I was sitting on my couch watching CNN and reading my new book "The Pleasures of Cooking for One" by James Beard Award winner Judith Jones, when a weird sound reached my ears. Clop, clop, clop. I checked the TV. It wasn't CNN. They were reporting baby sling recalls and asking for people to call in on whether the video of Shamu playing (aka killing) his human prison guard should be released to the public.
Clop...clop...clop. The sound was getting louder, more cloppy and making me nervous. My cottage sits high above the ground while my couch faces the street. I can literally look out the window and see the neighborhood from 2 sides. So it really startled me to see women sort of floating across my windows. The clopping sound was coming from the horses they were riding...heading to the beach. Now that is not a sight you see often. I am SO not in the suburbs anymore. My dog and I just watched from my porch as they went by cloppity clop.
I was tempted to yell out the line from Old Spice, "Look down...back up. Anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice....I'm on a horse."
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Hawaiians in Rome
10/7/09 wow....who would've imagined all these Hawaiians in the ancient city of Roma. they all arrived exhausted from Belgium after being greeted like heros by the locals in Fr. Damien's hometown. it is such a trip to see them spread their Aloha to the staff at the Ergife Hotel as well as around St. Peter's Square. today was the audience with il Papa. and it was like the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. each country followed by the naming of each group was introduced to Bene-san the 16th. and let's just say we weren't quiet and stoic when US/Hawaii congregation was called out. we could NOT let the those German Nazi bastards out-yell us. hell NO!!! the Indian priests from India (not to be confused with the Native American Indian priests if there are any) seated next to me were impressed with my finger whistling (a must-learn ability while growing up in Kalihi). unfortunately they only had 6 dudes from their church so needless to say they didn't have an impressive group such as ours. they decided to not stand up and cheer when their group was called after our 5 minute screaming like UH football fans during the June Jones era. but.....they forgot to tell one of their people and it was pretty funny when the group was called and he was the only one standing and yelling. talk about a scene from an Adam Sandler movie. i tried to hold back the laughter but the dude was shown on the jumbo-tron and then all his buddies from his group just busted out laughing. needless to say i joined in and we all bonded....even the embarrassed dude-priest.
a difference i noticed in Rome since the last time i was here in the 1990's, the graffiti/tagging is out of frickin' control. it's like i've flashed-back to the movie Beat Street. huge bubble tags with tons of color. it is on everything in the city of Rome. now Vatican City is tagless which makes sense as the city is super small and the Popes guards in their cool outfits from the Renaissance era look like they could kill you with a look...even if they do look like they are heading to Renaissance Fair.
10/9: we invaded Assisi. there is still some construction going on from the earthquakes of 1997. the city is still impressive and on a hill/mountain with an incredible view. and they added escalators to help people get to the town. you have to walk down but it's not as bad on the heart that walking straight up the friggin' mountain. the amount of historical churches and buildings are balanced by the many tourist stores and restaurants located throughout the town of Assisi. St. Francis (totally a nature dude) was it's local son and he teamed up with St. Catherine of Sienna, the patron saint of Italy. the streets are narrow and cobbled but so is most of Italy. as in Rome, there are lots of nuns, priests, brothers and monks wondering about the town. many of them young too.
while people watching in Assisi, i bumped into a leprechaun of a man wearing a Fr. Damien shirt Aloha shirt. as i didn't recognize him from our group, i engaged him in conversation. come to find out that he was a brother from Ireland....a Sacred Heart brother who used to work at St. Patricks on Waialae and he visited Sacred Hearts Academy back in 1973. dude missed me by a few years! he and a bunch of his other brothers were also heading to Rome for the canonization. he was certainly happy to know we were here to represent. i steered our media crew towards this cute leprechaun brother as it surely made for an interesting story.....sort of a "circle of life" thing with him 'cause i'm sure he bumped into a few of the SHA sisters who were on this tour with us who probably knew him too.
while people watching in Assisi, i bumped into a leprechaun of a man wearing a Fr. Damien shirt Aloha shirt. as i didn't recognize him from our group, i engaged him in conversation. come to find out that he was a brother from Ireland....a Sacred Heart brother who used to work at St. Patricks on Waialae and he visited Sacred Hearts Academy back in 1973. dude missed me by a few years! he and a bunch of his other brothers were also heading to Rome for the canonization. he was certainly happy to know we were here to represent. i steered our media crew towards this cute leprechaun brother as it surely made for an interesting story.....sort of a "circle of life" thing with him 'cause i'm sure he bumped into a few of the SHA sisters who were on this tour with us who probably knew him too.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Benvenuto a Roma!!
10/1/09 - 4pm mom and i leave HNL on Delta for Atlanta.
10/2/09 - arrive in Atlanta and have a 3 hour layover before flying to Boston. we finally leave Atlanta after chasing down the gate as the airport kept changing it. arrive in Boston only to have a 5 hour layover. exhaustion hits us and we decided to pull a "backpack American" by laying down length-wise on the seats in the International departures. thankfully the area is empty as we are really early for our flight. an hour and half later, we slowly wake up to loud German-speaking folks. man, i hope i wasn't drooling or snoring loudly. i was sleeping on my side so i think i was ok. not that it matters as i don't know anyone here anyway. i am surrounded by people and the minute i sit up, the spot left empty is taken by voracious Germans. we finally board our flight and it is packed. and it's a crappy plane again. btw, all the planes we were on were old and decrepit. apparently, Delta/Northwest got the contract to fly our troops overseas so they used the newer planes for them. i stopped bitching once i heard that explanation.
there are lots of Americans on this Boston to Rome flight who are heading to Italy for their cruise or to spend a week in a Tuscany town....no one there for the canonization though. one older couple across from me were old hands at cruising especially in Italy. they were hilarious. they talked to everyone. they were Jewish (typically so...very Seinfeld-ish), loud and really friendly without being obnoxious or irritating. the plane we were on was so uncomfortable. it was small and the seats were so worn out that there was a permanent butt impression in ALL of them. mom and i were suppose to sit together as were a bunch of other people on the plane. come to find out that Delta under-booked so the larger plane we were suppose to have was switched as we didn't have enough people to fill it. friggin' A! and there was noone to complain to as the plane was Alitalia but the booking was through Delta/Northwest. they each pointed the finger at each other. whatev.
