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Travel Bucket List 2012: Booking a role on Hawaii Five-O (Part II)

Filed under CHALLENGES, Hawaii by Christine Ka'aloa on February 17, 2012 at 1:54 pm {27 comments}

: My casting profile and the script for my episode, Kupale

Monday: The big Five-0 audition.

At Hawaii Five-0 studios in downtown Honolulu, I play my lines to the casting director in a bare room. It’s one scene. I’m an assistant to two bosses (a dead one and a murder suspect) and I’m being questioned by the Five-O team. The casting director has me perform it several times, adding different direction.

Now I have two thoughts burdening my mind:

- Will I get the Hawaii Five-0 part?
- What’s my decision about the Korea job?

My favorite two-letter phrase silences all tensions and neurotic chattering.

… Fuck it.

Tuesday: The result

My agent messages me. She is god! Good news, the director cast me. Now I need to wait and see if I clear network approval. Network could still say No.

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Travel Bucket List 2012: Booking a role on Hawaii Five-O (Part I)

Filed under CHALLENGES, Hawaii by Christine Ka'aloa on February 15, 2012 at 3:00 am {18 comments}

: Watch me on Hawaii Five-O! Air date is Monday, February 20th (episode is ‘Kupale’).

Okay, some of you asked to see the competition…

Still wondering what some of those alternate plans for 2012 were, twerking with that university job in Korea? Here’s my hinted confession to one of those alternate things…

Travelers all make “bucket lists”, but we don’t always know if we’ll accomplish the things on our list. They’re goals and some of them may seem like shooting for the moon. To see a ping pong sex show in Thailand, stay at an ashram in India, hike Macchu Picchu, see Cappadocia, go diving in Bora Bora,… For me it’s gone as far as moving to Korea , learning to go solo in my travels or even traveling continuously for an extended time.

Well last year, somewhere traveling between India to Korea, nailing a role to act on the TV show, Hawaii Five-O fell into my travel bucket list.

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REVIEW: Where to get your screams in Hawaii this Halloween

Filed under Hawaii, Tours and Events by Christine Ka'aloa on October 28, 2011 at 8:47 pm {no comments}

haunted lagoon hawaii halloween

It’s fright week weekend and I’m in Hawaii to relive my nightmare with Boo! This year’s Halloween buzz highlights two première fright night events, where you’ll get the biggest scream. Who will the Hawaiian masters of terror be? My Grrrl Traveler Scream Award goes to the Haunted Lagoon and Hawaii’s Haunted Plantation. I’m going to let you in on a little secret; I’ve already had a head jump on both!
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Haunted Lagoon

The Lady of Laie is back and she’s still haunting the Polynesian Cultural Center‘s lagoon!

Haunted Lagoon is one of the biggest productions I’ve seen next to a theme park. Pirates, ghouls, killer clowns, headless ghosts, screamer zombies, (more…)

“You Ugly American”: Is America a country that people love to hate?

Filed under North America, Volunteering & Social Impact by Christine Ka'aloa on February 19, 2011 at 11:12 pm {14 comments}

Last week, expat Laura of Gringation Cancun wrote an article titled, The Ugly Americans, airing out her annoyances with encountering America-bashing in her adopted residence of Mexico. What surprised me, wasn’t only Laura’s encounters of callous and hypocritical American stereotypes abroad (and her decent way of handling critique), but the fact her “Ugly American” outrage mirrored my own, this past trip to Laos.

In the travel world, stereotypes exist. I get it.

The Spanish and French are an easy-going crew, the Japanese are shy but snap-happy photographers and Germans, are supposedly the worst complainers of the tourist bunch. Sometimes these stereotypes are all playful jest among globe-trotters; but sometimes, it’s as offensive as a slap in the face.

Ironically, the insensitive America-bashing didn’t come from my encounters with Laotians. Shockingly, it came from the criticisms of many fellow travelers, who were airing their “observations” about the overly cautious American travel style, our pushy domineering government, our heinous acts of war crime upon Laos and apparently,…everyone else.

For instance:

So what if Americans are overly cautious travelers?

Who cares if we practice religious health safety by going to the travel doctor and getting the “recommended” travel shots before leaving to travel?

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REVIEW: Is there a vegetarian hell for sinning on the holidays? (Kabuki Restaurant, Waimalu, Hawaii)

Filed under Cool/Veg Restaurants & Bars, Hawaii by Christine Ka'aloa on January 10, 2011 at 2:06 am {4 comments}

Comfort food. An unbeatable way to eat yourself through the holidays.

I’m not a big foodie by any stretch, but if there’s one foodie film I can set on repeat-play, it’s Ratatouille. My favorite part is when the curmudgeon of food critic, Anton Ego, takes a bite of ratatouille and the taste propels him back to childhood memories of his mother’s home cooking.

Okay so maybe my sentiments of “home cooking” aren’t exactly the same. But it’s what I felt when my mom arrived in Korea with a bento plate on Christmas day and it was from Hawaii’s own Kabuki Restaurant in Waimalu Shopping Center.

Musubi (rice ball wrapped with seaweed) and potato hash.

“Broke da mouth ono! “, this ultra-simple food been a favorite of mine since childhood. Bought with the loving hands of my dad (who drives down to pick it up) and toted overseas by my mom, my Kabuki bento packs the flavor of the Hawaiian Islands and the uncomplicated and cozy taste of home. It’s been my aloha meal pack whenever I’ve left the islands to return to a surrogate home and the dish which welcomes me each time I reunite with family.

I’ve not set foot in nor eaten at Kabuki restaurant, yet I’m convinced the cook in the kitchen must look exactly like my mom.

There’s something in home cooking, which makes me willingly pull out all my stubborn anti-meat and rice eating laws. All the rice in Korea couldn’t replace the quality smack of home-ono in a Kabuki rice ball (and I began declining my school lunch rice this late semester; I don’t enjoy the taste that much)! And the potato hash? Aside from the fact there’s a teeny bit of meat mixed into it, it’s savory milky taste makes it chopstick-licking good!

So take me to veggie hell! With my mom and my Kabuki bento in front of me, Christmas in Korea was certainly something to Ho-ho-ho and feel jolly about.

Kabuki Restaurant
808-487-2424
98-042 Kamehameha Hwy. (at Waimalu Shopping Center)
Aiea, Hawaii 96701

Are there any holiday comfort foods which make you go weak? What foods would you sin for?

Written by Christine Ka'aloa Festivals

Mochi Culture in Hawaii

State-wide fireworks on New Year’s Eve are an annual ritual in Hawaii adopted from the Chinese tradition of playing of “firecrackers” as a symbolic act of chasing evil spirits away and inviting good luck, fortune and prosperity. Meanwhile, the Japanese community adds flavor to New Year’s Day celebrations with mochi…

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Christmas in Hawaii & Celebrating State-wide Fireworks

Obama, the “Hawaii Kid” and State-wide fireworks spell one thing- spending the Christmas and New Year’s holidays in Hawaii.

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What’s in the New Yorker’s Bible? As with all cities, there is a community camaraderie and shared understanding which governs the NYC M.O. Here are some of them: 1- You are expected to push and fight for EVERYTHING (a place in line, your way at customer service, the subway, career opportunities…) 2- Never walk [...]

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Saying Goodbye to NYC and my ‘New Yorker’ Lifestyle

“Only the strong survive” is the city’s motto and it sums up its proud promise. The concrete jungle can be a raging beast, fast-balling you with lessons of all shapes and sizes- from managing crazy clients with excessive expectations and emergency deadlines, to mastering a typhoon of many things going wrong all at once! It will test your levels of fitness, endurance and…