Price Hike

Gang and I went to Costco today, and got surprised at the gas price. About two months ago, a fire at a refinery in Richmond pushed the gas price to above $4 per gallon, which was bad enough but we gradually got used to. Recently it seems to get worse - now it's around $4.8 per gallon. Even Costco Gasoline, which has a reputation for offering lower-than-neighbor gas prices charges at $4.4 today. We checked on Google later, and it seems that the gas price has been increasing by 10c per day since Oct 1st due to a blackout of a refinery in Torrance. California is not the only state which suffers from high gas price, but it tops the list by an average price of $4.61 per gallon. If all these changes in price happened two months ago, I'm not sure if we'd still go for the current Honda Accord, or choose a compact with higher MPG at the cost of convenience.

I probably shouldn't be worried since gas price fluctuates all the time, since we may be just not lucky enough to see several accidents hitting the fragile energy system in California. By contrast, the price hike in living goods is more stable and continuous. The price of items at Costco has increased substantially since my first visit. I remember I once bought great cherries at around $1.2 per pound, but this summer the cheapest package asked for $3 per pound. Other daily necessities have increased by a few bucks as well, vegetables and fruits in particular. The straw that breaks the camel's back is Kirkland's caramel almond vanilla ice-cream, which totally changes my consumption preferences for ice-cream. Luckily the cheesecake and tiramisu are still good.

So, high inflation and high unemployment - this is not what Phillip curve told us. (Btw, I don't really buy the idea of the adjusted Phillip curve: you never know where the π* and u* are in the real world!) Maybe the economy is recovering, in an unobservable way; or it's a good idea to have Bernanke to adopt an inflation-targeting policy and get prices fixed first. Whatever it is, things do look good right now. If cities are equipped with good public transportation system, I'm always happy to go by bus pass; but if the government can't have enough buses running, I do not see why people should be happy with paying $4.8 for a gallon.

They Are Back

By "they", I mean The Big Bang Theory, 30 Rock, How I Met Your Mother and 2 Broke Girl. After a long summer break, all these comedies finally came back with the latest season. I've been trying to catch up with the first few episodes these days.

I started to watch American comedies in college, starting with the 10-season Friends. Actually I've watched it for so many times that I'd still remember many dialogues and scenes from the show. Later I watched Growing Pains, a family comedy from 1980s. When I ran out of American comedies and looked for replacement, I found that BBC had produced great (actually even better than its American counterparts) comedies, including the Black Adder, Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister. After exhausting comedies, I switched to detective ones, CSI, the Monk, etc. Farah introduced Hulu.com to me weeks after I started school, which provides me with tons of latest episodes ever since: The Simpsons, South Park, The Family Guy, Two and A Half Men, and all the other 20- to 30-min TV shows that bring great joy to me.

Most of my friends joined me in watching these American TV shows when I was in Beijing, hoping to practice English while having some fun. Well, it didn't really work. But I did find them revealing a taste of how lives on the other side of the earth could be like. Feelings became more real after my arrival in the US: I'd tell some scenes in the show (actually it's ironic to talk about "scenes" since most of them are sitcoms). When I was watching the Monk, though I knew it wasn't a top detective TV show, I never missed a episode because I loved the rolling streets in San Francisco and intensive meters. Years after I first watched the Friends, I wandered around the Central Park, and couldn't help thinking lovely young people like Chandler were living in this lively city. Most American TV shows, though not helpful in improving my language skills, familiarized myself with a different culture.

But most American comedies are not comparable to their peers in Britain. I'd rank Black Adder, Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister has occupied my top three comedies for a long time. BBC seems to be better at sarcasm while Americans seem to enjoy humor of everyday life. Thank god I learned some English, therefore I still get things to watch when Chinese TV shows have been sucking for decades.

Impressionist Hawaii - Day Seven

At the end of our trip,  we had a relaxing breakfast, took a quick view of the University of Hawaii and headed for the airport. We learned from the last flight from San Francisco to Kona, ate a big lunch before boarding and brought a large amount of food with us. While waiting at the gate, Gang and I watched the latest episode of "Voice of China."

