Fortunately it all sounds a bit worse than it really is… let’s start with the three surgeries. These surgeries (for the cats, of course, took place last week and are basically nothing more than neutering the cats. Since some of them walk outside from now and then, it is needed to have that done since, before I moved here, one cat already had two nests and that is enough if you ask me.

I don’t have much to tell about the surgeries, we left the cats and we could pick them up a day later again, it wasn’t much special (for us). The only thing we really noticed is that the bellies of the cats were shaved. We took some pictures of them of course:

From left to right you can see the mother cat Stain and then her two daughters Flamey and Neko. We think the cats have not much experienced from the surgeries, it doesn’t really look that they are different in behavior than before (which can happen sometimes when an animal gets fixed). So everything is ok with them…

Except for one of them…

The mother cat, Stain, is apparently hit by a car last wednesday.. It was already weird that Stain let her caught so easily last wednesday when she was outside but upstairs.. normally she is really hard to get, she want to get in but at the same time she doesn’t haha. But yah, this time it was really easy, we didn’t really know why, especially since she didn’t cry or anything but was just as quiet as normal. We didn’t think much of it and since we had to go out ourselves that day we put her inside and did our things as usual.

Later, around dinnertime, I thought that Stain was a bit quiet, she didn’t move much and when the food for the cats came out, something they all wake up for, she still remained in her own spot, half sleeping. I thought she might have been tired and left her alone, we still didn’t notice anything.

Michelle picked her up at around nine in the evening, to cuddle a bit with her, something she does more often and Stain usually don’t mind, but now Stain was growling a bit and really wanted to get back on the floor, as soon as Michelle put her down, we noticed that she was walking limp so we took a closer look and found a small wound on her hip.

We called the emergency hospital for animals (I didn’t even know this existed but yah, it seems it is) and asked what we should do and if we could drop by. They told us we could come by but this would cost 105 dollar while if we made an appointment, we only had to pay 39 dollars. Quite some difference if you ask me but since we didn’t know what was wrong, we decided to go directly anyways.

Once we arrived there, we had to fill in a form and they looked at her, we heard that it was the best if they also took an X-Ray, we asked what would be the cost of that: including the 105 dollar that had to be paid for the consult, it would be around the 300 dollar.. nice, and then they didn’t do anything to the animal itself. Right, we agreed, paid up front and they went to see if they could see what was wrong with her hip (they already saw some wounds and stuff and these already showed that it wasn’t a fight but most likely a car that hit her).

After the pictures were made we heard (and saw through the photo’s) that the hip was dislocated. They told us that there were two main solutions, one was to put the hip back to his original position, this would be the cheapest option but brings a lot of risk with it, like a 50% chance that the hip would get dislocated again and that there might even be some more damaged, and the other option would be a surgery, this would be the best and safest option and works really well but it is also more expensive.

To pop the hip back in its location, it would cost about 300 dollar at one doctor and about 600 dollar at the one we went to for the research (we called around a bit for different prices) and for the surgery we would have to pay between 1500 and 2000 dollar (even more at others). What to do next.. the 300 or 600 option isn’t so much of a problem but the 1500 to 2000 dollar is quite some money, especially since there are some other things also that have to be paid soon.

We didn’t know that night what we had to do, we received some medication (with a value of 80 dollar, and it is not exactly much if you ask me) and called around yesterday and went to several doctors with her file that we received (for which we also had to pay).

Right, so now it is Saturday evening (and I just at a ‘bitterbal’.. but more about that later) and we still don’t know exactly what we should do. The operation is just too expensive right now, we want to but we don’t want to create problems for ourselves, like said, we have some expensive things coming up soon (like, for example, my adjustment of status (because of the immigration) which can be taken out of our account any time now, which is another 1000 dollars) and, well, popping it back in only brings a lot of risk.. the doctors that we called (everyone we spoke to, even the ones who couldn’t do it themselves) were telling us that it might give troubles later and they all said it would be better to do a surgery.

We also asked a few doctors how the pain is for her and, apparently, it isn’t all that bad.. Some even said that if we don’t do much about it, that she would still be able to walk around everywhere after a couple of weeks, she would limp but other than that there wouldn’t be too much problems. Cats are amazing with these things according to them. Good, that gives us some breathing space to see what we want and/or can do, to just put her to sleep because of a dislocated hip just sounds ridiculous if you ask me. It seems like it is indeed not that bad at the moment, she moves frequently to get some food, drink, to put herself on a different spot and we even found her on a 3 feet high closet..

We will see what we have, want and can do.

