Loco Moco and the Market!

Aloha!
Today was a very busy day! I had class this morning, and after class my roommate and I decided to walk downtown to the market to check things out. The market is open everyday but on Wednesdays and Saturdays is when most of the venders are there. I could not believe the things they had there! It was amazing, they had everything from clothing and jewelry to food and smoothies. I was so overwhelmed that I really didn't even buy anything (surprising I know). I wanted to buy every little hawaiian dress for Bella and Gracie but I did refrain myself..this time :). Downtown reminded me of South America, especially the market. Even though things were not as crazy as they were in Guyana, that is what I thought of. In fact a lot of this town reminds me of when I went to visit my sister in some aspects. After the market we walked back and I had another class, which I think will be one of my favorite classes. It is called Hawaiian Language in Action. The teacher is so awesome, and the class if filled with mostly NSE students that have no idea what is going on around us. We learned a chant today, and there was a really cool story behind it. It was about the volcano, and the goddess of fire, known as Pele (Pay-Lay) I plan on writing my next blog about some Interesting facts and history about Hilo so I will get more into that next time. Every time we leave that class we must hug the professor, everyone here is so warm-hearted and welcoming, which is not aways the case back home. If you get to know someone local, they really consider you part of their family, and want you to address them as uncle, auntie, brother, sister etc. I think it is amazing how family is such a big part of their life, and you can really tell how much love they have for their home and family by the way they act. It is hard for many of us to think about giving a kiss on the cheek as a hello back home, because if we were walking in Minneapolis and someone random did that it would be very socially awkward. Here it is what they do and you get used to it very fast. I could honestly go on and on about how caring everyone here is, and how much you actually feel like you are part of their family. They ask you your parents names, and what city you are from, even though they would never know where Ely, MN is, they are so interested in getting to know you personally rather then just another face from Minnesota.

I finally got to try their famous "loco-moco" It is quite delicious and inexpensive! It is rice, a meat patty, with a fried egg on top covered in gravy. It sounds a little weird but it was very good! It is quite the popular item here. It wasn't my favorite food yet though, I did have a type of eggplant chicken dish with rice from a small cafe near the food court and that has been my favorite so far. I have fallen in love with eggplant!

Today was the first day it rained! For being the rainiest city in the United States I would say not raining for a week is pretty good. To just give you an idea of how much it does actually rain here
Seattle gets 40 inches of rain a year, Hilo gets 135!!!! and the mountain top gets 320!! its insane, so when it rains it pours, but that is why everything is so lush green :) If you drive 2 hours to the other side of the island, they get 10 inches of rain per year, so by the time it crosses over the Mountain and Volcano top, it is all rained out.

Oh yeah, and I am a little out of luck for a while :( Mangos are not in season. I hear you can get them in Kona (other side of island) and I am heading there this weekend for a night so I am going to stock up!

We have some big trips planned for our long weekend! halfway through my first week of school here and still..."lovin every minute of it"-Nick!

Aloha!
Brittany