Run run run

So it's not a big secret that I am having a very interesting and crazy semester.
I stay out too late, I work too much, and I still fight for as much dancing as possible. I moved off campus, and on Tuesdays alone I could go up and back 3 different times... I called it my run day.

It seems a little crazy, but I'm used to it now. People ask me to work out and I laugh.

But this last Thursday?

Well.

Thursday was the last day of instruction, which was fine. Thursday was also the day of everything else, ever. Pa'ina pani kau, the end-of-semester party for the Hawaiian college, was that day, and every Hawaiian class had to perform, which included language and fish class, and also Linguistics because we're part of the Hawaiian college.

My Hawaiian class went very well! We'd been practicing for a week, and although it was hard to get all the harmonies right when we were being constantly taught two different alto lines, we sounded nice and the hula girls were very good. (I missed the practice and didn't get to go, but those girls are intimidating and very good.)

After that was my voice final. I was late because they were scheduled at the same time, but my awesome voice teacher let me off for that. I missed a few friends singing, but I got there in plenty of time. My voice got warmed up nicely and I actually felt really happy with my final performance!

From there we had a Chinese skit performance, which was okay, a little rushed, and we had to leave right after our turn to go back to...

Linguistics' performance, which was... not so much. We chose an Alaskan Yup'ik seal dance, because we're allowed to choose other indigenous languages, and while those of us dancing were fine, the singers weren't ready and it kind of fell apart. Happens every year. I think people expect it.

Fish class had a noho or sitting hula, which was... painful. Practicing whacking kala-ao sticks kneeling on the asphalt is not terribly fun. Most of my class is from the mainland with limited Hawaiian, so I got to yell out the chant nice and loud, but I think we did good! It was really fun to perform.

After THAT... we had a jazz band concert. We had had a 5 hour tech rehearsal the day before. Thursday was an hour sound check, hour break, and and over 2 hour concert. We did Blues Brothers, which was amazing. I got flustered and messed up and entire song, forgot to actually turn on my vibes, and generally had a lot of fun. I'm really really happy I stuck with the class, but that's another story.

My friend gave me a rose. :)

And that was just one day!

Just a little insight into why I might be more stressed than usual. Aside from my three finals tomorrow.

And after all that, it's still not any easier to get up and go to work today. Sigh.

Pictures!

I usually put pictures of my random stuff on Facebook, but I've been growing less and less impressed with it lately. I only put up with it because of my friends there... not just the people I see every day or can pick up the phone and call, but my host mom from Japan who I haven't seen in 4 1/2 years. That's pretty awesome.

Since I can't even access the photos on Facebook at the moment, I'm doing a non-special update on this lovely overcast Sunday morning. We finally had a Saturday that was not horribly hot and sunny (only because I work Saturdays and have to walk up to the gym and it's annoying when it's hot), but then it rained and I ended up soaked and shivering in the corner of the juice bar. I don't know why people order smoothies when it's actually mildly chilly out. Really.

I love the rain though! I can drink lots of tea. I drink lots of tea anyway, but now I have an extra excuse. Especially with my new KETTLE!

I went on a mini shopping trip with my housemate. We bought cool stuff... like tiny pony figurines.

On Tuesday my Japanese class surprised me with a birthday party for me!!! I actually got an email about it, but I forgot. It was nice because students actually showed up! One of them told me straight-faced he only came for cake, but I think he was joking.....

 Japan club (the class is part of the club) gave me this super-cute uchiwa, or non-folding Japanese fan. I think it looks like Ponyo.

And then this morning I made peach bread! With frozen peaches, just because I felt like baking, even though my housemate made cookies twice in the past week and my Hawaiian class had two days packed full of delicious food presentations like poi mochi (!)and after all that we went to 'visit' a friend who works at Baskin Robbins. Peach bread is a must.

Om nom nom.

One of my friends says banana cake instead of bread, and I really think he's got the right idea.

Now I will get ready for the many tests I have this week (it's only 3 days, really?), mostly my final geology test on Ways Hawaiian Island Vulcanism Can Kill You, resuming the losing miserable battle with next semester's classes, and get ready for.... Thanksgiving!!!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday (probably), and I'm lucky enough to get to go to Oahu every year to spend it with my grandparents! I may even... take pictures!

But until then, a hui hou!

4-Hers!

Since my little brother just won the National Avian Bowl competition in Louisville, Kentucky this morning, I figured this would be a fitting post. :)

I went to a scholarship banquet on Tuesday to meet my donors and get free food (catered by my employers, so that's always nice). The donor wasn't there, but I've met him last year when I was granted the exact same scholarship. I ended up at a table sitting to a lot of people who grew up in Hilo, including a super nice staff woman next to me who told awesome stories and was in 4-H!

She was a little embarrassed telling me, saying that she never did livestock but did sewing instead, to which I said WELL! 4-H is more than a goat on a float! (That's a long story, and I didn't actually say that, but it was along those lines.)

One of my classmates was at the same table, and when we told her that we had been talking about 4-H, she revealed that she was also a 4-H alumni.... after which the girl on my other side whipped around with a 'I was in 4-H too!!'

It was a pretty awesome feeling. I'm sure it was just TOTAL coincidence that we were all there for scholarships...

They also had a lot of those basic speeches that you give at such events, things about opportunities and futures and all of our hardworking and deserving students, and it made me realize how lucky I am. I'll be honest, this semester has been somewhat less than spectacular, but I truly love Linguistics, and especially after talking to unhappy pre-med majors, I'm really grateful to get a scholarship for doing something I actually enjoy.

I'm trying to hold on to that feeling as I look at the class schedule for next semester and try not to scream. It's rather difficult. We'll see...