I promised yesterday that I would write some more today and so here I am with my next message

We had a few birthday parties going on between my last two posts, one of Michelle herself, her birthday was on the 17th but we had a party for it on the 19th since the tenants in the back of our house would have a day off by then and they wanted to BBQ for us (her). Some other people got invited and in the end there was about 20-25 family members, friends and such on her birthday.

The food was really great, of course, I especially like the meat on a stick that they make haha. And of course we had cake and such, here are some pictures:

A bit later this week, last Sunday, we also went to a birthdayparty/retirement party of someone. I did not know this person but Michelle’s mother did and since she would have to go alone, we decided to join to keep her company.

This man became 55 year old and went on retirement out of the US army, where he was Grand Master Sergeant. I don’t know much about the army so I cannot tell you much about his rank but I do know that he had quite some stripes on his sleeves. I tried to make a picture out of hit with my phone, it isn’t super clear but oh well, at least you can get an idea:

There was a lot of red, white and blue as you can see. Of course they meant the colors of the United States flag but I thought it was funny to tell them that they were the same as the Dutch flag hehe. It was pretty busy also, they hired a big room in the ‘Filipino Community Center‘, and not for nothing as there were 35 tables with about 10 persons per table, so do your maths They also had a very nice buffet and I can tell you that I enjoyed myself hehe.

By the way, I made quite a weird/funny/stupid remark to that man when we arrived, nothing special though, but when I think about it, I think I have him a funny answer. Since I have this short shaved head of hear I often get the question if I am in the army, white+short hair is often army over here. I also received that question when I introduced myself to him, not weird when you think about that he was in the army himself: “are you in the army?”, on which I answered “”No, I am an immigrant”.. haha.

I do not know why but I think it is an odd answer to his question. Of course it is logic that I am not in the army when I am an immigrant but still, what does that have to do with the whole question or situation? Haha not much, we laughed quite a few times about it afterwards haha.

I can do that more often, by the way, say things which make no sense or make a mistake. Like recently, I was talking about the pocketmoney (and I almost wrote down salary) Larissa received when I was still living in the Netherlands… but instead of saying ‘Larissa’ or ‘my daughter’, I said ‘my sister’. Michelle was like huh, why do you give her pocketmoney? On which I thought that she was saying that it was not enough money (I didn’t see my mistake yet) and said “she also received that from my mom and my ex-girlfriend so it is quite a nice amount”, on which Michelle was really wondering why I gave my sister money and even more why my ex was giving her money? Hahahaha yep, we were quite awake at that time hahaha.

Right, next I will post a message about our cats who have received a surgery and about one of them who has something less fun going on at the moment.

Today was the day after thanksgiving and this is traditional the day that the shops in the US start with their Christmas sales, they also call it ‘black Friday’. And I can tell you it is indeed a bit of a black day in the US..

What a hassle today, haha. I am probably the sober Dutchman again but what a nonsense for a few percent off the prices.

To name something, at 6.30 AM, on the morning of thanksgiving day, there were dozens of people waiting in the line to get inside Best Buy.. Mind you: almost all stores were closed yesterday.. The purpose of this all is just to get as far as possible in the front of the line for a store that only opens at 5 AM the next day. And that’s another thing.. many stores were already open at 5 AM, or even at midnight, and at a lot of stores there were huge lines of people waiting. All just because those people have to shop.

It is possible that my mind sees it all too simple but isn’t it so that if the stores all open at 8 AM or 9 AM, that these people still have the same choice? I find it a bit ridiculous to open up that early, and it is a bit sad for the employees who have to get up really early, after a pretty big holiday, and get to work again.

Michelle already told me about black Friday and we said that we would go on the road around midnight to see if it would be indeed this busy. Michelle told me it would but, yah, how would I know.. I thought it wouldn’t be that bad… I guess I have to guess again.

We get outside and the first thing we see is a huge line of cars, it should have been several miles, waiting to get off the freeway and onto the parkinglots of the mall in our neighborhood (which they gave a special price of 5 dollar per parking instead of the free parking as it is normal)… Here’s a picture of those cars:

As you can see, as far as you can look there are cars.. it was exactly the same at the other side of the bridge. I am sorry to say but what a weirdlos… and I could imagine something like that if there were good deals but, really, I have seen the ads and there isn’t really all that much sales. Besides, there will be more days in this Christmas shopping season where they will give more (and maybe even better) deals since most stores want to try and get an extra profit at the end of the year.

Nah… it is not really my thing, I think this all is just a bit exaggerated.

