The French bane of my existence: Prepositions!

The other day in class I was retelling the Toilet Bowl story. When I tried to say "in Hawaii," the professor corrected my preposition.

I said, "En Hawaï," and she corrected me that it was, "à Hawaï."

"à" is usually used with cities, not states or countries, and so I chewed on that preposition all weekend. When I returned to class today, and she corrected me again by saying, "En Alabama," I paused, and asked if we could return to the "à Hawaï." I understand "en Alabama, " but I don't understand why the preposition changes to "à" for Hawaii.

She said, "Because we use 'à' for islands. Therefore, it's as though you are saying, 'on the island of Hawaii.'"

"But I wasn't saying 'on the island of Hawaii.' I was saying, 'in the state of Hawaii.' Hawaii is a state that is an archipelago. One of the islands is named Hawaii as well, but I wasn't talking about that island. I was talking about the island of Oahu, but really...just about the state in general."

Prof states, "Oh, well, since it's an archipelago, it's better to say, 'in the archipelago of the Hawaiian islands..."

So I went from having to remember that it's "à Hawaï," to "dans l'île d'Hawaï" to "dans l'archipel des Iles hawaïennes." Note to self: Quit asking for clarification on prepositions!