A hui hou!

Still alive

And kicking (hooray for Swing Dance!).

I have been meaning to write a blog post but can never think of anything interesting to write about.

My radio appearance was fairly uneventful and went well, I think. I learned a lot about radio and got to listen to a lot of Hawaiian music. The DJ also turned out to be my ethnozoology teacher who is very nice and let us speak English. Whew!!

I am another year older, having had my birthday just over a week ago (it seems like it was yesterday, which is how busy I have been since then). Lots of cupcakes and happiness all around. And Hello Kitty. I am a Hello Kitty addict. I'm not really sure why, but I even like pink now:

Everything was bright pink!

It's been getting into the finals-crunch of classes as we realize that, hey, there's only 3-4 weeks left of schools. This is slightly terrifying. And stressful.

I'm in very real danger of getting a bad grade on my fish class, which is ironic considering my 21/20 quiz scores. But I missed the field exercise because I work weekends, and not having a car to take me to the ocean for a makeup (not to mention the danger of trying to go by yourself) plus having my snare fall apart on me has left me very frustrated.

It's also difficult trying to be in 3 different places at once. I was trying to count all of my clubs with a friend, and got up to 9 before we stopped. (Technically I'm in the Magic club. Not actual magic, but the card game. I don't actually know how to play. This is what happens to me.)

I'm very happy for an extra day off from school (I get a 2-day weekend like the normal people! Woohoo!), and I spent a lot of it doing research for my Discourse Analysis class, which is advanced Linguistics or something. It's basically semantics and syntax and everything all rolled up into a ball that is people communicating with each other, and we analyze it. I love that class. I fall asleep in that class a lot... but I love it.

My paper is (hopefully) going to be about poetry, specifically in the difference between written poetry and performed poetry. The thing I have learned today is that poetry is not nice, poetry is fickle and ornery and doesn't take kindly to being analyzed, and poets can be pretty snarky themselves. My sources currently stretch from William Shakespeare to Relient K. It's a fun paper.

(We also talked once about the discourse of blogs, so now I'm analyzing my writing as I write and giving myself a headache.)

On a somewhat related note, I found a most fascinating video on the original pronunciation of Shakespeare's plays. It went through some of the puns and rhymes that are lost in modern English, and it made me excited to be a Linguistics major. Who else would read textbooks for someone else's class?

Happy Tuesday!

He DJ ana au!

Aloha!

Just dropping in to give a small update into my far-too-busy semester.

First off, referring to the title up there, one of the required activities for my Hawaiian class is to do a project for our friendly local radio station's Hawaiian hour, and mine happens to be this Sunday. So if you want to hear me speaking nothin' but Hawaiian, it's at 4-7 Hawaii time on Sunday, and you can listen to it online at www.kwxx.com.
I thought some people might be interested, but all I ask is that you don't tell me beforehand if you decide to listen. I am horribly nervous enough already.

Our project is partly to choose a place in Hawaii to be our theme, and I, having difficulties from not being from an island, ended up choosing Mānoa on Oʻahu. Mostly because I like Mānoa and there was nothing on ʻAiea, but slightly ironic because UH Manoa is in fact our rival school. (Well, not really. It's more that we're the Other UH.)

Another opportunity I got was being a part of Japan Club, which is complicated and not part of my major. It's mostly Japanese students. Through them I accidentally became the teacher of a weekly basic Japanese class, which is pretty huge and pretty darn intimidating and stressful and completely unintentional.

The other thing I get to do is go to a Hawaiian immersion school tomorrow morning (okay, this morning now) and teach origami as a part of Japanese culture to Hawaiian students... no English allowed. I'm really excited. Partly because they're feeding us. But it's a pretty huge thing for a haole California girl.

I really appreciate the opportunities that Hilo gives me... such as to be in a dozen different school clubs if I want to. I mostly flit in and out of them, except for the two where I'm actually officers (for swing dance and linguistics, yay).

I semi-joined the non-Kapili choir, and hopefully I'll get to be in the Christmas concert! I don't have my own music, so I'm having a lot of fun sight-reading notes, which is something I can do well in choir but not so well in jazz band. Hmm.

I'm also singing classical Italian in voice class. This is the song I sang today( Here!) , although mine was slightly lower. I actually sound nothing like that, partly because I'm fairly sure she's not surrounded by a giant cloud of vog. Not a happy time for a baby soprano.

As if that all wasn't enough, I get to be in a haunted house on Saturday... because it's almost Halloween. I'm going to scare people. Including myself.

I think that's all. I've been meaning to update this more frequently with cool and/or interesting things about this semester/geology, but I usually end up sleeping instead. Or reading books. Or cooking. Or finding that one last club to join.

A hui hou!

Tholeiites

What's this? I just had a blog post two days ago! What is going on?!

Someone asked me the other day (perhaps earlier, but I saw it recently because I am bad at checking comments) about tholeiites. So I would like to dedicate this post to Geology, which is a subject I don't entirely understand, so please bear with me.

This is partly because I missed class on Friday while getting diagnosed with bronchitis, or basically taking a nap in the nurse's office, and I feel guilty. I'd rather feel guilty than sick, though.

One of the nicer things in college is being really excited for something you're studying. Of course for me this happens for almost everything, but mostly Linguistics. And languages. And literature. Which is great for me, but sometimes I get bored, I get restless, and I don't want to be limited in my options. (This is part of the reason I'm a little scared of grad school, but apparently I am destined for it.) Over the (many) years, my potential major has switched from plant science, linguistics/language arts, history, literature, and... earth science. I can't do chemistry very well. I can at least get excited for rocks and weather patterns.