We went also to that Best Buy store last night, we wanted to go there anyways but since a friend of Michelle was waiting in line (lol), we made sure we’d go. And indeed, there was over 300 people there.. What is it that got into these people.. it is really like camping haha.. Here are two pictures to give an impression:

The pictures are a bit vague but oh well, at least you can get an impression of how it was like. And the whole parking was actually like this, no less than 300 people were camping out. They were lucky to be in Hawaii with the nice weather and not the mainland where, as I read and heard, it was the same as here.

By the way, when we drove back home, we decided to take a bit of the freeway so we could film the line of cars, unfortunately about half of the cars was gone or the video would have been a lot longer but oh well, it still came out as a 2.5 minute recording… if you want to see the short video, you should click this link.

And this all was not even that bad, some terrible things actually happened. I heard today (and read about it later on a few news sites) that an employee of Walmart in Long Island, New York, died because, when the doors of the store opened, a huge mass of people entered the doors and literally ran over him. The man died because of his injuries because of it all.

Now that I am thinking a little bit about it (and I think many Americans will disagree with me but that’s ok, everyone is entitled on his/her own opinion), then I do think that they should get rid of the whole black Friday concept.

I think it is seriously bad, especially when there are people dying because of it all and I can only wonder what they were thinking. If you think about it, it just ridiculous to stay up all night and stand in line for just a few bucks (or worse: 22.5 hours like those people about whom I spoke earlier in this post).

Nah, after about an hour we went back home and we slept nicely in our own bed.

I will write some more tomorrow as some more things have happened last week. Some nice things and unfortunately also some not-so-nice things but ok, I want to go to bed on time so I will tell about that later.

See ya tomorrow!

If I tell you that I was cold yesterday and that I, even though it was still above 70 degrees, needed some warm clothes (yep, in Hawaii), then you might tell me that I am crazy.. but it was still like that.

It was raining yesterday for like the whole day (that’s the rainseason for you) and it felt really cold. That’s basically why I had to take on some warm clothes, even if I am in Hawaii.. I never really expected it but apparently I am not the only one who does this, there are many people who dress up with warmer clothes in ‘the winter’. I guess it has something to do with getting used to the warmer climate.

It isn’t so bad to have some cooler days, and the rain is needed also for the drinking water and such but still, I can’t say it felt nice hehe.

We went today, as we said we would, to the ‘Iolani Palace where we would follow a tour and where there would be some festivities in honor of king Kalakaua’s birthday celebration.

King David Laamea Kamanakapu’u Mahinulani Naloia’ehuokalani Lumialani Kalakaua, as his full name was, was born in Honolulu on November 16, 1836 and ascended the throne of the Kingdom of Hawaii on February 12, 1874. His reign ended with his sudden death on January 20, 1891 in San Francisco.

King Kalakaua is also called the “Merrie Monarch”, this is thanks to his love for festivities, the hula and such. The hula dance was, for example, forbidden in early 19th century, even if it was an important element of the Hawaiian culture, and thanks to king David Kalakaua the ban was lifted.

But ok, I assume we don’t want to get a history lesson but that we want to see some pictures instead? Unfortunately, we were unable to make pictures of the inside of ‘Iolani Palace since this was not allowed (I think it is understandable) but we took lots of pictures of the festivities outside and these are just as nice and interesting so you will find these below. We also bought a couple of postcards of the inside of the palace, so these are things we also saw, and you will find these below also.

I will try not to write too much text and to keep it mainly at a photo blogpost. When you hover with your mouse over the photo’s, or when you see the photo’s zoomed in, then you will find a short description of that picture.

Have fun watching the photos

Since I talk about prince David Laamea Klaren Kaumuali’i Kawananakoa in the last photo in the range above,I want to make a short notice: Hawaii has, of course, no official royal family anymore, that means, it is officially no kingdom anymore and therefore there can be no royal family. Of course there are descendents of the royal family and there are now several families who try to make a claim on the throne. It will be a bit too much to explain the whole story and I don’t feel much for that Anyways, to make a long story short, the prince that I named above is one of the people who is a possible heir to the throne if Hawaii ever becomes a kingdom (and that is something I seriously doubt since I do not think that the US will give up Hawaii).

But ok, we were going to view some photos, so let’s continue with that:

Now that the happenings with the change and the inspection of the guard are over, it was time for the people of the Waianae homeless center to do a performance. According to the announcer this is something that usually didn’t happen and with that it made it twice as special. The performance existed from a chant, gift giving to the royal house and was followed by a hula dance by multiple persons, all of course in honor of king Kalakaua’s birthday:

After this performance they switched the festivities a bit towards the coronation pavilion. This part of the festivities, the concert, was opened by a reverend and had lots of music from the time of king Kalakaua.

