Cross at the Zebra

It's snow time.

2012-01-21T08:28:00.000-10:00

Obviously, with a title like that, I'm not in Hawaii anymore.

I finished up my last semester, spent a couple of weeks enjoying the island, had a week-long layover in Utah (I got to spend time with family, catch up with some friends and go to a besties' wedding) and am now back in Maryland, searching for gainful employment. I could even drop the qualifier and say I'm just looking for employment, gainful or not, and that statement would still be very true.

Enough of that update.

It snowed last night. I was way too busy making a pretzel portrait of Orville Redenbacher to pay attention to the weather at the time, but this afternoon I decided to wander around outside and take some pictures.

Enjoy.

Side Note

2011-11-08T22:31:00.000-10:00

I'm always curious about who actually reads this here blog. If you wanted to leave a comment and say "Hey, I do!" or something like that, that would be awesome. You could even ask a question or write a haiku if you feel so inclined.

Really though, I'd love to know who my Minnesota visitors are. Homenum revelio!

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

2011-11-08T22:22:00.000-10:00

Fire awaaaaaa-aaaaaaaaay.

That Eddie Schwartz sure has a way with words. And that Pat Benatar sure knows how to sing those words.

Today I got hit with a lot of somebody's best shots at reminding me why it's so awesome to be alive.

I was hit with the realization that graduation is a mere thirty nine days away, and I'll be leaving Laie and the island ten days after that, with no idea of when I'll be back. As sad as that may be, it helped me reflect a bit on these past three years and how much I've loved being here. There are so many places and people and foods and experiences I'm going to miss when it's finally time to leave. It's been good times, that's for sure.

There are so many people I am so lucky to have in my life, and sometimes it takes a little technological magic (know as Skype) to remind me of that. Yesterday I had a magnificent chat with one of my Maryland favorites and today I had some Skype and gchat magic happen with the fam-jam (in three different states!). Going back "home" after Jerusalem hasn't been something I've been dreading, but it also hasn't been something I've been looking forward to immensely either. At least for now, that's changed.

And finally, I was hit with the realization that my plans for the next couple of years, however nascent they may currently be, are one of the few things providing me any form of motivation or scholastically related happiness at the moment. I'm excited to see how it all turns out, and that's quite the improvement from the way I've been feeling about it all for the past few months.

Strangely, my photo collection is lacking in the gun/shooting device department, so here, have a picture of a beautiful sunset.

Summa-summa time. Part 3b.

2011-11-02T10:41:00.001-10:00

Evidence that we did more than just stare at all that good looking produce. Check out the strawberry juice stains on that cute girl on the left.

Summa-summa time. Part 3.

2011-11-01T22:26:00.000-10:00

These are not going in any sort of chronological order. It's more of a "Well, I can say something about that picture right now." order.

As my aunt dropped my off at home the night I arrived in Maryland, I looked up at the house and stared. Then laughed. Then stared some more. My mom and step-dad had strings running from the roof to the ground, all across the front of the house, ostensibly for beans, but at this point they were completely bare.

I laugh at how eccentric my parents are. Often, in fact. However, I admire them for how dedicated they are to their lifestyle, and certainly appreciate the bounty it provides. It wouldn't be much of an exaggeration to say that there were no more than a handful of meals we shared this summer that didn't have something from their garden. I would often walk into the kitchen to find my step-dad in the midst of canning tomato sauce or jam that they were putting away for the winter.

We ate tomatoes, figs, apples, strawberries, artichokes and beans (oh the beans!), along with the multitude of herbs they have all around the yard.

If you haven't eaten a fig straight from the tree, you do not know what you're missing in life.

True Love

2011-10-28T22:27:00.000-10:00

I took engagement pictures for a couple of friends around this time, two years ago.

In the time since then, they've spent time in three countries and keep having their wedding plans foiled.

They're finally getting married tomorrow. Congrats Amanda and Iriapa!

Summa-summa time. Part II.

2011-10-18T20:15:00.000-10:00

Along with one trip to Gunpowder Falls, I made it up to Patapsco Valley State Park a few times this summer, dragging along whatever friends or siblings were willing to accompany me. (I guess, more accurately, a friend who was preparing for a family hiking trip to Yellowstone invited me along, and then we kept going, bringing along whoever else was interested.)

We kept up the theme of getting terribly, horribly, hopelessly lost two or three of those times. One of the days, we planned to do the five mile loop and estimated it would take about two hours, then spent five hours wandering, before a mountain biker sent from heaven shared his water with us and pointed us back in the same direction we'd just come from in order to make it back to the car. The other times we stayed in the same area and just never quite made it to where we wanted to be, with no idea of where we actually were.

My last trip, I went up with a friend before he headed back to school and we wandered around a bit, then got soaked in an incredible downpour on the way back. Then there was that one time I was viciously attacked by a wasp and had to resort to the removal of clothing in order to get it off me.

All in all though, the park is full of fun memories- bounding up hills and exploring the train tracks and picking wild raspberries and stopping to do yoga and take pictures when we couldn't figure out which way to go.

Not to mention, it's beautiful! Check it:

If you look closely, you can see the deer on the train tracks. There was a family of them that we saw a couple of times.

I was so excited to have my little brother back. He came along and was the official raspberry picker.

This is the vicious wasp that attacked me, after I'd thrown it into the water. Not long after this photo, the other bugs you see attacked it. What goes around, comes around, sucker.

One day, as we were leaving, we turned the wrong way on Ritchie Highway and ended up in Baltimore. Lucky for us, it just so happened to be July 11th, so we hit up every 7-11 between Arnold and Baltimore. These aren't even all of our cups. No regrets.

I admit, I'm a bit of a poser sometimes. These tunnels are all over the park and if I ever have to pick a place to park my homeless rear end (as a soon-to-be-graduated Anthropology major, that seems to be a growing possibility), this is it.

Hopefully, I'll get my summer postings done before I graduate (IN SIXTY DAYS), so I can write about other things without feeling guilty for not being somewhat up to date.

Summa-summa time.

2011-10-06T08:55:00.006-10:00

This summer was bundles of fun, and I took plenty of pictures and obviously never posted any of them. I'll remedy that a bit, starting right now, with some photos from the Gunpowder Falls hike I did with some friends.

Some day, I will learn that things will never, ever, ever go like I think they will, especially if it involves reading maps, but that day is not today, and it definitely wasn't the day we went on this hike.

We were (over) prepared for a fifteen mile hike that was supposed to hit some nice falls at some point, but we never made it and ended up just turning around after we'd been out for a couple of hours, but it was lovely all the same. I grew up fully ensconced in typical suburban America and never did much exploring outside of a ten or fifteen mile radius from home, so seeing this part of Maryland was like a whole new world!

I may have a slightly obsessive personality. Evidence: I spent a minimum of an hour trying to google this flower. If you haven't had occasion (or interest) to do so yourself, trust me, it's not exactly an easy task. Bugs may be even harder to google. This is a lanceleaf tickseed flower.

We may have hopped off the trail a couple of times to climb around on whatever we thought looked interesting and non-life-threatening. If my friend Jessie sitting there on that little pebble gives you any idea of the scale, these were no tiny rocks.

These were all over the place and I loved the shape from the back. Mountain laurel is indigenous to the Eastern US and is sometimes called Spoonwood, supposedly because Native Americans used to make their spoons out of it. I'm not sure if I believe that or not because it's poisonous. So: If you find some, look, but don't eat.

This reminded me of Lord of the Rings. But I haven't seen the movies more than once each, nor have I read the books, so that may just be a me thing.

Crouching Lion

2011-10-05T09:08:00.000-10:00

Crouching Lion hike is only a few miles down Kamehameha Highway from BYUH, but I hadn't made it out to hike it until a couple of weekends ago some friends graciously permitted me to join in on their fun. It took a little longer than planned, I ruined my shoes, got covered in scratches from prickly ferns, had mud all the way up past my knees and walked a little funny for a few days afterwards, but it was so worth it. The views were incredible and we laughed more than we cried, so we'll call it successful.

Although, if you were wondering, jumping in the ocean after being viciously attacked by menacing ferns hour after hour is not at the top of my list of activities to repeat. It burns a bit.

Bon Voyage!

2011-10-04T12:31:00.000-10:00

Today my little sister is fleeing the country. I'll dedicate this post to her, because she's off on an incredible adventure. I'd say I'm jealous, but I'm still busy enjoying the fact that I have three months left here on this beautiful rock and then I'm finishing off my undergrad with a semester in Jerusalem, which will undoubtedly be quite the adventure in and of itself.

So basically, seester, have a grand time. Be safe (but not too safe), and we'll share our stories when we're back in the same town, on the same continent. You asked me to post beautiful pictures, and I can think of no picture more appropriate than this one in honor of you today.

Focus.

2011-08-21T17:49:00.001-10:00

A little something I'm lacking lately. Luckily, it's summer, so it's not tooooo important. Except when I adventure around the jungle/garden/backyard with my camera.

This was the first time in months, and certainly since I've been back in Maryland, that I've gotten my DSLR out. For shame, self. I do still have some photographic proof of rad adventures I've been on that might get posted sometime. No promises though.

My deepest fear...

2011-05-08T21:27:00.000-10:00

...is not that I am inadequate. It is that I will leave for the summer before the mangoes on the tree in the backyard are ripe.

I might be referencing this quote, attributed to various people and apparently quite popular among my peers.

Hello again, and happy mother's day.

2011-03-28T19:00:00.000-10:00

At this moment, the little girl in the picture below is hiding in my closet.

Scratch that, she just jumped out and yelled "Boo!" at me. Ten times.

While she was looking out the window right now, she asked if maybe we shouldn't clean the mango picker because someone might have sat on it naked.

Do you know what a mango picker looks like?

Check it:

If you've Skyped with me while I've been living in this house, you've probably spent a minute or two with her coming to sit next to me and staring into the camera, not saying anything. I think that might be the only time she isn't talking. She's a pretty great source of entertainment and comes in on a daily basis and says something along the lines of "Hey, my mom knows I'm here. ...wanna watch some bideos?"

Attending college, my interactions with small folk are pretty limited, and I'm glad to have her around. Even if sometimes she knocks on the bathroom door and tells me that I'm brushing my teeth too loud and her baby brother is trying to sleep.

There is no need for paid entertainment with a precocious, outgoing four year old around, that's for sure.

Well lookee here.

2011-03-26T23:28:00.001-10:00

It's a crab. A rock crab, maybe? It's certainly more colorful than the (sand?) crabs that frequent the beaches that I frequent.

After popping over to look at my actual blog site, I realized I have new followers! Hello!

As Promised.

2011-03-25T23:27:00.000-10:00

Those nerd-tastic photos that were anxiously awaiting posting are here, for your viewing pleasure, now. You will now gain some insight into what went through my head in the hours and hours I spent going through shelves and shelves of books for my current work project. (Also, I send my apologies to the poor library workers who had to reshelf all of those shelves and shelves of books, over the weeks that I was buried in the stacks. Universe, make sure that apology gets to the right person, por favor.)

I would look at the cards in the back of the books (For entertainment, naturally. A girl's gotta get her kicks somewhere, right?) and wonder about who checked out the books before. Given the subject matter, it's almost a guarantee that it was for an assignment- this stuff isn't light reading.