Gang spent three hours on the flight watching "Pearl Harbor", a movie produced in 2001 in memory of the deaths 60 years ago. I wasn't able to join him because of my eyesight, but I watched it later at home. Better technologies and affluent funding made the battle scenes vivid and thrilling, but the love story only distracted audiences attention from the war and ensnared them in the confusion of the gist of the movie. I decided to watch Tora!Tora!Tora! after it, and Gang joined me in reviewing the Midway later. Wars are a combined result of commanders' intelligence, combat effectiveness and luck. If Japan was too lucky to have the US ignore all the clues and attacked the Pearl Harbor, then the US was also lucky enough to have Japan send out a broken reconnaissance and sunk three carriers in five minutes by the Midway. But no matter which side wins, thousands of lives were killed and millions of tax payers' money were burned in bombs.

It was late when we landed in San Francisco. Gang's flatmate happened to be around and picked us from the airport. I got my new pair of glasses.YES! San Francisco at night looks so clear and beautiful.

When I look back to my one-week trip to Hawaii. It's like a dream - partly because I couldn't see things clearly as if I were dreaming, partly because the view was simply too good to be true. I'd give Hanauma Bay my No.1 experience in Hawaii, and the Volcanoes Park No.2. These two make Hawaii quite worthy of it. On our way to Hawaii, we met a guy on the plane who used to live in Monterey but moved to Big Island a few years ago. He obviously enjoys living by the sea and leads a vacation-like lifestyle. I'm not sure if I'm that into nature - I may complain about the inconvenience of living on a island as well as the high price there; but still, I do envy him.

At Volcanoes Park

At Sandy Beach

At Lapakahi State Historical Park

At USS Missouri

At Waikiki Beach

Impressionist Hawaii - Day Six

The last full day in Hawaii. After a intense day of seeing the east side of Oahu, today we decided to travel around Honolulu - Pearl Harbor in the morning and China town in the afternoon.

After breakfast, we drove north to the Pearl Harbor. Most people know the Pearl Harbor from the Japanese attack in 1941 which started the Pacific War. So do we. Therefore we set "Pearl Harbor" as the destination in GPS, which we thought would be the location of the memorial and museum. We followed the GPS and drove all the way down until we reached a sentry, where a soldier stopped all the cars and checked something from each driver. We waited in the line, seeing every driver showing him a card before moving on. "The security check is strict," I said to myself, "the museum must have some really good stuff." Gang asked me: "Do you know what they are showing to the soldier?" "I'm not sure," I said, "but I think it's an ID card."

Then soon it was our turn. Gang stopped by the soldier and handed over his California driver license. The soldier stared at his driver license for a while, and asked: "Are you visiting the Arizona Memorial?" We said yes. "OK, then you should U-turn and drive back, it's the last exit." Gang took his driver license back and followed the instruction. Almost in a minute we both realized that "Pearl Harbor" was actually the location of a US navy base, and probably only military workers could have access to it. The soldier must have found it very amusing when a Chinese man handed over his driver license for entrance.

We soon arrived at the Arizona Memorial, where we first took a shuttle to USS Missouri, on the deck of which the Japan surrendered in 1945 and brought the WW2 to an end. The battleship was one of the most advanced of its kind, and had well-equipped facilities for its soldiers. But the most exciting finding was the Japanese copy of the 2-page Instrument of Surrender, which because the Canadian representative signed in the wrong place moved down all the rest signatures, and therefore differs from the US copy - the one known to the public.

After the 2-hour visit to the USS Missouri, we went back to the Arizona Memorial, where we first watched a very touching movie, explaining why Japan launched the attack and what happened that day. Three of eight most advanced battleships were sunk and rest were severely damaged; more than two thousands of soldiers died that day. The USS Arizona was hit in its ammunition cabin and exploded soon after, killing more than 1,100 soldiers. The US Pacific fleet suffered great loss, but luckily US carriers hadn't arrived in the Pearl Harbor that day which helped them to revenge in the Mid-way islands years later. The white memorial was constructed above the USS Arizona remains. Even today we could still see gas leaking from the tank, as if it is weeping for its soldiers. I asked Gang if EPA is cool with this, and Gang said it's probably fine.

