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| A Floating Christmas Tree at the Polynesian Cultural Center |
We flew out to Hawaii on Monday of this past week for a holiday in paradise. Unfortunately, the holiday did not start out too well. Continental/United Airlines lost our bags, I lost my favorite jacket, and an iPAD2 screen broke. To top it all off, several days later I forgot to get my credit card back after I paid for dinner at Gordon Biersch.
However, not all is lost! One of the bags showed up the day after we arrived and the other (containing my stuff) just showed up on on Thursday; I found my jacket at the Lost and Found at the Navy Lodge and we have an AppleCare policy on the iPAD2. I also got the bank to shut off my card and nobody tried to charge anything to it. What became so apparent from all of this is that material possessions are fleeting. You can have everything one day and nothing the next. When it comes right down to it, what really matters is your family and friends!
Still, all of this doesn't keep me from being pissed off at Continental/United Airlines for their incompetence and total and complete lack of giving a damn about our bags! Not once did they apologize for the serious inconvenience that they caused us, but they also didn't even try to find our bags. They never called us at all to say the bags had arrived at HNL. We just showed up at the Baggage Claim and got them. I only had the clothes on my back on Tuesday and had to go spend a good bit of money on clothes and toiletries to get by until I could get my bag back. I am sure they will not reimburse me the full amount. What makes it even worse is that we are One Pass Gold Members, which means we are really good customers. They will receive a formal complaint from me after we get back home..
All of that aside, Oahu is a very beautiful place! We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center yesterday. This is definitely a "don't miss" for anybody visiting Oahu. The Mormon Church runs the Polynesian Cultural Center and provides young folks from the Polynesian Islands with scholarships to Brigham Young University in Oahu in exchange for them to share their culture with folks visiting the Center.
Visitors get to experience the cultures of Hawaii, Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand, Samoa and Tahiti and they are all very beautiful!
The day started out with a Canoe Pageant where people from each of the islands floated out on canoes dressed in their traditional costumes and doing their traditional dances.
The first canoe out was the "Royal Ali'i", which represented Hawaiian royalty of yesteryear:
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| The Royal Ali'i Canoe |
Next came the New Zealand Canoe:
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| New Zealand (Aotearoa) Canoe |
And after that was the Samoan Canoe:
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| The Samoan Canoe |
Then the Fiji Canoe:
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| The Fiji Canoe |
Followed by the Tongan Canoe:
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| The Tongan Canoe |
And finally, the Hawaiian Canoe:
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| The Hawaiian Canoe |
There are little "villages" throughout the Polynesian Cultural Center that represent each of the islands. There are shows in these villages which teach visitors about the particular island's culture. I particularly liked the Fiji and Tahiti Villages.
Here is a picture of some of the lovely young ladies from the Fiji village:
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| 3 Lovely Fijiian Ladies |
The Fiji show and dancing was quite tribal and lively. I really enjoyed the Fiji Chietan's dancing:
The Tahiti Village also had a nice show and dancing. Here are some of the Tahitian dancers:
There was a Luau after the village shows, which featured entertainment and a traditional Luau meal which consisted of Kahlua Pig, teriyaki chicken, poke, long noodle chicken, sweet potatoes, rice and poi.
The traditional Kahlua Pig is covered with banana leaves and roasted slowly in an "Emu" or pit all day. Here is a picture of the Kahlua Pig:
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| Kahlua Pig |
What a wonderful time! I am so glad to be able to embrace diversity in such a beautiful manner!
All of this loveliness aside, I did have a few disappointments during the last week. A Facebook friend went somewhat beserk and was posting all kinds of anti-Christmas comments, and then unfriended her daughter and a bunch of friends, including myself. Also, a colleague at work sent out a "thank you" email to everybody that "helped" her team during the past year. She listed a group of people and cited examples of how they helped her team. Unfortunately, she seemed to forget about the fact that her team used my work in a recent major presesentation, as well as all of the time that I sat with her team to help with the presentation.
However, I must continue to realize that the only behavior that I can control is my own, which I plan to do this year and throughout 2012.
Merry Christmas!
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