April Musings

Let's go backwards in time to try and recap the last month's activities:

First of all, SPRING BREAK!! It was a bit hectic. The first part was spent trying to give feedback to some of my students' library research papers. Then Stasia came!! It was so amazing to actually be able to share some of my Hawaii life with someone I really really care about. As always, these kind of things pass by so quickly, but I really hope she found it worthwhile. We got to talk and go on some nice walks. We had an adventures beach camping trip on the North Shore with Emily, Autumn, and Julie. We visited with some huge honu (turtles) and swam in the ocean and camped on the beach, s'mores and all...and then got robbed. Actually Julie lost a lot of things (expensive things), but her insurance is paying her back for most of it. Yay for Canadian insurance! Anyways, that was kind've a bummer, but the trip itself was good. We also stopped by the Dole Plantation and saw all sorts of pineapples and Emily and I hosted a crepe party for our friends. I also took Stasia to some good vegetarian dim sum and explored Chinatown a bit. Overall, things were good. There are so many other things to show her, but we ran out of time. The biggest thing for me was that she was able to meet Emily and they really liked each other and I was finally able to show someone from home how wonderful Emily is and how much I care about her.

Then reality hit and I had papers galore, both to write and to grade. So much work, but I survived it all.

My birthday fell on the day after one of my major papers for the semester was due. I celebrated with my students. They had written happy birthday on the board in different languages when I got there and my students from East Timor gave me these really nice scarf-like things to wear that are like leis in their country. Another student in my second class baked brownies for everyone and I got some other really nice gifts from my students. Then I went to lunch with a bunch of my friends and that's where Pongo read the poem mentioned below. It reads:

Mat is...
Mat is the talons of an eagle.
Mat is the stud in Second Language Studies.
Mat is the pork in pork fat.
Mat is the warm feeling you have early in the morning when you are snuggled in your blankets and don't want to come out.
Mat is the choke after a really good laugh.
But most of all...
Mat is...
My friend.

And I got so many other wonderful gifts for my birthday. I feel so loved and special. Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who sent something.

On Saturday, the birthday celebration continued with a gathering at my house and some authentic Mexican food. We made cheese enchiladas with a killer mole sauce. Yum! And there were lots of people there and good company and good food is a good combination. Sunday I went to the Kokua Festival hosted by Jack Johnson and there was a lot of environmental hippiness, beer drinking, and some good music with the Cruz Brothers (a Hawaiian group), Eddie Vedder (from Pearl Jam), and Jack Johnson. He's a Punahou grad, if you didn't know (along with Michelle Wie and Barack Obama).

I am almost done with my teaching. I managed to grade 31 10-page research papers in two days and 31 4-page literature analysis papers in 1 day. Crazy!! But I've gotten some really +positive+ feedback from my students in their reflection letters and evaluations and so I feel like all the work has been worth it and most everyone got something out of this class and a few even enjoyed it! Enjoyed a writing class!! =)

So, moving on towards May, I think things will be great.