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| Teza Lwin surfing in Waikiki on Valentine's Day morning! A little gift to myself! Photographed using a GoPro. |
I was pretty nervous to do it, but there are a whole bunch of surf lessons available. Being somewhat risk averse, I picked the only one that said all their instructors are certified lifeguards and CPR certified. I didn't need to worry so much. It wasn't that bad.
The instructor was a bit of a surfing stereotype but really nice and pretty cool. Two hour lesson. I figured maybe I would stand up once, but it wasn't too hard. It made me nervous that after the first few times, after I rode a wave, I would look for the instructor and not see him, and he would be really far from me. I guess he decided I was doing okay? I hope so. What if I needed CPR?
I'm getting used to life around here, for now. I mean, it's a bit fictional since I don't have to work. Would I like it if I had to hold down a job while here?
Anyway, surfing teaches me many important lessons. In the water, it's important not to panic, just chill--as in life. And sometimes, it's easier just to ride the wave....
What I ate
I ate Hawaiian food today. This is what I ate today.
Lunch:
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| Tuna poke bowl. Poke (pronounced poke-ay) is raw fish with a bit of flavouring, say soy sauce. So, like sashimi. The poke was served with rice and a seaweed salad, which makes it a "poke bowl." |
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| Fast food Hawaiian food for dinner. This combo was called The Local Boy Combo. Does that make me a local boy now? Consists of pork lau lau, kalua pig, chicken long rice (noodles, really), salmon lomi, poi, and haupia. I'll let you google these things yourself, if interested, because I'm tired now.... |
If you've been reading this blog, you know I tried poi about a week and a half ago and hated it. This poi was way better, though. Not as thick. It tasted more like sour cream. Food was surprisingly filling and delicious.
I was at the food court of the Ala Moana Center, the largest outdoor mall in the area, if not the world. It really is a shopping mall, in the sense that we understand it, except it's all open air. There's a Macy's, and other stores, like the Body Shop, Barnes & Noble, etc. The food court is crazy--it feels like a parallel universe where Asian people are a large percentage of the population, which it is here, I guess. There's the "usual" stuff, like Sbarro, but then there's Hawaiian food, Korean food, etc., except it seems the food hasn't been adjusted so much for Western tastes. So awesome!
End of the day in Waikiki
I took the bus from the mall towards Waikiki to come back to my hotel. So it was the tourist bus because they were all going back to the hotels at dinner time. The grumpy guy beside me started complaining to me about the tourists. A full on rant, actually. I said nothing. I kind of like thinking it seemed like I fit in.
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| I had to get this shot. Sunset on Waikiki Beach with the outline of palm trees. |
More tomorrow.
