New York to Nomad

Happy Birthday! Turning 27 in Hawaii

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Archana

Yesterday, I received some tragic news about a member of my extended family. It was a sobering moment, during which I thought to myself, a post about all the fun and frivolity of my 27th birthday now seems so insignificant. But during a long drive home from our road trip — post on that coming up — I thought about how lucky I am to be living this life. So though I know there are things in life more important than birthday cake, I also know that lives are meant to be cherished. And this particular birthday reinforced just how lucky I am to have special people in my life.

I used to be the girl that sent out her own Evite — remember those? — about celebrating her birthday at some raging Chicago club. Well, gone are those days. It’s a feat to even get me into a club now. These days, I’d much rather spend time with my closest friends over a delicious meal and call it a day.

But I also had a light bulb moment when I realized: I understand celebrating special moments like a wedding or graduation, but why celebrate the day I was born? What kind of accomplishment is that? So I didn’t want to make a big deal of my birthday this year. I mean, I’m living in Hawaii, isn’t that a birthday celebration in and of itself?

Apparently, Eaman had other ideas.

Unbeknownst to me, with help from Pratt and Craig, he had been planning a surprise birthday party for me since mid-March. They hatched a plan to get me ready for an ordinary day at the beach last Saturday, but when we stopped at Pratt’s apartment for a hot second, I got my extraordinary surprise!

Categories: Hawaii | Tags: Beaches, Birthday, Kailua | 6 Comments

5 Lessons Learned from Working at a Smoothie Shop

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Archana

I’ve been working at the smoothie shop — which shall remain nameless on this blog just so I can rant and rave as I please and remain less Google-able — for just over a month now, and in my time there, I’ve realized some things about this job that are best reflected by a pro-con list.

Pros: Being around fresh, mostly local and often organic food; sampling the extras of any smoothies, juices or bowls (thick smoothies with toppings eaten with a spoon); talking to friendly locals while I’m at the register; the non-desk-job factor; certain weekdays off; strong(er) biceps with all the heavy lifting and manual labor

Smoothie girl with some specific blur-outs to maintain my anonymity. Also, my hair is definitely not usually that nicely coiffed and shiny; I had just gotten a haircut.

Categories: Hawaii | Tags: Honolulu, Working abroad | 3 Comments

Hawaiian life lately, according to my camera

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Archana

A weekday outing with new friend Niti to Kaimana Beach, a lovely, quiet little stretch of beach just a bit further down from bustling Waikiki Beach.

Waikiki sunset.

Categories: Hawaii | Tags: Diamond Head, Hiking, Kaimana Beach, Local food, Markets, Sandy Beach Park | 9 Comments

Scenes from a Saturday road trip: Kailua and the North Shore

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Archana

Work hours have been painfully long since I got back from New Jersey last week. Eaman has been home in Oklahoma for the past two weeks. I’ve been getting into a bad habit of eating dinner on the couch, changing the channel to classic Friends episodes, falling asleep and waking up at 2 a.m. (I admit, I am definitely a grandmother by 20-something nightlife standards, but I owe this particularly sad turn of events to long hours on my feet at the smoothie shop and the relative isolation of living up a mountain. Am I less sad to you now? Hopefully.)

What I’m trying to say is, I was very much in need of an outing. During pau hana (happy hour) and subsequent dinner at the fantastic Vietnamese restaurant Super Pho last week, my cousin Pratt suggested we take a road trip somewhere on Saturday. Details weren’t necessary; I was ready to go anywhere.

Like I said, I’m starting to feel a little isolated living on this here mountain, which calls for a 15-minute downhill walk to a bus stop and the far worse 20-minute steep ascent back up the mountain. I was getting bogged down in Honolulu and knew there’s so much more to see in Oahu. But without a car, it’s hard. What a buzzkill it is to think: “Sweet! Let’s go to Kailua Beach. The bus comes in 27 minutes and then it’ll take us approximately 1 hour and 14 minutes to get there. And let’s pray it doesn’t take forever and a half to come back by bus. Can’t wait!”

But Pratt has a car, and she and her husband, Craig, have wanted to take us somewhere outside Honolulu for a while. (Unfortunately, Eaman wasn’t here for this excursion.) So on Friday night, she emailed me to be ready by noon for an adventure and to bring my bathing suit. That was one vague proposition I could get behind!

Where did we go? Well, a lot of places. Here, a little photo diary of our trip:

Stopped for lunch at Kalapawai Market in Kailua, a somewhat ritzy seaside town that boasts one of the best beaches on Oahu (called Kailua Beach) and ate lunch – a veggie-feta sandwich in my case — at a nearby park:

Categories: Hawaii | Tags: Kailua, North Shore, Road trip | 3 Comments

Five Things I’m Loving About Life in Hawaii So Far

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Archana

The coolest stuff to do is free.