We went towards our car during this concert since we got quite thirsty, we were in the sun for a few hours after all and had the water still in the car. And after we drank some water and came back to our senses, it was our time for the tour through the palace.

Unfortunately, like we expected, it was not allowed to make any photo’s. I was able to make some photo’s of the ceiling on the “lanai” (balcony) of the palace, we also bought a few postcards from the palace museum which we scanned ourselves so we could still show you something

We made a short walk after this all to the Washington Place”, the previous residence of Queen Lili’uokalani and which is currently the mansion of the governer of Hawaii. Next to this building is the St. Andrews Cathedral, where we also went for a look:

The day came almost to an end after this all, personally I think it was very beautiful and nice to be able to see and experience this all. We also learned a lot from the tour through the palace, a lot has been said about the history.

Michelle and I went into town after this to grab a bite and on the roof of a building where we had dinner, we watched the sun setting. I also took a picture of it which, I think, is nice:

From Michelle and me I thank “the friends of ‘Iolani Palace” gratefully for the nice birthday celebration of King Kalakaua at ‘Iolani Palace, we were happy to be a part of it!

I told you last thursday that we will go to the ‘Iolani Palace this sunday since it is “kama’aina” sunday, which means that the entrance and tour with guide is free for those who live in Hawaii (and that is where my Hawaiian driver license will come in handy hehe).

We will still go to the palace tomorrow, but they decorated the whole palace since it is also the birthday (or better said: the memory of the birthday) of King Kalakaua. There will also be palaceguards and a parade in town itself in honor of the king, so it is the idea to see all that kind of stuff.

We also went to town yesterday and since we were there anyways, we decided to take a look at the palace to see the decorations ourselves. I had seen a small picture on the internet before and it looked quite pretty so now we wanted to see if it was really this nice, and I thought it was. And since we were around anyways, we decided to do a small walk through historic Honolulu. We made some pictures, of course, here they are:

The first two pictures are taken of Kawaiaha’o Church, the first Christian church on Hawaii, build between 1836 and 1842. On the third picture you can see the tomb of King Koning William Charles Lunalilo, the first elected monarch in the history of Hawaii.

Next to the church there is also a water source to be found. You would think in these days that they manually put it there but apparently this is an original spring, and like it also said on the sign, this is indeed to be called unique with such a warm and dry climate as the Hawaiian one. The spring can be found on the next photo:

Also, the church took its name from this source, “Ka Wai a Ha’o” means “the water of Ha’o”.

At the side of the church, at the other side of the road, are the mission houses:

I tried to make a panorama photo from the mission houses, I think it worked out pretty well:

You will have to click the picture to see the result a bit better, of course, haha

After that we crossed another road, one which could you make think about the previous pictures, like “is that the actual surrounding of those old buildings?”

Yep, the old buildings are in the middle of Honolulu, a world city haha.

On the right side of the photo, just outside the picture, you will find “Honolulu Hale” (translated: House of Honolulu) where the mayor has his office, city hall.

I just realized that I didn’t really took the best side of the building to make a picture of but oh well, you can at least get a bit an idea of how the building looks like. It is a bit in the Californian-Spanish style, something which fits pretty well in this place.

The second photo is from a fountain and such. In a few weeks we will make some more pictures there because they place a big statue of Santa and his wife on that spot, both in Aloha style with short sleeves and such. I think it will fit indeed hehe.

The third picture is a photo of the monument for the victims of 9/11, the day America was attacked by terrorists. The sign reads that it is an “eternal flame” but Michelle told me just now that she has seen that there was no flame at all… what the reason was is unkown to us, it could be that the rain or wind made it go out but it could also be that they forgot to pay their gasbill or that the coals were all gone

After that we crossed another road and we came to the Hawaiian State Library::

And next to the library you will find the gardens (and a big one) of ‘Iolani Palace, the Hawaiian royal palace:

In my previous post you could find the Judiciary Historic Center (Ali’iolani Hale) and the statue of King Kamehameha the first, which can be found right across the street::

But ok, ‘Iolani Palace looks a lot better at the moment, if only it was because of all the decorations, so let’s go back to the palace

There are a few more buildings next to the palace as you can see on the following three pictures. On the first you will find the Coronation Pavilion and on the other two photo’s you can find the barracks of the palace.

And when you walk to the back of the palace you will find some strange trees. Maybe not strange for everyone but I thought they were quite different from what I know. Michelle told me these are Banyan trees… doesn’t ring a bell to me, but oh well, see for yourself::

Behind the palace and the gardens, you will find a statue of queen Lili’uokalani, the queen after who the botanical garden has been called where Michelle and I got married. And across that statue you will find the State Capitol of Hawaii.

