Bahh bahh

... billboard sheep...

First practice

Yesterday was historic, as it was the day when I acquired sufficient proficiency in strumming the ukulele to make it (almost) through an entire song. I was duly accompanied by Shan, who didn't take long to pick up the two chords on his guitar. World dominance can't be far off!

Eloquent poverty

Last Friday was Earth Day and the director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University came to give a talk. His story about visiting the pope with Bono was hilarious but the rest of his message wasn't.

Ammli

Hún Lára systir mín á afmæli í dag. Hún lengi lifi, húrra húrra húrra!!!

Back in the cottage

This morning I had a nap in my own bed in Ithaca, NY. The best boyfriend in the world picked me up at the airport after my red-eye flight from Hawaii. It's good to be home again.

Music

I thought maybe some of you needed some help to figure this ukulele thing out. I'm going to need a lot of help with it too! Do you think I'll have to wear the straw skirt at all times when playing it?

P.S. I've had the hiccups about a million times today. What's the deal here??

He'e nalu

In the interest of creating my own Hawaiian traditions, I went surfing, he'e nalu, on my last whole day, for the time being at least, in Hawaii. Two of the students came along, Katie who played the beach bum part and John, who played the surf bum part. We rented boards (long boards, 9 ft) and were in the water pretty much all morning. The long board was about a million times more maneuverable than the short board I used last year and although the bottom at Kahalu'u Beach Park, where we spent the day, was no less rocky than at Pine Trees, where Nona and I went surfing last year, it didn't really matter, because I didn't keep falling off the board. Very nice.

After a while of sitting on the boards and watching the locals ride one small wave after the other in to shore John and I decided we had to do something. He already knows how to do this stuff but I needed some assistance, especially since I was having a hard time paddling fast enough to catch the waves. So, John gave me a push and that way I was able to stand up on my board for the first time and ride like... half a second, maybe, before splashing into the water, and... wow, what a thrill! The next time I caught a wave I actually managed to stand an itty bit longer and might even have ridden the wave even further if this thing called the shore hadn't been in my way. Yes, I rode straight into the rocks on the shore and almost into a small church! The result: Numerous small scratches on my legs and arms, plus a 2-inch cut on my right foot. Haha, I'm a genius!

Anyway, here are some pictures that John and Katie took of me on the beach today:

Before:


After:

Blowin' in the wind

My fellow Icelanders: Do you remember how the wind sometimes blew so hard in Iceland that when you were a kid going to school you had to grab the nearest streetlamp to save yourself from being blown over the strait to Greenland? Do you remember how you spent countless days as a child watching the local rescue squad trying to save rooftops from being blown off the houses across the street? Do you remember how the window panes used to bulge with the force of the storm? Well, welcome to an early summer gust in Waimea town, Big Island of Hawaii.

I bought my first instrument ever today. It's a beautiful Hawaiian ukulele, and I can't wait to sit down and learn the ropes. Shan and I already scheduled our first gig at the local brewery pub next Friday. You think I'll learn to play this thing by then?

Fire in Wilmington

Something bad happened in Wilmington, Delaware, today. An apartment in the condo where Shan's mum lives caught fire and her apartment was directly in harm's way. Fortunately Charlotte wasn't in the apartment when the fire happened. I just hope the damage to her apartment wasn't severe.

A day in the life

I have not left the house. I had fruit and ice cream for dinner. I took a nap before noon. I watched The Lion King and Big this evening.

Tomorrow life as an adult resumes. Wake up at 6:30 am. OMG.

Has anyone got a billion bucks??

On Average, You Would Sell Out For

$1,123,950

At What Price Would You Sell Out?

Heimweh

I think the Germans got it absolutely right when it comes to being homesick. Their word for the feeling is the best.

The joy, the joy

Seen in the bathroom on my last visit there:

"STOP pissing on the floor!
I've stepped in it twice!
Ben and Dan"

It's hard not to piss on the floor when laughing so hard!


PS: Most of you might not be aware of the fact that while I'm in Hawai'i, I live in a house with 12 college students, two faculty members, their 4- and 8-year old daughters and a program assistant. This obviously complicates the task of finding out who pissed on the floor...

Mogglenska

Let me quote mbl.is's current news:

"Geir H. Haarde, formaður Sjálfstæðisflokksins og utanríkisráðherra, voirðisaukaskatti og vörugjöldum verði hægt að lækka verð á matvælum hér á landi frá og með næsta ári. Þetta kom fram í máli hans við setningu flokksráðs-, foi hans við setningu flokksráðs-, formanna- og frambjóðendafundar flokksins á Akureyri í dag."

