Black Smoke!

I had to share this one, for the Losties. This is a hydrothermal vent, where ultra-heated water seeps through the oceanic crust creating plumes of black smoke. The image popped up in my geology class this morning.

Did anyone else see the face?

It's been a while

Aloha!


I've been a bit lazy over the past few days in terms of posting here. Sorry. A number of excuses spring to mind, including:

• I have been extremely busy with classes and can't afford to waste time on the internet
• I'm exhausted from all this stuff I've been doing and don't have the energy to string a few sentences together
• I actually have a life

But you guys, I'm sure, need your Jelly fix every now and then. I'll try to post something once every two days at the very least. And if I have time, a video too.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with the word of the day:

whakapapa

[faka-papa] (Maori) genealogy; a sense of belonging within the community, connection to the land.

 

Methinks it's time for a spamwich.

Mahalo!

Yogurtland again

Aloha!


Last night we had yet another meeting of the MIXers. This one was at the Varsity which about as dirty and sticky as the reviews on Google had warned me. But I'm not complaining - it's nice to hang out with familiar faces and even get to know more... while sipping on some PEAR CIDER! *slurrrrrrrrp*

I learned from a couple of girls in the MIX that a certain Daniel Dae Kim was at Yogurtland the other day. My reaction:

Literally.

So I went with a couple of friends to Yogurtland today after class. While I ate my ice cream - a mix of chocolate and vanilla ice cream topped with strawberries, blueberries, banana and chocolate sauce - I kept my eyes peeled for the ex-Lost (now Hawaii Five-0) star. Nothing. Just a bunch of children rolling around on the wheels embedded into their shoes.

Anyway, I had Geology and Filipino today. I feel like I can ace Geology because I've done it before (although not in a Hawaiian context) but Filipino - oh my gash! Looking at the syllabus for that class was like...

Literally.

Anyway, that's about it for today. I suppose I should do some readings etc. Maybe do a couple of extra readings. Maybe plan my semester in terms of assessments, field trips and other activities. Yeah, I'll do all of that...

While watching Glee.

Mahalo!

I love my Kumu. Just saying.

Aloha!

This morning I was kinda freaking out about my Hawaiian Studies class. Mostly because I hadn't done all of the readings, since I spent a lot of time last night Skyping my family and friends. Which became advantageous to me in hindsight, because I actually read one of the articles out loud to a friend and was able to understand it more clearly. She, on the other hand, had no idea what I was talking about.

At the start of each class, Kumu (instructor) picks a handful of students to give a summary on the readings. Today, being the first of these summary presentation days, she gave us the opportunity to volunteer our summaries rather than picking names at random. This was a chance to study the readings well, offer our answers, and get 15 points out of the way from the beginning. So when nobody volunteered to be the first speaker, my shaky hand seemed to slowly raise itself into the air.

I gave my summary and understanding of the article, trying as hard as I could not to say "um" too much. She then proceeded to ask some questions about the article - some which I knew the answers to, and some which I had to bluff - and within a few minutes it was over. At the end of the class I received my mark and was over the moon! Maybe she was being nice because I was the first to volunteer, or maybe I explained it better than I thought I did.

Either way, it doesn't matter. I just earned 15 marks towards this class.

That's an entire three percent.

Heck yeah.

Mahalo!

My other two classes

Aloha!

I know you guys are just dying to find out which one I dropped out of, but first I have to tell you about Geology of the Hawaiian Islands. I'm gonna get this out of the way now:

I GET TO MAKE A POSTER FOR THIS SUBJECT!

All my insides burst out in a pyroclastic eruption of joy the moment I heard that.

The subject itself sounds really interesting, although the first few classes will basically be a revision of geology. Yawn. I'd already planned my poster in my head.

Oh, who am I kidding? I drafted a PowerPoint slide with customised backgrounds and transparent text boxes with a gradient fill and line, and researched potential topics for my poster as soon as I got home. I just love making posters. Too bad it's not due until December 2.

I can't say much about Beginning Filipino because today's class was cancelled. The instructor for that class, Imelda Gasmen or "Tita Ime" was sick, but hopefully will be better by Thursday. She's got some really good reviews on ratemyprofessors.com.

So which course am I dropping? Finally, you get some answers!

67% of you said Filipino, and I had a feeling you would say that. I was a little reluctant to take this class to begin with, and initially it was only because I couldn't find anything else to do. But I hate to break it to you - this is not the class I'll be dropping. In the words of my Hawaiian Environmental Sciences professor, "If you don't know the language, you don't have culture." In the words of my mother, "I hope you'll be okay with all of the subjects especially Filipino so I can talk to you in Tagalog when you come back here."

100% of you were correct in NOT voting against Hawaii: Center of the Pacific :)

So that leaves Science of the Sea, Hawaiian Environmental Sciences and Geology of the Hawaiian Islands. I got one vote against each of these. To the person that voted against Geology - how dare you! I'm really looking forward to making that poster! And Hawaiian Environmental Sciences - I intentionally painted that class in a not-so positive light, but it's actually really interesting. Side note: I've got to find another word for "interesting". I'm not dropping either of those classes.

Science of the Sea. Have you seen those i-clickers!? THEY ARE COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY AWESOME... Unfortunately that's the only cool thing (to me) about this class. I've covered the content already, and the classroom is such a trek away from my previous room. Plus there is no way in hell that I'm gonna let myself suffer through chemistry and physics all over again.

