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!