Flotsam and Jetsam

So I live in Hawaii. There, now I have connected the title of this blog thingy to what I am writing. I am a Bostonian living abroad. I know that HI is not abroad in the political sense, the same way RI would not be, but for me, everything outside of Massachusetts is abroad, or maybe outside of New England. But "the New Englander abroad" sounds too pedantic. I like being from the greater Boston area, even if I was pretty miserable when I was actually living there.
Miserable? Yes. That's the Bostonian way! It's fun and necessary to be miserable if you live in Boston. The weather sucks, the tourists suck, the economy sucks, the government sucks - basically everything.
But it's oaky. It's Boston.
I really miss it sometimes.

Anyway, here I am in Hawaii. I love living here too, even though my Bostonian sense leads me to want to throttle the slow-as-molasses-in- January drivers! (How many "locals" could grasp the humor of that phrase?)
Hawaii is paradise, sure, but if you live and work here the people know how to ruin a good thing. There is a sene that anything local is better than anything from the mainland. Even though 99% of the stuff that makes up physical existence here is shipped from the very place that is not as good as here.
I think it's thoughtless and hurtfull to make such assumptions, but since we live in isolation, outside reality-checks are few and far between.
It really is nice though, once you get used to the culture. I find few problems now; though sometimes that's all I find. Living here has become as comfortable as an old pair of "slippahs".
Why the hell did I come here?
Well, first, to live and work here; to make a life in the Pacific. Also,
I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Linguistics department at UH.
I am now in my third year, and I am finally getting comfortable with my ignorance. Sometimes, I actually know something about something really obscure, which excites me. When I'm through, I will hopefully know a lot about a very minute area of linguistcs, and be able to contribute that to the greater whole. Maybe I will even help to change something.
Okay, now I am tired and want to go downstairs and cuddle with the wife and my pupps. Maybe watch a little Smallville.
Ahui ho.

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