One person got it right in my poll. Congratulations, Nicole - you've won yourself an i-clicker!

I'll try to do more polls in the future. This was fun :)

Mahalo!

I totally forgot to put a title here

Aloha!


My semester began at 9am this morning, but it was from 8.23am that I found out exactly how widespread this campus is. Here's a summary of my classes so far:

Hawaiian Studies 107 - Hawaii: Center of the Pacific
This class is great. It's only a small one - about 35 students, of which I was the lucky last to register into - and one extremely enthusiastic Hawaiian teacher. You get that vibe off of her, that she knows what she's talking about and she really wants you to understand what she's saying. Because it's a small class, she gets to know us individually (me in particular because I'm from Australia) and encourages us to participate in discussion.

Topics to be covered include the history, traditions, culture and environment of Hawaii.

Oceanography 201 - Science of the Sea
This class is huge. I think there are about 200 students doing it (although that might be a vast exaggeration), mostly freshmen. It sounds like the main professor is Australian. He knows about the trek from Hawaiian Studies to the other side of campus for this class, and sympathises. Now, the coolest thing about this class is that student participation comes in the form of an i-clicker. The i-clicker encourages blind participation, meaning students don't have to worry about making an idiot of themselves when answering the teacher's questions. It looks like a remote control but with buttons lettered from A-E, and when the professor asks a multiple-choice question you just press whichever you think is the correct response, and immediately a column graph pops up on the screen with all the responses. It's really quite cool.

End sales pitch.

Biology 123 - Hawaiian Environmental Science
This class is small but held in a large room. The first few classes will discuss what science is all about, after which we will take this knowledge and apply it to the isolated environment of Hawaii. The professor is a bit of an oddball, and hopefully from now on he'll stand on the lower level of the auditorium instead of looking down at us like today. One of my Japanese friends is doing this also doing this class.

So those were the three classes I had today. Tomorrow I've got Geology of the Hawaiian Islands and Beginning Filipino. That makes five classes altogether; 15 credit hours out of a minimum 12. I know that by the end of the week I will drop out of one of them, and I've pretty much made my mind already.

Can you guess which one? Vote in the poll below:

What class will I drop out of?
	Hawaii: Center of the Pacific
	Science of the Sea
	Hawaiian Environmental Science
	Geology of the Hawaiian Islands
	Beginning Filipino
pollcode.com free polls

I'll let you know the answer in the next post. For now, I've got some readings to do.

Mahalo!

Colour me overwhelmed

Aloha!

So I've moved out of the hostel and into my... Apartment? Unit? I don't know what to call it. I spent the past few days really looking forward to this - to finally unpacking all of my luggage and really settling in. And when it finally happened, BOOM, all my unpreparedness hit me like a big yellow school bus.

At the risk of sounding cliché, it all happened so fast. One minute I'm in a cab learning about how the driver's old roommate mixed paint in the driver's rice cooker, and the next minute I'm thrust in this overwhelmingly thick haze of independence. I want my mother.

--Flashback--

I am at the post office for the second time in less than a week. Again I find myself mailing a cheque, to the same address as before. This time though, I mail it to the entirely wrong zip code causing mayhem within the postal services, inconvenience for the recipient and general lolness for the sender.

--End flashback--

As it turns out, that second cheque did arrive safely at its intended destination. And by the looks of things, it wasn't even necessary - the money was credited towards next month's rent. Awesome.

First order of business: find room.

My room is on level 15 (of a possible 17) and at the end of the hallway. It is conveniently far from the elevator, meaning I won't hear a "ding" every time someone goes down. Poor Fumie - one of the Japanese girls I met the other day at MIX orientation - has to suffer that pain.

Second order of business: meet roommate.

Brian (I totally forgot his name) is from Maui and is studying at Kapi'olani Community Center. His girlfriend Nikki is a cheerleader at my uni. They both seem nice and so far we've gotten along well. Hopefully he wasn't being serious when he suggested I buy alcohol for them. I'm not used to 21 being the legal age to drink. It seems like such a foreign thing.

Third order of business: purchase sheets.

I spent a ridiculously long time at Sears looking for sheets and towels. It was the most confusing hour and a half of my life. What the heck is a "fitted sheet"? A "flat sheet"? A "sham"? "Comforter"? This is the stuff I need my mother around for. I seriously wanted to cry in the middle of the store.

Next: find out exactly what I just bought.

Fail. A fitted sheet, as it turns out, is the thing that wraps around the mattress. I bought a pack that includes one of those, plus a flat sheet and a pillowcase. So now all I have to sandwich myself between are the top and bottom sheets. I'm counting on the weather not getting too cold while I'm here. It's been good so far. *touches wood*.

Finally: find out which keys open which doors.

I have a room key, a laundry key, a "Fob" key, and tomorrow I will receive my mailbox key. One thing I couldn’t figure out was the Fob key. It is an electronic swipe key shaped a little like a guitar plectrum, used to open the entrance doors and access the elevator. I am at long last learning to ask for help :)

I’m going to stop now, particularly because I need some rest. Tomorrow I’ll pass by the Waikiki Aquarium and see if I can get a job there. Technically, since it is run by my university, I can work there if they have a job for me. Fingers crossed.

Mahalo!