The first picture is, indeed, from queen Lili’uokalani, the second photo is a picture which shows the seal of the State of Hawaii, only just a very big size hehe. The text on the bottom says “Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono”, or in English: “The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness”. And the third picture contains the State Capitol itself.. Michelle explained to me that the pillars depict palmtrees and that there is also a vulcano shown in the building (I think the oval part up front) and some more things from the Hawaiian landscape.

Right, tomorrow we will go back to the palace again, I am unsure how much pictures we can make as I read earlier today that it is not allowed to take photos inside the palace of the interior and such. So we’ll see how much photo’s we can make.. you’ll notice

Also, we made some more photo’s that same day on our way back of the surroundings, I will place them below as the end of our walk through historic Honolulu (even though the next photo’s are not all really historic but oh well)):

It has been over a week since I last wrote something on our website and I am currently wondering if something else happens last week, besides that what I wrote in as the subject of this post.. I can’t seem to recall it all at once… I might remember in a bit

Right, let me start at the Hawaiian driver license.. I went to the DMV today with Michelle, to do the roadtest for my driver license. The roadtest is basically the last test , just like in the Netherlands, that you have to take in order to receive your real license.

I had the appointment for the roadtest at 2.30pm (1.30am in Dutch time) and I was there ahead of schedule. The examiner chocked himself a bit when he called out my name (that seems to happen more often haha) and after I told him how to pronounce it, we walked towards the car to start the exam for the Hawaiian driver license.

You need your own car (or at least one from a friend or relative (rentals are only allowed under certain conditions)) to do the test, so they first check all papers and check if everything works ok, that means to see if the signal lights and brakelights work as they should, apparently anything else doesn’t really matter hehe. I went, as I told before, with the car of Michelle’s mother, quite a big Mercedes SUV. We did this because Michelle’s car (or actually ‘our’ car now that the registration and the insurance has now both our names) probably wouldn’t make the test since she has blinded windshields.

When everything was ok, we left the parkinglot and drove a bit around. I think the total test took about 20 minutes and I didn’t have to do much special things. The examiner said in the beginning he especially looks well at stopping at a stopsign or red light, the usage of signals and mirrors, and mainaining the maximum speed. I was surprised he told me all this since they don’t do this in the Netherlands at all, over there it is like you get in and they just tell you where to go.. I told the examiner this and he answered me that he basically wants everyone to have a good reason to pass the test haha, it sure looked like that

He took me in the vicinity of a school (reduced speeds), around stopsigns, right turns at a red light (this is allowed in the US unless stated different and holds the same judgement as a stopsign (we don’t have this in the Netherlands)), parallel parking (I could decide myself how to park and since there was enough space, I just drove forward into the parking haha.. the distance to the curb was ok and well within margins), and some other things.

I had no idea how I did and when we arrived back at the DMV, I decided to park back into the parking… something I did not have to do as I was free to park in any way as I liked it but I was like why not, it isn’t too hard and who knows it might help me. If it really helped is unknown to me but the car was at least parked really nice within all lines as it should be.

I asked the examiner after we parked if I could turn off the engine and he asked me to wait with it for a bit (I think because the airco might stop when you turn it off hehe) and he was writing something on a note, he gave me the note and told me that I should go to the first line and then could pay for my license. And then he said “congratulations, you have passed”.

You can imagine I am pretty happy now

This is also funny by the way, usually you need to turn in your Dutch driver license, or invalidate it. They asked me for my Dutch license, I even showed it to them, but nobody did anything with it.. with other words, I now have both my Dutch license as the Hawaiian driver license It is just as nice if you ask me as it eases up my life when I am in the Netherlands or in the US. I only have to keep in mind that I need to renew it every now and then.

Like I wrote in the beginning of this message, there are not much things in the past days that may have happened. Of course we went to town again and such but it would be getting a bit boring when I have to tell the same things over and over again haha. I can, however, that I got my ‘resident golf card’, a card which I can use to play golf with nice reduced prices (I am looking forward to do it again, I loved playing it while I was in China).

Also, my collection of plastic (the cards) is getting quite big now, as like all other people I am starting to get a big collection of membershipcards, shoppingcards, bankcards and go on haha. I am starting to become more naturalized this way haha.

We did, however, make a few photo’s from our trips to Honolulu, let me post a few so it doesn’t get too boring haha.

In the upcoming week I might have more to tell and have more pictures as one of the plans is to go the upcoming sunday to the palace (the building in the middle of the pictures above, the other two are taken from the former supreme court). And of course we have Michelle’s birthday a day later and a barbeque on wednesday and of course the cats who will be neutered in the upcoming week.

