Hawai’i: first impressions, ukulele lessons and beaches

Aloha! I have made it to Hawai’i, where I will stay for the next two months. Mahalo to Malle and Thomas for taking me in and being so welcoming!

The first week went by in a flurry of activity, so I will try to remember everything and write the names of people and places correctly. First impression: I love it here! It’s always warm and sunny and green and the ocean is close by.

Right off the bat we went to Kona on my first day here. We saw some Estonians, had lunch and went to the beach. The water is warm and so clear and I’m trying my best to get a tan without burning. We went to Four Seasons to look at the sunset and it was a gorgeous resort. Made me think it would be kind of nice to be rich.

The next day Malle took me to a petroglyph park. Petroglyphs are lava rock carvings etched into stone centuries ago by Native Hawai’ians. It was so interesting to wonder along the trail in the woods, an occasional petroglyph sealed off somewhere, and then making it to a big field full of them.

Hawai’ian culture is so interesting to me and I love that they’re putting in more effort to keep it alive. Malle and Thomas’ daughter Lilia goes to a Hawai’ian school, where all the lessons are in Hawai’ian. The petroglyphs are still thought to be a mystery, though.

After my little exploration in the park I once again headed to the beach. I feel like I’ve gone to the beach almost every day, but it’s been a different beach every time. This time I started at a rocky beach, but a short walk took me to a nice and sandy one.

The next day I went to a ukulele lesson. Honestly, I don’t know if I could feel more like a white tourist, but I plan on going again and it would be cool to say I learned to play the ukulele in Hawai’i. Of course it takes a lot of time and practice to master it (as it does with any instrument), but it’s a beginning.

I’m already getting fuzzy on the when and where exactly, but one day I went exploring in Kona. I wondered around the downtown area by the ocean, found a cool thrift store and made my way to the Royal Kona Resort for a concert. There is a Hawai’ian artist performing there every Thursday, so I laid down by the pool, watched the sunset and enjoyed the music.

After the concert I decided to hang out and watch beach volleyball. There is a volleyball court at Coconut Grove, where people get together and play almost every night, I think. It was certainly interesting to watch and they kept going for hours.

The next day we went to see tanggu drums in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year. I love how multicultural everything is and how the differences are celebrated. Afterwards Malle dropped me off at Mauna Kea resort so I could go snorkeling with manta rays. The manta rays unfortunately did not show, but I still enjoyed a magnificent sunset at the beach and learned how to snorkel.

Saturday took us to another beautiful beach once again. We hung out in the ocean, snorkeled a little bit and just enjoyed the sunshine. It feels like there’s an endless amount of beautiful beaches here, but I’m not complaining in the least. That night we had some people over for a barbeque and Malle and I sang some Estonian songs.

Yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday and I got to experience my first Super Bowl live as well as go to a Super Bowl party. I’ll be honest, we didn’t pay that much attention to the game, but it was lots of fun and it was interesting meeting some locals who are more my age. I learned that Super Bowl is about three things: the commercials, the half-time show and chicken wings.

So many things to do on the Big Island, I can’t even wait to go cliff jumping, hiking and up Mauna Kea, the world’s biggest mountain (measured from it’s underwater base).