My geology class is actually Geology of the Hawaiian Islands, so we basically learn about volcanoes, which is mostly Mauna Loa and Kilauea, because they are the only two volcanoes still hanging out on the Hawaiian hot spot.

If you didn't grow up learning about Hawaiian volcanoes, the hot spot is a section of the sea floor that's pretty, well, hot. The theory my teacher told us is a plume of hot magma rising from the mantle-core boundary causes the hot spot. (The mantle is between the hard shell we walk on and the solid-yet-incredibly-hot core of the earth. It's got lava. Sorry, magma.) Iceland is also on a hotspot, but Iceland is also on a plate boundary, which tends to cause volcanoes anyway. The Ring of Fire outlines the Pacific plate boundaries, but Hawaii is right in the middle, which makes it.... weird.

Volcanic rocks can be traced to their area of origins in two ways: magnetism and chemical composition of the lava. Even if you stuffed a rock in your suitcase (incurring the wrath of Pele!) and took it over to Iceland (Or Norway, we have a lot of Norwegians in the class), a true geologist would be able to tell you not only that is it NOT Icelandic rock, but also whether it came from Mauna Loa side or Mauna Kea. Kilauea would be part of Mauna Loa side, so it's slightly less impressive.

One of the distinctive features of Hawaiian and hotspot volcanoes is tholeiite lava, which is basically the lava that is produced by the hotspot. As far as I'm aware, anyway. Since it comes from deep within the earth, it has different levels of potassium, magnesium, and helium than alkalic lava. However! Once the volcano has moved off the hotspot (due to plate movement), it starts producing alkalic lava because... it's still a volcano. Mauna Kea is 'capped' with alkalic lava. Haleakala on Maui has revived itself with alkalic lava before going dormant. Diamond Head was created with alkalic lava when Oahu went through a rejuvenation stage, which is basically more volcanoes without the power of the hotspot.

And that wall of text is what a tholeiite is. (Hopefully, but I did get this essay question mostly right) This was only one small part of our exam, so you might see now why I was so worried. Right now we've moved onto lava flows and eruptions and watching things explode. I'm pretty sure geologists are all crazy.

Which, speaking of crazy geologists, they all have different opinions. Two highly respected vulcanologists (how's that for a job title?) can have ideas that result in a variance like the size of Kilauea's magma chamber, which could be anywhere from .2 to 200 cubic kilometers. That's a lot. And they disagree wildly about these things and call each other names, which is really funny to see from a Creationist viewpoint...

I think I have typed enough for this morning, now to get back to my list of homework that is nearly as long. Or cleaning my room. Or continuing the war on cockroaches. Or just sleeping, because that's what sick people do.

A hui hou!

On not failing tests.

This is a happy post!

Despite my complaining that I work too much (and I do) and don't have time for homework, I was pleasantly surprised by a few of my last tests. Being sick threw me off and didn't let me study much (okay, so it made me phenomenally lazy, but coughing is hard work!), so having a Geology test in the middle of that was not the best experience.

I ended up with an A.

The test turned out to be a lot of multiple choice, thank heavens, which meant guesswork but educated guesswork! Not too many numbers and a perfect score on my plate tectonics essay question. That gave me a B, but he also graded on a curve, which pulled me up to an A... with an point re-added because I do know where Lanai is, thank you very much.

My Hawaiian test that did not go so well.... a B and one of the highest scores in the class. Bad day for everyone. Partly because we had a huge class field trip on Sunday that kept us from studying and added a huge amount of potential test material.

The field trip itself was very fun! We learned about Hawaiian navigation, which included the compass (more on that later, maybe), sailing, and more sailing. The immersion school programs actually sail their double-hulled canoes from Hilo to Oahu, so we got to go on one of those and paddle for a bit in the bay. Of course, it is a sailing canoe, and if the wind isn't right and your motor cuts out, you end up stuck out on the water for 2 hours. Not a bad way to be, but a little worrying when your captain casually mentions that you're traveling in the wrong direction.

It also included 6 hours of only Hawaiian. There was a great feeling of accomplishment.. that was then crushed by our test. But oh well.

My hardest class now is jazz band, because mallets are part of the rhythm section as sort of a melodic drummer and I cannot drum to save my life. And I hate improvising, which is basically what jazz is all about. How did I get into this? At least the people are nice.

I'm barely at my lovely house anymore, but we did get a TV! It is the strangest feeling actually having a TV in Hilo. I don't watch it much, though.

On that note, before this gets longer and ramblier, zài jiàn!

Sick!

I've been meaning to post more about fun things and friends visiting and how much I love Chinese, but the truth is I don't really have much free time. I'm still working a ridiculous amount of hours (my last paycheck had 27... TOO MUCH), and homework waits for no man.

I am finally relaxing, though, mostly because I got sick and skipped a few classes today. I went home and made soup instead. And ate popsicles. I love popsicles.

I guess it's a sign I'm doing too much. However, I don't think getting sick during a 4-test week does much for my stress level.

Today's test was in Geology, which is probably the hardest subject just because I don't understand a lot of it. Next time we'll start studying way earlier (like on Friday when we start our new section), but it was a pretty intimidating test. Our go-to Geology major buddy is very helpful and casually explains things like the higher He3 (as opposed to He4) and lower potassium levels in Hawaiian tholeiites that make it different from alkalic basalt and mid-ocean ridge basalt. Thankfully, I got essay questions on the two things I think I know pretty well (including tholeiites), and the rest were multiple choice. We'll see!

I'm just happy I'm a Linguistic major. Even if my Japanese is slowly being replaced by Hawaiian...

Week one pau!

I survived the first week of school!