We left Pear Harbor at noon, sighing at the disaster brought by wars, and drove to China town for lunch. China town used to be very prosperous because it was only a few blocks from the port. But after air transportation developed, the China town started to decline. To us, the China town in Honolulu is specially important because in 1894, Sun Yat-sen founded Society for the Revival of China, which evolved into KMT later. I got an amazing avocado bubble tea, and then we started to look for statue of Sun Yat-sen. We finally found it at a corner, with Sun Yat-sen holding a book facing the sea. Gang happily took photos of him when we both heard a big bang. I looked around but couldn't see anything, then I heard Gang saying, "I need to call 911." It turned out a guy was painting outer walls of his house on a scaffolding but accidently fell down. He was unconscious and a woman cried over him loudly. Gang immediately reported to 911 about the accident and I helped him locate the place. His relatives and friends seemed panic, but luckily the 911 emergency care arrived in about 5 min. The guy remained in coma even then, but I hope he's getting better now.

Later that day, we tried to see sunset at Diamond Head, but it was closed by 6pm. As an alternative, we took apples to the beach and enjoyed the last sun glow with them.

Impressionist Hawaii - Day Five

I thought that we'd be tired after half of the trip, therefore my initial plan was to stay in bed late and went to Polynesia Cultural Center at noon. I'm very glad that we didn't follow my plan. Gang picked a guide book on our way to Waikiki beach yesterday, and decided to stop by Hanauma Bay in the morning. This turned out to be the best decision in our Hawaiian trip.

To see sunrise on the way, we got up at 5:30am and drove to Hanauma Bay right after. Dawn was just breaking, and the rosy clouds started to spread across the sky. Oahu was still quiet and very few autos were running on highway. We reached Hanauma Bay at around 6:30am. The rumor is that Hanauma Bay is so popular that cars may fail to find space in the parking lot if arriving too late - by too late it means after 9am. But that day, we were so early that when we arrived, the parking lot was almost empty! Not only that, no one worked at the ticket entrance, therefore we enjoyed a free visit to Hanauma Bay.

The beach was empty and chilly. We walked around the beach for a while, looking at the skyline and rosy clouds, and waiting for the sun to rise. Gentle lights penetrated through clouds and the sky became more and more bright. However we waited and waited, nothing happened. We double checked the sunrise time, and realized it has already passed, and the only reason for missing the sun was because of the weather - it was cloudy that day. Whoops! Gang and I soon accepted the fact and found a place by a palm, and spread out our towels. I opened a package of cookie and planned to have a quick breakfast, when some uninvited guests - flocks of pigeons traced the smell of food and besieged me. Later I tried chips and macadamia nuts, but it looked like pigeons preferred chocolate cookies. I had a hilarious breakfast with pigeons looking for food scraps around me. Finally Gang rescued me from the encirclement, sealed the food and moved the towel to ten meters away - it didn't really help: when Gang started to eat, pigeons quickly caught the new source of food and flew over to our place again.

When snorkel stalls came to the beach, Gang rented two sets and we started our second snorkeling experience. This one was so much better than the last one. I saw vast coral reefs all over the sands, tons of colorful fishes and turtles swimming around me. Sometimes waves pushed me around, and I relaxed in the tide, diving into schools of fish. Though I couldn't see them very clearly, but I quickly identified the humuhumunukunukuapua'a, a small bright yellow tropical fish in Hawaii. Other fishes whose names remained unknown to me were equally impressive: I once passed a fish with beautiful black and green strips across its body, and a big flat fish with silver scales brightly shining underwater. I had never imagined that I could see such wonderful underwater world in shoals. They all seemed to be within touch, but they also looked so unreal. I took several breaks during snorkeling, either relaxing in the water or going back to the beach. But no matter how many times I went to the beach, I still wanted to go back, just for a while; I never felt I'd seen enough.

