Exploring Island History

Hello, all you lovely people, and I hope you are having yourselves a fine weekend.

I pulled my first all-night study session of the semester on Thursday night--mainly due to the "Beowulf" essay that simply did not want to be written. I re-wrote the horrid thing upwards of a dozen times, and I still am not happy with how it turned out. Of course, I'm never happy with anything I write, 

but I really wasn't happy with it. Well, anyway. Speaking of Anglo-Saxon gorgeousness, I hope you all were as ecstatic as me when you heard about the immense new find of Anglo-Saxon treasure in England--three times the size of Sutton Hoo's hoard, or so I have read. Unbelievable. There is an incredible magic in old artifacts like that, something that tugs at my heartstrings in a way nothing else quite does. To understand what I mean, read A String in the Harp.

Today I should have spent my time recuperating from the horridness of being awake for twenty-two hours straight, but instead I went to visit a few local museums: the Mission House downtown, which is the original Mission that was built here in Hawaii in 1820, and Queen Emma's palace. (That's Emma and her husband, King Kamehameha IV in the above photograph.) The Mission House was adorable, and it was really strange and sad to see it in old photographs showing it surrounded with miles of green jungle, when now it sits serene and somewhat forgotten in the middle of downtown Honolulu, dwarfed by roadways and skyscrapers. The house was very small, very quaint, and as the guide pointed out, 'It was built by New Englanders, and they built it in the style of a building they would have lived in back home--that is, they built it to keep out a New England winter. They discovered their mistake later.' He was quite right; the place was stiflingly hot. There's a certain special way to build a house in Hawaii; build it in the right direction, and put large windows and doors in the right places, and make the ceilings high, so that the trade winds flow through the place like cooling water. The missionaries did none of this, and even though they've been dead for over a hundred years, I still felt sorry for them, poor chaps.

Apparently they serve high tea at a little set of tables on the grass next to the house, under some spreading green trees. I hope to partake, one day. Oh, and we got to see the Mission printing press, which excited me a lot. I love printing presses. though for some reason I can't see one without thinking of Rab Silsbee from Johnny Tremain. Then again, perhaps that's one of the reasons why I like printing presses . . .

My grandma and I were going to take the bus to Queen Emma's palace, but some of our fellow Mission tour guide-takers were going to the palace also and offered us a ride. They were really nice, a mother and daughter. We toured the palace with them too, and all four of us became relatively chummy by the end of the day. The palace was lovely; it looked like a Southern mansion, all white with enormous windows and enormous rooms. In one room was the Queen's grand piano, which she purchased while in Germany, and apparently she was a very gifted pianist. What is awesome is that you are allowed to play the Queen's piano, as well as take pictures while you do so! I've often wished that I could play piano, but never more than today . . . that didn't prevent me from posing with my hands on the keys though, ha. There were many portraits of royal family members, including a couple beautiful portraits of her son, the Crown Prince, who died when only four years old. He was an adorable child, and always looks so solemn but sweet in his portraits . . .

For those of you who don't know much about Hawaiian monarchy, I strongly recommend you research and learn about it. It was a monarchy recognized and respected all around the world at one point: Emma was given wedding gifts from places as far off as India and China, and Queen Victoria of England was Emma's son's godmother. The story of the monarchy is one of the most interesting, sad, and, yes, controversial in all of history. There are some people out here who regularly storm I'olani palace and lock themselves in to protest the fact that Hawaii was annexed to the US, and there are some who are fiercely devoted to its identity as a US state, so it's a big issue here. I personally don't like to get embroiled in the issue, but I do like learning about it. And the Hawaiian monarchy was a far more legitimate, advanced, and efficient government than most non-Islanders know, with really fascinating members (Queen Emma and Princess Kai'ulani being among my favorites. Kai'ulani was the last princess of the Hawaiians, good friends with Robert Louis Stevenson, an excellent painter, and died extremely young). Ignorance is sad, so learn!

On a lighter note, I have begun (after much urging from friends) to watch 'Firefly', and must say that I'm enjoying it so far. I found the second episode much better than the first, though; the first was okay, but the dialogue wasn't as sparkly as I would have liked. Still, it seems to be a fun show. Mixing western with the space age was a genius move, and I'm sad the show has so few episodes; it seems to be only getting better, so why cut it off?

Anyways, that's all for now, folks! Oh, and I'm beginning to type up all my book reviews for the month (there's quite a few, actually!) so you can start looking forward to them now ;)

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