It’s called the beach, and it costs nothing. And in Hawaii, no beach is private, so there’s none of that bougey resort-only crap. One day, Eaman and I decided to sit in Ala Moana Beach Park after running some errands, and we were thinking, “This is just what we do. Does it get any better?” Maybe Californians are used to this, but it’s certainly new to Eaman, who’s from landlocked Oklahoma and me, who’s from New Jersey. (No, I don’t like the Jersey Shore, nor do I care to legitimize it as a nice beach.) Of course there’s much more to do that we haven’t even gotten to do thanks to the recent spate of bad weather and my trip back home – like snorkeling in Hanuma Bay, visiting the cute town of Kailua and hikes galore – but we’re itching to get started. My friend Doug, who lives here, says that Hawaii is like college; it is what you make of it.

Everything.is.so.lush.

Flowers and fruit trees and palm leaves, oh my! It wasn’t until I went home to New Jersey and saw the barren, winter-plagued trees, that I realized how lucky I am to be surrounded by what’s basically a city-wide botanical garden. ~~Funny~~ Terrible how I was already taking it for granted after just a month here.

Things I see during my walk to work, which, I might add, is just a simple (but nice) residential neighborhood:

Categories: Hawaii | 4 Comments

Happy Six-Month Travel-versary to us!

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Archana

Six months ago, Eaman and I were sitting in JFK airport, waiting for this year of fun and adventure to begin. Since then, we’ve gone to six countries in South and Central America and done a whole lot that I’ve already shared and re-shared with you. Now all I keep thinking is: How is time flying so quickly? What’s the rush? Can we make it stop? Please?

But realizing how rapidly each day, week and month goes by and stopping to recognize the milestone upon us, it encouraged me to sit down and think about what’s transpired in this time. Leaving South America had me doing some self-reflection already, but now, being on U.S. soil in month six has resulted in some interesting new revelations about myself that I definitely didn’t see coming when we left September 20.

The day we left:

I feel happier around foreign languages than I do around English. When I was at the airport yesterday, two girls and their mother – all from Luxembourg, I eyed their passports – were speaking in what I think was Luxembourgish and it was like music to my ears. Call me crazy, but for me, there’s something so pleasant about hearing Dutch or staccato German or even just English in a Kiwi accent, probably because it evokes such happy memories. For six months, all Eaman and I heard were foreign languages. When we’d enter our hostel room in a new city, if we heard a different language, it was exciting because it meant we’d be introduced to a whole new culture. (We’d be less enthused to hear American English.) Sure, we all eventually spoke in the common denominator language of English, but the point was that we were surrounded by a hodgepodge of different backgrounds. It became symbolic of being on the road, being adventurous, being truly out there. A part of me flip-flops between loving life in Hawaii and missing life on-the-go, and this language issue is definitely derived from the latter.

Categories: General | Tags: Reflection | 7 Comments

…And then I had to fly home unexpectedly.

Posted on March 17, 2012 by Archana

My lack of Hawaii postings certainly isn’t reflective of the frequency I had in mind, but things happen. Such is life.

On Monday morning, I got word from my brother that our grandmother — my dad’s mom — had passed away in her sleep. Without hesitation, I worked out whatever I needed to in order to get on the next flight out to New Jersey. A nine and a half-hour flight and one viewing of The Help later — the book is much better — I was home. Funny how it takes something like this to realize just how far away you really are.

Despite the unfortunate and sad reason to go home, it’s been wonderful to spend time with my family, settle onto our family-room couch for some home-ness and reminisce. My grandmother lived a long life — she was 91! — and was pretty strong right up until the end. In times like these, it’s best to celebrate life and not dwell on the grim reason we had to all come together. And I know it’s normal for close family to extend their support, but I’ve been positively floored by some of my close friends who’ve been nothing short of amazing. Gosh, I’m lucky.

As verbose as I may be on most topics travel-related, this time around, I’m going to keep it short. I’m headed back to Honolulu on Monday, and am practically brimming with stories to share. For now, mahalo!

Categories: General | 5 Comments

I thought Hawaii was supposed to have good weather?

Posted on March 10, 2012 by Archana

I wish I had some interesting settling-into Hawaii stories for you, but thanks to a seemingly never-ending series of torrential rainstorms, Eaman and I have been sequestered to our apartments for a lot of TV-watching, reading and cooking. It’s not a bad life — between 2 and 3 p.m., TBS airs back-to-back Friends episodes, and I’m talking about the good, before-Chandler-and-Monica-got-together years — but all we want to do is go to the beach! Isn’t that what people are supposed to do in Hawaii?

When you can’t go to the beach, ask Mother Nature to bring the beach to you:

Luckily, I got to get some air on my rainy walk to work, and we were able to break up the monotony with an excellent movie, a fun happy hour at Kona Brewing Co. and a quick outing to Waialae Beach Park, which ended quickly thanks to rain — the annoying small kind that almost tickles — and flying sand.

But, as everyone has assured us, the storms here have been pretty unusual, minus that one year during which there was 40 consecutive days of rain. So check out these crazy pictures from The Weather Channel and then you’ll feel less jealous that we’re in Hawaii and it’s still 40-some degrees on some parts of the mainland.

Categories: Hawaii | 6 Comments

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