Or like they say in Hawaiian: Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hau’oli Makahiki Hou!

It is almost Christmas Eve and tomorrow it will be Christmas. It feels a bit weird to have Christmas on Hawaii. We went out a lot during the last few days (that’s one of the reasons why I did not write so much lately) and even though I see Christmas lights and other decorations, hear Christmas music and know that it is Christmas, it still doesn’t give me the feeling that it is actually Christmas.

I think that I am not really used to it yet that it is almost always summer here (with the exception of the stormy weather like I told about earlier). Everyone still wears short sleeves, it is a bit cooler (still around 77-81 degrees Fahrenheit) than in the summer but yah, it doesn’t give a real Christmas feeling haha.

I do like to drive around at night, there are so many houses lighted and there are a couple who make it a whole spectacle, really enjoyable to watch that all. We also saw a few parades, I will write about them a bit later (we are about to have our Christmas dinner (barbeque!! hahaha, I love it but again it is something that you can only do in a nice tropical temperature). Here are, however, a few pictures of some very nice houses that we’ve seen here:

This is from two times that we went out, and I’ve only put the nicest, funniest, most lighted ones online. We made so many photo’s and I do not want to place them all online as it would cost a lot of time and it would be boring for you too if you want to see them all.

Also, you can see the same building on more than one picture, like the 3rd, 4th and 5th picture.. but what to think about photo 7 on to 11? That is just one place… quite big, I know.. we made a short video of that place so you can see it with your own eyes: Click here for the video.

We also went to another part of the island on a different day where they also had a lot of nice decorations and lights but this will be posted later (it is almost time for dinner!! haha).

I was also thinking about going to the other part of the island butttt… I think I won’t. The president-elect Barack Obama is on the island right now and he is one of the villages on that side and, well, I am not looking forward in an extended check or to end up in a street that might be blocked.. so we wait with that until he is gone again (should be in about a week I think, he would only stay for about 10 days).

Right, first food, later more

This morning we went towards the west, towards Kapolei, where I had to apply for a social security number (in Dutch you would say personsnumber or ’sofi’-number) at the SSA, the Social Security Administration.

I need this number basically to get a drivers license (I got a Dutch drivers license but this is only valid in the state of Hawaii for one year after entry into the US, plus a drivers license is a valid ID over here), to be able to open a bankaccount, to start certain insurances, pay taxes (oh joy :P) and there are so many more things which makes it necessary for me to get a social security number.

Requesting the social security number was pretty simple, I had the form with me to apply for the social security number, I had my ID with and some other papers which, eventually, I didn’t need to have as the form to request for the social security number and the passport were sufficient. It was my turn after about 20 minutes of waiting and after a short while I got to hear that my social security card would be sent to me within two weeks.

After this we drove towards Chinatown in Honolulu to see if we can find a white Hula shirt for me; I want one for our wedding next monday and on our way towards town we always pass by Pearl Harbor where lately you can find some large white ball on pillars in the water, it is some sort of a large radar installation. We took a picture of it from the freeway:

It might look a bit small on the picture but it is really big.

Anyways, we went towards Chinatown and found indeed a white Aloha shirt. It is unbelievable but we were looking for one since I arrived here in Hawaii, for some reason they’re all sold out at all the stores.

Since we were in Chinatown anyways, we went towards some restaurant where we ate at a ‘real’ Chinese. It may sound weird to say ‘real’ Chinese but we like to call it like that as they serve the real Chinese dishes and not the standard watered down Chinese for western people (I admit, it isn’t less yummy but still, I like the ‘real’ Chinese food also).

After this we went back home and on our way home we found out that on the receipt of the social security number request was a wrong zipcode. I called the social security administration and they asked me to go back to the office to get it fixed. After I dropped Michelle of at home (her mom had to leave so she had to watch the clients), I drove back to Kapolei.

Instead of the twenty minutes of waiting time earlier today, I was outside after being inside for less than a minute as there was nobody else (the people in front of me just left). I explained my story and it was no problem at all, they would fix it and I could go home again. I took some pictures on my way home of the area I was driving in (while I drove so some pictures may be a bit blurry):

The first two pictures are taken of the mountains, or the beginning of the mountains, at the west side of Oahu.. I see these mountains every morning when I wake up (a bit more of the side tho so they are a bit bigger and larger), the third picture is of the road which I took back to Waipahu and in the distance you can see the mountains at the east side of Oahu. Here are some more pictures::

On the first picture you can see, if you look careful, Honolulu at the far right side and you should be able to see that radar thing on the right side. In the second picture you can find Pearl City and the mountains in the distance again from the east side of Oahu and the last picture is where you enter Waipahu on the southwest side, a bit the busy side of Waipahu where we do not live (we’re at the east side). You can also see that it is about time for the rainseason to start as the grass can use some water (and from the looks of it, it already seems like the rainseason started a bit as it rained a lot of times the last couple of days (just as you think to get rid of all the rain by leaving the Netherlands haha).

So, now we just have to wait for about two weeks and I can try to get my drivers license, I can ask for a change of status and all those other things. But first: our marriage next monday