Sunday at the Beach

Last weekend was quite eventful. On Saturday I went on another driving practice with my instructor from 7:00am. After practice I was dropped off in front of a building downtown, where I helped set up an art gallery as a volunteer, with my gallery class instructor. The gallery had over 200 artworks, but we were very efficient and finished setting up everything by 3:00pm. I heard from my teacher afterwards that when the gallery opened on Sunday, over 500 people came to see it! And because they couldn't let everyone in at once, some people had to wait an hour to get in!

On Sunday, we went to the 8:00am service at New Hope Diamond Head. After that, we had our own worship time at home.

Then, at around 11:00am the four of us went over to Magic Island, where some of our friends from Kaimuki church and Naomi's Bible study group were holding a barbeque. It was a beautiful day but not too hot, so many of us played volleyball nearby (and thanks to that, I now have muscle pain!!). Others went to bask in the sun at the beach or have a swim. Well I'll let the pictures do the talking instead of me:



Volleyball!























The thing behind the clouds is actually the sun, not the moon.







We had a nice, relaxing time there.

This week is going pretty normal, except that Naomi will be leaving for Japan tomorrow morning, and there will be only three of us here for a few weeks.
That's about it for now. I will put up more pics next time I post (if I have any)! ;)

Driving for the first time!

Unlike last week, this week seemed to go by pretty quickly. It must be a sign that I am starting to get used to this new semester. All the classes are still great, especially the stagecraft course. My instructor told me that I will get to control either the lighting or sound for the musical Evita, and I am probably going to choose sound (which means that I'll be able to play around with cool speakers and microphones). Another girl in the class, who is from Malaysia, will most likely take over the lighting. I'm so happy about that!

My drawing class is almost too easy at the moment. It's very fun but basic, and although I do not want to sound big-headed I can safely say that I am the best at drawing in that class.


But the biggest thing that happened this week was that I got to drive a car this morning!! :D Well, only a little bit, during the driving practice, but still it felt great to be behind the wheel. Earlier this week on Tuesday, Naomi took me to the driver licensing place at Dillingham and helped me get a permit. This permit allows me to drive and practice as long as there's a driver over 21 years of age riding with me. So now I have to prepare and schedule practices before I take the driver exam!

In the afternoon today, we went to an open house at Matt's new house, where he now lives with three roommates. The house is a long way up on a hill so it's not so easy to reach, but the view was excellent from up there! I only managed to take this bad picture of the scenery (look at those ugly wires!!) so it doesn't look that great, but wow it looked really nice when we were there.

Diamond Head hiking

This week is finally drawing to a close, and I must say that it was a very eventful and seemingly long week.

Today, I went hiking on Diamond Head for the very first time with Erin and a friend of hers (whose name is also Maki!). Well it can't be helped as it is a rather common name... but we don't really have the same name because mine is Makiko not Maki.
The hike was not very long or hard: it took maybe 40 minutes to climb and even less to come down. What was really impressive was the scenery. There were a few stop points on the way where we could stop and admire the gorgeous view. As can be expected, there were many tourists too. Some seemed to think that the hike was easy while others sat at the corners and rested, obviously too tired to go on.

So here are few of the pictures I managed to take of the beautiful scenery. They're not nearly as great as they look when you see them with your own eyes, but they still look pretty nice.


The entrance to the hiking course.










This is the inside of the Diamond Head crater. That pointy top on the left is where we climb to (I think).









Beeaaauuutiful view! But still only halfway up the hill.









The side of the hill. If you look closely you can see tiny people walking on the course.








Shadows! Left to write: Erin, Maki (the friend), and me









Ok, now we are at the top! I love this view of the sea...









Waikiki beach looks so tiny from up here!









Waves and palm trees at the bottom.

First Week of School

Whew... Wednesday is finally over! This week seems really long, and it's not at all surprising since Priscilla and I have been going to our new classes since Monday. So far all of my classes seem great, and though there will be a lot of work to do I'm sure I'll learn lots of valuable things this semester.

So my classes this semester are:

Introduction to Drawing: This one's a fairly easy and fun class because I'm not new to the kinds of activity we do in it. The teacher is the same as the one who taught my painting class over a year ago, and still remembers me ("Maki, you never missed one class in that painting class, yah?")

