Job hunting!

Well! My post-graduation summer is mostly over (although since I don't have school as a cutoff anymore, I can laugh at everyone else bemoaning the 'end' of summer and go by the calendar for once) and I still don't have a job. I have a sort of on-call thing that has resorted so far in a lovely day of bottling honey (sticky), but only because the main worker injured herself, and I'd prefer that not to happen very frequently.

So right now I have no job. I have been rejected officially from one, at which I am mildly offended and vaguely proud, similar to my very first rejection letter for my fiction story. (It wasn't what they were looking for, which I can believe, because I don't think it's the kind of story that anyone really looks for. It does have my teacher's approval, though, which is good enough for me.)

I wanted to work at Starbucks, and that didn't happen. That's okay. Being surrounded by that much dairy probably isn't the best thing anyway. I DO still really want to work at the Japanese restaurant. Hire me! I know my Japanese food! Just ignore the height and the gray eyes!

Grad school is looking more and more appealing. However.

Hula is keeping me (mostly) sane for now. We have a festival in Napa coming up that should be very educational and a lot of fun. I get to make my own kihei and chant for ceremony AND volunteer with all the musicians. Yayo!

Happy sort-of almost fall!

'Aukake

Hello! It's August. I just logged in to see my reading list of blogs had been deleted. I was affronted.

I haven't posted much, because I've been mildly ill off-and-on, hot, tired, and not breathing very well. That is pretty typical summer but doesn't make for excited blogging times. Today I trimmed goat feet and rode my horse (who is incapable of doing more than walking, if that) and exhausted myself.

I also came back from a visit to Hawaii!

Yes, yes, I did just leave, but my friend and swing dance mentor invited me to her wedding, which was lovely and beautiful and full of dancing, and I hopped over to Hilo to visit friends (including Boyfriend) and stomp around some more. It was very sad to leave as it felt like I had only just arrived, and I'm accustomed to staying for 4 months! But I saw some friends and visited the ocean and ate poke. Not a bad trip at all.

One of my friends (who ended up, unbeknownst to me, at the wedding with me) I hadn't seen since January, as she had gone off to Semester at Sea, which is... what it sounds like, really. Something like 10 countries on a floating schoolboat. I got a postcard from Vietnam, bangles from India, and Chinese tea.

This friend is the one I jokingly say I would like to be when I grow up, and am only joking because she's younger than I am.

Her project for the trip was to make a quilt. She asked people from her different stops (including Hilo!) to write or draw their dream for the future on a square and made a quilt out of it. I helped her translate a few (LIBB!), and it was fascinating to see the different answers from everyone.

There was a man who lived in the forest and asked for more trees, several with that peculiar Japaneseness that I can always identify and never explain, some worldwide problems, and an African boy who wanted a bed. It's sobering to see the answers from Myanmar and Ghana next to the ones from the US and Japan. And I think that was precisely what she was going for.

Sort of puts my current job search and lack of plans into perspective. Hah!!

Summertime!

Long time no blog!

I have successfully graduated from the University of Hawaii with a double major in Linguistcs and Japanese Studies with a minor in English. Hooray!

There's not actually a diploma in it yet. Start out in life with a little disappointment.

I am also ensconced back home, recovered from battles with strep and heaven knows what else, and playing with goats

Who are you?

But that is not important. I have no idea what I'm going to to with my life, I have no job so far, and with all my spare time I may as well update my blog. I have reports on things that happened months ago that I never got around to

In the meantime I have a few words to say about Grammar.

Not grammar, Grammar. Especially Grammar nazis, although that's really a terrible term and I'm surprised people who are so PC in other ways still use it. Grammar correction is perfectly fine with me. Grammar overcorrection is a little silly. If someone can get there point across with out proper punctuation, and posibly spelling... well, so what?

I have the double (dis)advantage of being a linguistics student rather than an English student and also being an ESL teacher. Linguists don't usually tell people what to say or how to say it, we'd rather observe and surreptitiously take notes. (At least the nerdy linguistics I hang around with.) I especially find text-speak fascinating, as even the most eloquent of people can change their entire discourse between actual writing (emails, letters, documents, essays...) and texting, because it's closer to speech, which doesn't pay much attention to grammar and punctuation.

Or does it?

Being around ESL speakers for a while, it's become apparent that it's bad to correct every speck of improper grammar all at once. And my helpful tutor training informed me that correction itself isn't going to fix the problem, explaining it is. Besides, "you are my adoration" in a birthday card is really awesome. I'll take it.

(I may be slightly defensive because I am too impatient to correct myself while texting, and idk is just so much more convenient to type.)

I will now get off my tiny soapbox and finish cleaning my room. Carry on.

Hold On, I'm Coming

Well, I haven't updated this since Merrie Monarch, and this post is... not about Merrie Monarch.

I spent the week after desperately catching up on all of the work I didn't do during Merrie Monarch (my housemate and I gleefully took a day off to go craft-fairing, and I regret that not at all), went to Kiholo for my Hawaiian field trip, which was fantastic, and came home into a massive case of strep throat.

I've spent the remainder of my final semester of college in varying degrees of sick and exhaustion, have been completely swamped with homework, and things that are meaningful and ending just aren't making that much of an impact yet. I've had my last dance practice (Sunday), last hula performance (Tuesday), last day of classes and Hawaiian party (yesterday), and today is my final jazz band concert! I should be super sad, but I've had so much fun at all of these that I can't help but be smiling all the time. When I'm not sleeping. Such as during my least favorite class. IT'S DONE!!!!

