More Hiking, and Halloween!

Happy Halloween! This is definitely my second favorite holiday (Christmas still takes the number 1 spot). It’s never the same when I’m not at home though. My favorite part about holidays is actually everything that precedes them, not necessarily the holidays themselves. For Christmas, that means going to a tree farm every year and cutting down the perfect Christmas tree, usually in a few feet of snow. While I was at NYU of course, it was the gingerbread and eggnog Starbucks lattes, the lights and Christmas specials in SoHo, the Rockefeller tree, and hot chocolate at Haut-Chocolat. For Halloween, I used to love going to a number of the famous Hudson Valley apple orchards and picking and eating right from the trees (even though I don’t even really like apples). Hayrides, pumpkin patches, haunted houses, and cider were all part of the experience, as was sifting through the pages of Party City’s Halloween catalog to pick out the perfect costume. Again, at NYU things were slightly different. I still took the train in to Poughkeepsie so I could go to the fall festivals and watch the leaves changing color, but college in New York City also meant finding the most appropriately-themed bar for Halloween night and of course taking part in the massive Halloween parade in the Village. Senior year started a whole new tradition of getting together with some friends and finding a collective, inventive theme to stick to for costumes. Since I’ve been in Micronesia the past two Halloweens, I’ve missed out but I hope to make it next year if it’s still going strong!

Halloween last year in Chuuk was very different. It was as hot as ever, and despite some signs in “big-name” stores around town, no one seemed to notice or care that the holiday was approaching. That weekend was the fall retreat for the JVIs, so it really just left the Australians, me, and a few others to find something to do. I think we just ended up making a few drinks and watching awful horror movies on the roof. I expected about the same for this year. I didn’t think Halloween would be a big deal here, but whenever you have an increased number of Americans during the month of October, you have a Halloween celebration. Being more exposed to Westerners in general has somewhat popularized it among the locals as well, at least in Kolonia. Had I known, I would have had someone from home send me a costume, but as it was, I needed to find something since I got the impression NOT dressing up would be a flagrant and unforgiveable crime against the mehnwai community. While costume shopping with a few friends, it was decided (how and by whom I can’t remember) that a World Teach friend of mine and I should go as Ramen and Kool-aid. To Americans who have not lived in the FSM, this pair makes no sense whatsoever, but I guess that’s kind of the beauty of a region-wide inside joke. Popular among the locals here is eating ramen mixed with kool-aid powder (or anything mixed with kool-aid really – in Chuuk they would sprinkle it on cheetos, pickled mangos, bread, chips, etc.), or simply mixing the ramen spices with kool-aid powder for an easier and more convenient snack. They like the combination of salty, spicy, and sweet, however absolutely repulsive and unhealthy it might seem to outsiders. Anyway, it’s well known here that ramen and kool-aid is a very popular match – a “traditional” PNI snack – so it was decided that this would be both funny and somehow island-themed, and we opted to go for it. Saturday, a few of us met up for costume making and… a ton of eating. I left the creative visions to JVI Sam since I’m not very gifted in the area of making life-size ramen bowls. I AM proud to admit it was originally my idea to use a wash basin as a “bowl” and it worked pretty well, though I can’t really take credit for the execution. We (read: mostly Sam) covered it in white paper and using a Choice bowl as a model, we decorated it appropriately. We attached it to my body with hilariously big pieces of fabric, put chopsticks in my hair, and voila. It was beautiful. Leora’s kool-aid costume was eye, nose, and mouth shaped pieces of black fabric pinned to a pink shirt and an island-themed pink lava-lava. We definitely made quite the couple. Nachos, pizza, cupcakes, and orange jello shots were served as we got ready and waited for the pre-party to begin. People brought blondies, dip, chips, juice and mixers, and of course plenty of alcohol. Other notable costume characters included: Minnie Mouse, a hippie, schoolgirls, the Pringles man, navy officers, Colonel Sanders (with an actual bucket of fried chicken), hipsters, Wayne and Garth, witches, a Sarah Palin voodoo doll, Mario and Luigi, a soccer player, and a box from Yemen to Chicago. I was really surprised at the ingenuity of the costumes. Without a Halloween store, and any real decent clothing shops at all, I thought it would be super difficult for people to come up with ideas, but everyone looked really fantastic. Creativity shines through in the absence of all the materials we take for granted!

After the pre-party, we all drove over to the Rusty Anchor – a popular ex-pat bar which I had actually never been to. It’s a very strange place at first. There is no sign – the only indicator is a big, rusted anchor hanging down the side of the building. When you walk in, you have to go down some stairs and through empty corridors… apparently it was going to be or is going to be a hotel, so there are some pretty fancy looking rooms and balconies, all of which are half-finished and completely deserted. At the end of a long, white hallway is the actual bar which is a nice spot partially open to the outside and overlooking the water. I had a couple drinks and a free tequila shot and mixed and mingled with the ghoulish crowd. It was a lot of fun and I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of people. I had been told by various friends that it would be really crowded, and I was anticipating something along the lines of NYC bar-on-Halloween crowded, but it was nothing like that. It was *maybe* small Poughkeepsie-bar-on-regular-Saturday-night crowded, but even that’s a stretch. I caught up with some people I haven’t seen in a few weeks, and met some new ones as well. Around 12:30 or 1, a few of us decided to head over to Flamingo, which I had never been to either. It’s a dance club and bar, and a nice one at that; maybe a little shady, but nothing like I had ever expected. I just drank water and got out all the dancing I had wanted to do after listening to Lady Gaga all day. We left around 2, right before a big fight apparently broke out, so I’m thankful for that. I’m also thankful I decided to leave my ramen costume in the car since Flamingo was mostly filled with local people who for the most part had no idea why the crazy white folks were all dressed up.