People were reading this book before I was a twinkle in my father's eye, as they say. I wonder where they were from and where they are now. Would they remember checking this particular bit of paper and binding out? I also wonder about the timing- the spurts of interest and the years lapsed between check-outs. Wouldn't it be a bummer to be a book that just sat there, languishing for years in between times that people decided the information on it's pages was worth reading? Sad. (...I might have a habit of over anthropomorphizing objects. Maybe.)

...Now that I have firmly established what a nerd I am, on to the next!

I thought that in light of recent world events, this comment left by some unknown reader was appropriate. Also, I think the words that are visible on this page are entertaining. Hope you do too!

Snapshots

2011-03-19T15:53:00.000-10:00

I might have declared this week my unofficial spring break, and spent hours in a swimsuit everyday. There is a distinct possibility it might also have been worth it, now that I'm jumping into the last three weeks of the semester and start exams and presentations Monday.

On Tuesday, I went and did the Laie Falls hike with a couple of friends and took some pictures along the way.

If I could identify any of these for you, I would, but my Hawaiian flora knowledge is sadly lacking. The third one might be a close up of a Cook Pine tree. Maybe?

Things to Be Thankful For

2011-03-11T18:16:00.003-10:00

Last night, I was sitting in my room contemplating whether or not to do homework (it's all part of the process, you know), and courtesy of facebook updates, found out about the earthquake that had hit Japan, not even an hour after it happened. Along with that news came the news that we were under tsunami advisory with it expected to hit around three in the morning. You might recall last year's Tsunami Tsaturday. I did a little news-searching and received a plethora of texts from friends and eventually decided to pack up and head for the hills, along with everyone else in the house. I contacted family (and won a prize for favorite child in doing so. FINALLY.) and spent the next five hours sleeping in the backseat of the car, trekking up and down the hill a couple of times, demonstrating yoga positions for my roommate, texting, and hoping and praying that nothing would happen. Eventually, around five am, we headed back home and jumped (that might be an exaggeration, we were too tired to jump, but I did have to climb through a window) happily into bed.

This time around, I have no feelings of "Well, that was a waste!" like I did last year. I am just glad to be home safe and am thinking of all those who aren't. One of my good friends lives in Tokyo and can't get back to her family because the transportation isn't working. Other friends have lived in Sendai and are waiting to hear back about people they knew.

There are so many things to be thankful for with this situation- that the tsunami didn't come, that we have the technology to tell us about these things, that communication enables us almost instant contact with the world, that there are so many people who care about me and want to check in and make sure everything is okay.

Also, that it calmed down enough that I could still get some beach time in this afternoon. ;) It's hard to not be selfish in a situation like this and think about all the things that could have happened but didn't. I hope I'll appreciate all of those, but still keep in mind everything that did happen in Japan and elsewhere. The clean-up isn't going to be fun, and I know people's lives will be different for a very long time.

When will my reflection show...

2011-03-07T21:07:00.001-10:00

I hope you realize that by whatever path you used to get to this blog, you were signing yourself up for some fantastic nineties pop-culture references. If you didn't catch the one from the title, you are missing out and need to grab a bean-bag chair, a bowl of stove top cooked popcorn (which is obviously far superior to the kind that comes in a bag, covered in radioactive orange grease) and a copy of Mulan and study up, because clearly a vital part of your education is severely lacking.

This is probably the last of the old-school projects, but there may be a couple more to excavate, we'll just have to wait and see.

There are some nerd-tastic pictures anxiously awaiting being shared that I've taken in during my many hours spent in the library as part of my latest project for work. If that statement right there doesn't move you to the edge of your seat, you should probably check your pulse, because you might be dead, or at least mostly dead. (See, there I go, another pop-culture reference, even if this one is late eighties. I am full of them tonight.)

Annnnyways. Have a beautiful week. I would tell you to spend it on the beach, enjoying sunshine, but that isn't feasible for everyone.

Also, just for fun, read this. It apparently also a night for wikipedia links.

Blue Like Jazz

2011-02-16T22:31:00.000-10:00

Alternative title: Super Saxy

Another old school art assignment, albeit more interesting than the last one. I repeat the "Don't judge me." sentiment, even though it's inevitable.

The title of this post came from a book a friend recommended to me a couple of years ago, surprisingly enough entitled Blue Like Jazz- Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller. I like it. You might too. I tried to flip through and find a quote that might entice someone, somewhere to read it, but hadn't underlined any of the stories I remembered. Bummer.

And that is that.

Chocolate, Vanilla, Choose.

2011-02-15T22:28:00.000-10:00

Pretty early on as a nanny, I learned that posing open-ended questions such as "What do you want to do after school?" or "What do you want to eat?" to the oldest boy would result in ten minutes of us staring at the menu or going through possible options before he would make up his mind, an inevitably he would change it two more times before it was for sure.

The only real way to prevent mulling over decisions for longer than the activity would take was to offer a few suggestions and make him pick one of those, and provide a general time limit and go from there.

One of the things I hate most is sitting around going "Whaddaya wanna do?" "I dunno, whudduyuwanna do?" I'm guilty of it, for sure, but isn't doing anything better than that?

Right now, I'm kind of at that "I dunno, whudduyuwanna do?" stage. In a big way.

My summer plans are up in the air. Am I doing research on an even more tropical island paradise than the one on which I currently reside? Should I spend some big bucks and fly home and take a rad course through the university out there (why yes, I would be helping to excavate one of the places where Frederick Douglass was once a slave, thanks for asking!), do I want to bum around here and enjoy my last undergrad summer?

I don't have a dang clue.

Have I mentioned that I graduate this year? It's happening. Do you know what the single most common question I get when that comes up in conversation is? I bet you can figure it out. It goes something along the lines of "What are you going to do now?"

Besides scaring the living bejeebers (that's the anatomically correct term, btw), it reminds me that there are no concrete, or wood, or cotton, or rubber plans. There are a million options floating around that I think would be fun, or interesting or actually help me on some sort of career path (Wait... am I supposed to have one of those? Right now? Are you sure about that?), but narrowing those down is simply not working currently.

What I've been leading up to with all of this is:

If someone could make my life, or at the very least, my summer, a chocolate-vanilla-choose situation, I'd be much obliged. Please and thank you.

Elementary, my dear Watson.

2011-01-25T15:52:00.006-10:00

After that last post, I decided I wanted to post more of my old stuff. Sadly, any of the physical manipulations I did are currently inaccessible (and not nearly as cool via the intar-webs), so the only ones I have are those that I emailed to myself.

Here's a keyboard:

Taken with the same camera, for the same assignment.

My last year of high school, I took the AP 2D Portfolio class. There are two parts of the portfolio, breadth, in which you show off your skillllllz and ability to do different things, and concentration, where you pick a theme and go with it. All of the ones I'm going to be posting are concentration pieces, because all of my breadth was done on film.
They're all pretty basic and not too exciting (and this is the least exciting of all of them), but a post is a post, yes?
Mainly, this is a chance for me to look back at what I was doing back in '05 and '06. Don't judge me.

Old school.

2011-01-24T15:47:00.000-10:00

While home, I went on an archeological dig through the boxes of my high school past. I found all my old binders of film and prints and various projects. My intention was to scan all of them, or at least the ones that don't make me cringe when I look at them, but that didn't happen.

This may or may not be one I sent as part of my portfolio. Who knows. It is contrasty and was taken with a digital camera that would be considered a dinosaur by anyone, but I remember the fun I had working on this piece and on the rest of them, and isn't that the important thing? (We'll go with that, yes?)

I miss photo classes. And music classes. I should probably do more of both of those things than I am.

It's a dalmatian plantation!

2011-01-19T20:46:00.000-10:00

Title in honor of the fact that this is my 101st post. Please smile and pretend I am clever, even though that may be far from the truth.

I am back on this lovely rock in the middle of the Pacific and appreciate it so much more now that I got my much needed break. Home was great. Beyond great, in fact.
I got to spend time with my family and friends and go adventuring. I tried new things. I shot zombies (...okay, so I shot one, and it was paper, but with real bullets!), I went ice-skating and bowling and paintballing and made cheesecake and baked and decorated cookies with friends I've known since elementary school. I watched movies and read books (FOR FUN) and slept in late and stayed in my pajamas until six in the evening (no really, it was great). I saw Christmas lights galore and missed the New Years Eve fireworks because my absolute lack of any sense of direction rubs off on people who spend too much time around me.
I saw snow. I shoveled snow. I froze. I also watched with delight as that snow melted.
I wore socks every single day. I even wore a coat and gloves. I didn't even mind having to wear a coat and gloves . . . most of the time. And if we want to talk about crazy- I drove a car- that has only happened about four times since I've been out here at school.

Being at school helps me appreciate home. Being at home helps me appreciate school.
There is plenty more to say about that, and lists miles long I could make, but I think that is enough for now.

Now, I'm a couple of weeks into the semester and enjoying classes and working and not being stressed out (we'll see how long that lasts). With my go-to friend back on the mainland awaiting her departure to China, I'm making new friends and doing new things. Lots of new things. Life is good.

This has been enough of a novel. Here's a picture:

This memorial is one of my most favorite-est places close to home. I shot a series here back in high school experimenting with different film speeds and when I got my lenses summer before last this is where I came out to play with them- I might have even posted some of those pictures, but I'm not sure. The two domes you can see in the distance are the Naval Academy chapel and the State House. Lovelylovelylovely.

I've gone hard...

2010-12-16T23:30:00.000-10:00

...And now, after almost a year and a half, sixty-eight completed credit hours and one long bout of homesickness, I am finally going home.

(Picture from the first stop on the Stairway to Heaven, on an August adventure with the roommates.)

Aloha for two weeks and a half weeks, Hawaii.

Hello, Maryland. Please, don't freeze me while I'm out there!

2010-12-09T11:36:00.000-10:00

It's a (relatively) cold, rainy morning, which makes oatmeal and cinnamon apple tea the perfect accompaniment to writing reading responses to Marx, Levi-Strauss and the hater of an author who penned the chapter on post-modern anthropology in my textbook.

For some strange reason, my posting increases exponentially at the end of the semester in comparison to the beginning. My room is also cleaner and everything I own is more organized. At least my procrastination is productive, right?

I bet...

2010-12-06T22:26:00.001-10:00

Rubber Ducky likes outside showers too, not just baths...

P.S. The pasta had the opposite problem this time- it was a little too tough (and the lasagna, although quite tasty, was far from pretty, thus no pictures). I feel like the Goldilocks of pasta. The third time she always likes it, right?

ADVENTURE TIME!

2010-12-04T23:53:00.000-10:00

...that title is for Raycho and MayeHsuwimmer. Because even though I don't see the point of that show, I think you guys are a-okay.

Anyways.

My adventures of late may not be super-exciting-jumping-off-rocks-into-shallow-pools-of-water adventures, but I still think they're delightful. In recent weeks, many of my adventures have been going down in the kitchen. (With good reason, far too many of past outside adventures have ended in pain lately. Why yes, my left knee and hip are still lovely shades of purple and green, thank you for asking.)

