Down the Rabbit Hole

Polynesian Cultural Centre , I have returned! Echoing General Douglas MacArthur's famous speech in Leyte, I  returned  nine years  after  my last visit to Hawaii. During my first trip, I wished I had more time for exploration, as I only had a brief stop at the Hukilau Marketplace and ate lunch at the barbecue before boarding my tour bus for the next stop.  For this trip (my third time in Hawaii, actually), I went with Mommy, Daddy, and Donan. I got tickets that allowed us to visit on three consecutive business days. No wonder I couldn't explore the Centre in two hours: it takes three days to experience all that the centre has to offer! We only had time for two afternoon trips to Lā'ie, so we had to make the most of these visits. I had to consider that I was with seniors and a preschooler, so our fastest pace at the centre would be a slow walk. Day 1 We had just arrived from the  Dole Pineapple Plantation , which was an hour's drive from Wahiawa. That visit ...

Soon after my cold summer Danish adventure, I returned to the humid rainy season in the Philippines. But that weather limitation doesn't stop us Filipinos from pretending  that we've got pine trees covered in snow inside our very own homes.  And the Philippines is known to have the longest Christmas ... we typically skip over Halloween , All Saints' and All Souls' Days ; we also skip over the various other commemoration days. As soon as September begins, Jose Mari Chan's Christmas in Our Hearts and Christmas carols get played ad infinitum in shopping malls. These songs are stimuli for spending (and thereby endangering my wallet), not far from Pavlov's conditioning. As I was walking in the mall the weekend when I got back from Denmark, therefore, I found the view I had in front of me incredulous: Christmas trees were already on sale AND IT'S NOT EVEN SEPTEMBER YET!  And earlier today, I had lunch with Arindam and Matty in a mall in Los Ba...