But we had to move on. When visitors started to crowd the beach and sun blazed down, we drove north to the Polynesian Cultural Center. On our way there, we made several stops at Sandy Beach Park, a great place for surfing where I was caught in a wave again and got wet; Waimanalo Bay, where we got an amazing view of the ocean and Kailua Bay, which was implied as the best beach in Oahu in one of our guide book. Sometimes I had the illusion of driving along Route 1 in California, except that it was hotter and the sea was more azure.

At around 1pm, we arrived at Polynesian Cultural Center, a man-made cultural village to present different cultures around the Pacific to tourists. Students from a nearby university are actors, showing typical lives of islanders, including Hawaii, Fiji, Samoa, Aotearoa, Tonga and Tahiti. We went to a few shows, where students showed us things like drilling wood to make fires, cooking coconuts, climbing trees, wedding ceremony, etc. It's a shame of them to claim itself as a non-profit organization while charging visitors so high, but it's a good way for students to earn some money for their tuition. Later we had a traditional ali'i Luau (royal feast) accompanied by traditional songs and dances. The food was just average, poor kings! There was also an evening show about the origin of Hawaii. But since I couldn't see anything on the stage, Gang decided to leave early.

An extremely long day, but a fantastic one.

(Leave Hanauma Bay when most people just arrive here)

Impressionist Hawaii - Day Four

Our flight to Oahu was at 12:33pm, which left us a whole morning for sightseeing in the Big Island. Again we got up early in the morning, checked out and drove to a parking lot in Kona. Gang and I took bananas to a pier and ate them up by the sea (we left apples in the car). We saw flocks of silver and black fishes swimming around; and as a bonus to those with glasses, Gang also saw a turtle floating nearby. The pier was quiet in the morning, a few people were driving motorboat, riding wake-boards and parachuting around. By the pier there was a tiny but crowded beach, which is a better choice for families with small children.

When it started to get hot, Gang and I left the unshady pier and wandered along the sea. It was interesting to see glorious sea with its powerful waves and wind on the right, and a busy Kona downtown on the left side. A 15-min walk brought us to a mansion which used to be the residence of a princess. The two-floor house was built by the sea, with big windows in each room so that owners could have a great view anywhere in the house. I wasn't able to capture details of the house, but the scenery out of the window was charming enough to attract all my attention. There I also had my first cup of dark roast Kona coffee.

What did we do after that? Oh yes we returned our car to Alamo in three minutes and took its shuttle to the airport soon after that. I taught Gang a way to tip the driver which I learned from Friends: hide the money in your palm and shake hands with the driver, who shall take the money away when touching it. Gang tried it later in Oahu, and found it an interesting way of saying thank you but avoiding the awkwardness of “paying". The Kona Airport is small with few facilities: there is even no waiting hall in the airport. We waited outside and finished apples there (yes!). An hour later, we boarded a small plane whose seats were not even assigned, and sat far in the back. I think I slept during the whole flight.

After landing in Honolulu, we had a terrible car rental experience with Advantage: an extremely slow shuttle, equally slow check-in process, uninformed deposit and additional articles. We drove to our hotel by Waikiki beach through the traffic in Honolulu, Gang kept introducing things like "financial center", "China town", "luxury", etc. I stared wide eyed around, everything was blurry, but I could vaguely tell sky-crappers, Chinese architectures and bustling pedestrians.