A few weeks ago, I decided to try my hand at home-made pasta. Home made spinach pasta, in fact. The process was fun, and made more fun with the help of friends. It turned out beaaaaaaaaaaautiful.
See:

The color was lovely, and the recipe I conglomerated from a few different ones (and didn't write down... typical!) worked pretty well. I'd never made pasta before and the sources I looked at varied on drying time, so I let the noodles dry for two-three hours before sticking them in the pot. In my exuberance, I put them in the pot to take pictures and let them there while the water was boiling, which, in combination with the short drying time probably played a role in the mushy texture.

I was happy, but not completely happy, so with nothing except planning a lesson for Sunday on my agenda for Saturday night, I decided to have another go at it.

Right now the lasagna noodles are drying out in the kitchen, and this is me desperately hoping that even though the dough was a completely different texture and they're not as thin as they maybe should be, it all works out and tastes great.

And yes, in case you were wondering, this is a pretty typical Saturday night for me. At least I went to the beach today in combination with hanging out in the library. My life is so exciting.

Non-sequitur: I am flying home in twelve days and couldn't be more excited. I guess to be more accurate, I'm flying to visit my grandparents in twelve days and driving home in fourteen, but GOOD HEAVENS it has been a long time since I saw my family. I like this rock in the middle of the ocean and all, but it being a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean when my family lives on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean does put a bit of a damper on face to face interactions on a regular basis.

A Day Late

2010-11-26T22:53:00.000-10:00

Yesterday, I thought about Thanksgiving. It makes sense, seeing how it was Thanksgiving.

I thought about our school Thanksgiving dinner in second grade, where we lined up our desks in the hallway outside the classroom and half of us got to be pilgrims with black and white construction paper hats or bonnets, and half of us got to be Indians, with brown headbands and red feather shaped cut outs jutting up from the back of our heads. I thought about the dehydrated and rehydrated mashed potatoes, the turkey and gravy and the half pint chocolate milk cartons on the white styrofoam trays that was all the same as the regular cafeteria food, but it felt special and different because it was Thanksgiving. I remembered how as first graders, we were so jealous that the second graders got to do that, and how as I moved up the ladder of elementary school, I wished we could all have that same Thanksgiving lunch in the hallway.

I thought about the Thanksgivings growing up, where we would all pile into the car and drive down to North Carolina to spend a couple of days with my step-mom's cousin and his family. There would be turkey and pumpkin pie and a little backyard football. We would play a few rounds of the Great Dalmuti and Settlers of Catan and my dad would usually wander off to another room to read. I think I remember going on walks around the neighborhood and that there was a big pond or a small lake that we would go down to (literally, because they lived on a killer hill). I remember how we used to hate climbing back into the car because it meant we had a seven hour car ride ahead of us, and it didn't matter how many books or pillows we had, there was no way it was going to be fun.

I thought about the Thanksgiving I had in Hungary, where I went to school, but probably not for very long, and then the two other exchange students in the city came over to my apartment and we baked peanut butter cookies and ate some of the Japanese treats Motoko's family had sent her. A little later that evening, the six missionaries and some of the young adults and I met up at one of their apartments and we had a pseudo-Thanksgiving dinner, with a big chunk of turkey meat cooked on a baking pan and square pumpkin pie with phyllo dough because the sisters didn't have time to make pie crust. I shared the cookies I'd made and the mint chocolate covered Oreos I'd gotten in a care package from my mom and we all sat around speaking a mix of Hungarian and English. I remember it as being one of my favorite days I'd had in Hungary so far and maintain that it is still my favorite Thanksgiving.

I thought about the faulty premises of the holiday and that although there might have been a day that the Pilgrims and Indians, uh, I mean, Native Americans, sat down together to share a meal, they were also at extreme odds as to what exactly was going to be going down on this continent, and that to this day, the relationship is a little shaky.

I also thought about how unthankful I am, and how helpful it is to have a day set aside to reflect on all of the many things I have to be grateful for, and that even though the myth (and I'm saying myth in the Barthe sense) we pass down is dubious at best, it can't be all bad if it brings people together at a sit down dinner to share their gratitude for each other and for the great things in life.

Yesterday, I was thankful that even though I live 5,544 miles away from my parents, I have people out here that I can call 'ohana and who gather together for beautiful Thanksgiving dinners outside. I was thankful to live in a gorgeous place where 70 is cold. I was thankful for long chats with my family and short texts with far away friends. I was thankful for my rad roommates who spent all day cooking up a storm in the kitchen. I was thankful that the preceding week had been filled with good friends and good food. I was thankful that even though the week wasn't the best academically, there's still another two weeks for me to redeem myself.

All those things I was thankful for yesterday? I appreciate them even more today.

Probably the thing I'm most thankful for is that Thanksgiving is over, because now the next big day is Christmas, and I will finally be back on the East Coast to enjoy the company of those family and friends I have missed so much in the year and a half since I've been home.

Also, I doubt your Thanksgiving dinner was as pretty as mine. Check it out:

Adios, amigas.

2010-08-30T14:18:00.001-10:00

In honor of friendships chock full of late night chats, nail-parties, lots of laughing, lots of eating, beach Fridays and night-swimming, among many, many other things, two of my favorite people and I did a little photo session last Saturday.

To make the photos a little more interesting (because we can be pretty boring people, y'know!), we had classy, classy cardstock mustaches.
To make the world a more entertaining, when we were done, we stuck them to a handrail on campus and drew faces. Last I checked, they were still there, a week and some change later.

The cheese-tastic, requisite photos with the school motto were also done, in the most serious manner possible. Clearly, we were all meant to be models.

(Somehow I conned my roommate into taking some photos for us, even though she had a full day of studying planned. She is wonderful, clearly.)

I've been preparing myself for a life of solitude and study once both of these lovely ladies leave, I think it'll work out quite well for me.

Mmmm, mmmm, good.

2010-08-21T12:54:00.006-10:00

Certainly there are incredible, awe-inspiring, adventurous ways to start a day off. Today, making a avocado, cheese, tomato, lettuce mustard sammich on a whole grain bagel (and having friends around to laugh at my camera in hand through the whole process) was a pretty good way to welcome in the weekend.

2010-08-17T23:37:00.000-10:00

I might've mentioned this before, but I am one lucky girl.

Sometimes I forget this. I enjoy school immensely, but I do tend to get caught up and stress out about it a little more than is probably good for me. (Was I up until two last night rewriting a paper that I rewrote completely again, for the third time, after I woke up? Yes. Yes, I was. Am I going to get an A on that dang paper? You bet I am.)

Those times are when I need little reminders of how lucky I actually am.

Reminders like this:

I wish I'd thought to bring along my wide-angle lens, which would've made for a much better photo, but that will have to wait for another day.

Early last week, after a two hour long Astronomy lecture that dragged on for what felt like five hours, I decided that being productive was overrated. With a little bit of time to kill before I had to be at work, I threw on my swimsuit, grabbed my towel and a book and walked three minutes to the beach, to sit in the shade and ignore the fact that I had chapters of studying to do and pages of papers waiting to be written. It was one of the best decisions I made all week.

I'm bad a resolutions.

2010-08-16T00:58:00.000-10:00

...Clearly, seeing as I resolved to be better at posting and then this poor little blog has sat ignored for the past two months.

I've certainly been busy, with both work and school as well as taking advantage of all the rad things there are to do as a college kid in Hawaii. I've even been photo-documenting most things, but most of those photos have simply sat in a folder on my desktop.

To try to make amends, I'll share a picture of one of the most beautiful sights to ever been seen by these two eyes of mine. Feel free to be as jealous as you'd like.

Thank goodness for summer!

2010-06-10T22:24:00.001-10:00

Spring term just ended last week, and already summer has been full of night-swimming, a multitude of four am chats with friends, trips to town, nail painting parties, afternoon beach hours, reading for fun, field trips about food sovereignty and makin' money. I'm living in what is probably the best house in this little town with some wonderful roommates and am just so glad to have this six week break free of homework, quizzes, exams, three hour lectures and all those other school things. I now have a chance to immerse myself in nerdiness for sheer enjoyment without concerns about deadlines and bedtimes and such.

I make no guarantees about posting at any interval, but I do promise that I think about posting at least twenty-seven times for every time that I do actually find myself wandering onto blogger, and all of those thoughts are deep and awe-inspiring, of course.

As for a picture this post... On Memorial Day, some friends and I drove down to town to check out the Lantern Floating Festival without any real idea of what it would be. We certainly weren't expecting the thousands of people that were packed into Ala Moana Beach Park, or the huge projection screens showing what was going down on the stage. Needless to say, we were a little surprised upon arrival. There was a bit of a concert before the speeches and ceremony and all that and then the two thousand lanterns were set out on the water. I wish I had more mad skillz as a writer so that you all could feel it, but I don't, and this picture will have to suffice. Trust me, it was beautiful.

And now, off I go to get some sleep before a very early wake-up to go catch the first game of the World Cup. I think I'm rooting for South Africa in this game, and for Brazil in general.

2010-04-26T11:08:00.000-10:00

Somehow in the past three weeks, I managed to survive finals, work approximately a million hours, go to graduation, go to a funeral, go to a wedding reception, start classes again, finally get some beach time, some rest time, some friend time and visit Waikiki for the first time.

With all of those activities going down, I haven't been doing too much with my camera. I did go and take some engagements for friends up at Pupukea, but that was pretty much it.

After this past semester, I needed a break and am taking fewer classes and working fewer hours this term, which should hopefully translate into more blog posts.

For now, a favorite from last summer.

Here's to another summer of rest, fun, music and adventures with friends.

Elfelejtettem!

2010-04-04T21:55:00.000-10:00

Some how I missed posting about Culture Night.

It was epic.
The end.

...Just kidding.

I took pictures, lots and lots and lots of pictures. I'm mentioned it a bajillion times, but I love my school, and I love the diversity and the cultures and the opportunities it presents for us to learn. Totally rad.

Fijian Club always tells a folktale with their dances, and this time they had some adorable kids with them.

I was planning on dancing with African club, but the semester was a bit busier than I'd anticipated. They did an awesome job!

For the last few performances on Saturday night, I handed my camera over to a friend. Samoan Club ended the night, and there couldn't have been a better way to finish the event off.

There's one week left in the semester. This past week, I had one of the more miserable days of my school career, but to make up for it, I also had one of the best, that just so happened to include two incredibly successful presentations.

Um, thanks?

2010-03-27T15:00:00.000-10:00

So last night, one of my housemates handed me a couple of packages. One was from Amazon (Got the book, ma, I'll read it over break.), the other was this rather innocuous looking flat rate box sent from home.

Harmless, right? Let's take a look inside:

Things are a little stranger now. It was filled with a gummy hand (with real crunchy bones inside!), a couple of mustaches, an emergency blanket, lots and lots of napkins and no note. To say the least, I was a little confused. I texted my sister and the conversation went a little like this:

Me: Any explanation for this box I just got?

Sister: Ummmmmmmmm... merry christmas?

Me: Theme gifts?

Sister: Yep.

Me: Who is the hand from?

Sister: Uncle 3's theme.

Me: The napkins? And the Christmas napkins?

Sister: Lol step dad was out of packing peanuts.

Me: And popcorn? I have to say those were the most confusing part. Did you do the mustaches?

Sister: I don't know about the popcorn and yep.