However, I did have a hard time today saying goodbye... to my xylophone. I know that's really sad, but I love playing it, and it's hard to realize that I won't get to ever again. For the concert we have the vibraphone, and we're also borrowing a marimba that is seriously epic and LOUD, so the xylophone got left out because that's a lot of stage space. But it will always be my favorite.

I've really learned a lot this year, and I think I might actually be able to call myself a musician. This concert's kind of a big deal to me.

It's going to be really tough to study after today, but three finals and a fiction portfolio are waiting for me.....

Hold On, I'm Coming is one of the songs we're playing tonight. I hope we do well!!

A hui hou!

Sorry for the absence of posts recently!

My Spring Break was amazing, intense, and involved very little sleep, being split between an Intervarsity retreat and visiting my grandparents on Oahu, and I haven't quite caught up yet.

Right now I'm waiting for my roommate to get back so we can all go to watch Merrie Monarch. Her cousin miraculously got me a ticket for 'auana night. I say miraculous, because it's the 50th anniversary and it's packed.

More on that later. :)

A hui hou!

Big wheel keeps on turning!

(Apparently this is my 100th blog post... I'm not sure if I should do something auspicious.)

Guess what we're playing for jazz band this semester? My housemate and I just had a miniature dance party to Proud Mary, and I'm hoping it will just be an amplified experience at our concert in May.

Jazz band is one of the most challenging classes I'm taking in my overly busy, overly stressed semester, but I can't imagine dropping out... even though I almost did. Twice.

Last semester, I went from hiding underneath the xylophone (it's comfy under there) when I wasn't playing to being on stage with a microphone. It was a big deal. This semester I have a compatriot, two solos, and four more instruments!

We lost piano players, so I'm also playing keyboards and and grand piano for a song. I also play the shaker and upright bells, which requires me to hit things with hammers. I do not mind this at all. Now, I've played piano for 16-17 years now. It shouldn't be a big deal. But when the conductor hands me 9 pages of music and tells me NOT to play what's written on it... I get a little anxious. Jazz is all about the improv. I can improv on a xylophone; I'm getting good at it. Piano is hard.

On the other hand, I feel like I've learned more about music in one and a half semesters than I have in 15 years of piano. This is NOT true, and I have an excellent background on theory and musicality that supports all this new thinking stuff... but it feels like it.

The other day I forgot music to a song, tried to play it from memory, and ended up accidentally improvising something that sounded pretty cool. I was shocked... and couldn't do it if I actually tried. Really, really frustrating.

Kapili is a little bit similar; I've been in choirs for forever, but I learn a lot about harmonies (being an alto) and how to make them by listening rather than being told what to sing. I've gotten a lot better just from being in chorus and voice class, and it's why I switched back to being an alto this semester - I want to practice singing soprano more, but I got bored. I like harmonies. And altos are just cool.

It's been a kind of intense semester, music-wise. Same with dancing. People tease me for not being a performing arts major, but I kind of like not being required to do something that I love for credits and grades and whatnot. And I don't have to take acting.

Besides, everyone knows Linguistics is the best major. :)

Over and out!

Because I do everything.

I've just been diagnosed with strep throat (or at least they're treating me for strep throat and I am okay with that because I have two credits dependent on me singing) and I now have a legitimate reason to sleep the rest of the weekend.

The reason I got sick was a little event called International Nights that happened last weekend.

It's a show put on by the International Student Association that showcases different cultures. I've been a part of it every year I've been here, previously for Swing and hip hop, but this year I was in two performances, one for hip hop, and one for Japan Club!

The week or two before the actual performance had me pretty much eating, sleeping, and dancing. There was some school stuff going on there too. We had President's Day off and had a 7 hour dance schedule that was fortunately only 5... it was intense.

So I was a little out of it. I was also a little in pain. Hip hop is more about not falling over and not smacking anybody in the face, but Japan club did a dance called Sooran-bushi that is very hard on the legs. I've been wanting to do it since last year, though, and I regret nothing... except maybe falling on stage after hurting my knee during practice. Minor details.

I stole this picture from Facebook. Obviously, I didn't take it.

I don't know if you can see it here, but I am the only person who is not Asian, and one of two who were not 100% Japanese. Everyone was super nice, though, and I have major cool points for when I go to Japan.

We also did something called zeni-daiko, which is related to taiko drumming somehow but consists of tossing bamboo sticks with coins in them to music. It sounds weird, but it totally worked. The sticks look like this:

We got to make them ourselves! And then give them back to the club...

One of the hardest parts about being in International Nights was giving up my Hawaiian class trip to Kiholo Bay. Not only was it a lot of points for me to make up, Kiholo is supposed to be beautiful, and I wanted to see parts of Hawaii I haven't seen yet before I graduate. (I still want to. I have a list. It's going to be a busy 2 1/2 months.)

The trip ended up being cancelled last minute, and we're rescheduling it for next month... which is sad, but I am so relieved I didn't drop out of dancing!

We're also learning back-bends and making our own skirts in hula, and I am slowly getting the hang of Tahitian.

I also am still the President of Swing Club. And occasionally salsa. People step on my feet a lot. There's also tango and waltz lessons I haven't yet been able to attend. Someday.

I just like to dance, okay?

But for now I'm going to make soup and watch TV for the weekend. Relay for Life is next weekend and I want to be better by then!!

A hui hou!