Now, is that supposed to be Icelandic??

My first moblog!

On dinner and normalness

Appetizer: Tortilla chips w. guacamole, bits of fresh pineapple
Main course: Fried vegetables w. rice, salad, beer
Dessert: Tortilla chips w/o guacamole, chocolate-Macadamia nut icecream w. strawberries, tortilla chips

And now, may I go and vomit?

When we got in from the field today I tossed the car keys into the garbage. Then I spent the next half-hour looking for them and finally came to terms with the fact I'd have to go digging through the trash. Don't even try to tell me that I'm normal.

Oliana the scientist

Your Hawaiian Name is:

Oliana Kalea

What's your Hawaiian Name?

You Should Get a PhD in Science (like chemistry, math, or engineering)

You're both smart and innovative when it comes to ideas. Maybe you'll find a cure for cancer - or develop the latest underground drug.

What Advanced Degree Should You Get?

The best

I have the best boyfriend in the whole wide world. Period.

Naue aku naue la naue i ke hoa!

Not only did we practice taro farming and ginger extermination this weekend, we also learned a new chant in Hawaiian and saw up (pretty) close the state's tallest waterfall. Nicht schlecht, as the German in me would remark.

Now, in order to get into the valley one first has to drive to the famous Waipi'o Valley lookout, where the ground all of a sudden drops in front of you and this incredible vista opens up. The road down is every bit as precipitous as one would fear looking at the opposite side of the valley, in fact one Internet reference gives the grade as 25%!! Whether that is true or not I shan't say, but I do know that I've never seen a paved road as steep. In places it feels like you could put your arm out to the road in front of you and still be vertical. Some of us did an improvised triangulation of the grade, but since we haven't figured out how long Katie's sandals are the results are still pending.

On the way down we practiced a chant we were taught for the occasion, a chant where we ask our hosts a permission to enter their land. Hawaiian is a pretty language but a pretty tough one to learn for Indo-European ears, so it took a while before we were able to memorize the six lines required. Arriving at our accomodations we chanted until the locals were convinced that we really wanted to come see them (or until they'd had enough of our bad Hawaiian), and after the traditional greetings we immediately got ready for the loi, or taro fields. A short walk took us there and before long we were freeing taro plants of all sizes from the company of weeds, algal mats and snail eggs. Taro is grown in water in the valley and a real mudfight was a natural consequence of this fact. Not even the old-fart TA was exempt from the mudthrowing and now everyone in the course is getting a C- or worse. Or maybe not.

After a hard mudfight we hiked a little farther up along the stream to a great little swimming hole. Everyone donned their bathing suits and washed the mud off, but I'm a grad student and thus naturally never able to relax and stop working. Instead I pulled out my water-sampling equipment and secured a sample for my venerable Ph.D. thesis research.

It seems I was pretty tired going down into the valley, because after we came back from the loi/swimming hole I didn't do much besides sleep. First I took a nap under a large tree on the lawn, then I passed out on the couch while waiting for dinner. After dinner I managed to play cards for a little while but by 8:45 I was in my tent, watching the stars through the skylight and enjoying the soundscape of the valley, with insects all around, birds chirping in the trees and the surf roaring in the distance.

This all happened yesterday, Saturday. Today we hiked further into Waipi'o Valley and got invited, quite unexpectedly, to a Hawaiian lunch at the taro farm where we were volunteering. Very nice. The valley looks to mine eyes even more spectacular from inside than it does from the lookout at the top of the valley; the walls are over 700 m tall and so steep as to be almost vertical, yet completely covered with vegetation and with no landslide scars visible. In addition the walls are very close together, and the overall effect on the Nordic mind is the one of a glacial valley. Except that this one isn't. I have to admit that before coming to Hawaii, I spectacularly underestimated the natural beauty and cultural richness of the islands. They're bloody amazing!!!

Hawaiiana

Tomorrow the anthropologist in me should be happy. I'm tagging along with the students for a weekend trip to the Waipi'o Valley where they (and presumably me too) will engage in traditional taro farming. The forecast for the weekend is thus: mud, mud, mud, and more mud. Plus (a few) mosquitoes thrown in here and there and everywhere.

Soon I will have a degree in ion chromatograph repairs and troubleshooting. This thing has some issue with the 50th state. See last year's posts for recaps on its abysmal behaviour.