My mom's side of the family has this super fun tradition were we all try to spend the least on the strangest or most entertaining gifts for the whole family. I remember blinking red noses one year, pencils with "1998 theem gift" on them, and some interesting band-aids, among others things. This exchange happens whenever most of us can get together. My mom and two uncles are all in the same general vicinity, so it's usually them now and I think they had Christmas sometime in mid-January, and naturally, the box just got here at the end of March. I had kind of guessed that's what it was, and wasn't the least surprised by most of the contents, but the napkins threw me off a bit, those aren't typical theme gift things. My family is awesome. My housemate who brought me the box also witnessed me opening it and is probably convinced that side of my family is on the top ten list of "Strangest Families in the World who Don't Participate in Illegal Activities."

Also, this is the closest thing I will ever get to one of those mirror self portraits with a big camera type shot. I call it "The artist as an angry mustachioed man." I even wore my man glasses for the occasion. Actually, I wear my man glasses a lot, so that's not really a big surprise.

I have several posts that are sitting half-way written that will hopefully be posted soon. Maybe even sometime today seeing as I have been meaning to go hang out at the library to get a couple of papers written and now it's three and that still hasn't happened.

Portrait of a Pineapple

2010-03-21T01:38:00.000-10:00

I'm feeling the need for a little more positive in my life right now and thought I would write an ode to the farmers market, (Kid you not. I'm such a hippie child.) but didn't know which form would do such a thing the most justice (my iambic pentameter is a little rusty), because farmers markets are indeed things of beauty.

Instead, you will get to look at portraits of the deliciously fresh pineapple I purchased that were taken shortly after said product of paradise came into my possession.

I'm such a sucker for texture.

We have an on campus farmers market every other Friday where we can get locally grown produce for a heckuva lot cheaper than Foodland offers. I may have gotten a little spoiled while I was home last summer because most dinners included at least a couple of veggies that were grown in the back yard or purchased at the farmers market, and I miss that. My diet is lacking in awesome most of the time, but for a couple of times every month I can enjoy fresh pineapple, pears, peas, tomatoes and whatever else catches my eye and I am happy. There are very few things in the world that beat fresh produce, and none of those are other food items.

Almost.

2010-03-19T01:11:00.000-10:00

It's hitting that point in the semester again where I have an easily quantifiable list of things I need to get done before finals, and there really aren't that many things, but what is left is BIG. And it might be just a teeny-tiny bit stressful. And I may have been walking down the hallway on my way home while thinking about things that still need to get done and haven't been going as well as I would have hoped when I fell and hurt my knee and it just topped everything off and I might have been very grateful to have a good friend with me who didn't mind that it took twenty minutes to walk home when it usually takes five. And it may be one in the morning and I am still up because my knee hurts and I want to get a paper written before I go to class tomorrow.

Thank goodness that there are only three weeks left and then I can finally breath again.

Right now I want nothing more than to sit and watch the waves at Pupukea, and I'd totally take a trip down Kam Highway this weekend to do it, except I have a meeting all of Saturday morning and a couple more papers due next week that need to get written. Someday.

Tsunami Tsaturday

2010-02-27T19:35:00.001-10:00

Goodness gracious, what a day. I got home from adventures Friday night at a none-too-early time, having heard a little bit about the earthquake in Chile and the chance of a tsunami coming our way. No big deal, right? Au contraire. One of my housemates was still up at one-thirty/two-ish as I was on my way to bed and she was super worried, so I stopped and talked to her for a bit. Remember the tsunami in September that hit Samoa really hard? That hit her hometown super hard and so anxiety was completely understandable. I ended up going to bed at 2ish and being woken up by a text/phone call at 3:45 saying that the on campus kids were going to be evacuating to the second story at six and that we should probably pack up and head to higher ground. Naturally, the news was a little alarming, so I wake up my roommates and we all pack up and head to campus to wait out the seven hours until this monster is supposed to hit. In the mean time, I call family to let them know what's going on and to spread some love in case I drown or am attacked by the mutant huge crabs that certainly will overtake Laie when the waves come this far in.

In case you were ever searching for a way to wake up a whole dorm of college kids, a tsunami tscare is a very effective means of doing so. This is six am on a Saturday morning. This was not fun.

The following few hours were spent seeing how many people we could fit into Rachel's room before we would get yelled at for fire code violations (eight, in case you were wondering), snacking on whatever food we had stashed away and watching the news. The last hour or so before the tsunami was supposed to hit we were glued to the live coverage that mostly showed the waves at Hilo Bay going in and out and in and out, and it was incredibly exciting. Not. Eventually, the fact that I was on my second day of approximately two hours of sleep a night caught up with me and I crashed before our fair city was destroyed. ...That didn't happen. Apparently they never really called off the warning, they just switched over to the Olympics. Also, I apparently answered a phone call from my mother that I don't remember in the least. What can I say, I was tired.

I have to admit, I was a little bugged that with all the hoopla, nothing happened, but then I think about how terribly things could have turned out and I couldn't be happier. It also makes me realize how completely unprepared I am in case anything does happen, which is a little scary. As a college kid, there really isn't a huge amount of food storage or such that I can accumulate, but the fact that the only things I grabbed were my camera, laptop, a couple of changes of clothes, my old journals, an apple and a jar of peanut butter... that's a little ridiculous. We'll see what all I can figure out so that should we actually have something happen, my arrangements are not such that I will have to eat pages out of my journals to survive.

Mini-Muffins at Midnight

2010-02-20T00:20:00.000-10:00

Some days, you wake up and go to class even though you really don't want to because it's a bit of a joke and you know you're only watching a movie because the teacher hasn't really planned the semester but you get up and go anyways because you've already missed two classes and missing class is a dumb reason to get your grade lowered.

Some days, you make an appointment to see your academic advisor after having made one the day before and been told that she was going to lunch and you'll have to come back some other time so you're back and she's in her office with another student for an hour and you have to make another appointment to come back later because class starts in ten minutes.

Some days, you hope that you'll be able to make a trip to town to work on a project that you're really looking forward to even though you know it probably won't happen and when it doesn't you're still disappointed.

Some days, you get papers back that you really didn't do that well on and even though you knew it really wasn't a good paper you're still a little disappointed that you didn't spend more time on it until you realize that it was due that one week that you also had a unit exam, two other papers and a hundred plus pages of reading due on top of class and work time.

Some days, you come home and take a two hour nap even though you really didn't mean to and you spend the rest of the night vegging out until you realize that you have no food and a trip to the grocery store is necessary unless you plan on eating instant potatoes for the next three days.

Some days, at those trips you're really hoping that by some miracle the soy milk will be on sale enough for it not to be absolutely ridiculous and out of budget to buy enough to make this recipe for vegan muffins that you just found and really want to try out.

Some days just don't go like you'd hoped they would.

Those are the days that mini-muffins at midnight are a good idea.

Those are the times that a little bit of goodness might remind you that things don't have to go like you'd hoped they would for them to be good.

And those mini-muffins just might help you remember that it's okay to veg out on a Friday night, and that spending a little time looking at recipes online will probably help you make healthier choices when you're at the grocery store.

They might help you remember that it's okay to use milk in a recipe that calls for soy milk if it means you're being a little more responsible and sticking to that budget you laid out titled "Because I am attempting to be a responsible adult."

They might help you remember that it's okay to not get As or even Bs on everything and that you still have time to bring that grade up and do well in the class and now you know what the expectations are and can better plan for the next paper.

They might help you remember that even though you didn't get to town, you still got that proposal in that really needed to be submitted so that the ball can start rolling on bringing speakers to campus for a project that you think is really important and worthwhile and that if you'd gone to town, that probably wouldn't have happened.

They might help you remember that even if it was a pain to actually go see the academic advisor, once you were there you finally got some questions taken care of and now you have officially postponed graduation which means you're actually doing that peace building certificate you were so excited about and that you will actually have all summer off to go do your own research and that the academic advisor who may or may not be notoriously grouchy seemed a little less grouchy when you were leaving than when you walked in and that you like it when people aren't grouchy.

They might help you remember that professors are people too and that sometimes they get caught up in other things and are busy and might not like planning quite as much as you do and that they have get to up and deal with a bunch of kids who pretty obviously don't want to be there and that probably isn't very fun for them either.

They also might make you write in incredibly long run on sentences and wonder if it's entirely insane or only kind of crazy to blame everything on mini-muffins at midnight.

Recipe found here. Obviously with milk instead of soy milk, and made in mini-muffin form (which probably made all the difference).

First, agitate in developer for two minutes.

2010-02-15T19:43:00.000-10:00

All through high school and out in Washington, I took as many photo classes as I could and would spend hours in the darkroom, rolling film, developing it, then going through the printing process- adjusting the enlarger, testing exposure time, developing the test strips, readjusting everything a couple of times and then putting the picture through all the chemicals- first the developer, then rinse, the stop bath, another rinse, stick it in the fixer, then the last rinse before you squeegee and set it out to dry. If I was lucky, I'd only go through that a couple of times before I got a print I was happy with, but there were many occasions where that wasn't the case and I would leave the dark room after three, four, maybe five hours unhappy with what I'd gotten done during that time. It happens. Often. As long as I stuck with it long enough, I'd end up with a print I was happy with turning in to my teacher or showing off to friends.

Even though it was time consuming and frustrating at times, I loved it. There was something incredible about being able to look at a picture and say I made that, all by myself. The smell of the darkroom, at first strange and unpleasant became an aroma I looked forward to encountering again because it meant that for the next how ever many hours, I could focus on the enlarger, the film, the paper, the chemicals and nothing else. I knew the processes to go through to reach that final product.

Now, I'm at school and I would kill to have a set process to go through again. I know some of the steps- sleep, classes, work, study, trips to town to visit the mosque for projects, practices for Culture Night, eat- but how to fit them all together is a little befuddling at times. It would be wonderful to have a step-by-step guide for all of this, set timings and adjustments to make for the correct outcome.

There isn't.

I muddle through as best I can, fitting in homework where I can, getting home before eleven at night if I'm lucky, working, and trying to stay sane by going to basketball games or watching Moulin Rouge at a study party. I guesstimate the amount of time I'll need for various assignments, and have gotten up at five more than a few times recently to get things done in time for class (or speaking assignments for church, which are a whole 'nother post). Even though it's not the easiest right now, I am loving it, even though there isn't a set procedure to tell me how and what to do, I'm making it, and I'm going to stick with it, until I have my diploma, or a published article, or a grad school acceptance later to share with teachers or show off to friends. There are doubtlessly dozens more papers to barely get in before the deadline, and countless late nights and early mornings, and grades that I won't be thrilled with, but in the end, it will be good, and I will be able to look back and say I did it.

Sadly, I don't have any of my old prints with me anywhere, but this is a shot taken with my trusty ol' totally-manual Pentax K1000 for a photo assignment back when my darling little sister was just a baby.

Nerd to the nth degree.

2010-02-07T01:20:00.000-10:00

I adventured up to the Punahou Carnival today.

I enjoyed some delicious carnival food.

I filled up a bag with all sorts of fantastic books like Pippi Longstocking, Ruth Benedict, Jonathan Swift, Freud and some others. This is the nerdy part. There are no pictures to explain it.

Rather serendipitously, as I was trying to find the bus stop to return home, I caught the tail end of a Chinese New Year parade.

(Tail end. Get it? Ahaha. I am so punny.)