Interface Programming: I get to learn how to use HTML, XHTML and CSS in this class to make websites. I've always wanted to learn this kind of thing so it's really cool that I get to take this course!

Intro to Visual Arts: Okay so class mainly covers really basic art stuff, but it's writing intensive, and I need one more writing intensive class in order to graduate with my degree. So this seemed like my best choice. :) I'm sure I'll learn some new things from it.

Gallery and Exhibit Design: Wow... the number of students in this class is no more than 4 (including myself)! It's a tiny class but we get to work on the art gallery on campus and will get to see and know lots of renowned Hawaiian artists. Putting up and taking down exhibitions will require a lot of effort, but I'm excited about it.

Basic Stagecraft: This is the class I am most excited about!! In this class there are 5 students including myself, and we do all the backstage work for the upcoming musical "Evita" (in which Priscilla will be performing) including lighting, sounds, and backdrops. There'll be a lot of construction stuff and I'll be hammering, screwing, sawing, welding, etc. The instructor is a cool, experienced guy who was in the marines for 17 years. I can't wait to get started!



I had one more class, which was voice class, but I decided to drop it since it seemed a bit pointless to me and also because I thought that having six classes is a bit too much for me.

Anyways, enough about my classes... here are a couple of pictures I took on campus today. Unfortunately it was very cloudy (though not very rainy), so it doesn't look much like Hawaii.


This is Maile, the theatre building where the musical "Evita" will be played. Of course, it's also where I have my stagecraft class and Priscilla practices for the actual musical.








Another view, which shows how cloudy it was.














Random pic of the day: my Boingers! It's my Christmas gift from Priscilla. I love this little guy so much.. it makes a boinging noise when I drop it, and is so soft and cuddly.

School starts tomorrow!!

So in the past few days after arriving in Hawaii, I have been doing many things including preparing for the new semester (which starts tomorrow!!), shopping, drawing, and other things.

Today we had our own worship service at 9:00am then went to New Hope Diamond Head for their 10:00am service. Wow I had nearly forgotten that this was actually our first Sunday of 2007! It seems so long since we had that New Year party.

After the New Hope service, the four of us went out to eat with Aunt Jean and Reed at this place called Oceanarium inside a hotel. It was a very nice place with tons of food served in buffet style. Here is a pic of all of us at the table. It might be hard to see, but behind those dark-looking windows is a huge oceanarium with numerous types of fish swimming in it. The fish was fun to observe because there were so many kinds, including puffer fish and sting rays.








Unfortunately I could not get any good pic of the sting rays.. but they were pretty big and had scary faces!









A VERY yellow puffer fish which was showing off its bright color in front of us.

Happy New Year!! (In Hawaii again)

Woah, I see that I have not posted on this blog in nearly 2 months! I'm very sorry I had not been writing much last semester. I am going to try to change that this semester, because a part of my new year's resolution is to post on my blog more regularly. I'm going to try very hard to stick to it.

This winter break in Japan felt really short, and yet long at the same time. There was a lot going on at home including our Christmas musical, Christmas party and visiting my relatives on both sides of the family. I got to spend some great time with my family and the people from church, and also got to eat a lot of delicious food such as...


Sushi!













Datemaki!

and...











Udon w/ the most humongous kakiage I have ever seen!






It was great being back at home and I wish I could have stayed a little longer, but of course it would not do to arrive late and miss my classes. However I probably would have frozen in the cold January/February air. Brrr this winter feels so cold!

On January 4, Priscilla and I went separately to the Narita airport with our own family and met there. Masa and Mayumi came with Miriya to see us off, and it was nice to see them there. Our flight took off at 7:10pm and was relatively smooth all the way through.

So, Priscilla and I arrived safely in Hawaii this morning and were promptly picked up by Naomi. Since then I have unpacked, written emails to friends and family, read a book, and have taken several short naps here and there because I was soooooo sleepy! Now I'm thinking that maybe I napped too much because I don't feel so sleepy anymore. Hopefully my circadian cycle won't be too messed up!

Well that's about it for now. It's currently around 8:15pm so I should start thinking about going to bed soon. Thank you everyone for your prayers and encouragements. Good night!