A World Apart

In Hawai'i, especially Maui, I had this general vibe that you are really in a different country. Of course, the islands were a different country for a long time. Which explains it sort of.

At any rate.

It's not like being in Yurrup or something where they talk funny (or is it us who talks funny?), but there are small reminders all throughout Hawai'i that things are a bit different. And I mean that they are different in a good way.

One thing I conciously tried to do was learn some Hawaiian words and use them daily. The easiest is 'mahalo,' which means 'thank you.' People say it to you, you say it to them, and there you are speaking Hawaiian by submersion. I even saw "Mahalo" on the trash cans at McDonalds.

I though that was pretty cool.

One other neat thing I saw the very same day was a Bank of Hawaii ATM. The screen had a screen saver with different island scenes (as if you need a reminder...):



The leetle island with de palm trees.




De beech.



De scenery.



De tourist taking de picture of de ATM...