February 6, 2023
Today I was at Aala Park in Honolulu, HI and I talked to an artist named Sergio Garzon, who is a volunteer working on a project to beautify the parks in Honolulu. He told me that he owns an art studio in chinatown (called Fish Market Studios), and that he is actively trying to break the Guinness World Record for biggest wood block prints. While I enjoyed our conversation about his artistic endeavors, I was particularly engaged in our discussion about the community surrounding Aala Park. Sergio said that many people cringe when you mention going to Aala Park, because the homelessness problem there often makes it very unsafe. He is currently working towards creating murals all over the park to bring a new audience into the park and make it a safer, more enjoyable place for everyone. This might be a good thing in the future to look into, maybe even as a volunteer opportunity.
February 8, 2023
On a short trip to Honolulu Coffee Co., in downtown Honolulu, I met a young college student named Hannah Conlon. Hannah is currently a sophomore at the University of Hawai'i and is a Kinesiology Major. One thing I found really interesting about my conversation with Hannah is what she would describe as her "dream job". She told me about how she'd love to be a dolphin trainer for the navy, which raised the question, does the navy really have dolphins? While many people may already know this intriguing fact, I was in the dark about the training the navy gives to Dolphins for marine purposes. According to Hannah, the dolphins are often trained to use their eco-location to pick up signals of ships. After later diving a little deeper on the topic, I discovered that the dolphins are used to discover buried sea mines, lost equipment, etc. This topic makes me wonder, are the dolphins treated humanely, how long has this been happening, do many people know about this?
February 8, 2023
Today, in Honolulu Coffee Co., I had the opportunity to chat with Kylie Sens. Kylie is an exploratory business major at the University of Hawaii. While originally from Maryland, she lived in North Shore here on Oahu for two years. One thing I was particularly interested in while talking to Kylie was, what it's like living on the island versus the east coast? Kylie mentioned that "people here are more friendly and more inclusive." She also discussed with me how it was easier for her to move than some of her friends because she already has pre-existing connections from her two years in North Shore. One of the other topics Kylie and I talked about was, is it difficult living so far from your family? Kylie talked with me about how being six hours a part does create a bit of a communication issue for friends and family. "With the time difference it's actually pretty hard." However she mentioned that eventually she fell into routines that made it a bit easier to manage.
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