Ambassador Jared and the PCC...

Saturday at the Polynesian Cultural Center was like an ambassador package for free. I loved it. I can’t give out the names of those who made much of it possible, because they might get in trouble for helping me out, but I’ll tell you what I did.

First, I found a way in to see a friend who worked there, but I can’t tell you who:

Anonymous Friend Working

We ate ice-cream for a while, then went to watch the canoe pageant. I forgot that Fei worked on Saturdays at the PCC and saw her across the pond. I yelled out, “Fei!” She had her whole tour yell back in accord, “Alooooha!” I replied, “Diiiiiiitto!” She explained to the tour that I was her ex-boyfriend. They all laughed. I had actually guessed that judging by the reaction from across the pond and I was right.

During the pageant, I joined Fei in making some of the fish leaf things they give out to the tourists. I must say, I did a decent job. If you don’t believe me, I’ll show you the footage on my camera. After that, we went back to the anonymous friend’s work:




Then when the anonymous friend finished work, we took a canoe ride. At the end, we took a picture by one of the falls.




After that, it was time to get to work. My good friend Danae Lehua Deckert has also gotten a mission call, she is going to Argentina. This was her last Saturday, and I was her photographer. First stop was the Ali’i Luau she dances for.

Lehua's Last Ali'i Luau

She did wonderful (as usual). While in the Luau shooting for her I decided to help myself to a small portion of food. Special thanks to other friends for letting me get away with this.

After a wonderful photo session of pics of both Lehua and me…

Hula Jared

…it was backstage of the night show “Horizons: Where the Pirates meet the Caribbean” or something like that.

I again managed to get a decent seat and against the wishes of the pesky ushers, I got off a few decent shots of Lehua.

Lehua at “Horizons: Where the Sea meet the Sky"

I’m not sure what the big deal is with flash photography. They say it’s blinding for the dancers. All of the dancers I have spoken to say that the big bright spotlights are so powerful to the eyes, they can’t even tell if a camera goes off or not. Many of the dancers have family walk close to the front and take pics for them all time. I guess it’s just corporate propaganda.

At the end of the show, I walked over to Photo Poly, where an old friend of my dad works.

La'akea

He hooked me up on the pics I had taken during the day along the canoe ride and entrance and such.

At the end of the night, I was so tired I could hardly think straight. I spoke to Jessica over the phone only somewhat coherently. I think that I said something that offended her enough to hang up on me. She was tired too, and probably misunderstood me anyway. I closed my eyes and was out like a light.

I was getting all sorts of perks; free food, tours, backstage passes, seats, pics, etc. I was so pooped. I have no idea how rich and famous people do it, I’d be too worn out to always be taken around to every cool place. I guess rich people really do have it ruff.

This much I decided on - that was the best trip to the PCC I have ever had. And it was also the cheapest one, spending a total of $0. I think what made it really fun was the people there. Everywhere I went, I knew the people, all friends of mine. What made me feel special wasn’t the free stuff or the special treatment; it was the feeling of being surrounded by friends who have become my family.