10/3/09 - 7:45am finally arrive in Rome. we depart the plane by going down the steps of the plane and onto a bus. so old school! we arrive at the passport terminal and i'm one of the lucky ones with the new electronic passports. it's suppose to be easier and faster but my passport dude apparently is new to this and is excited to check it out. the people behind me start looking at me in the box like i'm some sort of criminal. mom had gone through before me and turned around to see me still in the box. her instinct is to come back to me to see what's up but the box won't allow it. i wave her off and my passport dude turns to see me gesturing. now he's giving me the "eye." i know i look pretty scary after 36+ hours of travel so using my looks (yeah right!) won't work this time. so i go with the "friendly American trying to use his language" to explain the situation. i could've used the "arrogant American where english is the only language to be spoken" attitude but i really didn't want to be stripped search. i explain that "my mama" is nervous by herself and that's why i'm gesturing. it totally worked. i didn't even have to flash my scar which i had wrapped up in a pashmina. don't wanna scare the natives yet.
we head to baggage claim. i see the "toilettes" and decide to make use of it. this is where it hits me that we are no longer in America. the bathroom smelled disgusting and the toilets had no seats. you have to breath shallow and try not to touch anything in the little room of a toilet. each toilet is a mini room rather than a stall and it smells disgusting. AND this is the women's bathroom. why it smells like urine everywhere, i have no frickin' clue. i'm nauseous just typing about it.
we immediately see our bags as they were the first to come off. i am SO happy it made it. you hear such horror stories about lost luggage.
we grab our stuff and head to the taxi stand. off we go to the hotel: Ergife Palace Hotel.
to be continued......
10/2/09 - arrive in Atlanta and have a 3 hour layover before flying to Boston. we finally leave Atlanta after chasing down the gate as the airport kept changing it. arrive in Boston only to have a 5 hour layover. exhaustion hits us and we decided to pull a "backpack American" by laying down length-wise on the seats in the International departures. thankfully the area is empty as we are really early for our flight. an hour and half later, we slowly wake up to loud German-speaking folks. man, i hope i wasn't drooling or snoring loudly. i was sleeping on my side so i think i was ok. not that it matters as i don't know anyone here anyway. i am surrounded by people and the minute i sit up, the spot left empty is taken by voracious Germans. we finally board our flight and it is packed. and it's a crappy plane again. btw, all the planes we were on were old and decrepit. apparently, Delta/Northwest got the contract to fly our troops overseas so they used the newer planes for them. i stopped bitching once i heard that explanation.
there are lots of Americans on this Boston to Rome flight who are heading to Italy for their cruise or to spend a week in a Tuscany town....no one there for the canonization though. one older couple across from me were old hands at cruising especially in Italy. they were hilarious. they talked to everyone. they were Jewish (typically so...very Seinfeld-ish), loud and really friendly without being obnoxious or irritating. the plane we were on was so uncomfortable. it was small and the seats were so worn out that there was a permanent butt impression in ALL of them. mom and i were suppose to sit together as were a bunch of other people on the plane. come to find out that Delta under-booked so the larger plane we were suppose to have was switched as we didn't have enough people to fill it. friggin' A! and there was noone to complain to as the plane was Alitalia but the booking was through Delta/Northwest. they each pointed the finger at each other. whatev.
10/3/09 - 7:45am finally arrive in Rome. we depart the plane by going down the steps of the plane and onto a bus. so old school! we arrive at the passport terminal and i'm one of the lucky ones with the new electronic passports. it's suppose to be easier and faster but my passport dude apparently is new to this and is excited to check it out. the people behind me start looking at me in the box like i'm some sort of criminal. mom had gone through before me and turned around to see me still in the box. her instinct is to come back to me to see what's up but the box won't allow it. i wave her off and my passport dude turns to see me gesturing. now he's giving me the "eye." i know i look pretty scary after 36+ hours of travel so using my looks (yeah right!) won't work this time. so i go with the "friendly American trying to use his language" to explain the situation. i could've used the "arrogant American where english is the only language to be spoken" attitude but i really didn't want to be stripped search. i explain that "my mama" is nervous by herself and that's why i'm gesturing. it totally worked. i didn't even have to flash my scar which i had wrapped up in a pashmina. don't wanna scare the natives yet.
we head to baggage claim. i see the "toilettes" and decide to make use of it. this is where it hits me that we are no longer in America. the bathroom smelled disgusting and the toilets had no seats. you have to breath shallow and try not to touch anything in the little room of a toilet. each toilet is a mini room rather than a stall and it smells disgusting. AND this is the women's bathroom. why it smells like urine everywhere, i have no frickin' clue. i'm nauseous just typing about it.
we immediately see our bags as they were the first to come off. i am SO happy it made it. you hear such horror stories about lost luggage.
we grab our stuff and head to the taxi stand. off we go to the hotel: Ergife Palace Hotel.
to be continued......
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