We received our certified marriage certificates yesterday. Multiple marriage certificates? Yep, we requested multiple copies since, for example, I need to send a copy including apostille to The Hague so our marriage will be legally registered in the Netherlands also (if we ever move there, at least they know we are legally married), I also need to send a copy to the USCIS for my adjustment of status (so I can get my greencard) and Michelle needed one for her name changes (since she carries my name now).

So today we were kind of busy to get Michelle’s name change into the systems. We went, for example, to one of the social security offices (where it was a bit more busy than last time when I had to be there) to get a new social security card for her and from there on we went to the DMV since Michelle also needed to do a name change on her driver license.

I told Michelle this morning that, if it would not be too busy at the DMV, that I would possibly take the eyetest and the written test (you don’t need an appointment as it is a walk in). I took my social security card with me because you cannot get your exams done without it. When we arrived we noticed that it was not very busy so both Michelle and I filled some forms out, Michelle for her name change and me for the Hawaii driver license.

When it was my turn (this was almost at the same time as Michelle had her turn, just at a different window), I asked what would happen to my current Dutch driver license. This one had to be invalidated according to the lady since you are not allowed to have more than 1 driver license (which makes sense) but it would be returned to me (they make a hole in it or something), which is nice since that makes it easier for me to request a new driver license in the Netherlands, if we ever move to the Netherlands (if I didn’t get it back, I could have requested a new one by just saying I would have lost my old one since, apparantly, that goes quite easy hehe, but ok, that is not needed ).

Ok, so it was my turn (I can talk sometimes, I know haha). First the lady was going to check my eyes… this is something which really frightened me as, some may know, I had to wear glasses until I was 15 years old since I got a really bad vision on my right eye, I can hardly see anything through that eye. And yes, with my luck, I had to read the sixth row with my right eye… all I saw was a white square, nothing else haha. I explained the situation to the lady behind the counter and she said that it was no problem and that I could try with my left eye and that went, as expected, without any problem at all. The left eye is completely ok, I can read small texts from quite some distance with that eye and I can see distances and calculate speeds with it and, fortunately, it was ok for the lady too as I heard that I passed my eye test

And then it was time for the written exam.. I got a sheet with 30 questions from which I needed to answer 24 correctly…. hahaha, I know, it is not much at all! Back in the Netherlands I had to answer 70 questions and was only allowed 7 wrong answers, that would be a bit heavier for a test I think but oh well. I thought that the questions itself were very simple too (and according to Michelle there are still lots of people who fail on it). They were all multiple choice questions and, yah, when there is an answer such as ‘this is done to harrass the driver’, then you will not pick that answer of course lol, oh well, there were still 3 other possible answers left haha.

Anyways, I gave my answers back to the lady after a while, I could take a seat and after a few minutes I heard the answer: Passed

I learned that I only had one error, according to the lady behind the counter this was pretty good.. I don’t know, it looked very simple to me, I have the feeling that almost every idiot should be able to get a license with these questions haha. I think I know the wrong answer also since it was a situation that I never experienced before and since it is not something that you would ever see in the Netherlands but oh well, just one wrong answer is doable hehe. The fun thing, at least in my opinion, is that I was not prepared for the exam, all I did this morning was trying a few questions which I could possible see at the exam (8 or something) and that was what made me decide to actually go for it or not haha.

So I got my “instruction permit” now, some kind of pass that almost looks identical to a Hawaiian driver license but with the exception that I am ‘only allowed to drive when there is an adult of minimal 21 years of age next to me with a valid driver license’. Basically it is the permit that allows you to go on the road and actually learn how to drive. To me it is a nice card but it does not have much value as of yet for me since my Dutch driver license is still valid (until I receive my Hawaii driver license). Ok, maybe it has some value tho… I don’t have to walk around with my passport since this is also a valid identification, and I can get “kama’aina” (locals) discounts on some things which are cheaper for locals, or even for free like some museums, since it is the proof that I actually live here (Michelle’s mom gave me, by the way, an American flag for this reason this afternoon, like I am already an American hahaha)

The next thing that I need to do in order to get the Hawaii driver license is the road test. From what I have heard of it, it shouldn’t be too hard, sometimes it is just a circle around the parkinglot but it usually does not take longer than 30 minutes (or so they say). I am curious what it will be… I could go tomorrow according to the people at the DMV since this is also just walk-in (in the morning that is)… I wont go tomorrow since I have to take the car of Michelle’s mother and something has to be done on that first (I can’t take ‘our’ (Michelle’s) car since it is not exactly totally legal with the tires and the dark foil on the windows lol).