I also ran and caught the head of that particular dragon. Apparently it is a tradition to stuff the dragon's mouth with money. I think I'll volunteer to be the dragon next year.

That was pretty much it for adventures today. There is an excess of pictures today to make up for the lack of posting last week, due to junky internet access, a silly computer and being busy beyond belief.

Life is good.

Weekends?

2010-01-24T22:33:00.000-10:00

I thought I would get a break. Hah. Definitely not the case.

Instead of relaxing a bit, I talked to a couple of professors, went to the Anatomy of Peace workshop here on conference for four hours each Friday and Saturday, had some of the African Club over to cook for the opening social, went to the opening social, wrote my response paper to the workshop and then decided not to work on homework anymore. Instead of continuing to be responsible, I watched a movie and ate half of an extra large pizza.

Also, my current irritation is that the school isn't offering classes during spring and summer that are supposed to be available, so I have to rework my map. Admittedly, I spend more time than the average student looking at my map and moving classes around, so it isn't tooooo terrible, but unless I can rearrange everything just within the terms, my semesters are going to be crazier than they were going to be already. We'll see how this goes.

Lessons from EXS 177

2010-01-19T23:56:00.000-10:00

My required gym class was definitely not one of my favorite classes, but I did pick up a couple of useful things from it. Throughout the six weeks of the term, I went to the gym at least four times a week, making me spend more time specifically on exercise than I have since I graduated high school. (I keep planning on starting that up again, but I have to find my expired student ID in order to get a new one in order to go to the gym. It'll happen some time.)

The thing I'm thinking more about in terms of helping me survive this semester is the principle of spending at least half an hour a day doing something I enjoy, as a stress reliever and a break from work and school. Yesterday, that extended a little beyond a half hour, into say... eight hours, but holidays are meant for breaks, right? Besides, those eight hours of fun will neutralize the eight hours I'll be spending at work tomorrow.

A few friends and I headed up to Waimea and spent a lovely couple of hours watching the waves pound, listening to the lifeguards tell unexperienced surfers, body surfers and bodyboarders to get out of the water at least every ten minutes and trying to still get some school work done. Reading Tolstoy has never been more enjoyable than it was there. After a while, we headed back down the shore a bit to grab acai bowls in a little place that used to be a secret little hole in the wall, but is now frequented by every BYUH student and their mother.

Our last stop before hopping back on da bus was Pupukea, which may be one of my favorite beaches now. Observe:

White sandy beaches and palm trees get a little old after a while, it's nice to have some variety.

And there was a pretty little garden just up a little bit.

A sun-BEAM, a sun-BEAM!

2010-01-18T20:31:00.001-10:00

During Primary (Sunday School for four to twelve year olds) singing time every week, the three most energetic songs were always "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree," the Snowman song, and "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam." All three usually involved lots of jumping around and more yelling than singing, which probably explains why they were, and still are, so well loved among Mormon youngsters.

A day or two before the semester started, I woke up at o'dark thirty to go watch the sunrise at the point with a friend and took a series of pictures of the sun moving up in the sky. It was slow, and I was cold and tired but still so glad I decided to get up. It felt like it took forever and a day for the sun to come over the horizon, but once that giant ball of gas was up, it sure moved quickly.

I've been trying to put into words what looking back at these pictures made me feel, but after having this post sit as a draft for several days, I don't think that's really going to happen as well as I would like it to.
Basically, we all have the opportunity to bring light into the lives of others, through big ways, but I think, more importantly through small ways. A smile goes a long way, a genuine caring conversation to see how someone is doing, spending a few minutes helping out by reading over a paper or saying I love you are all easy things to do, but I know personally that I spend far too little time doing those things than I should.

Chances are...

2010-01-11T02:21:00.000-10:00

...the dang kid won't even see this, but I wanted to let the world (or at least the three people that read this blog) know how awesome I think my little brother is. He found out yesterday that he'll be spending the next year as a Rotary Youth Exchange student in Taiwan. To do that, he's graduating high school a year early and already went through a series of club and district interviews. On top of taking advantage of one of the coolest opportunities presented to a high schooler, he has his black belt in kung fu, is almost done his Eagle Scout (okay, so maybe he's been "almost done" his Eagle for like a year...) and is an all around incredible person. Generally, I'm pretty happy living on this lovely rock in the middle of the Pacific, but if there were one thing I would go back to the mainland for, it'd be this dude and the rest of my family.

My year as an exchange student in Hungary has had a huge impact on my life. If we're looking at it realistically, I probably wouldn't have been accepted here without it and who knows where in the world I would be right now. The things I learned through the application process and the year itself, as well as the time since then have taught me so much about myself, the world and what I want to do to make this a better place in whatever way I can. It was definitely one of the first really pivotal decisions I made in my life and I am forever grateful to my families, Rotary clubs and everyone else who made it possible.

I'm excited to hear about Samuel's adventures over there and hope he does a better job of keeping in touch than I did.

Love you bunches.

I've been less than diligent.

2010-01-11T00:21:00.001-10:00

And for that, I extend lots of apologies.

I had two and a half beautiful weeks of break, filled with work and adventures galore, and experienced living all by my lonesome for that short time. I can't lie, I liked it a lot- the house stayed clean and I could curl up in my bed and watch movies until two or three in the morning without disturbing anyone, but having the roomies back is delightful, even if the counters are dirty and I have people around to remind me that consistent sleep patterns are a good idea. We laugh and make fun of each other and watch movies that I always fall asleep during.

Now the semester has started up again, and it's going to be wonderful, yet incredibly busy. I'm taking eighteen credits and working as many hours a week as I can. My classes are going to be awesome and I'm going to in talk to one of my professors about a student research associateship when I have time this week. This semester, along with the necessaries, I'm taking classes for the teachers, and think those will be well worth the extra hours and inevitable stress come finals time.

While I was enjoying some balmy seventy degree weather, Maryland was experiencing quite the snow storm, and so keeping them in my thoughts, I built this one day at the beach:

That's the closest I can get to a snowman right now, sorry folks. Hope you had fun shoveling! (You might be able to tell, but one arm is significantly more tan than the other, she forgot to sunscreen, whoops!)

Also, I got to shoot real engagements for some friends. (Why do I clarify real, you ask? Because last year I shot some fake ones, for an April Fool's joke of epic proportions.) We caught a gorgeous sunset up at the point and got some shots that they're happy with, so we'll call that a productive shoot.

I would make a promise to post daily again, but that may be less than realistic, so we'll go for weekly at this point.

Boldog Karacsony, Mele Kalikimaka, Feliz Navidad and ...

2009-12-25T00:21:00.000-10:00

DONE. OVER. COMPLETE.

2009-12-18T08:48:00.000-10:00

And it feels so good. Sweet, sweet freedom is mine. And I am going to sleep the day away.

You know what else feels good? Seeing my grades come in and being quite acceptable. I may have put myself through severe sleep deprivation to do it, but this has been a successful semester.

I'm a survivor, I'm gonna make it.

2009-12-17T21:53:00.000-10:00

But right now... I kinda feel like this:

This semester has been a lot of work, and I'm not done yet. The past two nights I've been up past three working on assignments, and still had a seven am final to get up for, directly followed by another final. I then went and collapsed on the floor of my friend's room for a couple hours before working on yet another paper to be turned in today by five. That would be nice if that were it, but I still have lengthy beast of a paper to get turned in by eight tomorrow morning, at which point I plan on sleeping the whole dang day, followed shortly by a Flight of the Conchords season two marathon. These next two and half weeks will be a wonderful break from school related stress, and then it all starts up again!

The photo is one from March, goofing off at the beach with some friends. I plan on actively incorporating the beach into my break plans, because otherwise I may never see it again, what with my seventeen credits and all for this next semester.

It's a small world after all!

2009-12-08T22:35:00.000-10:00

Alternate title: I know people who know people.

A couple weeks ago, I was sitting outside enjoying some sunshine and chatting with one of my classmates before walking into class. She mentioned that she's been trying to find a public health internship in Ghana, but has been having a hard time because she has no experience in the area. I've been spending a pretty good chunk of time with the African Club this semester, and have gotten be friends with a lot of the Africans here. There are nine Ghanians here on campus and I remembered a conversation about the Ghana medical system I'd had with one of them, so I offered to get her in touch with a couple people to see if they could help her out.

Fast forward to today at the end of our anthropology class: I was just leaving when Rachel, my classmate, told me that she had an internship! Maxwell, the guy from Ghana that she'd been talking to, has a brother who works with the military hospital system over there and said he could help get her an internship and that everything will be final in the next couple of days so she can start working on her visa stuff and all those necessaries. How exciting!

I've probably mentioned it a million times already, but I love my school and how international it is. My english teacher may curse me for saying this but she also taught me to quote my sources... According to wikipedia, BYU-H has a higher percentage of international students than any other baccalaureate institute in the US. I was looking around my classes today and saw students from Guam, Tonga, Samoa, the Philippines, New Zealand, Mongolia, Japan, Hong Kong, Burundi, Sweden, Wales, Brazil and Mexico, among many others. I work with other students from Taiwan, Macau, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Korea. There are so many opportunities to learn about others cultures and backgrounds and to make connections that will last a lifetime. I'm sure that as I go about my career, I'll have the chance to visit some of those places and to have people I call friends to say hello to, and that is an awesome, awesome thing.

African Club before our performance at Songfest in October.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2009-12-06T16:55:00.000-10:00

The Christmas lights are up in the plumeria trees and the Aloha Center is all decked out in the season's best, including blow up penguins with cotton batting snow and trees decorated with hula girls. Isn't this what Christmas is like everywhere?

Here's a poor college kid's Christmas count down. I got the package earlier this week, donated the popcorn packing to the birds and decided that I wasn't going to open anything else until Christmas, but I needed a reminder of when that will be. (...also, I kind of broke that goal. I opened one part yesterday and shared with friends who all raved about it. Thanks James!)

Here and there and everywhere.

2009-12-01T22:27:00.000-10:00

As I was looking at my old posts, I realized I managed to not make a single post on my trip out to Utah this summer, and at the same time that I don't have any more recent pictures that I really want to post right now. So guess what! You're getting Utah pictures!

Like I mentioned a long time ago, my paternal grandparents are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year (the real date is sometime this month, I think) and so they got a couple of townhouses up in a resort area in northern Utah and all but one of their twenty-nine descendants made it out there to spend the weekend together. It was a little touch and go as to whether or not I would be able to go, but in the end, I did make it and it was a good time for all.

Some, but not anywhere close to, all of the cousins.

I'm not really much of a Utah person for a variety of reasons, but even I had to admit that the area we were staying is gorgeous.

We happened to be there the same night as a big hot air balloon festival just down the mountain, so we stopped by for a little bit and watched the balloons. Everyone decided to leave at the same time, so there was a lot of traffic and we were stuck in the car waiting to leave the parking field for a while, but there was one of those moments of absolute perfection where I was sitting with people I love more than anything, singing loudly to Journey, laughing and couldn't have wanted anything else right at that moment. Those are the best.

What a weekend!

2009-11-29T23:03:00.000-10:00

I spent twelve hours camped out at my computer yesterday, working on my paper that got turned in ten minutes before midnight. I am lucky to have such a mean roommate who kept bothering me when I stop typing or start researching things that didn't relate at all to the paper (NBA tattoos, Ipswitch sex worker murders, Navy-Hawaii football scores, etc), if it weren't for her, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have finished the dang paper.

