Bye Spring break!

 I 'm so glad someone finally guessed the fruit!  It was very weird tasting - almost like a pear. 

Well anyways, spring break is officially over this week, and School is back and it's as welcome as a skunk at a lawn party. But... I can't complain - a week of no school. It was fun while it lasted!

I went up to Pololu lookout up in the North part of the island - near Hawi (pronounced Havee). 

These are the lovely people I am staying with, Shori and Kelly Whelan.  They have been so kind to me.. .! 

It was a really nice hike down but treacherous on the way up.. I'm surprised I survived it. I thought that all this swimming and body boarding would get me in shape..apparently not.

A beached whale was down on the shore - it was kinda nasty, and man did it ever reek to high heaven. It was disintegrating and little chunks were washing away into the ocean. Great first up close whale sighting.

This week it's back to the school work and band practice.. that's right, I said band practice.  I'm on the keyboard and a backup singer for the New Year Romantics. Some amazing musicians I get to play with.  This has been my dream for so long!!  We're playing in the Battle of the bands at the university next weekend, then at a wedding the following weekend.   I'll try to post some video's after we perform!!

Round 2 of Guess that Fruit!

 Alright... Time for another round of guess that fruit!!  And yes-- it's a fruit.. Another postcard up for grabs..! 

   

What could it be??? 

A little coconut making

Oh coconut.  You are my favorite flavor.  This is why I tried to make you  into some flakes so I could eat you.   

So, I first bought you from the farmer's market and drank all your milk.. it wasn't very good at all.  I expected better from you. It was more like acidic juice milk... blecgh...that's the best description i can make of the sound I made. 

Then I scraped all the meat out of you. That was really hard work... the Samoan guy made it look reallly easy.

Then I baked you with some sugar in the oven for a little bit . A little bit too long I think.

Then I cut you and your burnt flavor up into little tiny bits. 

Coconut...you were a disappointment to me today.. Sigh... But don't worry, I still love you... and you taste reallly good on icecream. 

I'm BAAAACKK!

I'm so sorry for the lack of posts here!! BUT....I have great news for you - I finally have a camera again!! It has been a long time coming, but I finally get to show what I did about 3 weeks ago... !

First of all, a continuation of when my family was visiting..  I miss them so much already!

This is at Akaka Falls, about 10 miles outside of Hilo.  Huge water fall!

Next my friend Melissa came for a visit!! 

And then... the Tsunami ordeal - here is Walmart stocking the store like crazy at 9:00 am.

All the people watching to see what will happen from the parking lot of Safeway!

A beautiful sunset ended off the eventful day!

A huge snail and a rather large crab thing.

Me and Melissa at Bongo Ben's! 

! I know you all can't sleep at night until you see my pictures. I care about you - I really do, and that is why I'll make sure my posts become regular again!

Adding value

Here is a link to what my business planning class has been working on.  We have entered into 2 business plan competitions so far, and have made it to the semi finals in one of them - so we get to go present in Honolulu in April! 
So yes mom and dad - I am going to classes. 

Holomua Value-added Agricultural products

My Social Norm Violation

So, I don't think I actually reported on what I ended up doing for my project on violating a social norm.  Well, is the story...! Don't get too excited!

It was one cloudy looking day in Hilo, and I was walking aimlessly around the campus, trying to build up the courage to go and violate some kind of social norm.  I glanced over at one of the tables underneath a little porch overhang, where an innocent looking, extremely focused girl was sitting, working on some homework.  There were plenty other tables around that were empty, but I walked right up to her and asked if I could sit down at the table.   She stared down at her books and was trying her absolute hardest to avoid eye contact.  This poor girl - I felt so sorry for what I would soon put her through.   I then proceeded to introduce myself and held out my hand to shake hers.  She was slightly hesitant, but I grabbed her hand and and I shook it hard.  And ... I didn't let go.  For a very long time. 

I held on to her fragile little hand - asked her a bazillion questions about herself - and to be quite honest I don't remember a single one of her answers because I was so nervous.  By about the 3rd question I could see she was wondering what on earth I was doing and thought I was absolutely crazy - which I was at that moment.  After it was all said and done, I let go of that fragile little hand and just sat across the table from her for a while, just to see what she would do.  I have to admit, it was realllly funny, I almost giggled a couple times.  She darted right back to her books and was inconspicuously glancing at me while her head was down.  Oooh, it was hilarious. 

Then I decided to redeem myself by telling her what it was all about.  Asked her how she felt about it and the whole ordeal.  She was totally weirded out, which is exactly what I was aiming for.  That being said, I haven't got my paper back yet, so I'm not sure if it was worth it marks wise, but in my own personal mind, it was totally worth it.

I challenge you to violate a norm today - just for fun.  Who sets these norms anyways...?  I'm setting my own new ones - so watch out!

Here are a few you tube videos of what other people have done to violate social norms:
Cheering People On - this is what I based my project on that I did for my other class a couple years ago (see here)

"Ghosting" People - this is just realllly funny.  You'll have to fast forward to about the 2:00 mark to start the action.  Ok, you got me.  I actually did try doing this one day at the mall with my friend Melissa.  But shhh- don't tell anyone.

More from the islands..

Don't worry, I haven't abandoned this blog. My camera abandoning me has been the main reason for my absence. I can't seem to find a camera repair place in Hilo.. ! Frustrating to say the least.
Luckily I was able to borrow some pictures from my friend Melissa who has been here for the past couple of weeks visiting!


Here are Melissa and I on our trip to Kona /the tsunami experience..





My first experience body boarding! It was pretty scary the first time.. the waves were pretty gnarly (I really like that word.) The lifeguard took us out on the waves and showed us how to do it - it was a bit deeper water, so harder to catch the wave - because you had to paddle really hard and kick with flippers - they didn't even let people go out without any fins... strong current I guess..





This was the result of bodyboarding the day before .. don't really know how it happened.. but I always enjoy war wounds.




We also went to the zoo!! A nice little tiger perched on my hand.





Even though I really enjoy sunsets out here.. the ones in Saskatchewan will still always be closer to my heart.

Tsunami.. !!

Ok, so here's the deal. My camera is shot right now. The lens won't close - There must be some sand or something in there.. so this means I can't even download them.. !

But, the good news is, I survived the tsunami that came! And here's the scoop:

Melissa and I were going down to Kona for the weekend, and to make things cheap - we wanted to catch the free (thats right.. FREE!!) bus to Kona. Well, it comes once a day, and needless to say - Bobby, our cab driver, could hardly speak english, and was waiting at the wrong place to pick us up. Apparently he misunderstood. So, the short of it is, we missed the bus. We were devestated.. miss one whole day there? I don't think so. So, we ended up renting a car so we could be on our way. Little did we know that God had the bigger picture in mind. I seriously don't know what we would have done if we didn't have a car!! Walk the whole city with our body boards and suitcases..there's no way. Why did I ever doubt? I know He always protects me.

It was a scary morning waking up to a phone call from her mom warning us that there was a warning for our area! We heard the sirens start right after that. We heard the time it was supposed to hit (if it did) was 11:19, so we threw everything in our bags and headed up the hill to join the rest of the mad tourists trying to get out of the danger zone. We got some provisions just in case - water, food, and filled with gas. We camped out in the Wal-Mart parking lot for about 2 hours, waiting and waiting for a big wave to come and wash out downtown... but, it never happened. We couldn't even get Starbucks because it was closed. So we sat down and had a nice game of Rook.

Thanks for all your prayers.. ! It was a cool experience... In a selfish way, I wish it would have happened, but I'm glad it didn't for all the Hawiian people's sake.

Hopefully I'll have some pictures to come soon!