Right, after this we went for some lunch, only to continue our excursion with the many banks that we had to visit. From the four banks that we visited we could only get Michelle’s name change done in 1 bank. Michelle has a joint account with her mother at the other banks and since they have to update their signature files, Michelle’s mother has to co-sign those signature files so after that we went home so Michelle could go to the other banks for her name change and after that, the day was almost over again hehe

One of these days I will request my adjustment of status, employment authorization and advance parole and such. Tomorrow we will make some passport pictures for this, and when I know more about all this, or something else, I will write it here again

I know, I know, I just posted something else but since that was a story of last wednesday, I thought it would be better to divide the two stories instead of posting one big story.

Yesterday we went to Honolulu during the day because we are searching for a good microwave/oven/grill combination but I am afraid we will be tough out of luck in our search because it looks like they never heard of it, at least not about the thing we are looking for and which is still decently priced.

It is just microwaves for some reason, you can find them in price ranges of 50 dollars to somewhere in the 1000 dollars, and they all have similar functions. Why they have these expensive ones, I have no idea, and why just with standard functions and those prices you might ask, I really do not know.

But ok, we might have found a possible candidate, a microwave of a B brand which is ‘just’ 210 dollar but, as far as we can see it now, that is probably the one which is going to become ours, unless we can find another one (I doubt that tho, it really looks like they never heard of a combination haha).

So we were in town yesterday and, also because it was not that warm (I believe 28/29C or 84/85F or something like that hahaha ) we drove with the windows open almost all day instead of keeping the (almost blinded) windows closed and having the airco on. You can expect the result when there is almost no cloud in the sky: I got a light sunburn on left side of my neck and my left arm hahaha.

That goes nicely, finally I get some color, and it is just one side lol. Oh well, like I told Michelle, she should drive next time so I can get some color on the other side hehe. And like I just said, it is just a light burn, the color is already less than yesterday and I expect it to be back to normal in a couple of days.

Nah, you would not say that I am already for four weeks on a tropical island by just looking at the color of my skin, and that is not so bad either since I got a very light skin and burn very easily. My skin is really sensitive with the sun, I got moles in all sizes all over my body so I have to be cautious when it comes to skincancer as that is not something I am waiting for.

Now that I realize myself that I am here for four weeks (and a day), I just realized that I haven’t been outside the Netherlands for such a long time before. The longest time was for almost four weeks in China and back then I was suffering some homesickness but luckily, over here, it goes much easier

It was also Halloween yesterday and we celebrated that a little bit, of course. That means, we passed out candy and glow in the dark bracelets to kids hehe. Like the people back in the Netherlands also know, I am not really someone who dresses up easily, so I wouldn’t do that here either

Since I am here, the stores are filled with all sorts of Halloween stuffs (probably even longer, they also have Christmas stuff for a long time already haha) and yesterday, in the stores, we also saw a lot of employees dressed up in a Halloween outfit such as an angel or something like that, someone dressed up as big pumkin, the Phantom of the Opera and also at night, when the kids passed by, we also saw kids and grown-ups dressed up in, sometimes, very nice outfits.

Yep, it was pretty nice to see that for myself but at the same time I am very happy that it was not mandatory for me to dress up myself haha, I really hate that (which is funny when you think about it that I come from Breda, but oh well, I also hate carnaval, so who knows, it might have something to do with that hehe).

We went on another fieldtrip last wednesday, this time we went towards the North Shore to grab some breakfast (haha, travelling towards the other end of the island just for some breakfast hehe). We were craving for some delicious garlic shrimp from Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck. They are not quite cheap (I mean, 12 bucks for 12 shrimp is not exactly what you call cheap, right?) but they are oh so delicious and really worth going there once in a while.

On our way there we made some pictures, of course. Unfortunately some pictures are a bit blurry but that is because they were mostly made by Michelle while I was driving. I will try to make some sort of a photo report

Of course we first have the trip towards the North Shore itself which went mostly on dry out land as you can see on the picture below. You are basically driving through previous sugarcane and pineapple fields, there is still some being harvested although it is not much:

While we were going towards the North Shore we also came, completely unexpected, in some sort of traffic jam in the middle of nowhere. We were really wondering what happened until we saw some signs in the distance saying that there was some road construction going on. Right, we had to wait for about 30 minutes, if not longer, in the middle of the island and basically in the middle of nothing since everything was so far away.

After this all we found the North Shore, even though it would still be a long drive haha. The road that you can see on the following pictures is mostly a straight line, with the exception of some small corners, which goes from a few hundred meters height towards sealevel.

