Winter Ramble

Two weeks into Advent and my family and I finally bundled up in hawaii's finest, warmest shorts and t-shirts and made our way past town to buy a christmas tree. We huddled together like menehune caught in the tradewinds and mele'ed to stay warm... Okay, so clearly winter and Christmas in hawaii are not as romantic as in places with chillier climates, but after having miserably endured Germany's harsh -25°C snowfall last winter, I'm fine with migrane-inducing sunshine and Christmas-tree handlers who aren't freezing their butts off and flinging trees around just so that the deed can be done. There's aloha and warmth and happiness, even if it is  a bit absurd to experience the fragrance of such a foreign species as the Noble Fir in your Dillingham parking lot. No matter, the smell is now lingering in my living room and the few fallen branches that I managed to collect from the christmas tree lot are arranged in a make-shift wreath for my advent candles, which I hadn't yet gotten around to sprucing up properly.

The Swedes and I went to Waldorf's "Shepherd's Play" this past week, a nativity play performed by teachers and sometimes students at Waldorf schools all around the world. The Swedes told me that the words were almost exactly the same, down to each shepherd's pun. It's such a wonderful thing to know that the schools are connected in a ginat network that we students don't realize until we've gone out and met other fellow waldorks. It's like the root system of mushrooms; insanely extensive and magical.

But I must say, after experiencing a German Christmas, which was lovely in many aspects and treacherous in others, it's difficult to get the Christmassy feel this year. Maybe it's because I work almost every day and haven't had time to deliver my attention to the holidays. I went to a Christmas party last night where the host served homemade mulled wine. It was like Glühwein, which I drank in Germany at the Christmas markets. I kind of miss the chilly weather, I'm not gonna lie... but I appreciate that I can run around in shorts and watch the winter meteor showers outside without so much as thinking about a jacket or socks...

So I don't want extreme cold like Germany, I mean come on, -25°C is wayyyy sub-zero frosty living. Who enjoys that? But Hawaii would not have an ounce of Christmassyness were it not for our Western demand for carols on the radio and imported Christmas trees and poinsettias in our parking lots. We don't even lose an hour of daylight in the winter and the temperature drops so slightly that it's almost unnoticeable. I love it dearly, but sometimes I do wish for a middle ground, a semi-winterishness. Like California.When I lived in the Bay Area it got chilly in the winter but it wasn't unbearable. There was cheer and the smell of baked goods elevated the mood, rather that sit heavily amidst the vog and humidity which we have here and make people groan in headache.

Well in a few weeks time I'll be starting my studies again at the university here. I'm excited but also feel a bit like I'm submitting to the desires of others- mostly my dad who would love for me to go back to college. "Just get a degree, it doesn't matter what it's in." Fine. Botany and Psychology. I'll find the healing, therapeutic effects of farming and gardening and open a center where people can farm themselves back to health. Bing Bang Boom.

For now, I'm going on one last hike with my Swedes before they head home tomorrow. Wow, how time does fly.