If this looks a little hazy and strange, that's just because my mind melded with the camera for a little while, and my mind was feeling a little hazy and seeing things strangely at the time.

Sometimes, I look at myself and I see my mother.

2009-11-27T23:38:00.003-10:00

And that is a scary, scary thing.

Case in point: Today I had planned to spend all day working on my twelve page Public Management paper that is due tomorrow at midnight (You know, one of those assignments you get at the beginning of the semester and don't even begin to think about until two weeks before it is due and even then when you think about it, that thinking only goes so far as to put off planning the session in which you will for realz actually sit down and work on it. yeah. One of those.). I think my dear roommate Dana started washing the dishes or something, and so I pitched in for a bit. And by a bit, I mean I spent two and a half hours scrubbing the cabinets, cleaning the fan, washing screens, sweeping the floor, putting away laundry and straightening my room. After two and a half hours, I realized it was time to go to work, and after getting home from work at 10, there just wasn't any hope for that paper today. Tomorrow is another day, right?

My paper may not be written, but it is so refreshing to be in a nice clean house with screens you can actually see out of and to have a bed that doesn't have piles of laundry on it. Hopefully, tomorrow I will still appreciate those very clean screens as I am about to throw my laptop through one of them out of frustration.

To clarify the title a little bit, my mother is a wonderful, intelligent woman currently working on her PhD in Military Sociology. We have had many, many chats in which we discuss the multiplicity of things we are both not doing that we should be (and how clean our living spaces are!). In the nature vs. nurture argument, I would place almost all the blame completely on nurture for this one. Love you mama!

Here's to hoping tomorrow is a gray, rainy, miserable day.

Da Local Kine Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T23:41:00.004-10:00

There had been a few different ideas about what to do for Thanksgiving floating around, including flying out to the Big Island for the weekend, making a lunch at home with friends or joining in on campus activities. In the end, my roommate and I went over to her boyfriend's house to have lunch and hang out for a few hours listening to his family talk story. Of all the things we could have done, I'm glad we ended up with this one. College is fun and all, but it is definitely nice to spend time in a family environment sometimes, even if it isn't your own family. There were kids running around, adults laughing and teenagers sitting apart from everyone, just like there would have been if I'd been home.

We crossed the street and wandered the beach for a little while, before heading back home to not do any of the many papers I have to write. Instead, my roomie and I decided to bake a pie! It ended up being quite the adventure, and I photographically documented the whole thing, but instead of sharing all those, I think I want to leave you all with only one of those photos. It was a completely relevant and very integral part of the pie making process, I promise.

Now, the day is over, and it officially okay to play Christmas music loudly in public areas.

I work so hard!

2009-11-24T22:55:00.003-10:00

So, here at BYU-H, as long as you're living in contract housing, which you have to do if you are under 25, your landlord has the right to do cleaning checks however many times a month. We usually have them every other week, but our landlord has been skipping them a lot this semester, so even though it was scheduled for this past Saturday, because we hadn't gotten the paper the night before we assumed (...we all know what assuming does!) that it wouldn't be happening, only to wake up nice and early Saturday morning to find out that it was happening at noon- only a short three and a half hours later! Oh dear! Two of the housemates were gone already, so the three of us that were home hopped to cleaning right away. Among other things, I signed up to sweep and mop the floors, and boy did I sweep! I swept so hard in fact, that I wore the skin right off my thumb!

Luckily, due to my family having a fantastic sense of humor and distributing gifts like gross band-aids, I was able to con my former roommate into taking this gem of a picture for me.

On Sunday, I decided to be a little less gross and just used one of the band-aids with a zipper on it. Still cool, but less likely to elicit gags from those near-by.

2009-11-22T22:14:00.004-10:00

Today we had a big regional (Hawaii state) conference for church, and one of the Twelve Apostles of the church, L. Tom Perry, came to speak. I really enjoy speakers who are comfortable expressing their personality along with sharing their messages, and boy, could you tell that he was glad to be in Hawaii and so happy to be sharing his message with us.

At the end of the meeting, all of the congregation stood up and sang Aloha Oe, led by the bearded man at the podium (who happens to be the grandfather of a friend of mine. This community is so small!), and there were more than a few teary eyes in the room.

There is an on going discussion of unity and improving the relationship between the school and the community, and the things said aren't always the most positive, but in situations like this, who is a student and who is community matters a lot less, and that is a very good thing.

These kids are cute.

2009-11-21T20:37:00.003-10:00

And I miss them so, so, so much. (Pictures from my trip back this summer.)

Love this kiddo.

2009-11-20T01:56:00.003-10:00

She had a pretty intense five and a half hour jaw surgery yesterday. Keeping you in my thoughts and prayers little sister!

Sometimes plans change. Sometimes that is a good thing. Sometimes it is not.

2009-11-18T00:28:00.007-10:00

For example, last night when I got home from work at a nice and early 10:15, my plan was to go to bed. Instead, I was up until 1, blogging, looking up random topics including logic puzzles, Aryan Nation parades, news articles on BYUH and trying to create sentences that correctly use the word exonerate.

Not exactly the brightest use of my time, especially considering my 7:30 Public Management class.

Today the plan was to spend the afternoon researching for either one of my two papers that are due in the next couple of weeks. Considering my English class was cancelled due to the professor being at a conference in Philadelphia, it could have been quite the productive afternoon.

Instead, I meandered down to the nearest beach (which just so happens to be a lovely five minute walk away) and brought my lenses out to play. With class and work and spending the weekends trying to catch up on sleep or be social, I have made it to the beach once since the semester started. I've had classmates say that no one should live in Hawaii and not go to the beach everyday. That's when I keep my mouth shut and console myself with the fact that at least I'm doing well in school and won't have skin cancer at age forty.

I was so unbelievably irked when I realized the water line wasn't straight.

Isten, áldd meg a Magyart

2009-11-17T23:33:00.004-10:00

There are some pictures that always make me smile. Or that make nostalgia rush through my veins. Sometimes I get both of those reactions in one picture. This is an old shot of the Hungarian Statue of Liberty- Szabadság Szobor. It sits at the top of Gellert Hill and overlooks all of Budapest.

Since it's a little hard to see, it says:

Mindazok emlékére, akik életüket áldozták Magyarország függetlenségéért, szabadságáért és boldogulásáért.

I'll even be nice and translate for those of you who don't happen to speak Hungarian (which is silly, and you should probably considering picking it up, it's quite the handy language!).

"To the memory of all of those who sacrificed their lives for the independence, freedom, and success of Hungary."

There's quite the history behind it, as with most things in Hungary. I only made it up to the top of Gellert's Hill once, with a group of people my age from all over Eastern/Central Europe, as part of a church conference my last week there in the country.

Even after almost two and a half years back in the States, I think about Hungary on a daily basis, and look forward to the day I can go back. Maybe I'll find a way to work it into my post-graduation plans, along with grad school and living in a monastery in Nepal.

For somewhat more recent news... I got an email yesterday saying I will have money from the school to cover most of my tuition for winter semester, which was quite the relief, as I've spent a bit of time stressing about money and school and such lately. That was a handy reminder that my hard work does pay off- my grades are good enough and I've apparently made a pleasant enough impression on my professors to receive a department scholarship. On top of that bit of good news, I got two different papers back with As and was provided another opportunity to look at for while I am still here at school that will help prepare me for grad school and allow me to do research on a topic I choose, along with maybe getting published or sent to an international conference. There's still a lot of work to be done if that's going to happen, but I'm excited at the prospect.

I'm reminded every day of how good life is and how incredibly blessed I am.

It's that time of year!

2009-11-15T14:14:00.006-10:00

(Every game we score over 100 we get free ice cream. Nothing excites college kids like free food! If I remember correctly, there were about 48 seconds left on the clock and we were at 98 or 99.)

Basketball season!

Seasiders are number one in NCAA Division II men's basketball pre-season rankings. The team played UH in an exhibition game last week and lost 83-69, but had another two games this weekend in the Asia Pacific Basketball Tournament against the Fiji National Team and the China University of Mining and Technology. I missed the game against Fiji, but watched last night's game against China and spent most of it feeling bad for how terribly we were beating them and in awe of one of the player's gravity defying hair. It was incredible!

Check out the hair on China's number 6!

2009-11-14T01:18:00.003-10:00

I'm sitting in my living room listening to the rain POUR down and thinking about how awesome my life is. School is still going well, I really enjoy my job, my friends are great, and I get to spend my entire weekend studying/researching for the seventy some odd pages I have left to write this semester. Exciting, right?

This is actually a shot from my first weekend back when I went on a RIDICULOUSLY long hike up to Laie Falls. It was pretty, but probably not pretty enough for me to devote another six hours to hiking up that beast of a hill again anytime soon.

I haven't been taking too many pictures lately, but I will get the ones I have taken up, and devote some of my copious spare time to going out and playing with my lenses, because I haven't done that since I got back.

2009-09-30T23:16:00.004-10:00

Living on a rock in the middle of nowhere like I do, there isn't much in the way of news from the outside world that I actually hear, but there is one thing that I've been hearing lots about lately, and that's the tsunami in Samoa.

Ever since I arrived at school, I've been involved with the Samoan Club and count among my friends more than a handful of the people I've met through that club. Many of them come straight from the islands, and have family who have been deeply affected by the tsunami. Their facebook updates are filled with concern about family members they haven't heard from yet and more than one of them have said they just wish they could be home with their family now. There really isn't much I can do, and I really wish there were. For now though, I'll stick with sending up a few more prayers than I normally do for those affected and waiting for more news.

Oh, also: TO SHOW SUPPORT, WEAR A WHITE RIBBON OR A WHITE HEADBAND OR A WHITE ARMBAND FOR OUR ISLAND OF SAMOA TO REPRESENT LOVE AND RESPECT. (10-01-09)

I may not be in the Beehive State...

2009-09-29T21:47:00.004-10:00

...but considering how busy I am, I'd fit right in.

I had a bit of fun time when I first arrived, but with getting a job and classes starting on September 10th, I've been lucky to get all my homework done, not to mention taking pictures every day and blogging them. I began the semester taking eighteen credits, but with the amount of homework for my anthropology course, there was no way everything was going to get done, so I dropped a class and am down to fifteen credits and around sixteen hours of work a week.

Even with so much to do, it is so incredibly good to be back.

Where else could I go to school with so many people who know how to dance with fire knives?

Peace out, Naptown.

2009-08-26T16:44:00.004-10:00

I have approximately seven hours left here (am I packed? of course not!) and am so dang excited to be going back to school.

Even though the circumstances were less than ideal, and there were probably more days that I wished I were in Laie than not, it's been nice being around here too. This is the most time by a long shot that I've spent here since I left three years ago and I've been reminded of how much I love it. Annapolis is beautiful, and there are people here that mean the world to me and because of the much extended visit, I got to spend lots more time with them than I would have otherwise. I got to go to my little sister's birthday party, meet up with my host sisters from my last family, visit DC with another exchanger, drive down to see family in Virginia, hang out with my sibs a bit, and enjoy the company of some of my favorites from high school. My life is good.

So, Annapolis, I'm not sure when I'll be back, but thanks for the good times.