Once down on sealevel, you arrive in Haleiwa, a surfersvillage which is also featured in a lot of surf movies. If you have been in the south a lot and arrive in this village (or somewhere else on the North Shore), you will notice a different mentality with the people but also a different kind of buildings. A building in the style of the next picture is something that you see a lot on the north coast of Oahu:

And while being in Haleiwa, you really have to go Matsumoto’s grocery store where they sell shave ice. Unfortunately both Michelle and I thought that the shave ice wasn’t all that good as it used to be last year and we basically think the shop in Pearl City, where we go on a frequent base for our shave ice needs, is much better but oh well, Matsumoto cannot miss in a trip to the North Shore. Michelle found a Gecko while we were eating shave ice, I tried to make a picture of it but it became a bit blurry (me and my shaky hands):

Geckos are something that you can see frequently out here, we also got one at home which comes out at night sometimes. I think to search for food and because it gets a bit more cool at night. We just let it be there since it is harmless, not scary and all he does is basically eat insects that we dont want here

When I was still in the Netherlands I also told my sister and daughter about people having horses on Oahu. They did not know this but to prove it, here is a (blurry) picture of the horses that we saw in a distance::

Right, like said, we went towards Kahuku where you can find Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck. On our way there we come close to the sea at some points as you can see on the next pictures. The second picture is, by the way, a picture of Waimea Beach, one of the more known beaches of the North Shore.

Unfortunately we did not see any spectacular waves as the ones that you can see sometimes at the North Shore of Oahu, it was clouded that day, pretty windy too on the North Shore but fortunately there was not any rain that day. We also passed by a spot where they were having some surfing championships (we think at the Pipeline but we’re unsure). Because we drove a bit slow on that point we could see a bit of it but unfortunately we were so stupid to not make any pictures… oh well, that will come since we want to go to some different championships in a couple of weeks

We ate at Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck after this and with my stupid head I also forgot to make some pictures of this place but, if you want, you can find some pictures on this website. They weren’t taken by us but that’s ok. The food was, as expected, really great, really worth well driving there even though it is a bit expensive.

After the food we went ‘around the corner’ of the island, it is not really a corner, of course, but since we went from the North Shore to the Windward side of Oahu (or instead of driving on the northern coast, we went to drive on the eastcoast) and, honestly, as soon as we drove ‘around the corner’ (there is a corner which might let you see it like that), I got a slap in my face. All the sudden it was humid and stuffy. The humidity is a lot higher on the eastcoast of Oahu and you can really notice it from one moment to another, quite a weird feeling if you ask me. It also rains a lot more on this side so, as you can see on the next picture (which was practically taken on that ‘corner’), there was a lot more green to see.

We drove now from the north towards the south along the coastline and again we saw some horses (again my apologies for the blurry picture haha):

We even saw a cow later at the coast (I did not know they had cows here) which was being photographed. Maybe they arranged it like this, I don’t know, it is the first time I see a cow here anyways. A bit weird sighting to see that animal next to the ocean haha. We also made a picture of it but all you see on it is a spot… maybe next time I should stop a bit more along the way so Michelle can take some better pictures haha.

We did make some other pictures of this side of the coast also:

The first picture is just a picture, taken while driving towards the south.

The second picture is of Kualoa Ranch, a place where you can do lots of activities (yes, even horse riding in the mountains). We want to go here some day, many movies are also recorded near this place in the valley, such as Godzilla (the foothprints are still there) and many other wellknown movies.

The third picture is just a picture to show how the mountains can be totally inside the clouds sometimes. It was really clouded sometimes during that day, you can see it really well on this picture.

After that we went to a mall in Kaneohe to buy something (which they didn’t have haha) and we also went to a petstore there, where they had some naked Guinea pigs :S Those creatures are really something, they look just like pigs (maybe thats why they’re named Guinea pigs lol):

And then it was time to go towards home over the H3. We could have gone more south, towards Diamond Head, Koko Head and many other sightseeing spots but we wanted to keep that for later. Like said, it was really clouded sometimes and it is kind of funny to show it with the next picture where the sun goes through some part of the cloudes and where it looks a bit like the sky opened up to bring an angel to earth, or to take a spirit back up to heaven, a bit like you can see in movies also hehe:

And then we go on to the last picture since we are at the end of our journey:

On this picture you can see the entrance of the tunnel on the H3. On the top you can see, again, the clouds in which the mountains are hidden. The mountains are about 700-800 meters high at this point and since we were at some 250-300 meters height, you can see there is quite some mountain missing.

After this we went through the tunnel and back towards home (after being in traffic for a while since it was rushhour hehe).