And Now We're Online

Things are getting set up nicely for us. We've got furniture, and for the most part, everything that has arrived in Honolulu has been put away. We'll still be receiving more boxes in the coming weeks (we shipped some things slowly to save money), and then that stuff'll be put away. And we're still trying to arrange our counterspace in the kitchen so that everything fits. But it's all coming together.

Like I said, it's not a pretty place, but I really kind of like it. And I like it all the more because it's Michael's and my first place alone together. It's nice. And so far as I can tell after two weeks, the noise of the traffic on Kapi'olani Blvd would be the only reason we'd move out of here before our four years is up. But we'll evaluate all these things as the weeks move into months and we have a better perspective of life in Honolulu.

Michael and I are still in this phase of doing everything together. Every errand that could be run by one is run by two. We visit each other's campuses together. It'll last, I suspect, for another week and a half. Once I start my grad school orientation and we get our own seperate daily schedules, we'll start doing our own things. But it's nice while it lasts, that your first few weeks in a new place you get to spend with someone so cool who's also exploring. We did the same those first few weeks in Chicago. And we have this nice parentheses in between moving and starting life, so we get to relax and poke around and take care of things without sweating our schedules. But still, we sweat.

It is hot here. And our little section of Hawai'i is certainly not pretty. We've got a vacant lot taking up most of the view out of the front of our place. Seven pick-up trucks pull into it every morning, then the drivers load into a van and go off somewhere to work. Presumably, at least. If you look out to the left from some points you can see Diamond Head. And if you look out to the right you can see bits of the Ko'olau Range. We're certainly not living in luxury, but we are certainly living with all the basic comforts. We got our coffee maker, our microwave, and now, our internet. And we're getting a window box air conditioner to use in the front room in the afternoons, which I've mentioned below, gets friggin hot when the sun hits the western portion of the sky.

Summer is different here than in Chicago. By February I would be so sick of the cold of winter. It would take me a good couple of months of real heat before I'd feel ready to face it again. So I'd spend my summers hot, soaking up the heat as though it gave me some sort of internal store that would help me survive the quickly coming cold. But there is no coming cold. I don't have to store up the heat, filling up my bones with it, holding it in. In fact, I don't have to take advantage of every pretty day that comes along. Because every day is pretty. I can live with this.

I'm not used to the time differences yet. It's 10:30am right now, but it's 4:30 pm in TN and Chicago. I was going to call home on Sunday to talk to everyone at family dinner, but by early afternoon, it was too late. It's weird. It'll take some getting used to.

Another thing, off the subject, that Michael and I have been enjoying is the birdlife here. We've been watching birds, and they have been entertaining. We saw three right outside our door get into a knock-down, drag-out fight. Literally, one of the birds pinned another one to the ground and beat with its wings whenever it tried to get back up! Crazy tropical ghetto birds.

Well, it's August now. And I've got my Month of August 2007 pass for The Bus. So, I guess it's time to go get my explore-on.

peace out,
kati