Monday, January 8, 2007

Aloha?

This latest obsession about the 50th state is pretty all consuming. The more we read and find out, we're finding out more pros, and obviously, more cons. In addition to the poor education system, one of the other worries that I've been having is the institutional racism that seems to be boiling under the wraps. I don't know if it'll affect my kids or myself that much, but I'm worried about my wife, who is used to being part of the majority race. I mean, fair to say that in Washington, racism is alive and simmering as well. Even my wife has experienced some of this through my children's eyes, when we were in Packwood and some lady was commenting on our kids being Asian. "Haoles" as they are referred to, as just Cauasians who they feel stole the island from them, and turned it into just a tourist-driven economy. Some people are bothered by it, some aren't. I guess the concensus is that if an individual is open and respectful to the Hawaiian culture, they will be accepted as such. Common sense, really.

I've been lurking the forums and asking questions, just trying to get the most information I can possibly get to make an informed decision. We're even going so far as to thinking about a vacation to the islands at the end of the year to get a preview to the kind of lifestyle Hawaii has to offer.

I think though, for now I have to leave the idea alone for a while - it's consuming my mind a little too much to be anyway close to being healthy - looking at Flickr with "Hawaii" tags, looking up advice from natives, just submerging myself in wayyyy too much info. And my wife is pretty stoked about thinking about it too. She's looking at the change in lifestyle, a possibly slower pace of life, a change in scenery.

Now we know that it's easy to dream about paradise in the dead of winter in Washington, especially how cold and wet it is right now. But if this urging persists after summer, maybe we'll just have to try it and see.

2 comments:

neonvirus.com said...

wtf... hahaha.. i come over to your new web home (why didnt you just announce and change your address on your old one so you could keep your old history? well i guess its good to start fresh sometimes) anyway i come to your new home and its all plastered with hawai'i pictures, trippy! dude, if you leave washington that will mean that almost 100% of my buddies are no longer living there and i will have even less reason to return. (tho still wanna see my famfam someday) wow,.... hawaii tho? some of the pros i see is your kids could learn japanese which would rock cus then they could talk to aliens i bring them someday. eh what. oh and yeah, hawaii weather is great and all that, but what would you do for work? i personally agree laid back is better than rushed too. although one thing i disagree is if a vacation could give you a "proper view" of daytoday life, vacaitioning and living are two different elephents, or something. wow, like your new blog, all abouts YOU YOU YOU, and in a borat voice: nice!.. haha

Diego said...

Well, I thought about the impressive 4 year blog with 700 plus posts, but I thought that the subject matter would be too restrictive, plus blogger might accidently screw up my blog if it tries to switch over to the new blogger.

I don't know if they'll learn Japanese there. Pidgin is more likely. It would probably drive me a little nutty, since I get a little odd about speaking correctly.

No, the vacation would actually give us a chance to look at rental offices, places that are hiring, that sort of thing.

But hey, it probably sounded daffy when you wanted to move to Japan!