Welcome back to my Kauai based travel blog! We are on day eight of the Great Hawaiian Adventure, and with only three days remaining of our trip, this chapter of the blog will soon be coming to a close. Sad face. But no worries, because there are many exciting adventures planned for later in the year, and for next year! For now, lets talk about day eight of the trip.
Day eight was yesterday 1/11/11 (oh my!) and the one thing I enjoyed most about Hawaii has been the surfing, so I deiced to take another lesson with Tanner to truly familiarize myself with being in the ocean, and catching my own waves. Unfortunately, I did not get a private lesson for the price of a group lesson this time. I shared my class with three tourists from Romania- Alitzia, Marioze, and a guy we just called "Armie" because his name was way to difficult to pronounce. Tanner decided to shorten their names even further into Mario, Ella, and Armie. I found this amusing.
Upon meeting the Romanians (who were actually from the infamous Transylvania!) I mistakenly thought that I had stumbled into some good luck, because even though I don't know much about the country, I had happened to read an article in the local paper about how their president had decided to start taxing the Romanian "witches" the previous day. "Yippie!" I thought, "I have a conversation starter! How fortunate it is that I read that article!". I slyly (or so I thought) mentioned "Hm... Romania, I believe I read an article in the paper about how your president has decided to start taxing the witches, yes?".
After a brief pause during which six pairs of Romanian eyes stared at me (in pleasant surprise that someone was knowledgeable about their country and wanted to converse with them about their culture? No.) they all burst out in riotous laughter, at my expense. Immediately embarrassed, I said "Oh, no? It must have been a different country...." even though I was positive the article had said Romania. The tall one, Mario, said in a thick accent "There are no witches in Romania." and began laughing again. His shorter, rounder counterpart (who I later learned was his brother-in-law) said, "No, this article was mistaken." finally, Ella, the tall one's sister said to the group "She means the gypsies!" then, looking at me and speaking slowly "You know..." gesturing to her hand, "the one's that read the palms."
This is how I learned that there is apparently a huge difference between gypsies and witches.
After this we all had a good laugh about how Mario and Armie were actually a werewolf and a vampire, and that they all lived in castles. Ha. Despite my initial mortification over apparently making a huge cultural faux pas, we had a good time surfing together that day. This goes to show, that even if you don't always know exactly what you're talking about (like when the American media lets you down via bypassing important details in their articles) you should still put yourself out there and be prepared to have a laugh and make a few friends. Besides, I got my revenge by watching the Romanians pound sand for the first half hour of our lesson (evil laugh).
Oh, yeah! Here are some photos of me being awesome and catching my own waves all day.
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After my lesson the parents and I went to Kalypso's in Hanalei Bay. Out of all the towns on Kauai, I think Hanalei is my favorite. The restaurant was good- I had the fish burger with fresh Mahi Mahi. Its about medium price range there, and they have beer, wine, and cocktails. After lunch, I wanted to rent a scooter to ride around on my own for a bit. Those of you who know me, know that I deliver pizza via motor scooter back in Seattle, so I am an experienced driver. They charged $15 an hour at Island Scooter Rentals in Hanalei. This is a rip off for renting a scooter- if you ask me, but it was cheaper than any other place we'd seen (they usually cost about $20-25 per hour). When it was time to take off with the scooter, the woman running the stand handed me a bicycle helmet. This is very bad. If you crash at 45 mph, a bicycle helmet will do you absolutely no good whatsoever. However, I had already given her my credit card info, so I said ok and took the helmet. My mistake is your benefit- always check to see that you get a proper motorcycle helmet before relinquishing funds. The ride was ok, and it was a nice way to check out the scenery, but it was too pricey with low quality equipment. I would not recommend scooter rental- at least in Hawaii.
After roaming about on the scooter, we decided to head back to our hotel and make lamb chops on the BBQ. It was a good day, despite the bike helmet.
Until next time!
Mahalo.
You, Sam, are a cultural diva.
ReplyDeleteI feel like that is an insult....
ReplyDelete