I should say that I have had considerable experience at this, but this semester was something else. I got back to my smoothie-making juice bar job just in time to cover for a sick boss... who is still sick. They never hired another person, so there's only two of us, and I ended up working 2-8 Monday through Saturday. On the bright side, someone recognized me as the "smoothie girl", and I can now say that I have spent a ridiculous amount of hours at the gym, and how is your workout going? But with 18 units of classes starting at 8 AM, it was really hectic and not very fun.

My final class schedule is as follows:

Second year Hawaiian: My goodness, this is hard. Hawaiian is a rather fast-paced language program in Hawaii, and my teacher speaks no English in the class. It's very cultural-based, too, which is hard when you're... not Hawaiian. Our first week's assignment was to write and memorize a page-long speech that we gave on Friday. Minor panic attack there, but it was fine!

Hawaiian Geology: I love this class. My substitute teacher obviously knows and loves what he's talking about, and we're learning about stuff I already know, so that's easy. Plate tectonics and volcanoes!

Elementary Chinese: I am having so much fun!!! Originally a whole group of us was going to take the class, but everyone dropped out one by one until there was only two of us. We've only covered sounds right now, which is hard enough, but I think I'm getting the tones down. Plus I have a head start on characters. :) No stress. Completely unnecessary for any of my majors. Yeah.

Discourse Analysis: Upper level linguistics, the only class offered that I haven't taken. It's pretty cool, but I miss Phonology.

Hawaiian Ethnozoology, aka papa i'a (fish class): We learn about fish. Actually so far we've learned about the types of sand and beaches. I'm really happy and it's the class I absolutely refuse to drop for work or convenience, ever. Not my fault it's at a bad time...

I am missing out on Japanese, which is okay because the classes were dreadful this semester, but also Kapili choir. It conflicts with my fish class, and that is not okay. There's a handful of us in the same boat, and we're really not happy about it. But I am taking voice class, so there's that, and possibly getting to participate in the Christmas concert, because they're songs that we can sing in our sleep, usually.

This week was also Week of Welcome, and the different school clubs set up tables in Campus Center to advertise. Swing Club was there! We didn't get as many new students as the hip hop table, but we got a lot! I'm assuming very few of them will show up, because that's how Swing Club goes, but it was still exciting.

Other than that, I am relaxing my work-free Sunday away with no homework, tea, and hopefully not getting sick. My room is pretty unfinished, but I have a bookshelf and an air filter, so I'm good.

Hopefully I'll survive this coming week as well! A hui hou!

I'm here!

Sunny the travel goat guarding luggage!

 I made it to Hilo!!

After a long summer of not posting that was hot, smoky, full of zucchini, half lazy and half frenetic, I'm back just in time for school to start on Monday. This year it didn't really sink in that I was leaving until I was on the way to the airport.

First stop: Oahu! I got to stay with grandparents for a day and a half, and on the first day I got to go walk around Waikiki... and ended up in the zoo!

I had no intention of going in... at first.

 With only an hour, it was a nice jog around the place, but I think I managed to see almost everything important. Including elephant snack time (as the Japanese parent next to me put it).

We also went ziplining and made it to the beach! A good stopover, I think. I wish it could have been longer, but I have a lot to do here before school starts!

For one, I am not in the dorms but in a house with two other people, so getting furniture and boxes and assembling everything is taking up most of my time.

Half of my room... very cozy.

 My roommate has a car, so I was able to tag along with her to the store and get some things. I can walk to Walmart just fine, but walking back with a 35-pound bookcase, not so much.

Everything's out of boxes now, so I can start organizing! I found a lot of things in interesting places.

I'm very excited for my job (tutoring) after having a conversation event with students from Daito Bunka university! They do an ESL trip every year, so I got here just in time to meet them! And they had snacks, which was great, but not particular conducive to having a conversation...

Only a few days left until I start up my 19 units... I'll be ready. Maybe.

A hui hou!

Summer!

It's almost July! Yay for July! Not yay for halfway through summer...

Summer means FOOD! Or being home means food... which is kind of the same thing. I like being home and rummaging in the spice cabinet and pulling out allspice and coriander. I don't have coriander in Hawaii. Well, Hawaii does, but I don't... anyway.

A side effect of only coming home for the summer (aside from 2 weeks or so at Christmas), is that it's hot. I don't mind when it's hot. 100 degrees is a little much, but I no have little to no tolerance for cold.

It was 106 a little while ago (and windy, which gave it a sandstorm-in-the-Sahara feel), and then went down to 70s... and freezing. It gets cold in Hilo too (usually when it's 60 degrees and raining...), but I figured it was because it's humid and sort of like swimming in 60 degree water at night. Cold.

And speaking of water, 100+ degree days are the ones when you 'accidentally' spray yourself with the hose or 'trip on' the sprinkler.

But when it's 50 degrees at night, I get cold. I don't have a problem with this in December. I just don't like wearing a sweatshirt in June. (Although wearing shorts kind of defeats the purpose of the sweatshirt... that's another Hawaii thing.)

I'm just hoping it's warmer for Independence Day next week.

Happy summer!

Dancing!

I realized something last weekend...
Well, a few things. One of which is that coffee and stolen donut is not a good breakfast, and also that yukata are not made for walking.

The other is that I'm addicted to dancing.

Partner dancing, that is. I love hip hop and especially hula, but I don't really fit into them as well as I do swing. I'm not too big on performance. And since I learned that I actually fractured my wrist during that one flash mob practice in March, I'm a little wary of hip hop...

My friends and I went to an anime convention in San Jose last weekend. I actually stayed for the entire thing this year, which meant I was able to attend the very formal, very hyped Black and White Ball the first time! In honor of the ball, the convention offered ballroom dance lessons... and swing. With pretty fabulous instructors.

