More Cultural Insights

Apparently, I will just have to live with the bugs. Actually, I can live with the bugs, it is the spiders that concern me. Last night I killed a cockroach and a few other nondescript bugs. Then I found a gecko which I didn't kill, but it ran out into the hallway when I tried to take a picture of him. After I turned out the lights, I was kept awake by the sounds of a symphony of crickets in my room. I killed the symphony and went back to bed.

Cultural Notes: I got my first pair of $5 flip-flops from the flip-flop aisle at Longs Drugstore today. In Hawaii they call them "slippers" and I hear that slippers are called "slipah." But I'm planning on sticking with flip-flops because neither slippers or thongs seem appropriate. Also, bananas aren't just bananas I found out at the grocery store today. There are yellow bananas, red bananas, and a few other kinds, but I ended up with apple bananas which supposedly are sweeter (and cheaper). Yesterday I went to my first UH sporting event. I saw my first volleyball game and it was a big deal. The women's volleyball team is called the UH Manoa Rainbow Wahine and volleyball in Hawaii is front page, televised news. They are HUGE fans and there were over 7,000 fans attending this exhibition game against Pepperdine. I went with the old lady I'm renting from and two of her grandkids. I'm starting to meet her family and they are all so nice and it will be nice to make friends with her grandkids that are around my age and know people outside of school. Anyways, in a thrilling five-game match, we won. Go Bows!

Arachniphobia

I spent my first night in my new room yesterday. All was going well until this morning when I went to take a shower and notice two twigs hanging over the ledge of the shower wall. Then I saw them move. SPIDER!! Run run run. See Mat run. Okay. Calm yourself. It can't be that bad. I return and stand on the toilet to get a better look at this thing. It doesn't look too big. I can handle this mother' given the proper equipment. Oh no, it sees me. AHHHHHH!!!!!! It scurries up the wall to reveal its true self. It is HUGE!! RUNRUNRUNRUN...

OMG!! No one is home. What should I do??? Call Grams. Big help (not). Ok. I am bigger than she is (I assume female spiders are bigger than males and this must be the biggest of the species---I hope) and I will kill her. Hoku (the dog I live with) will be my partner. I brief him on the situation and try to prepare him for his role which involves attacking and killing/eating the spider if I knock it down and it is still alive. Ok. I can go in there...

I CAN'T FIND THE SPIDER....could be anywhere. Could be in my bed in my clothes in my shoes. No shower. Need to leave. Carefully and quickly step into the bathroom to grab deoderant and hair gel. I shake out some clothes, no spiders. I don't know what I would have done had a spider flown out of the shirt. OK leaving.

I called one of the other guys who lives here and asked him to check out my room and see if he can find and kill the spider. He does. I feel better. A little. Pictures of house and neighborhood coming soon. Hopefully, no pictures of big tropical spiders.

The End

Eccentricity and Ohana

One objective met: I have a place to stay. I will move in Thursday to a small room in a large (for Hawai`i) house where lives an eccentric, but kind older lady. Her name is Eleanor Nordyke and she is apparently a noteworthy American author who has lived in Hawaii for many years. She is renting the room more for company than money and she is offering me more than a place to stay, she offers ohana (as Stitch would say, "Ohana means family"). Besides the room (furnished by the way), I will also have a private bathroom, a private entrance, washer/dryer, Internet access, but the real seller was her dog. So cute! I love dogs so so much!! I will have kitchen access as well, but the main thing is that she is surrounded by a lot of great people and I will become part of that community and be able to rely on them for some support in a strange land. I will not be so alone. Plus, I have Leo and Sarah and Elise who I am already friends with and all the other friends I am bound to make given my friendly personality. :) Just today I was eating in the campus Food Court and a group of three girls from Taiwan joined me for lunch; obviously they sensed my likeability and wanted to share in that much like Lan and Ashley did many moons ago. ;)

Getting back on track, there is a married couple in their 40s living just down the hall from me and this really nice lady who is a friend of Eleanor's and helps take care of her in the evenings and sometimes stays the night in the guest room. There is also a fourth room which has been turned into an aviary for some birds she rescued 16 years ago that haven't died yet. She sleeps in the living room, which is humongous and has a stunningly spectacular view of UH, the mountains, Waikiki, and the ocean. The house sits up on a hill in this really safe, wealthy, old-fashioned, intellectual neighborhood near campus where people have been living there so long that they know everyone and Eleanor is one of the most popular on the street. Also on the street are 3 of 5 children with grandchildren who are around my age. She has lots of interesting visitors and is working on projects and books as we speak. The living arrangement is relaxed and comfortable and I think it will all work out well. The biggest negative is that the room is very small (it was made for the maid), but really all I need is a place to rest and study. So yeah, one load off my back and I'm already smiling more.