Now back to the land of longboards, late night beach jams and bonfires, new friends and that awesome aloha spirit.

"The Ladies' Resort to the Ocean."

2009-08-24T16:56:00.001-10:00

...that's what they called Ocean City up until 1870. Who knew?

As appalling a statement this may be, from the time I moved to Maryland when I was pre-elementary school, until just a few weeks ago, I had never been to the Ocean City boardwalk. Some friends and I were wanting to hang out, and one of them tossed out the idea to drive the two and a half hours out there and spend the day seeing what there is, so off we went.

It's a typically kitchsy beach town with all sorts of fun little game places set up along the board walk, all of which are totally set up for you to lose both your money and your faith in your ability to beat six year old girls at anything. As a side note, should you see some really awesome, incredibly large Charmander stuffed animals, they are not worth the $50 you'd have to pay to buy one instead of win them. Sad.

Pictures!

This lovely shark is sticking out of one of the buildings -maybe Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum?- and it moves! If that doesn't epitomize kitschy beach town, I don't know what does.

The beach was absolutely packed. That fact, along with my inability to go in the water made me miss Hawaii and my north shore beaches pretty badly. Luckily, the company was enough to make up for it.

Probably my favorite part of the day was wandering around taking pictures on an empty beach, with my friends jamming in the background. It was a great way to end the day.

On Being a Tourist

2009-08-23T16:59:00.005-10:00

I often think of my life in terms of pre-Hungary, Hungary and post-Hungary, and always feel a little strange when the three collide. The last week in July was definitely one of those collisions. For all that my family and some really good friends are still here, Maryland is very much a pre-Hungary place for me, and having an exchange student friend come visit now, when my life is decidedly post-Hungary was wonderful, but brought up all sorts of mixed emotions. I was thrilled to see her, and to be able to reminisce, speak Hungarian (which is komolyan one of my favorite things ever) and catch up on everything we've been up to since my departure two years ago. It also reminded me of how much I miss the place and the people that were such a huge part of my life. I am grateful every single day for the opportunity I had to go spend that time over there, for the things I learned, for the people that helped me get there, and for who I became and how I changed while I was there.

...I meant for this to stay pretty light, whoops. Anyways. She was here with a couple of friends for the first part of the week, and that Tuesday we all went down to DC together. They'd been the day before and seen all of the monuments, so we went to Arlington National Cemetery. I've visited before, but not for a while, and was reminded of why that place is so great.

For all that I love Hungary, I'm so very glad to have been born an American, and can't ever express enough how much I appreciate all those who have worked hard to make this country what it is. Even with all it's flaws (and I'll admit, there are plenty of those), it's a great place. Growing up near the capital has it's pros and cons- I remember being dragged down to visit this museum or that memorial when I was a kid, and didn't have a say in the matter, but once I got to the age where I could go down there on my own, I didn't because I always thought I'd have time to do it later. I didn't, and am a little disappointed in myself that it takes someone else coming here to do touristy things for me to go down there and be reminded of how awesome it is.

Summer vacation!

2009-08-22T16:25:00.004-10:00

I hadn't planned to take a break, but some other things came up and blogging wasn't exactly a priority. I've still been pretty busy participating in all sorts of grand adventures, and of course, taking photographic evidence of it all. There are still a few days left before my return to school, so I'll try and get caught up on the summer out here before I get back to Hawaii and return to my daily postings.

Artscape!

Artscape is the country's largest free arts festival. Baltimore shuts down a couple of streets for the weekend and replaces traffic with tents filled with artists, craftspeople and fashion designers. From noon to ten at night, there are constant performances- in the Lyric Opera House, inside UBaltimore or Maryland Institute College of Art buildings, on various stages, and on the street. It's a veritable smorgasbord of delights for your eyes, ears and taste-buds.

I went up there on Saturday the 18th with Dan and Ellen and the fish-eye attachment for my camera. We caught the Chinese gymnast show in the Lyric as soon as we got there, then spent the rest of the day meandering.

The place was positively packed.

One of my favorite parts of the whole festival was the Art Cars. There were quite a few there- from Hawaiian themed to a Yellow Submarine. I love Mondrian's work, and was so excited to see this one.

2009-07-12T17:55:00.003-10:00

Camp Liza, as my aunt called it, ended on Friday.

I spent the week finding fun things to do with a five year old boy and a seven year old girl, both of whom are incredibly energetic, inquisitive and all around delightful. We took trips to the library, the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum, the park by their school, another fun park a little further away that had mini-golfing, a train ride, a carousel, lots of trails, a playground and ice cream, and to a paint your own pottery place. On top of that, we played lots of Uno and Clue and plenty of Spider Solitare, and I was also resoundingly beaten in the numerous tic-tac-toe and Pokemon battles they conned me into. Really, they had incredible persuasive abilities, add that to being completely okay with making up their own rules and I had no hope at all. The kids seemed to make it through unscathed, but I was exhausted, in a very good way, by the end of it.

Luckily, I had a four hour car ride to get a bit of rest, before stopping by to see more family- this time my step-dad's parents and brother and his family. I always love visiting them (and I'm not even saying that 'cause they read this blog! :D) and this trip was no exception.

This time, however, there was something else besides visiting that I got to do, and that was to go meet a guy from craislist to pick up a camera and a couple of lenses.

Oh yes.

The camera is another Pentax SLR that I doubt I'll use, and the lenses were really what I was after. Since getting my camera in February (thank you again and again and again, Dan, Ellen, Q, Flo and Theresa!), I've just been using the kit manual focus 50mm lens. Now I have that, along with a 70-300mm and a 28-80mm. On top of that, I'd ordered a fish eye lens off of ebay earlier in the week, and opened that as soon as I jumped in the car on Saturday.

Oh yes.

I've been playing ever since.

This evening, I dragged my little brother off with me so I could do some night shooting (and be safe should we encounter questionable characters, he is a ninja afterall). Mainly I was just doing lens comparisons and figuring out what I wanted from each of them and getting a little more comfortable. That at least was the goal, and it was working out wonderfully until my batteries died. D'oh. (Note to self, never, ever, ever again go shooting without an extra set of batteries. That is dumb.) I got some fun shots in before that happened.

The World War II memorial, all lit up.
I went through and did this shot from the same position with all of my lenses, just for comparison.

Looking over the Severn River bridge, towards Annapolis. Taken with the fish-eye.

2009-07-08T16:36:00.002-10:00

I've been down in Virginia since Sunday, helping watch two of my cousins so my uncle can make the world a better place.

Today, I took the youngsters to the park and enjoyed playing with them and watching them interact with the other kids. It got me thinking about how great these kids are, and what a wonderful job their parents have been doing raising them.

I like to think that my parents sent me out into the world filled with the right stuff to make it to the top in whatever I end up doing, kind of like that balloon (I'll admit, it's an incredibly cheesy analogy, but I wanted to link the picture in somehow). My hope is that should the time come when I am raising my own kids, I'll be able to provide them the experiences, skill sets and background to be honest, empathetic, happy, independent, intelligent, contributing members of society, and know that when I let go of them so they can float off on their own, I can do that with confidence in their ability to make good decisions in whatever it is they choose to do.

Heck, I'd settle with having half of those attributes myself.

Catchin' Up

2009-07-07T16:09:00.003-10:00

The first full week I was back here in Maryland was my mom's family reunion. My grandmother had rented a few condos/apartments for the twenty-seven of us, and we spent the week enjoying each other's company, eating, laughing, splashing around, paddle-boating, boating and tubing. All in all, it was quite delightful. I hadn't seen a lot of the family for more than three years, and finally got to meet the three beautiful kids my aunt adopted.

I love my family, and spending time with them (especially in such a beaaaautiful place) is wonderful. I'd enjoy being able to see everyone, but it's a bit difficult, so we make the most of the reunions every other year.

Later this summer, I'll be heading out to Utah for a weekend to celebrate my paternal grandparent's 50th anniversary, and I'm quite excited about that one as well.

Happy Birthday, America

2009-07-04T16:20:00.005-10:00

Some of the highlights of the day:

The local parade, which included the usual things as well as larger than life paper mache sharks,

drumming bananas,

silly handouts,

true, yet amusing, statements,

sparklers with the family,

watermelon, and

forgetting my tripod for the fireworks, and missing the whole show while talking to a friend I haven't seen in a couple of years.

I am so grateful to have the opportunity to live all over this great country and to enjoy the many freedoms provided. I appreciate more and more the freedom of speech we have, that we can speak out when we disagree, and that we have a culture that encourages that. I am so glad that I've have the chance to live elsewhere and to see the contrasts in all sorts of things, that help me see the positive and the not so positive in both.

It's a practice birthday!

2009-07-03T23:37:00.000-10:00

Tonight I got to see Aretha Franklin, Barry Manilow, the Sesame Street characters, Natasha Bedingfield and the Jersey Boys perform on the Capitol lawn for the dress rehearsal of A Capitol Fourth concert. Our patch of grass was a little far and didn't give us the greatest view, but for free, how much can you complain?

And how adorable are my little sisters?

It's summertime!

2009-07-02T17:13:00.002-10:00

You know how I know?
Rita's!

It's an essential part of every summer trip home. Today, I got a free mango gelato, thanks to my family's habit. (Newly acquired since I left, how unfair!)

I also know it's summer time because while I was waiting for my sister so we could take some pictures, I was viciously attacked by at least twenty mosquitoes, and ended up with more than a couple dime sized welts. That part isn't nearly as delightful as the Rita's though.

2009-07-01T13:28:00.002-10:00

Sometimes I think that with all the progress we've supposedly made, we really haven't made much at all. Why should we use our electric dryers when there is sunshine and light breezes that can dry our clothes just as well?

2009-06-30T15:05:00.002-10:00

I've said it before, and I'll say it a thousand more times, but I love rainstorms.

I love the feel of the rain pounding down, the smell in the air and the sound as it hits rooftops. I love dancing it it and I love standing still in it. I love that rain keeps this beautiful place as green as it is and so many more things. I've missed these Maryland storms that keep going and going and going.

It's nice to be back.

2009-06-29T14:55:00.005-10:00

Well, that month long break was completely unplanned. My computer was being tempramental, I got a little swept up with finals, then spent a couple of weeks visiting friends and family out in Washington state, and am now back in Maryland, my Maryland.

So, while it would be silly to try and post all of the hundreds of pictures I've taken in the last month, I'll post a few and try to catch up as I go.

These are some of the last Hawaii pictures for a while, taken from the airplane. Window seats are wonderful!

Tacoma Museum of Glass

Some delightful baubles in Marsh's Free Museum in Long Beach.

One of many lovely views from the walk up to the North Head light house.

While in Washington, I spent lots of time with friends and family. I was staying with my aunt and uncle that I nannied for and spent a weekend at the ocean with the boys. I missed them all a lot and was glad to spend some time with them. I certainly wasn't prepared for the weather- everyone had been saying that there was a heat wave that kept the temperature in the mid-eighties for the week before I got out there, but that conveniently ended pretty much as soon as my plane touched down. It was still an enjoyable two weeks even if I felt like I was going to freeze the whole time.

As for Maryland...
I'll get to that later.

A short history lesson.

2009-05-27T23:07:00.004-10:00

The flag of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.

