We have survived our first day... the Island life is MUCH different from Utah. Everyone here is always singing and dancing and they celebrate EVERYTHING this week is Pirates week... no I'm not kidding! It's a real thing!
For pirate week they shut down the streets and sell island food, as well as shoot at a pirate ship when the sun sets, I asked a local why they celebrated pirates week and he said because it's tradition... and there's food. Worked for me.
Probably the hardest adjustment is left is right and right wrong and it's a danger to be right. I'm talking about driving on the opposite side of the road, it still gives me a heart attack when we make a left hand turn and stay on the left hand side of the road. There "round abouts" are more like "death traps" but they seem to work... probably helps that there is only about 4 roads on the island total and when there is "traffic" it means everyone is on the main road and it's just a huge circle. Another crazy thing is people honk to say thank you! Two quick honks means thanks and a quick blinker to the person coming on the opposite road means "wassup". They also have these things called "give way" signs. They look exactly like a yield sign, and do the exact same thing as a yield sign, but DO NOT call them yield sings. Thankfully Matt and I have decided to buy bikes so we can avoid give way signs all together... and avoid any chance of us being right.
The people here are crazy nice (everyone except the ladies who work in Cariloha I'll explain them later). People are always saying good morning, day, evening, and night. You have to walk with your head up to make sure you don't miss saying hi to someone! It's a lot different from Cali where ya kept your head down so the homeless didn't ask you for money. The ladies who work in Cariloha have worked there for about 9 years... they believe fully they own the place. The ladies are hard to understand, correction, everyone from the island is hard to understand. The manager (who is WAY nice, cool, and owns a yellow hummer) says they use to be way upbeat and fun but whatever fire they did have is out... He wants to fire them, but it's hard to find workers here on the island. One lady might get fired if she makes me cry. Her name is Andrea. She's just a hateful person and has made the past 2 intern girls cry, Geoff (manager name pronounced exactly like Jeff) says she kinda scares him but if she does make me cry she will probably be out of there. Although I don't see how she can make me cry... I don't understand a thing she says.
The best part about the island (so far) is either the seafood or the beach... okay probably the beach. The water is so clear here! You can drop a quarter and watch it hit the ground! The sand is pure white and crazy soft! The reefs though.. not so soft! But I guess your feet get stronger as time goes on! hopefully!
That's all for now! There is MUCH still to tell (and we've only been here 24 hours) so I will email later this week!