I also think I've sorted out my class situation after the sudden passing of my professor. It looks as though I will only have class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That means I will have to manage my time well so that I am productive on Mondays, Wednesdays, and weekends in order to not be overwhelmed by having a day full of classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I also picked up audition info so that I can audition for a play here at UH for the fall, A Streetcar Named Desire in case you've heard of it. ;) A job! That's what I need. Feel free to fill me in if you have any leads.

for Dr. Chaudron

"Life has a way of throwing you curveballs."

It was raining this morning. Actually, it has rained everyday so far, so if you like the rain and rainy climates you have yet another reason to move to Hawaii. It usually doesn't rain very heavily, but this morning it was raining pretty hard. Hard enough to make me stop to buy an umbrella on my way to my first day of class.

I was really excited about this class. Not only was it my first and only class today, it also was an upper level class taught by Dr. Chaudron who was also the graduate adviser and recommended I take it. It was called Early Childhood ESL and Bilingual Education. How much cooler can you get than that? Studying how to teach language minority immigrants at the preschool to early elementary level.

When I arrived to class, knowing I would be the only first year and male in the class and determined to be cool and collected, I found a different professor in the classroom and had to ask if I was in the right class. When I found out it was, I jokingly asked the other professor if he was our substitute for the day. He told me Dr. Chaudron died that morning.

I, of course, didn' t believe him at first. When I saw the tears welling up in his eyes, I changed my mind. Like that, I no longer had a class or an adviser and the only professor on campus that knew me was gone and the man who impressed me with how promptly he replied to all the emails I sent him and showed me such great compassion could no longer reply. He had two young children. I last saw him on Thursday.

No matter how crazy and stressful and busy your life can get, there are events that stop time, momentarily. I had one of those moments this morning. That is how I started my graduate career here at UH.

Hawaiian Wear

Believe it or not...

There are quite a few people in Hawai`i that wear Aloha/Hawaiian shirts. I see them all over and I don't think they are tourists. I also see women who look local wearing flowers in their hair. It actually looks really cute. So, they aren't merely stereotypes. It is a valid style in Hawai`i. Also, I bought my new wallet at Quicksilver and it was a good move because that is a hugely popular brand here as well. I think I'm going to like the style. The only question is, "Should I grow out my hair???"

Breakthrough Expansion

Okay, so being part of the admin team here I find myself thinking on occassion about whether I would be able to or interested in directing a Summerbridge program somewhere. Especially because Shirley is in desperate search for someone to replace her. Usually the answer is no because I'm more interested in the teaching aspect of the program than all the administrative business. But occassionally I entertain the idea, provided I had the right partner to work with me. I was thinking about Breakthrough Nashville. I'd prefer Breakthrough San Diego or Hawai`i. But today I had a different thought. How about starting a site in Puerto Rico based on the system of English language learning in Hong Kong. Wouldn't that be cool? And at least I speak Spanish. So, if the prospect of co-directing a site in any of these cities in about two years excites you, be sure and let me know. :)

Hair Crisis

So I was totally set on finding somewhere to get a haircut today because it is getting a little long and hard to manage. Then yesterday I went to this club and saw a blues band and the bassist had long hair. It made me so jealous, I mean it was really rockin and looked so cool. I'm talking Japanese style long hair not HK style (which translates to a spiky mullet). So, now I'm in a crisis and don't know how willing I am to committ myself to growing my hair out. It did look really cool on this guy and I think he acheived a style I wished for, but never quite reached when my hair was long. I was showing some pictures from last summer to some of the staff and much like all the other people I surveyed, there was no consensus on long vs. short. Some liked the long and some liked the short and usually they had a strong preference for one or the other. I figure if I grow it out and meet the right girl and she likes long hair, great! If she likes short hair, cut it! It wouldn't work as easily starting with short hair. :)

International Swimming

This past week I was surrounded by people from all over southeast Asia. There were guys from Sri Lanka and Brunei on our hall and we were passing people from all sorts of other countries including Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, and some cute girls from the Philippines. It was handy that they were typically wearing their swim gear with their country prominently displayed making identifying their ethnicity much easier. When I came home on Sunday I must have timed it perfectly with the end of the International Swim Competition that Hong Kong seems to be hosting because their was a flood of people all around me with their countries flying and all trying to get into the dorms at once. That led to quite the back-up and allowed some extra time to chat with them. Now I can add living next door to a guy from Brunei to my list of things I've accomplished.