Hawaiian Culture

Yesterday I got my Hawaiian driver's licenses. I was so nervous because I had to take the written test again and it had been a while since I had to take the written test. I think the hardest part was filling out the information for my license. For the first time I had say "brunette" not "blonde" on my description. It was very sad. I still miss my blonde hair :(

Today I went to a traditional Hawaiian funeral. I really felt like I was in another country. No one wore black, everyone wore aloha shirts (brightly colored flowered shirts) and it was outside under a tent. I didn't eat before I went because I know how much the Hawaiian's like their food. We sat next to the food so the whole time I was smelling the food just starving. I couldn't wait until we could eat. Once it was time to eat and they unveiled the food I thought I was going to cry. I didn't recognize any of it except the white rice. There was some purple stuff that looked like purple slime, trite stew (for those of you like me who don't know what trite is, it is intestines, ummm... intestine stew), poke (marinated raw fish), sushi (more raw fish), whole deep fried fish, whole fried tiny crabs that looked like fried spiders and on and on. Seriously, I was so hungry but yet I couldn't bring my self to eat it. So what did I do, I piged out on the desserts, all of which I recognized.

After I made my self sick on sugar, I sat and listened to luau style music. It was great. I kept thinking, tourists would pay big bucks to experience this real Hawaiian culture. The people were great and immediately made you feel like family. It was great fun but I now know that I should eat before I go to another traditional Hawaiian event.