The night before they had a 'decompression dance' where we could all be casual and dance with instructors and each other for practice. It was super fun! I got impromptu lessons on all the stuff I missed, and so ended up dancing East Coast Swing, West Coast Swing, Waltz, Foxtrot, American Tango, Salsa, Merengue, Hustle, and Cha Cha with varying degrees of success. Instructors are very patient people.

Since Swing is much different from Ballroom, I wasn't expecting to be very good, but Swing does actually teach you about connection, frame, not relying too much on your partner, and expecting the unexpected, which is very good on a crowded dance floor when your lead has to avoid heavy traffic. West Coast Swing has always been described as much more difficult than East Coast (what I'm used to), and it's different, even down to the music. But it's way fun. For East Coast I actually got some surprised 'good jobs' from the various instructors who danced with me.

I made a new friend (out of an old acquaintance) who loved the dancing as much as I did, so we went to the ball together. The entire ball. It was well over 5 1/2 hours, and we barely sat down. It pays to get to know instructors, and I think they liked us - we got asked to dance quite a bit!

And being an anime convention, half the people who dressed up were in costume. I think a high point of the evening was doing the Cha Cha with Abraham Lincoln.

I feel motivated to look up social dancing now, even if all of the schools are getting out for the summer. Gotta keep practicing!

I'm home!

I've actually been home since Thursday, but only now have gotten around to guiltily posting once again. I meant to post earlier about conquering term papers (it came pretty close), presentations, final hulas and swing parties in which we invented new moves like the high-five tuck turn and the Simen-kills-Rachel move (guess which one of those I prefer), getting a crash course in making takoyaki, graduation, Oahu, and I just didn't.

I also got a cold right around finals time, which made for some interesting finals as they were mostly vocal. I even sang for graduation in between coughing fits. I feel somewhat professional.

So far my grades are 6 As and 1 A-. We won't talk about that A-. We won't talk about that teacher. Hmph.
I'm not sure how they would change, but apparently they're unofficial... maybe something magical will happen and I'll finally get my darn 4.0. (I'm not bitter, no, not at all!)

But I successfully navigated my 19 units, 2 jobs, 5 clubs and so on. Now is recovery time.

I also got into jazz band for next semester. On accident. I'll be playing mallets (xylophone/vibes), provided I don't change my schedule and block it out. I don't have my final schedule for next semester. I don't have housing for next semester. I don't have a clue about next semester. I don't really care.

Now that I'm home, the internet is slow, my computer is slow, it's hot and dusty. I'm planning on Doing Things and hopefully getting some short-term memory back.

And hopefully keeping up on Japanese and Hawaiian. Maybe some Spanish. We'll see.

A hui hou!

Merrie Monarch!

This is only slightly (2 weeks) late, but the Merrie Monarch festival was this month in Hilo! It's a huge hula competition, and although many of my fellow students were blissfully ignorant of the whole thing, the Hawaiian college was quite involved.

There they are!

That was the Merrie Monarch parade, which was the only day I actually got to attend. I was supposed to be IN it, but didn't think I was eligible until too late. Oh well. I had a lot of fun watching!

Two of the riders from Oʻahu

I loved the paʻu riders and was watching for all the islands... except Lānaʻi. Which was disappointing, since my roommate's from Lānaʻi. There were a lot of floats and music, and it reminded me of Picnic Day in Davis, which I missed last weekend and didn't feel quite as put out about.

We also headed to one of the craft fairs afterwards - not the biggest one, unfortunately, as it required more walking than we were quite willing to put up with. I did locate one of my classmate's stands with amazing earrings, and won a ten-minute massage with absolutely no effort on my part. It's interesting to see all the tourists and locals mixing together, especially for the parade. The streets were packed!

And of course... the hula! I watched the live broadcasts on TV, which was terribly distracting from homework and worth it. They had Miss Aloha Hula, which I missed, hula kahiko (ancient) and hula 'auana (modern). My class teaches only 'auana, but kahiko is much more powerful and apparently more popular, at least among people I've talked to. I found it easier to follow the chanting than the songs, too. Lots of Pele.

Linguistics is amazing and one of my favorite things in the world, but it doesn't let you get out and about as much as, say, Geology. Although I'm not really longing to stroll across lava every day, it is really nice to do something fun! I even got extra-credit in Hawaiian. :) I'm not sure why more people here don't take Hawaiian classes. Maybe it's just me.


One of the swing dancers, a very enthusiastic exchange students, when I asked him why he was so happy, said "I just gave up a party with alcohol and silly people to go dancing and I'm SO HAPPY!" I feel like that a lot. People can be quite silly in college, even if I love them and their silliness. It's nice to have fun without extra pressure about what kind of 'fun' to have.


Yesterday we had an outdoor event that featured a bounce house, water guns and a giant inflatable water slide. I haven't seen a happier bunch of college students in a very long time.


Back to research! I have of course not been procrastinating one bit... this week is the last week of classes and then FINALS!!! I don't know where that came from at all!

Hello!

It feels like I haven't written anything in forever, but I guess it hasn't been that long! It just feels like forever with everything that's happening...

Case in point: last week. One dance performance including crazy rehearsals, work, more work, tests (~3), opening registration for next semester, academic advising, and college prom. That's right, we had a prom! It may seem silly, but most everyone there knew each other, and it was a lot of fun and silly dancing (and NO alcohol! yess!!) and of course food.

I really wanted to post about things happening, like Merrie Monarch recently and how much I like my tutoring job, but right now I'm just trying to keep my head above water, so to speak.

Right now, however, I am going to see the school's performance of Hairspray, after which I will attempt to finish several research projects and presentation. (Oof.) I had to go see Hairspray, though, because I know half the cast! Including, I just found out, one of my coworkers. There's also a lot of people from Kapili and voice classes in there, as well as my hula teacher. They've been working really hard!

