Earthquake on Sunday

As many of you may know, we had an earthquake here on Hawaii on Sunday morning, a little after 7:00am. As a result, electricity went down all over the island, and our place didn't get it back until 11:00pm at night. So we didn't really know what was going on in the rest of the world, and it's interesting to know that we made it to the front page on the news internationally! Thank you everyone who kept us in your thoughts during that time. :)

The earthquake woke me up from my sleep when it struck, and without thinking I rushed to the door and opened it, and after it died down I went back to bed and promptly fell asleep again! I think most people got scared and panicky when it came because it is such an unusual occurence, but all of us are used to earthquakes and therefore were mostly annoyed with it.

I woke up over an hour later, and much to my horror I found that the computer wouldn't turn on! I asked around and found out that nearly the whole island was without electricity. The traffic lights were down too, and the sound of the sirens was going on almost nonstop outside, because the police and firefighters were all called out to help keep order. Well, it wasn't like it could ruin our day, so in the morning we had our own service with Mrs. Sato, and then went to New Hope Diamond Head church, where it was all dark and without the sound system. However many people still came to service. After the service in the dark room was over, we thought of eating lunch somewhere, but most restaurants were closed... they can't do business without electricity. But we went to Happy Day, the Chinese dim sum restaurant, and it was open! Wow I was impressed with the Chinese people there, no electric outage could get in their way!

We were expecting the lights to go back on in the afternoon, but of course I did not take into account the speed at which people do things here. I spent the whole afternoon reading a book, simply because there wasn't anything else I could do.. no TV, no computer. Finally it became evening, and too dark to read anything. The lights were still not back. But we weren't totally in the dark: we had candles! So we lit almost 20 candles all over the house until the place almost looked like the Phantom's Lair from PotO (yes I know I'm exaggerating a little). :P It was really fun at first, then as time went by we became bored again and wished fervently for the electricity to come back. Dinner was eaten by the candlelight, of course. Since we had nothing to do but sleep, some of us took this opportunity to go to bed early.

Erin, Priscilla and I stayed awake and played card games in the darkness, until finally, just before 11:00pm, the lights suddenly turned back on!! :D :D :D I must admit we whooped with joy! lol We were so happy!

Well life is back to normal now, and school goes on as usual. Priscilla and I finished our last midterm exam today, and we're really happy and relieved about it. I have to go and get ready for my design class critique tomorrow, so good night!

Earthquake on Sunday

As many of you may know, we had an earthquake here on Hawaii on Sunday morning, a little after 7:00am. As a result, electricity went down all over the island, and our place didn't get it back until 11:00pm at night. So we didn't really know what was going on in the rest of the world, and it's interesting to know that we made it to the front page on the news internationally! Thank you everyone who kept us in your thoughts during that time. :)

The earthquake woke me up from my sleep when it struck, and without thinking I rushed to the door and opened it, and after it died down I went back to bed and promptly fell asleep again! I think most people got scared and panicky when it came because it is such an unusual occurence, but all of us are used to earthquakes and therefore were mostly annoyed with it.

I woke up over an hour later, and much to my horror I found that the computer wouldn't turn on! I asked around and found out that nearly the whole island was without electricity. The traffic lights were down too, and the sound of the sirens was going on almost nonstop outside, because the police and firefighters were all called out to help keep order. Well, it wasn't like it could ruin our day, so in the morning we had our own service with Mrs. Sato, and then went to New Hope Diamond Head church, where it was all dark and without the sound system. However many people still came to service. After the service in the dark room was over, we thought of eating lunch somewhere, but most restaurants were closed... they can't do business without electricity. But we went to Happy Day, the Chinese dim sum restaurant, and it was open! Wow I was impressed with the Chinese people there, no electric outage could get in their way!

We were expecting the lights to go back on in the afternoon, but of course I did not take into account the speed at which people do things here. I spent the whole afternoon reading a book, simply because there wasn't anything else I could do.. no TV, no computer. Finally it became evening, and too dark to read anything. The lights were still not back. But we weren't totally in the dark: we had candles! So we lit almost 20 candles all over the house until the place almost looked like the Phantom's Lair from PotO (yes I know I'm exaggerating a little). :P It was really fun at first, then as time went by we became bored again and wished fervently for the electricity to come back. Dinner was eaten by the candlelight, of course. Since we had nothing to do but sleep, some of us took this opportunity to go to bed early.

Erin, Priscilla and I stayed awake and played card games in the darkness, until finally, just before 11:00pm, the lights suddenly turned back on!! :D :D :D I must admit we whooped with joy! lol We were so happy!

Well life is back to normal now, and school goes on as usual. Priscilla and I finished our last midterm exam today, and we're really happy and relieved about it. I have to go and get ready for my design class critique tomorrow, so good night!

Field Trip! :D

Last night, all four of us went to a Chinese restaurant with maybe 15 other church friends to celebrate Tiffany's birthday. The food was delicious, and we had a good time! By the time we got home, though, it was pretty late.. so I ended up going to be at around 1:00am! Normally I go to bed way earlier than that, just so you know.


Mmmmm!! I loved that shrimp with lobster sauce! Erin's duck and Priscilla's fried rice were great too. :P






Today I met with my sculpture instructor and fellow classmates at an art exhibit at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. Strange that even as a college student I still go on field trips. I got to see many interesting sculptures and ceramic artworks and had a great time.

After waking up this morning, Erin kindly dropped me off in front of the museum at 10:00am. The tour of the exhibit took only about 45 minutes but I stayed longer, discussing the artworks with my instructor. I'd upload the pictures of the pieces at the exhibit, but I don't think I should... so I'll just put up the piccie of the Chinese garden at the Academy of Arts. Very pretty!!




I spent several hours in the afternoon reading the classic novel "Rebecca", which is just a little like a darker, creepier version of Jane Eyre. Very interesting and hard to put down!

So tomorrow is Sunday, and also Mrs. Sato's last full day here in Hawaii. We'll be going to the New Hope church at Diamond Head after our own service. :)

What, 7th week already!

Sorry for not updating for a while again. Seems like my daily blogwriting habit has disappeared during my 3-month stay in Japan. Maybe I'm just being lazy. :P Anyhow here I am putting down in this post the goings-on of my first week or two as a 20-year-old!

School is going great as usual. Just today I got a good score for my design class, which made me very happy! My sculpture class teacher seems to like me too... he used to live in Japan for a while, so he tries to speak to me in broken Japanese (which I don't always understand! lol) but I still enjoy talking with him. There is much advantage to be gained by sitting somewhere close to the instructor rather than farther away. I try to sit in the front as much as possible, and as a result I think I get to learn more from the teachers.

Mrs. Sato is here now, and it's wonderful having her here. She is going to have her eye laser surgery tomorrow morning already! Just today, she cooked her world-famous okonomiyaki for dinner! Mmmmmm I never dreamed I'd get to eat that okonomiyaki in Hawaii! :P

....

This may be hard to believe, but this post has been written over a period of 3 days because I didn't finish writing during the last 2 nights... and now it is Thursday, and Mrs. Sato has had her LASIK, which went very well! :D We're all very happy about it.

Priscilla and I are done with our school stuff for the week, and we have just returned from a performance of the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. It was very good, the best amateur production of a musical I have seen! :D The performers were all very talented, and it was obvious they were having a lot of fun performing. The orchestra was small but skilled as well... the conductor guy had more than one thing to do: he conducted, played keyboards and the saxophone. It was pretty fun just watching him do all those things. :)

Tomorrow there is no school! No real plans yet but I'm hoping to do something productive with my time.