little joys

Today in my Applied Anthropology class, an (unintentional) comical piece of a conversation went like this:

D. (Chilean Student) : "...in our survey for one of my classes, we wanted to see if people had problems with accents."

L. (the discussion leader) : "Problems with what?"

D: "accents"

L: "oh..."

whole class laughed. It was perfect timing.

Little Joy #2

For my second class for today, my teacher decided to have class outside. I'm not sure why he decided to do so, but I was SO glad he did; we sat in a circle in the grass under a palm tree, and it made my soul happy. I've come to understand lately how much the soul, mind, and body longs to be outside, especially when it doesn't happen very often.

Tsunami Tsaturday

Due to the devastating earthquake in Chile, Hawaii was put on the tsunami warning list. Friday late night I had start hearing about it and read up on it a little, but there wasn't a whole lot of information yet.

Then our wonderful loooong day began at 4:30am with banging on our door. After realizing it was the second set of loud banging on our door and that whoever was on the other side was not going to be leaving until we answered it, I made Wolfgang get up and see what was going on (It's a man's job.)

It ended up being our neighbor telling us about the tsunami warning, and that the warning sirens around the island would be going off starting at 6am, and that we needed to leave at 6 and head to the stake center, which is the designated place for our area to go in case of emergencies and disasters such as this.

Needless to say we couldn't really go back to sleep, so we laid around for a little while longer (we had only gone to bed about 1 1/2 hours before this happened) then started to get ready to evacuate. We were a little concerned, but not freaking out, and living on the second floor helped us to not worry too much about our belongings.

So at 6am the creepy sirens went off and we had our backpack ready to go with supplies in case of a disaster and started to head over to the church (stake center) which is pretty much right next to were we live. On the way over we saw people packing up their cars, carrying huge suitcases out of their house, the whole bit. On our way over we saw some ward members, then got word that our bishop said to just stay home since the tsunami wasn't suppose to hit until 11:20am, and that if you live on the first floor, just move up to the second floor. I was really glad when I heard this, because I was not looking forward to staying in the church all morning for something that was most likely going to be anticlimactic.

We ended up going back to our apt, and two of our friends came over who lived close to the beach or who were kicked out of their apt even though they lived on the second floor (I think they didn't want to be liable for their tenants). So all morning we just hung out and waited for 11:20 to come around

Can't you tell we felt REAL stressed...

It was kind of a weird feeling, just waiting around hours for something potentially really bad to happen, but like I said we all felt at peace and had a feeling it wasn't going to be anything big. 11:20am came and gone, and nothing really happened. It was kinda fun to watch what very little action was going on, on the Hawaii news station with the tide fluctuating back and forth rapidly.

All in all Saturday was a very looong day, and thankfully nothing dramatic happened. It was definitely a great learning experience for all- for the well prepared, and especially the severely unprepared. It was somewhat comical to see/hear of some people freaking out. It most definitely showed some things that I need to improve on, and what to do the next time something else like this happens again. We were so blessed that no damage was done on any of the Hawaiian Islands, and our hearts go out to those in Chile and Okinawa and other places around the world who have been added to the victims of the recent natural disasters.

Remember to count your blessings every day, and to pray for those who have been effected by the earth quakes and other natural disasters.


p.s., I'm really sad I couldn't find the picture that was shown on the news found in a grocery store the morning of the tsunami, where on the spam isle it said on a hand-written note "only take 2 per family."

The Olympics: Mixed feelings

So we've been watching bits and pieces of the Olympics, and secretly in my brain, I've been overly analyzing it. Here are some of my thoughts:
I feel that with the Olympics, there is a fine line between extreme nationalism vs. this idea of unity of bringing countries together from around the world, participating in something great, and sharing their talents with the world.

In my conflict and culture class, we are currently learning about the process and dynamics of conflict management and resolution, and so on the positive side, I can see how the Olympics can be a way of peace building through rituals and symbols. On the flip side, I feel like it's an excuse for countries to become obviously very competitive, and this thought of "we're better than you" attitude.

Another side of the Olympics that is something I've taken unnecessary time thinking about, is the pressure that some of these athletes have to deal with. Tonight we were watching women's figure skating, and the commentators were talking about Kim Yu-Na from South Korea, and how she carries a very large load of pressure from her country. They explained that she is looked at as the biggest celebrity in South Korea, and that they expect nothing but gold from her. She also wrote a series of essays and published a book about the pressures from her country to win, and that she fears that they will reject her if she didn't get gold. Not only that, but they even write her hate mail when isn't the best in her competitions.

Well, at least the good news is, is that she just barely awarded the gold medal. At least her life will be spared.....

Ok, so maybe that was a little dramatic, but I just hate to hear things like that, and it's completely wrong and pathetic in my opinion. I know that there is much more to it than what I am getting into, but that's just a little taste of mu opinion on the matter.

What are your thoughts?

Current Thoughts

It's 9:30pm and I haven't even started my very time consuming studying/homework that is all due tomorrow. I have no motivation to start a new week a school, and I miss being outside.

I don't remember this crazy magician's name on tv that travels around freaking people out with his amazing tricks, but they are really making Memphis look bad. I'm pretty sure they found all the most fugly and dense people they could find in that city. This could be potentially bad for their tourism.

I wish the prego women around me could at least fake enjoying their pregnancy, so that maybe someday, I'll actually want to go through the same process.

Busted.

So when I came home tonight from work, Wolfgang "had a confession to make." (we use this phrase a lot, but it's just to admit little random things to each other what we've done, nothing dramatic) The confession was this: He ate 7 of these yummy cookies from in our fridge

...and left me 1.

Needless to say, he was SOOO busted by me. I thought I had finally successfully taught him how to properly share, but apparently not.

Then...

he says, "guess what I did for you?"

"what."

"I filed your taxes for you while you were at work."

All of a sudden, he was magically no longer busted. well, for the most part at least. What a sly guy huh? He knows how to work the system.

I love 3 day weekends

Although our weekend was quite simple and we had to work during it, it was nice to kinda relax and spend a little more time with my Wolf man (Every time the movie trailer comes up, I make some dumb remark to him, heh heh...)

Here are a few pictures to describe our V-Day weekend

Delicious.

Entertaining



DIVINE.

The AMAZING raspberry dessert I made that my mom makes on special occasions.

Complete with raspberry/jello top
cool whip/cream cheese/powdered sugar middle
pretzel crust
Let me know if you want the recipe

Oh, and The Bachelor of course. We hate Vienna!
enough said.
Back to homework.

My most recent purchase

I'll let you know how it goes, especially since I hate things up my nose.