I'm Back

Well, here I am back in California from my honeymoon in the beautiful state of Hawaii. It was great returning back to my home state. Kaua'i was so gorgeous with such lush green vegetation, tropic warmth and crystal blue oceans. There were numerous white sand beaches. I already miss Hawaii and feel a bit homesick.

We took a lot of pictures and will put some up on the blog when I get a chance. When you look at them, I have a feeling you will want to pack up your bags and head there for a vacation.

The one week stay in Hawaii felt so short. I wished that the trip could have been longer. But our stay there was wonderful. I felt so recharged and connected to the land. The Hawaiians call it Mana. Hawaii will always be home to me. I guess you can take the boy out of the island but you can't take the island out of the boy. Fortunately, there is a Hawaiian community in the southern California area so I don't feel so homesick but still it cannot replace being in Hawaii with family and friends.

In a way, it felt great playing tourist in my own home state. We went to various locations on Kaua'i to go sightseeing and some tours. The cool part was that I was able to take advantage of the kama'aina (resident) discounts for the tours of the fern grotto and sugar mill tour. I guess it pays of being a former resident who still knows how to talk in pidgin english. What's pidgin english? Well, it is officially recognized in Hawaii as Creole Hawaiian English, whatever that means. It's basically english broken up with Hawaiian and many different ethinic languages. It was a language that was devised for the plantation workers who did not speak english to communicate with the caucasian owners and managers. Here are some examples with the proper english translations:

1. Where you stay? - Where are you?
2. How come I come, you stay, you go? - How come whenever I go to where you say you're going to be, you leave?
3. You touch me li'dat, I going karang yo alas - You touch me like that, I'm going to crush your family jewels.

It was funny during our stay in Hawaii. I reverted back from speaking proper "mainland" english to pidgin english. My wife thought it was funny when I starting speaking full on pidgin. There were times when she could not understand what I was talking about in which I then had to revert back to proper english. I just feel so comfortable speaking in pidgin english since that is what I used as a child. Don't get me wrong, I was taught proper english in school and at home but spoke pidgin to my family and friends. My parents made me use proper english whenever we went out for dinner and at dinner parties. I'm glad that they enforced that or else I would not have been able to communicate to anyone out here on the mainland.

Well, I'll be blogging more about Hawaii and try to post up some pictures later. I gotta go and take care a few things such as opening wedding presents and sending out thank you cards. Hope to blog again real soon. Until then, Aloha!