Inspired by Jackie, I've decided to make a list of random things about my (semi)new state of residence:

1. There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet. Vowels: A, E, I, O, U Consonants: H, K, L, M, N, P, W.

• Bonus: There are never two consonants next to each other in a Hawaiian word, but vowels are often next to each other.
• Pronunciation tip: Try to enunciate all vowels and you should be in good shape, and remember, W sometimes equals V.

2. There is a privately owned island in this chain (Ni'ihau) that you either have to be born on or marry someone who was born on it to step foot on it (and if you're only allowed here by marriage you can only come on for a couple of weeks per year). It's crazy and cultist and they don't hardly have any TV channels.

• Only four of the votes cast on this island during the 2008 elections were for Barack Obama.

3. Hawaii has it's on time zone. 2 hours behind Pacific, 5 hours behind Eastern (during daylight savings, that is, because we don't observe here).

• It's okay to be late around here, it's expected, and it's called Aloha time. People also drive, and live "aloha". I really don't.

4. To that end, it's called the mainland. It's still part of America even though I really don't feel like it sometimes.
5. Each island is a county (except for Maui county has Lanai and Mo'olokai) and each county has a mayor to lead it.

• Mo'olokai has a leprosy settlement that dates from the 1900's and people still live on it.

6. Honolulu has the only royal palace in the United States.

• Brittan owns a small chunk of the Big Island - just large enough for a monument to Captain Cook.

7. Hawaii is the largest state from east to west - counting the ocean...
8. The state fish is the humuhumunukunukuapua'a (Pronunciation: hoo moo hoo moo noo koo noo koo ap oo ah'ah. Now say it fast.)
9. When people are giving you directions, they like to use the words "Mauka" (which means toward the way of the mountains) and "Makai" (which means toward the way of the ocean).
10. Hawaii has nearly 1,500 confirmed cases of swine flu but the state government has opted to stop reporting the facts because tourism is already bad enough. *shudder* Also, recently a naval ship docked here with at least 69 confirmed cases. Yay...