Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Honolulu Hawaii

I Applogize for not posting in so long. This is almost directly related to the awsome quality of three of my five courses. From here on out the posts should me more consistant. I leave tommorow for five days in Beijing, the Japan post will be comming soon. Here is what happened in Hawaii.
The whole day started at Aloha tower, where my poor friend Tyler waited for two hours while the MV explorer was cleared by customs and then for our respective “seas” (or cabin sections) to file off. But the wait was long worth it.. We didn't even hike diamond head trail as was the plan, but concluded that finding a place to eat would be the best. He took me to a Mexican restaurant that had won a hallway and two walls space worth of awards and had one of the best home made salsas that I have ever encountered. I ordered the “del mar” and enchilada stuffed with fresh crab and shrimp. After the expected comparison between Hawaii and Utah, and talking about people we had in common, we discovered that we both really dig Ray Kurzweil and proceeded to kick it off talking about all the scary things that some people profess the future to hold. Tyler also told me about the rallies held every other month and how cries for Hawaiian sovereignty will never fade away. He offered up his house for a week if I was ever coming back into Hawaii, and he said that he lives on the coast and has a magnificent view of the ocean from the third floor of his beach side apartment.
Tyler is one of those people I will eternally be jealous of... or more constructively, look at as a peer. The man is happily and contently married and living in Hawaii with his wife who works for Delta, they both fly anywhere for free. He is working on his computer science bachelors and simply lives the good life in Hawaii. He is a extremely smart individual whom languages come to easily, capable both of constructive introspection and courage, and has allot of good coming his way. I wish him only the best. I did make the mistake of telling him about a game called Bioshock tho.. I hope, Tyler, that your are not consumed by its otherworldly goodness for to many months.
After Tyler took me down to the beach and we took a couple pictures, he dropped me back off at Aloha tower where I immediately caught a van... to the other end of the island... signed my life away nine times... initialed 20 more clauses including one encompassing sexual harassment scenarios... waited for an hour in extreme anticipation... and then then jumped out of an airplane with a dude from Switzerland strapped onto my back... I have been at peace before, and I have felt many times the perfect happiness and calm that finding yourself in a far off land produces, and I have felt the fear and adrenaline cocktail of the largest free fall drop ride in the world, and I have even braved eating 1/3 cup of fresh wasabi all at once, but never have I had such an experience such that the entire world went silent, and nothing could be found inside myself but something vaguely reminiscent of chimes blowing in the wind. I felt as though I had transcended beyond myself. We jumped over the ocean, and down through the light blue water I could see the reef stretch all around the end of the island, and above the beach the mountains reaching up towards the sky, covered in foliage, and misty in the distance. I now find myself resisting the urge to jump of the ship as it slices through the Pacific, simply because I long to be flying through the air, just one more time.