I may be buying a house. I can barely wrap my mind around the concept. I haven’t been a homeowner for 3 1/2 years. The Hawaii market is fantastically expensive, especially to someone trying to buy alone. The recent drop in interest rates have not provided the kind of bargain that is perhaps available on the mainland: instead, the housing prices have soared, diminishing any benefit. All of the houses I have bid on went over asking price, knocking me out of contention.

Yet still I kept on looking. (more…)

Stay apart, or blend in?

At what point does blending in to your surroundings, your ambience, your new society, cross the line from the sterling world-traveller values (be respectful, honor the culture, adapt, adopt) into blank-eyed beehive mind? (more…)