It's been five years. Five years since I gave up permanent residence in the continental United States... A lot happens in five years....
Friday, June 20, 2003 ~ Montgomery, Alabama to Austin, Texas
With very little sleep the night before - indeed, for many weeks, if not months, before - I awake before 4 a.m. to shower and wait for my Kuk Sool instructor and friend, Bill Page, to take me to the airport. My itinerary is thus: Montgomery to Memphis to Houston to Austin, where I'll spend the weekend with my sister, brother-in-law, and two nieces. It's a shame my flights were so early. Both Memphis and Houston airports have good places to eat lunch. I arrive at the Montgomery airport with plenty of time to spare. My bags were examined quite thoroughly. Quite a difference from the last time I was on a flight ~ to Washington, D.C. ~ March 20, 2003, the day we went to settle affairs with Iraq.
As the plane lifts off and I feel the wheels retract, I look at my watch. It is exactly 6:20 a.m. on 6/20/03. Interesting. I make my connections on time, and trust to the airlines that my checked bags will arrive at my final destination in Austin. They do.
I have a lovely and relaxed, if short, weekend ahead with my sister and her family. Arriving in Austin, we head straight for the Ironworks BBQ. It is sacrilege to go to Austin and fail to do so. Beef ribs to brag about. Later, a very pleasant evening and dinner at home - salmon and scallops. I comment only because it's fish, which I anticipate eating a lot of in the next couple of years. But it's OK, because they're both cold water fish, and those are not tastes I anticipate encountering often in the next few years.
Saturday, June 21, 2003 ~ Austin
We spend the day on Lake Travis, where I have a chance to work up just a bit of a healthy looking tan. Another very pleasant dinner at home - filet mignon, big ones, and a leftover beef rib from the Ironworks. A lot of beef that weekend, but it's Texas, and I'm probably not going to eat a lot of good beef in the next couple of years. I'll deal with my cholesterol count later.
Sunday, June 22, 2003 ~ Austin, Texas to Honolulu, Hawaii
Another very early trip to the airport. Up at 4:45 a.m. This time, it's Austin to Houston to Honolulu. The flights consumed a large part of a day, but they were pretty uneventful. Actually pretty tiring. I slept what I could, caught a couple of movies on the plane, and wasn't too worried about arriving at my final destination too exhausted. I'd sleep when I slept. It's a five hour time difference from central time to Honolulu.
I arrive in Honolulu mid-afternoon Honolulu time and take a shuttle to the Hawaiian Monarch hotel, recommended by the shuttle staff. Already there's a different sense from the people here. Southerners smile, but there's more to it here in Hawaii. Something more genuine... a truly friendly, uncalculating sparkle in their eyes. And I've always felt Alabama was the most sincere of the Southern states when it came to hospitality....
The airport in Honolulu is very nice. I was halfway walking through the terminal before I realized I'd been walking in an open-air, but covered walkway. Constant temperatures in the low 80s, tropical breezes. Nice.
I'm tired, my body clock is messed up more from poor sleep over the preceding weeks and months than jet lag. The shuttle from the airport takes an hour to get me to my hotel finally, but that's OK. I'm two-thirds of the way on my way to the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), and the view is pleasant and reminiscent of the last time I'd been through more than 20 years before. Having made it two-thirds of my journey, it's that much less to worry about. The hotels are all located on Waikiki, and I've been recommended a cheap one. It's not too far from the beach, and I intend to walk down there once I've got my bags in the room.
I'm really feeling tired at this point, but feel I'd be amiss if I didn't take a picture or two of the wahinis on Waikiki. Ultimately, from where my hotel is located, it's more of a walk than I'm up for, and I double back for a sushi bento box from a place called Aloha Sushi. (I know I'll be eating a lot of sushi and sashimi in the next couple of years, but I'd had enough beef. Besides, I wanted to see what it would taste like fresh. And it was decidedly good.)
I'd been told I need to be at the airport at 5 a.m. for a 7 a.m. flight on to Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia, so I call the shuttle return service to confirm a 4 a.m. pickup, and then leave a wake-up call request for 3 a.m. (an hour to get ready and re-pack, an hour for the trip to the airport). Despite carrying four different watches, I had nothing to rely on to set an alarm, so I had to trust to the hotel.