We checked in the hotel, and  took towels to the Waikiki beach two blocks away. The Waikiki beach was separated into four parts by the lengths of breakwaters. The one on the north end has no breakwater and therefore the strongest waves, with crowds surfing; the one on the south end has a long breakwater which almost closes the beach, and many kids are practicing swimming with life buoys there. I learned my lesson, left my glasses (actually Gang's glasses) on the beach and ran to a half-closed beach, where Gang taught me doggy paddling. Waikiki beach wasn't good as I had expected, mainly because of the crowds there; but it's still one of the best beaches I've been to - great facilities, clean and soft sands, and different levels of waves for different kinds of water sports. After sunset, people sat around a big banyan tree, under which a concert was about to take place. We joined them, but unfortunately it soon started to rain, and the concert was cancelled. We again witnessed the capricious weather in Hawaii.

The fourth day was a long day, but we had the best dinner of our journey that night. We walked along the road, looking for restaurants while checking their ratings on Yelp. There was a Japanese buffet one block away and the price looked reasonable. However the rating was terribly low. One of the reviews says, as I quote, "I give it one star because it's clean." We ended up with a seafood restaurant, where I ordered steamed clams and Gang ordered sauteed shrimp. Yummy! Btw I want to apologize at the end of this blog that I talk so much about food - it shouldn't be the focus of our trip; however I have good reasons to write so much about food: it was the only thing that I could see clearly in Hawaii...

Impressionist Hawaii - Day Three

The third day was relaxing. Our original plan was to see some historic sites, however the natural landscape again attracted most of our attention and we ended spending more time sitting by the sea, hardly remembering anything about the history of the Big Island.

We drove north to Puukohola Heiau National Historic Site early in the morning. It was a temple built to the war god when the king planned to unite Hawaii in late 1700s. (He actually conquered other islands four years after the completion of the temple.) The temple was very simple and crude, similar but much smaller and shorter than the Great Wall built in 200BC. Therefore it wasn't impressive at all. But by the temple there was a bay where people used to worship the god of shark. Usually sharks don't appear in shallow bays, but this one is an exception. We were told by the ranger that sometimes they could still see sharks in the bay in early morning. Though unfortunately we didn't see anything similar to a triangle on the water after waiting for quite a while. Another historic site, Lapakahi State Historical Park is only a few miles away. It used to be a fishing village in the 14th century. Now the stone houses are still well preserved. We sat by the sea and saw many fish in flocks by the seashore. It probably was not a bad job to live as a fisherman in Hawaii before.

The highlight of the day was actually our lunch. A travel guide suggested us to eat at either Bamboo which was closed on that day, or Rainbow Cafe which we failed to locate on GPS. (It turned out that Rainbow Cafe was renamed to King's Cafe five years ago. What an old book I was reading!) So Gang checked with Kohala Visitor Center and went to a family restaurant called Minnie's which serves good local food. I ordered Mahi-Mahi, but Gang couldn't decide which dish he would like. Then the owner suggested him to try a combo, by which she meant "I will give you a little bit of everything." Both Gang and I were surprised when the lunch was served: she gave Gang a big piece of fried pork chop, a bowl of roasted beef and three big pieces of Ono. Actually the food was so much that she couldn't even put them in one plate but to offer two extra bowls. I got mine soon: a plate with four big overlaying pieces of Mahi-Mahi, one piece of which was big enough to make a single meal. Anyway, Gang and I laughed at her generous definition of "a little bit" for a long time.

To digest the big lunch, we went to Pololu Valley in the afternoon, where we did the toughest hike of our trip. Well it wasn't really that bad. We hiked to the valley from the cliff, walked through the moist forest and rested by the sea. The sun was shining hard on our way down to the valley, but the rain started when we went back. We ran to the car and tried to wipe the water away. A few minutes later, the rain went away, leaving us in the car, wet like drowned cats. The weather here is so capricious, a cloud can change a sunny day to a stormy one in a few seconds. But in the patter of rains, we finally enjoyed a flavor of coolness on this tropical island. Sweaty and tired, we drove back to the hotel before sunset, and decided to stay in the air-conditioned room for the rest of the day - a very good decision.

The volcanoes park and historic sites were basically what I "saw" in the Big Island. The splendid black lava, roaring sea and rugged rocks are one of the most spectacular views that I've ever seen.

(a little bit of beef)