Day 12: Vacation Day

May 18, 2012

Today we spent the day in Waikiki. This excursion was much different than the others we’ve been on. It appears like a completely different world than other parts of the island that we have visited.

I loved Waikiki. I actually felt like I was on vacation while we were walking around.

The whole town is filled with people enjoying life. Most of the people we saw while we were walking around appeared to be in a great mood, probably because they were on vacation. Most people moved at an easy pace, not in a rush at all.

Although the tourist trait was common among the majority of the people we saw, no one looked the same. There were honeymooners, elderly couples, brides to be, sober people, drunk people, children, homeless, locals, sales people and waiters.

With all of these different people it was easy to observe different the nonverbal signs we learned in class.

I noticed lots of different postures.

1. Approach – waiters

2. Withdrawal – people when they walked past homeless people

3. Contraction – the homeless people

4. Expansion – rich preppy guys on vacation

I also noticed that I was beginning to be able to spot the locals. The locals didn’t have the eagerness in their eyes like the locals did. And they usually didn’t look in stores.

Eyes reveal a lot about a person.

Lindsey, Alyssa, our friend Carolyn, and myself were walking through a few stores. In each new store we walked into Carolyn’s eyes would sparkle with excitement.

In one of the stores we convinced her to try on a dress. She didn’t even have to open her mouth her eyes said it all. She was excited, but a bit uneasy. After assuring her she looked great. We asked her why she looked so uneasy. She told use that she usually doesn’t shop much and that she doesn’t own any dresses. So this was all a new experience for her.

In addition to seeing excitement spoken by the eyes, we also able to see fear.

When we were gathering at the van to leave. A homeless lady sat curled up about 15-feet away from our van.

Josh a guy from our group must have felt convicted because he walked over to the woman and offered her a drink and some money.

To his surprise and ours, the women jumped up, started waving her hands back and forth, yelling I don’t want your help. Even though I was about 10-feet away, I could see the anger and disgust in the women’s eyes.

Josh’s eyes were speaking too. His were full of surprise and fear. And I don’t blame him. He was probably expecting compassion and gratitude.

But people really aren’t predictable especially when they live under stereotypes.