I've come to realize that I actually kind of like Hilo, which was a bit of a shock, but I think the main reason is that it's so small. I can go anywhere and bump into people I know, especially on campus.  It's a nice feeling.

Voices

I made it back from Spring Break! As did most of the other students. People were trickling in all week. Most teachers were nice and Monday was a breezy sort of day, but then an exam and a midterm and various amounts of homework kicked in with a vengeance. I am not back into vengeance mode. This is a problem. I want to sleep a lot and read books and eat chocolate (which to some extent I have been doing... shh!).

I can now feel accomplished that my voice teacher forced us all to pick our songs for the rest of the semester/month! I have a nice song from Disney-turned-Broadway, so I'm pretty happy.

In the process, though, she mentioned that I was 'definitely a soprano', and I'm not sure how to deal with that. I am an alto. I've always been an alto. I like singing alto parts and can't sing above an E, which is pretty darn pathetic (and also, coincidentally, the highest alto note in our Kapili choir music).

However, after complaining to my friend with lots of experience with such things, she explained that the soprano/alto distinction is not based on range, but rather the singing itself: altos sing from their chests and sopranos from their heads. Which makes a whole lot of sense. I'm not sure if I should have known that already (I feel that way a lot in music classes), but it made me feel better.

It also explains why I have difficulty singing a large amount of the time, since my head is generally stuffed up with allergies. Stupid vog. Stupid weather. Stupid air.

We have a long weekend that I'm looking forward to... because it's Easter!!

A hui hou!

Research Break...

It's actually Spring Break, but I'm determined to make some headway on my research projects. It's kind of the last thing I want to do in between going to the beach and hanging out with my sister who came all the way from California to visit (and scare the living daylights out of me in the process) and staying with my grandparents.

We went to the water park, the beach, found the tea shop at Ala Moana (dangerous!) and had lots of delicious food, including Hawaiian food! I finally got to try kulolo, which was exciting, and got my squid luau. No one else wanted it, but once you've eaten raw seafood of all kinds and sea urchin, squid luau is pretty darn delicious.

Yum!! This is not my picture. Mine was all eaten.

My sister went home yesterday, so I'm finally starting on my homework. I have two tests on Monday (Who does that? Only language teachers.) and a midterm next week, so I have to do at least a little bit. It wouldn't be hard except one is Japanese and I have absolutely no motivation to study.

I have one paper on Japanese poetry, which is actually coming along quite nicely; I'm not terribly worried about it. I also am comparing Portuguese immigration in Hawaii and California and hoping to find something linguisticky to put in there. It will probably be Pidgin.

My last project is driving me insane. I have three potential topics and can't decide which one I would rather do, so I've been doing research on all three. The only problem is that I don't have access to the great and helpful articles I've found. My teachers all tell me to use Google Scholar or JSTOR, and it just makes me want to scream. I get very helpful pages on buying an article for 200 euros, or completely unrelated topics, or the ever-annoying Google Books result, where it gives you a preview that cuts off right before the part you need.

On the bright side, I think I've had my topics narrowed down for me. Apparently no one writes anything critical about dialects or the Channel Island languages. That works. (I don't think I could handle grad school, this is too stressful.)

We're planning to head out to the North Shore soon, and I will actually take my camera this time!

They don't have beaches like this in Hilo...

A hui hou!

Hunger Games!

For those of you who haven’t heard, The Hunger Games movie was released on Friday. I actually went to the midnight premiere with a friend, which is a bit odd since I’m neither a movie person nor a midnight person nor really a Hunger Games person. I am a friend person, though, so it worked out. I do realize now that waiting to watch new and very popular movies is a good idea, as the theater was packed. But I did know half of the audience! Oh, Hilo…

I was talking to a friend later about the books, because I happen to have all three, and a lot of people have asked to borrow them. It’s a bit strange to me, because they’re well-written and fascinating books on one level (Panem/America, social commentary, archery…), and I do like them, but I did not enjoy reading them. The fact that people do enjoy them kind of scares me. If you haven’t read The Hunger Games, it’s very violent and depressing. Harry Potter mania I can understand, Hunger Games I definitely do not.

It was a very well-done movie, in my opinion, although the person sitting behind me disagreed. I know, because I had to listen to her. AND it was someone I knew, so I couldn’t shoot disapproving shushing looks in her direction. There were some changes I didn’t care for, but not every deviation from the book automatically makes it ‘wrong’. (I had a similar problem when we went to see War Horse too, but it was much more annoying in a historical film. I happen to like history.)

I’m really more of a book person. Most everyone who catches me reading says something along the lines of oh, you’re so good, I wish I had time to read, etc, etc.

But I sat in the back of class today, and I noticed that half the people were on their iPads, phones, or computers, while I was the only one who was hiding a book under my desk. Hmm…

Well, Spring Break is officially here! I’ll be staying in Oahu for the week. Woohoo!! :)

Critical Thinking!

One week til Spring Break!
I am very excited because I've been very busy, partly due to suddenly working more hours at my 'other job', which is being an ESL tutor at the community college. They're in their Spring Break right now, so I went in to do office work that they really needed help with! I'm happy with it, because I like this job slightly more than cleaning blenders and mopping floors, but it does make my schedule even tighter than before.

Today I have nothing going on, so I am doing homework and watching movies in other languages!

My Japanese history teacher is big on critical thinking. VERY big. Which is great and all, but I find that I learn far more about the actual history from the readings than from the class, and I'm not that interested in writing reports about strengths and weaknesses of the textbook. I'd rather write about strengths and weaknesses of the Ashikaga shogunate, but that could just be me.