Monday, June 23, 2003 / Tuesday June 24, 2003 ~ Honolulu, Hawaii, across the International Dateline, and on to Pohnpei, FSM
The wake-up call comes on time, and I'm showered and waiting for the return shuttle with plenty of time before 4 a.m. Waiting for shuttle, I see a group of Japanese youth, late teens, early twenties, apparently leaving the hotel bar. They don't appear intoxicated in the least. Just young party people. Attractive, well-mannered. Four o'clock in the morning? I can't help but wonder how long they'll be sleeping the next day. I observe one American approaching more than one female in the course of ten minutes telling them how beautiful they are. What he hoped to achieve, I have no idea.
Twenty minutes after 4 a.m., and my shuttle hasn't arrived. A taxi has been waiting for ten minutes and apparently his fare didn't show up either, so I ask him how much to go to the airport. I was told earlier a taxi to the airport would be $30, and was prepared to spend as much, but he said $20, and we were on our way. I arrive at the airport with time to spare and check in my bags. Another full luggage check, randomly selected I'm told, but I don't have to wait for it, and go back outside. There's no place to get coffee until 6 a.m., and the flight boards at 6:15 a.m. Well, I am able to grab a cup of Kona coffee and a hot dog as the boarding for the flight is called. (Hey, my body has no idea what time it is, and a hot dog is technically a sausage, right? And that's breakfast food, isn't it? Besides, I have no idea what I'll be fed on the flight.)
Today's itinerary is this: Honolulu to Majuro in the Marshall Islands; Majuro to Kwajalein (where I lived in 1969-1971 and 1975-1977, my fifth and sixth, 11th and 12th grade years); Kwajalein to Kosrae in the FSM; and Kosrae to Pohnpei, my final destination.
Micronesia now comprises three separate sovereign nations ~ the Republic of the Marshall Islands (which include Majuro and Kwajalein); the Republic of Palau; the Federated States of Micronesia ~ and three U.S. possessions: the Commowealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (which include Saipan, Tinian and Rota); the Territory of Guam; and American Samoa. That covers a lot of acreage in the Pacific, all above the Equator. The island I'm headed for is 400 miles north of the Equator, about halfway between Hawaii and Manilla, in the Philippines.
The Federated States of Micronesia, my future employer, consist of 607 islands carved into four states. Headed east to west, those states are Kosrae, Pohnpei (formerly Ponape), Chuuk (formerly Truk), and Yap. They've been ruled or governed in some fashion by the Spanish, the Germans, the Japanese, and, since World War II until the late 70's, the United States. From the time of Magellan to the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898, the Spanish controlled most of the islands. And there remains quite a bit of Spanish influence in Micronesia - surnames and first names of certain islanders, Catholicsm, even the remains of Spanish construction of forts and churches. You'll also find occassional Irish and German influences from whaling days. Spain annexed most of its possession to Germany after losing the Spanish-American War (the U.S. kept Guam and for a little while the Philippines). Germany controlled what is now FSM until WWI, when Japan took over with a League of Nations mandate. Japan lost all the islands after WWII when the islands became United Nations trusteeships administered by the United States.
The political history of the transition from Spanish and German control to League of Nation and United Nations trustee territories to independent sovereign nations and a commwealth is too detailed to go into here, but here's something interesting about the names of two of them: Chuuk (pronounced to rhyme with nuke) was formerly called Truk (as in the vehicle), because when it was controlled by Germany, the Germans could not pronounce its proper name. Truk is known to scuba divers as a mecca for wreck diving on sunken ships from WWII. In 1944, the U.S. pulled its own "Pearl Harbor" on a Japanese fleet in Truk Lagoon, and the results are reputedly spectacular. I hope to dive there soon, but there are political complications that may prevent that due to the job I'm about to take on.
Yap is not the state's actual name. Yap translates to paddle. When early sailors first arrived, they asked greeting islanders what the name was, pointing toward the islands. The locals thought the sailors were referring to the paddles they were holding up in the air, and said "yap." Yap is another diver's paradise, known for a place where large number of huge Manta Rays gather to be cleaned by other fish on a regular basis. It is also the most culturally traditional of the island states ~ the home of bare-breasted women, stick dances, and large round stone money, carved and transported from other islands. Those are all stories for another day.
Continuing...The flight from Honolulu to Majuro, Kwajalein, Kosrae, and Pohnpei ~ Monday, 6/23/03
The further west I went, the more relaxed I became. You can't help it.
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