarrassment and continued on.
At 1430 there was a boat show, where each of the Island nations had a boat and would proceed to dance in one fashion or the other in an attempt to recreate their cultures. After watching several of the boats, we decided to move on, but then we saw another boat approaching. This boat had nothing but females wearing yellow grass skirts and strange puffy balls in their hair. Misty said they looked like Who's from Whoville, but I noticed that they were from Tiki. At first we were going to move on, but I noticed that they were some sort of belly dancers, so I decided to watch them, purely for cultural understanding.
Once this was over, we looked for something to do in the shade, for it was getting mighty hot outside, or at least the humidity from the water was kicking in full force. We found a shaded area where an attractive young lady was instructing little kids on how to weave a fish out of coconut palm leaves. After dismally failing to construct the fish, an older worker there quickly folded it for me, and looked at me as if I were some sort of simpleton. Perhaps she was right, after all, I still can't fold a fish out of coconut leaves to this day. After the fish fiasco, we moved on and went to see a drum show, which was quite amusing since they got this Japanese man out of the crowd who really got into the show. After this, we proceeded to go to the buffet where we were to eat our dinner. The food was good, especially the ice cream.
After dinner was over, we had about two hours to kill before the place put on their final showing for the night, so Misty, Roger, and myself decided to go watch an Imax movie over the disappearing coral reefs in the Southern Pacific. The movie theater was quite enormous, and we sat towards the middle, since that's where the best seats are for something of that magnitude. About halfway through the movie, I was surprised by Greenly tapping me on the shoulder saying that everyone else wanted to leave, so we had to go. To this day I still wonder 2 things: What happened to the coral reefs, and just how did Greenly spot me in a theater of 300 people.
After this we left and journeyed back to the hotel. There, we began to have a fiesta since we did not have class the next day. Needless to say we did not get to bed early, nor do any memories of that night seem pertinent to mention here.
Prompt Answers:
Prompt 5
Westerners probably found the Hawaiian system of religion to be odd and paganistic since they seemed to be sacrificing human lives to gods that were embodied in a wooden idol. These kahunas were probably seen as holy men to Westerners, but they also probably saw them as being some sort of aristocracy that ruled the people. There were similarities between the Christian faiths and those of the Hawaiians since the story of Christ is one of a sacrifice. Also, since churches were always built near the holy sites of Hawaiians, they could easily adapt to the notion of the church being a holy spot.
Prompt 6
Out of all of these terms, I would think that the best one describing the Polynesian Cultural Center would be “revise”. As we walked around and saw the many different cultures that were presented, they seemed to be showing the more “nicer” side of their cultures, and even seemed to show the darker sides with a playful light. One of the island’s boats during the boat show had the men splashing large clubs into the water for show, but what is not said was that those clubs were used to kill during wars with other peoples. Many of the activities that you could participate in were also using tools or weapons that honed a warriors skills, but they were portrayed as only being exercises for personal fitness.
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