Things I've learned about Hawaii this week

I remembered the other annoying (and also surprising) thing. There is no Target here. Wal-Mart? Yes. K-Mart? Check. Sam's? Yep. Costco? Uh-huh. Alas, no Target. And I still have a gift card I need you use...

On a related note, I learned something interesting (this is not the only interesting thing I've learned, however, more HI tidbits to follow): some of the stores here, like Apple and Nike, are the highest grossing locations anywhere. At first, I was like, nah, how can that be? But it's all the insane-rich, mostly Japanese, tourists. Interesting. [note: I am taking this on the word of the person who told me, I have not actually confirmed this]

Other factoids:

The Hawaiian language only consists of twelve letters.

The Hawaiian word for "tiny fish" is: humuhumunukunukuapua'a. Big word for little fish.

Michelle Wie's (probably old) dentist's office is(was) in my building. She is also apparently very, very tall, which I never knew.

Meat Jun is, from my understanding, the Hawaiian/Korean version of steak fingers. I plan on trying it on Monday and will report back.


In other news, I got two spam emails today that I was really, really tempted to open. Their subject lines read:

John McCain eats a bug.

and

Children admit to being little shits - Video

I'm not sure which I wanted to see more. But I fought the urge after realizing infecting the company's computer after less than a week there in hopes of seeing a politician imbibe insects or kids denigrating themselves would not be the best decision. Probably.

k

Pictures, Tangents, and Rants

As promised, here is a picture of my car (a week after the fact, I know). It is too cute! Every morning when I'm leaving for work I have to smile. It is a very happy car. All it needs is a few accessories and a surf board on top. Even if it turns out I suck at surfing.

Here is a picture of a gecko that got stuck under the dish rack in my kitchen sink. I couldn't catch him, so I laid a towel along the counter and into the sink and herded him over to it so he would have something to get traction on to make his way out.


And, I'm (almost) official at work! I have my own extension and I'm on everyone's little phone cards. Now all I need are my own keys and personalized company business cards.


Now, I know pretty much all I've talked about so far is how great things are here. A few of you have asked me if there's anything I don't like. The answer is yes. More specifically:

1. Sudden downpours with zero warning. I learned this the hard way on my very first day of work walking to my building. Without an umbrella. It made me very unhappy.

2. National commercials for chains we do not have here. Sonic, your banana split shake looks delicious. Your website informs me there is no sonic location within 1000 miles of me. So thank you for that.

3. Valid only at participating locations. This means NOT valid in Hawaii. We do not have $5 foot long subs at Subway or Quiznos. We do not have 79 cent tacos at TBell. It's pretty lame.

4. Not so much a complaint, but something that I've had to adjust to and is also fast food related: almost NO drive thrus. I've seen two: Arby's and McDonald's. Jack in th Box might be, I haven't really looked that closely. But most places, even if it is a big chain and it is free standing and there is room for one, do not have drive thrus. I realize now how much driving thru I did in Austin: food, banking, coffee, prescriptions, dry cleaning. None o that here.

5. Mainlanders calling me at 5-6 AM. Sucks. Sucks, sucks, sucks. Sucks.

Hm, seems like there was something else, but I can't think of it.

Oh, I was very proud of myself this morning: A Japanese tourist asked me for directions to Wal-Mart and I was actually able to tell her! I was happy not only that I now know the area well enough to direct her, but also that I give off the appearance of someone who looks like they know where they are.

Work is going well. It is pretty crazy because we have a big pitch for a big bank coming up, as well as a "secret" client that only like four people in the office know about. I am not one of those people. I do feel a little out of place sometimes, partly because I'm still new, also because the next youngest person there is thirty-one. But everyone in the office is really nice and--based on the fact that "F*** It Friday" is this week--fun.

k