I woke up the next morning around 11 with a wicked headache, unsure if I was up for the scheduled hike for that day. I’ve skipped the last couple since the Pohnpei hiking blog had them labeled as “difficult” or “strenuous” and seeing as I am not even in shape enough to do the “easy-moderate” hikes very well, I decided it would be perilous for me to endeavor anything harder. The hike this past Sunday though was the Pondollap – more commonly referred to as Sokehs Ridge. I have been told this hike is a must for anyone visiting or living in Pohnpei, and since I leave in a few short weeks, I figured this might be my only chance to see it (the same reason why I allowed myself to spend money on Ant last weekend). I lugged my tired ass out of bed, rinsed off in a cold shower, and ate some cereal to try and energize before meeting the hiking group at 1, back where I started at the Rusty.
A few people were going on a more difficult hike to Nan Imwinsapw – Sokehs Rock (as shown in the third picture from the top). This hike is half-jungle half-rock climb. I could do the jungle part no problem, but climbing up a massive rock angled at 45 degrees using only a rope tied to a rusty pipe would not be so simple for me. I’m sure I COULD do it, but I don’t really like heights, and I am not a master hiker by any means. Combined with my splitting headache and dehydration from the night before, I was not up for that adventure.
The ridge is much easier, though if you’re like me, you wouldn’t really know it. Sokehs is its own separate island which can be reached from the main island via a bridge right outside Kolonia. We parked at the Rusty Anchor and carpooled out there – about 10 of us. For the first few minutes, we hiked along the paved road which led to a narrower dirt road. It was all uphill. We stopped at a scenic overlook for a few minutes before beginning our next obstacle: a very, VERY steep and rocky uphill trek. Molly and Rachael really zoomed ahead (the benefits of not having a car is you are forced to get in good walking condition) but most of us, especially those who had been up until the early morning drinking and dancing, were really huffing our way up. The end was not in sight for quite a while, and I kept asking myself why the HELL was I doing this?! I was ashamed that it wasn’t even a difficult hike, really just a walk, yet I was somewhere between asthma attack and death. I realized that all the unnecessary driving and eating of processed cheeses and timtams I do on a daily basis were really biting me back and laughing hard at how pathetic and useless they’ve made me. I made a deal with my body that I would get in better shape as soon as I could if it would just not allow itself to collapse in front of people 20 years older than me who were chatting away casually and sauntering over the rocks while I heaved out heavy, gasping breaths. When anyone said anything to me, my response was something like “uhhhaaaaahhhuuu” which roughly translates into “can’t you see I need to save my oxygen so that I don’t shrivel up on the side of the road like a rotting breadfruit?!” I was drenched in sweat and my legs started feeling like two cement blocks that were trying to root themselves to the ground while I was struggling to pull them up. When I finally saw the road *somewhat* level out up ahead, it was all I could do to continue my march. Thankfully I didn’t have enough air in my lungs to complain, or else my unlucky peers might have gotten a famous earful. When we finally did reach the top, and the ground eventually flattened out completely, I heard my body say, “see that wasn’t so bad!” while my memory jotted down this hike as one only to do again once I’ve acquired a sturdy moped. The scenery was beautiful though, and totally worth it. The foliage was gorgeous and slightly overgrown – there were beautiful pink and yellow flowers and some really awesome ancient-looking trees. The coolest sight though (for once) was actually man-made. We saw three WWII-era Japanese tanks and a few bunkers. They were massive and completely rusted out, but we could climb on a few of them. It was really amazing just to see something like that outside of a guarded historic site or museum – leftover relics still lost in their “natural” habitats; a sort of stoppage of time. After seeing the tanks, we continued another, much shorter uphill climb to the water tower which was an absolutely amazing view. We could see all of Kolonia, and the entire reef woven around the lagoon like a piece of white thread. The mountains were covered with dense fog and everything looked very peaceful and mystical. I wished we had brought up some kind of small picnic to eat and talk and watch the view expand over us. We took some pictures and enjoyed the fresh, cool, half-rainy breeze before heading back down again.
I didn’t make it to yoga because I was exhausted and STILL feeling dehydrated. Instead I took a shower, demolished a box of wheat thins, and waited anxiously for trick-or-treaters. Greg bought a whole bunch of fun sized candies which were waiting by the door. I thought being a houseful of white people, the Jesuit residence would be a popular place, but we really only had about 15-20 kids. I heard some other people had over 100, so that was kind of a bummer because I love trick or treaters! Some of the kids that came to our house didn’t have costumes, just plastic grocery store bags, and said things like “HAPPY HALLOWEEN, NOW TRICKS AND TREATS!” Clearly they don’t understand the holiday at all, they just know it’s an excuse to get free candy from the crazy mehnwai. I’m convinced they think that we always have an unlimited supply of candy on hand, and that this is the one night we are generous enough to give it out.

I’m a bit sore today (no surprise there), and we had no power again for the entire morning. Pohnpei is getting to be more and more like Chuuk in that respect – the power situation has been really shaky for the past two weeks. I’m hoping it improves, but my fierce island instincts tell me that it will only get worse as limited technology, tools, and maintenance fail to keep up with inevitable entropy. I’m looking forward to Wednesday though: FSM Independence Day and a great excuse for a latte date!