a holiday luau

i just showed my mom my pictures from hawaii and i remembered that i didn't really expound on one of the best parts of the trip in this blog. so, i think i'll take this opportunity to talk about the luau.

matt bought us tickets to the luau to celebrate our anniversary (let me embarass him for a second by telling him how sweet that is!)

we went right before flying home. we drove to the place, and most people get there by bus, so we were there before everyone else. we got some drinks and sat at these big picnic tables.

the busses showed up as it started to get dark. and then the fun started. we went to this big circle to watch them pull the pig out of a pit.



after the feast, we got a great show. there were conch blowers, hula dancers representing different pacific islands, and a fire dancer.



near the end they called up some men to dance the hula on the stage. matt, good sport that he is, went up. (just a note: i didn't go up when the women went up, because i was chicken). since he likes to shake his hips, matt caught the eye of the dancers. they singled him out to stay on stage and dance alone.



first, the announcer stood on stage in the middle, matt off to the right, a hula dancer in a coconut bra and bright pink hula skirt to the left. the announcer told matt to put an apple on one hip and an orange on the other -- figurative of course. then the announcer would say "apple" and he would have to shake his hip so he knocked the figurative apple off it. he was very good at this game.



then the announcer told him to "grind coffee" which meant circle his hips around and around. matt was very good at this as well. the announcer said something to him in hawaiian and asked matt if he knew what he said. "you rock my world." matt replied, matter of factly. everyone exploded into laughter. the hawaiian had sounded like that! but the actual phrase was something like "you're getting the hang of it." too funny.

after some instruction, the hula dancer came over and danced with matt. well, she danced up against him while he just stood there (i was a little jealous).



then the announcer and the dancer cleared out and let matt do his thing. he was brilliant! he shook his hips, ground coffee, and twisted around. the whole time he shook the pink hula tassles in his hands, raising his arms above his head. the crowd went crazy.



after the amazing dance, the announcer asked him if he was here with anyone special. "amanda" he said. "and she is...?" the announcer asked. a beat. (matt thinking? confused?) "my girlfriend." he said.

very nice.