The Consul General from the Hungarian LA Consulate did a presentation here today, discussing how certain political actions Hungary took helped to bring down the Iron Curtain. There was a lot of it I hadn't heard- I haven't spent as much time looking at that time as at some of the others- and some that I had. He discussed the 1956 Revolution a bit, and I'd heard most of what he said before, but it was nice to be reminded.

If you're interested- The '56 Revolution started off as a student led protest in Budapest on October 23rd, and quickly spread throughout the country. The Soviet Politiburo initially agreed to discuss a withdrawal of Soviet troops, but on Novemeber 4th, troops moved back into Budapest. By the 10th, Hungarian resistance had ended. It had a lot of long lasting impacts, and you can check out the wikipedia article on it.

I have a thing for Hungary. I love the language, I love the people, I love the history, I love the place. I feel so very lucky that I was able to spend time there and get to know all of those a little bit. When people ask why I decided to go there, I tend to start mumbling about not being allowed to go to Africa, and not wanting to speak Spanish and trail off after a while. In all honesty, I don't know exactly why I picked it, but I do know that is where I was supposed to be, and that's enough for me.

After the presentation was over, I went up and had a little conversation with the consul and his daughter, mostly in Hungarian, but not quite all. Everytime I speak a bit, I'm reminded of just how far my speaking abilities have fallen. Luckily, there aren't too many non-native Hungarian speakers, so even my poorly spoken Hungarian is appreciated. That's one good reason to learn less common languages- it's ever so much more impressive to say I speak a bit of Hungarian, or Samoan or Amharic than it is to say I speak a bit of Spanish. ;)

These are a few of my favorite things- day two

2009-05-27T15:28:00.003-10:00

Plumeria.

I've never had a favorite flower before, but these might be it. I love that there are so many plumeria trees around campus, and that I can just walk by and pick one. I love walking by and catching a whiff of these. I love that they come in so many different varieties.

And the trees have character! Just look at it.

These are a few of my favorite things

2009-05-26T16:16:00.005-10:00

When the dog bites

When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad

For the next few days before I leave for the Mainland, my posts will be on some of my favorite things here.

Today's is rainstorms.

I'm pretty sure there's nothing quite like a complete downpour of warm Hawaii rain. I love walking out in the rain and feeling it pounding down, and then, just as quickly as it started, it ends. Living in Washington kind of put me off rain- it felt like it was always cloudy and gray and it didn't really rain very often, it just kind of dripped at different rates. Rainstorms here make up their minds- when it's time for rain, it is time, and there's no stopping it. It's amazing.

(I probably wouldn't have felt the same about today's rainstorm if I had anything out on the line, luckily I didn't, so I ran out to take pictures instead of rescuing things from being drenched.)

Another Sunday, another walk to the temple grounds.

2009-05-24T22:22:00.000-10:00

Whenever I stop and think about it, I'm in awe of this place. I don't really believe God made ugly places (people did that!) but this place sure is gorgeous.

Holy monkey brains Batman!

2009-05-23T21:22:00.003-10:00

These are what the boys and I call monkey brains- probably more commonly known as monkey bread. They're pretty easy to make, and pretty dang good. I plan on making them multiple times while I'm back in Washington with my three favorite little boys in the whole wide world.

I have less than two weeks until I'm back on the Mainland, and I have to say I am so excited. Not necessarily to be leaving Hawaii for a little while, but because it means that I'm done living in the hales (dorms), and will be living off campus when I get back, and I will be able to cook again! My friend that I plan on rooming with following my return to the island and I spent the day looking for houses, which was mostly unsuccessful, but we'll work on it this next week too, and hopefully find some place.

(This picture may be cheating a little bit, it was taken back in September, but I did take it myself, so I think it still mostly counts.)

2009-05-22T12:31:00.000-10:00

There's this room off the main hallway with a bunch of couches and what not that looks out on the entrance of the school. Right in the middle of it is this table (shown above) with a statue of Christ on it. I've been meaning to take a picture of it for a while, and finally got around to it a couple days ago. I think it's pretty nice.

Take two!

2009-05-21T21:18:00.004-10:00

This time I checked to make sure I had a memory card, charged batteries and everything else necessary. Ta-da!

To make a short story long.

2009-05-20T22:47:00.006-10:00

As a fore-warning, this is probably one of the most disjointed, jumping from thought to thought blog post I've written.

I was trying to figure out what to say to go along with these pictures, so I googled some quotes, and ran into one from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay on art. The quote I found turned out to be more of a combination of a couple of different parts, and the real thing didn't fit nearly as well as I would've liked, so I decided not to use it. I did still like what it was saying, but didn't like the font the websites all had it in, so I went to the library to print it out so I can read it some other time in some other font, and came back and couldn't decide on what to write here. In the end, I'm going to apologize for this past paragraph, and recommend you go read the essay. (I can email it to you, or it can be found at http://www.sacred-texts.com/phi/emerson/essay1.txt -there are a bunch of his essays there, and you'll need to scroll down quite a bit until you come to the one on art)

The false-quote that I first encountered was "Each work of art excludes the world, concentrates attention on itself. For the time it is the only thing worth doing, to do just that; be it a sonnet, a statue, a landscape, an outline head of Caesar, or an oration. Presently we return to the sight of another that globes itself into a whole as did the first, for example, a beautiful garden; and nothing seems worth doing in life but laying out a garden." Feels a little choppy and strange, no? It's better in the real thing, and talks about tyrants and how in the moment we're creating something, there's nothing there but that thing. Sometimes I do feel like that, like there's nothing in my world except what I'm working on right there in that moment. It most often happens in the darkroom, I can go in and spend what feels like a few minutes or half an hour at most, and emerge, only to find that a couple of hours have passed, and fairly often, I'm late for something else.

...There's plenty more to be said, as inspired by that essay, but the words are not stringing together in any way that makes sense, so it will have to wait for another day.

Another quote I considered using: "Some days you're the pidgeon, and some days you're the statue."

Also, even though I like statues, I try to avoid looking them in the eye. Those always creep me out.

Life is good.

2009-05-19T16:42:00.002-10:00

I made it to the beach again today. It was beautiful and sunny and I got my readings done for tomorrow.

A profuse apology for the pathetic pause in posting.

2009-05-18T00:40:00.004-10:00

I've been having technical difficulties with pretty much everything lately. My phone is currently only functioning as an alarm clock and a texting device, phone conversations are impossible right now, and this is the first time in a few days that my computer has lasted more than about twenty minutes without shutting itself down. (Why? I'm not sure, but it seems to have fixed itself.) The most exciting parts of my Friday night and Saturday were the same thing, so I'll post multiple pictures and you all will have to pretend they're separate posts on the correct days.

World Fireknife Dancing Competition.

so. legit.

(Next time I'll have to do a bit of research beforehand on lighting and such, and not spend the first half of the competition in the very last row standing on a chair. Maybe I'll even figure out a way to get a press pass and get right up front, that would be awesome.)

This term is almost done, there are two and a half more weeks, four more papers to write, a thirty minute DVD to prepare, two finals to take and I'm done, and on my way back to the Mainland, hurray!

2009-05-15T14:44:00.003-10:00

Last night I was having a bit of a rough time, so I went for a walk down to the beach with my scriptures, my ipod and my camera and just sat for a long time, thinking about some things and enjoying being alone.
I think one of my biggest challenges here at school is that I am not an extrovert. I enjoy being around people, but sometimes I just need to be by myself and the more time I put that off, or the less of it I get, the worse off I am. This is a wonderful place, but I am definitely looking forward to being at home and not constantly surrounded by lots and lots of people.

Happy thoughts of the day:
There's one less paper to write this weekend because my group convinced the teacher it was unnecessary.
The presentation I helped out with in class went pretty well, and I got extra credit for it because I'd already done all the presentations the teacher requires us to do.
Tomorrow is Saturday!

2009-05-14T16:02:00.000-10:00

From an email my religion professor sent the class talking about the midterm- "Do not be anxious just be happy."

Not everything is green in Hawaii

2009-05-13T22:29:00.004-10:00

Shot this one on my way back from taking yesterday's picture.

I used the Princess Bride in my Anthro 445 class today. It was awesome.

Hopefully I will be able to work things out in the next couple of weeks before I leave so that I'll actually make it to the beach. I've been once in the past month, and it's only a ten minute walk away. Something is wrong with that.

A couple days ago I got an email about scholarships available at a university in Hungary, and I know it won't work out for this year, but maybe next year it might. I'm going to to talk to my academic advisor about a couple of things tomorrow, and this option might be one of them. Among the things to talk to her about includes the fact that for my Public Management minor, I need to take a couple of Econ classes, which require taking another math class which I am not interested in doing. I ended on a good note and I intend to keep it that way.

I miss Hungary.

It's the little things.

2009-05-12T16:04:00.002-10:00

On my way to work everyday, I walk through the laundry room and out onto the street. This is right outside the laundry room door and I smile every time I see it. You see why I'm smiling, right?

2009-05-11T23:23:00.002-10:00

I love this place.

Moms are awesome.

2009-05-10T23:53:00.000-10:00

I have a lot of moms. Obviously, there was just one that gave birth to me, but besides her, I have my step-mom, my host moms, my friends' moms' who I spent a lot of time with, all my grandmothers, and all those other people who have been some sort of materal figure to me at one point or another.
I don't think I'll ever really be able to express my gratitude for everything they have all done and I can only hope to one day be like them.

My beautiful mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, on my trip down to see them as soon as I got back from Hungary. I am so, so excited to get to see all of them again later this summer.

2009-05-08T15:16:00.000-10:00

I don't know why, but this reminds me of one of those WWII memorial type things.

Yes, yes, yes!

2009-05-07T20:41:00.003-10:00

I made it to the beach.
And climbed that tree.
I may have even gotten some reading done for class and had a nice chat with a friend. How's that for productive?
Now it is 9 and I'm going to bed.

2009-05-06T23:05:00.003-10:00

This time two years ago, I was wandering Barcelona with my host family and one of my best friends. We visited all sorts of grand old churches, a few Gaudi buildings, La Sagrada Familia, and took the tour bus around, then had a Spanish train adventure on our way to Montserrat. It was all absolutely lovely.

Inside one of the Gaudi houses.

A legit Dali (my framing is crooked, whoops). I loved this piece, and I love Dali.

We spent a little longer than planned here on our train adventure.

A view from Montserrat.

America doesn't have alleyways like this, and I miss them.

Rental bikes!

Apparently I had a thing for staircases this trip.

2009-05-05T22:15:00.002-10:00

If I ever make it back to Hukilau beach (I haven't been to any beach since the term started, and it doesn't look like it's happening any time soon), there'll be a picture from the top of this tree as well as this one.
Doesn't it look like the best climbing tree?

A shot and a miss.

2009-05-04T22:25:00.004-10:00

So, I was walking to my room while coming back from the gym (that's a new thing) and spotted a gecko on the wall. Surprisingly, we don't really get too many of them in the hales, so I ran in and grabbed my camera and snapped a couple of pictures.

Then I realized I didn't have a card in my camera, so none of them were saved. Dangit.

Then I went back into my room and stuck a card in my camera, but the gecko had gone into hiding.

You get a picture of a gecko tail (along with the lovely hallway light fixture). Enjoy.

(Moral of the story: When done uploading pictures, put the dang card back in the camera.)