Hawaii

Ivan and I are now in Hawaii. We will be here longer than we've been in the last two locations. I'm grateful for that. Moving is a pain, as is finding a new job for me and saying goodbye to the new friends I make at every workplace.

All in all, I enjoyed being in south Jersey. The people there were friendlier than I expected them to be. The traffic was bearable, once I got used to the strange rules of the road. My absolute favorite was actual enforcement of the left lane of a highway/interstate being for passing cars only. A motorist could be ticketed for cruising slow in the left lane.

Driving in NYC was also not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. I enjoy driving in an area that is divided up like a grid. It's so simple to navigate around and find your way out.

The island of Oahu, however, is exactly as I expected it would be. I was anticipating a form of paradise and I've definitely gotten that. The weather is beautiful even though we've arrived just in time for their winter, which means it's the rainy season. It stays cloudy quite a bit over the mountains and over Honolulu. We're on the north shore though, and don't get as much rain. The temperatures are just cool and breezy enough that I can sit in the apartment with the windows open and a fan blowing and not be hot. I'm sure that will change during the summer.

Right now, I'm still acclimating to the time difference. I'm 4 or 5 hours behind everyone I talk to, so now I have to try to remember that when I need to reach someone back home or call an office on the mainland, that I have to do it before noon.

I'm also getting used to the slower way of life here. I went from living in a town where people drove 70 mph between redlights to a place where the speed limit is 25 mph and there are hardly any redlights at all. Drivers actually stop in the middle of the road to let pedestrians and tourists cross the street instead of trying to run over them like in NYC and surrounding areas.

It's different, but in almost all cases, different is good.