I'm also taking Critical Applied Linguistics, which is one of my hardest classes only because no one can really define what we DO. It's taken until our midterm to actually figure it out (and I got a really high score, mostly because I studied like a maniac), but it's a very eye-opening class about politics and language and cultural identity. I'm actually enjoying it, which is a surprise, but it requires a lot of thought outside of class as well as in it. And I have a presentation this week. My group happened to pick the longest of the options and now have to sift through 30+ pages on minority groups in Finland. Ahhh, high-level classes. Such fun.

We did learn about Mayan writing systems one day though, which was quite fascinating. The Mayans basically used rather complicated pictographs (much like Chinese and Japanese kanji), with combinations for different words. However, if I remember right, some pictures would have meaning while some would have sound, and there were several variations of each picture and their combinations, depending on who wrote it. Back then you had to be an artist to write anything... and it was through stone carvings, too! Deciphering Mayan writing took many, many years, as you might imagine. Our class focused a bit more on the reasons for its abandonment (Spanish conquistadors banning language use) and its revitalization (Mayan kids writing little iguana heads and sun-circles on their papers), but it was a very interesting topic!

I have no idea what this says.

But I was watching The Road to El Dorado today in Latin Spanish (because watching it in Castillian doesn't make SENSE!) and saw an awful lot of Mayan influence. And then the critical-thinking-college-student brain took off, which tends to ruin movies for me, but that's okay because I get good grades. Or something.

Someone asked me the other day about the Mayan calendar and the end of the world, too... those Mayans.

And now off to make muffins... with bananas, because those are from the NEW WORLD!

Kokoleka!

Today I would like to talk about... chocolate. And other things. But chocolate.

It's a very stressful point in the semester, and about the time that I throw up my hands and wait to go home, but in the meantime I consume quite a bit of tea and chocolate.
Chocolate tea is a lifesaver. (And slightly less fattening.)

It's also been pouring down rain, which is typical for Hilo, but it has been pretty sunny up until a few weeks ago, so it's quite a change. It gets cold when it rains. I know it's snowing in California, but it's still cold when you don't have a decent jacket and tend to wear shorts and are stuck in classrooms where the A/C is STILL blasting away.
Thus, hot chocolate!

Of course, if I eat TOO much chocolate, I may not be able to fit into my Kapili dress anymore, and that would be sad. I've only worn it once, for our concert in Honoka'a on Monday night with a Norwegian youth symphony orchestra. They were quite amazing. We were pretty okay.

I am ashamed to admit that I skipped class today. It's something that has happened far too often this semester, but I decided to go to work instead. The program leader was swamped with testing and paperwork, so I was helping him out with things. Their schedule's a bit different, so it's finals week for the ESL students.
Today I also had my Japanese midterm, which was hard, and needless to say I was very happy to be over and done with my oral interview. (I also came out of Hawaiian class into the midterm, so that was stressful too. But I love Hawaiian.) Between that and the chocolate from one of the very nice ESL teachers (New Orleans chocolate, no less!), I felt like I was almost floating on air.

Now to study for my final midterm... a hui hou!

Gloomy Sundays

I just read a blog post about these kinds of days, where you sit around doing nothing but trying to focus on homework/paperwork/housework/big important things and end up doing about 5% of it.

It's a holiday tomorrow so I'm still safe, but there was still a lot of chocolate consumed. I was thinking about giving up chocolate for Lent. (I'm not Catholic, but neither are my friends who give things up for Lent...)
Now I'm not sure if I can handle it.

Last night and Friday were UH Hilo's International Nights performances, in which I performed with my friend's dance group. We represented USA (again), but there were really amazing performances from all over the Pacific, as well as Japan, Korea, Ireland, Norway... of course Hawaii was there too, and I was very excited to recognize words in the chants.
Both of them were VERY long (3-4 hours each!) and we had been practicing hard for the week before, so there were a lot of late nights.

Next up, Kapili choir will be performing with a youth symphony orchestra from Norway! This is exciting and huge and not a little terrifying as we are really not very ready. The songs are difficult. Latin masses are HARD. Even the Hallelujah chorus is hard, and I've sung it before!

So there is just a small update... I'm sure things will slow down. Eventually. Someday. It could be worse.

Happy President's Day!

Valentine's Day!

I haven't been terribly active, which is mainly because I am ridiculously busy and not quite sure why. I am performing in the school's International Nights (representing America... again), so that's a huge part of it, with 2-3 hour dance practices every day for a week...

But in the meantime, it's Valentine's Day! Otherwise known as the day of chocolate. One of the Hawaiian teachers brought candy to class and shared it, and it ended with getting chocolate literally thrown at me. Mostly from other happily (or not) single people like myself. I even got a real rose! One of the clubs did a fundraiser, so there were roses floating about everywhere. It was quite lovely.

Of course, when you're stressed... you should eat chocolate. So I'm set!

I also got the most amazing package from my family, including a box of cookies!

 

 

 

It's official... my mom's cookies are the best.

Not much else interesting is going on, aside from too much homework and schedule conflicts.

I'm going to drink some tea and watch the rest of The Slipper and the Rose.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Guitars and Whales

My Hawaiian kumu (teacher) has a habit of playing slack-key guitar while we're taking big tests. (I say habit, but we only had three tests last semester...) It's really relaxing, and I have started rather hopefully listening to it while I study for Hawaiian. Slack-key always makes me feel like I'm in the airport, and I expect highly-conditioned air, noise, uncomfortable seats, and a lot of 'Mahalo's. I also expect to be going home. Maybe the guitar was not the best idea.

