Hawai'i memories

Never been to Miami. Never been to L.A. But I did spend two years in Wales, so this is a story about Wales.

Wales is a wonderful place. For example, I lost my virginity there. But the first thing you have to know about Wales for this story is that it has the worst weather of anywhere I've ever lived.

It was, of course, always raining, but it was never good, honest rain -— a thunderous storm that makes you happy you stayed inside with a mug of hot chocolate, or a sun-drenched, get-naked-with-a-loved-one drizzle, or a good suburban downpour that you float little boats in.

No, Welsh rain was a fine, cold, steady trickle. There was never too little to ignore and never enough to really make a point. It always made me think of cat piss. And not in a good way.

What made the rain just so much worse was the very cold, very relentless wind. You could bundle up. This wind did not care. It would blow through your coat, then through your skin and finally through your very soul. You know that machine in Princess Bride that takes a year off the end of your life? It was like that, but for happiness.

And then it was dark. I went to an environmental conference once where a guy said if you had solar panels on your every other roof in Europe, you could power the continent, but in Britain you'd need to put it on every roof, full stop. When I first got to Wales, I noticed that for every nice, sunny day, there was one overcast day, and as the year went on, the ratio got worse and worse.

The second thing you need to know for this story is that, technologically, the U.K. is just a bit behind.

At the obscure school where I lived, the nearest internet access was at a town 20 minutes away. We had one phone in my dorm, but what with the time difference and the expense of phone cards, internet was really the only way to get in touch with friends at home.

The last thing you need to know for this story is that this was the first time I'd lived abroad and that my school was a very strange and sometimes lonely place.

Here is the story: I am in the local internet cafe. Outside it is already dark and there is rain and wind. I am reading and writing emails home to my friends. I look up, and I see the most beautiful, sun-drenched scene I've ever seen in my life. It is on T.V.

The only thing I can compare it to is opening up your window, walking to the other side of the room, and then looking back and realizing that although you live in suburban Detroit, your window is opening up in the Sahara.

I watch only for a few minutes. The picture quality, the clothes and the cars place it mid '70s for me. I see a desperate man with binoculars, a criminal, watching a particular landing outside a room at a large hotel. He is watching for a signal, a red flag or towel. I'm not sure, but maybe the signal isn't there, maybe someone is watching him, too.

What I remember most is the light in that place. I can't describe the light. Everything seems to glow with that light. Everyone is wearing sunglasses - there is so much light, they are fighting to keep it out!

The man with the binoculars has a jeep with an open top. He is squinting with the binoculars, there is so much light. He looks again for the signal. I feel like I could climb inside there that T.V. and walk around in that incredible light. It is more real than the world in which I am living.

I pay for my half-hour of internet and walk back to my school.

With the massive body of television knowledge I have since obtained, I can say that the show I saw was definitely probably Hawaii Five-O. I've been to Hawai'i twice with family, but I don't remember anything like that. It's sunny in Texas, but it's a hot, brutally muggy sunny. Never been to Miami. Never been to L.A. My only memory of light like that is that one day in Wales, on T.V.