Glamborous

Anton Glamb’s visitor took this photo outside of his house. NICOLETTA BUMBAC PHOTO

HOST WITH THE MOST

Last weekend, I had a friend semi-surprise visit me on her way back to New York from Japan. She works in the airline industry, so flying’s a breeze for her, and she said she had a couple days to kill if I was around. When I went to London a few years back, I had stayed at her and her boyfriend’s apartment and was happy to return the favor. It had been quite a while since I had hosted a visitor, so I tried to do a good job and planned out some fun stuff for us to do.

I also was a big boy about it and set some boundaries about when I had my own obligations. Living in town, it’s easy enough to get around, so I wouldn’t feel bad about shoving guests out the door and telling them to figure it out. TheBus has an app that gives exact arrival times, and Google Maps does a really good job at planning routes. Additionally, cabs aren’t that unreasonably priced, so if your guest is too fancy for public transit, they can cough up the extra fare for a cab, or stick out their thumb and try hitching a ride. My guest was from NYC, so she didn’t have any problems figuring it out. What a tough cookie!

Hosting a friend who’s hardly spent any time in Hawaii is really fun. There are a ton of perks of living out here that you might gradually become accustomed to, like poke, the views, the weather, the people, the nightlife, the food (in addition to poke), the beaches and the hikes.

When somebody who’s not used to it reacts, it reminds you how lucky you are to be out here. Granted, she is a good photographer, but she even made the bushes outside my apartment look special.

We hit up Chez Kenzo for dinner, then made it out to the usual spots, eleven44, Nextdoor, Downbeat, The M and Asylum, and also got to kick it at a couple of house gatherings, the hiking trails of Manoa and a birthday party on the beach at Cromwell’s.

One of my friends recently was complaining about having to host her friends after a week, but that totally wasn’t my experience. My friend was here only for a couple of days, so it might have been too short of a visit to really wear me out, but I had a great time and would totally do it again.

If you have a friend you think might want to visit and you’re down with it, let them know. You might get a lot more out of it than you expect!

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