It IS really realzing though, partly because I can't stop laughing at my Hawaiian book. It's continuously in the process of being written, and changes every year much to the dismay of former students with outdated books, so every once in a while there's mistakes and typos that we get to fix.

The best part is the vocabulary choice and sample sentences. Our 'theme' for the last chapter was apparently wild pig hunting as a part of Hawaiian culture, and so we get sentences like these to translate:
How much does your bucket of wild pig blood weigh?
I want you guys to fasten this pig jaw to the wall of your house.
This thigh is mine.

And so on. Using words from our vocabulary list (blood, jaw, liver, smoked pig meat...).
It's really helpful for memorization, though. A lot harder to forget things like these.

As for the whales, this morning I went to Puna to participate in the first Whale Count of the season! There are three, one each month, and this being the first and early in the season, we saw no whales. None at all. Sitting for 4 hours in hot, sunny lava rocks and straining to see anything... I'm pretty sure there were some whale hallucinating going on by the end of it. Certainly a lot of hysterical giggling.

It was really fun, although I don't know that I would want to do it again.

Now, off to listen to some lovely Schubert mass movement for Kapili! A hui hou!

Kona!

The problem with having 7 classes (and 2 jobs, and 4 clubs, and...) is that I am constantly forgetting my homework. Even if it's just reading a single page or listening to a single song, SOMETHING gets left out... purposely or not.

So today I wrote a list and told myself that if I finished 3 I would make muffins and read Catching Fire. It's actually working. Muffins are a powerful force.

The strangest thing to me is that my hardest class (aside from Japanese) is actually Kapili choir. It's hard. It's very hard. I am kind of enjoying the challenge, but it's also very stressful to try and memorize 150 pages of music all at once and then sing it without passing out. In any case, it is currently taking up a large chunk of my homework time.

It didn't help that I spent most of yesterday in Kona!

Beautiful Kona weather... I really don't see what the big deal is.

The school had a submarine day trip, and since I'm currently free on weekends I am taking full advantage of it. There were a few rough patches, but we saw a ton of fish and two shipwrecks under Kailua Bay and got to walk around the shops on the shoreline. Came back exhausted and rather burnt, but happy.

Onward to muffins!

Ginger and... more ginger.

I have finished the first two days of classes, which means I have been to all of my classes and am now in a lovely state of 'syllabus shock', as my voice instructor so nicely put it. It seems manageable, but we'll see.

I am also definitely coming down with something, which could have had better timing. Of course, it could have been at a time that was much WORSE, too, so I'm not complaining too much, except that I don't think I should have to get sick once a semester. Do normal people do that?

I always think with my colds that I'll be able to catch the next one early, but... nope. I've had a sore throat since I landed, and only now is it in the 'hello you're sick' phase. Hmph.

Anyway, that is not the point of this blog! The main point of this blog is a natural remedy that I've been meaning to try out for some time. (I have a generous supply of Airborne and cough drops, but they can only go so far.) It's basically a mix of hot water, fresh ginger, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, and honey. Sounds delicious, right?

The best part? It WORKS. I bought quite a lot of fresh ginger at the Farmer's Market, since it's Hawaii and you can do that, and so actually had all of the ingredients on hand for once. Despite being rather spicy (sort of like being punched in the throat with every sip), I now feel somewhat better. Enough to stop moaning and write a blog, anyway.

Another reason I was so excited was that, after catching a cold in Japan, my host mom gave me several things, one of which was ginger-flavored and all of which were fantastic. I have been looking for recipes ever since, but never got to try them out... until now. I feel very accomplished.

I think I shall go and sleep now. Good night.

Weekend!

Although I wish I could have stayed a little bit longer at home, I have to say, it's pretty relaxing to get here early and have a free weekend. I have textbooks (all three of them, for a whopping 7 dollars, thanks to winning a bookstore gift card!), food, and lots of books.

A friend and I even went to the movies yesterday, thanks mostly to more gift cards! We saw Sherlock Holmes 2. I was kind of on the fence with the first one, since it's a very different Sherlock than what's usually seen, but this one was very nicely faithful to the books, while still keeping the feel of the original. A few awkward moments and superfluous explosions aside, it was a really good movie... and this is saying a lot, because I don't normally care for movies. Or TV. Or anything to do with screens. (I could start a rant about 3D, but I won't.)

Campus is closed for the weekend, which is partly why it's so relaxing - everything I still need to do HAS to wait until tomorrow. I was accepted into an introductory voice class, which brings me up to 19 credits (3 of which are singing, in my defense) and requires paperwork, but I'm looking forward to it! I haven't sung seriously in a very long time, so practice will probably be a good thing.

There's a lot of cleaning going on right now - mine is mostly done, but two of my roommates are still MIA, and the third only got here yesterday.

Back to work! A hui hou!

Back in Hilo.

I really don't have anything interesting to say besides the fact that I am back from a wonderful but very short Christmas break, after spending 11-ish hours traveling. I am very tired, but luckily, I'll be able to wake up early tomorrow... in theory. And go buy food.

Plenty of people are coming back late, as in just in time for their classes. I'm suspecting my roommate is one of them, as the apartment is currently deserted. Which is fine with me, I can blast my Adele music to my heart's content (and speaker's capacity, which is not terribly) I'm happy I have time to get settled and get books and work sorted out before scrambling to get to my four classes on Monday.

My classes this semester are:
Early Japanese History
Hawaiian
Japanese
Languages of Hawaii
Critical Applied Linguistics
Kapili choir

if anyone was curious. I'm excited for all of them so far.

It's a bit of a shock to come from ice skating and fires and fuzzy lambs to a nice overheated stuffy dorm, but apparently the weather today was unusually pleasant. I appreciate it. :)

A hui hou!