Rainbows...

There's a reason they used to to be called the Rainbow Warriors here at UH. You actually see one pretty much every day in the Manoa valley, which is right behind the school. I didn't get that good of a picture, but it was still pretty sweet. Last Sunday I went up to Lai'e to meet with my mission president and I saw these on the way out there. It was fun to see all the Elders and Sisters from my mission that I hadn't seen in soooo long, for a few it had been over 4 years. Wow, typing that makes me feel old. Most of them have little families started too, which also makes me feel old...

Balls, anyone?

Ok, so I'm in this class about Thai cinema, which has been pretty good so far, but today we watched a movie that was wack. My teacher didn't have anything planned for today, so he told us to e-mail him with some ideas. I looked online and found one that was supposed to be cool, but then I forgot to send my suggestion in, so I guessit was partly my fault we watched something so bizarre. Anyway, today's film was called tropical malady. It starts out with two guys hanging out and having a good time, and it quickly becomes apparent they have a little bit of a gay crush on each other. Ok, a pretty big gay crush actually. There are a bunch of cheesy lines about one guy giving the other his heart, and they stick their hands in each others back pockets, etc...Then all of a sudden, the second half of the movie begins. One of the two protagonists disappears, and the other(who happens to be a soldier) goes looking for him in the dangerous forest. Anyway, the ending was kind of interesting, but the part that got me all worked up was a little before, when for several minutes we watched one of the two guys runs around in the buff. I wasn't really looking even, but at one point there was definitely an exposed phallus. And, when he turned to run away you got a good shot of his balls too. My question is, who the crap voted to see naked man movie??

Applications!!

This week my life has officially become crazy. All of my classes have gotten going full swing, and 3 of them in particular need like 45 minutes of studying every day because there is sooo much freaking reading. On the plus side, in my Korean class we just watch a Korean drama every week, fill out a worksheet online, and then talk about it in class. So overall my workload is bearable. And the Korean drama we watch is pretty fun actually- I wasn't expecting to enjoy it either.
It's called "My Name is Sam Soon" and here in Hawaii it's a kind of a big deal. It's pretty much your typical melodramatic Korean stuff, but it's pretty funny too.

I'm also trying to finish up three applications this week, One for Flagship, another for FAFSA stuff, and the last for a summer study abroad in Mongolia, which if I get accepted to I would have to go, because it's a pretty neat opportunity and I'll get school credit for it(I know it's not exactly the most exotic place, in fact, it doesn't even break my top 5 places to go in Asia list, but you have to admit it would be cool. Plus did I mention I'd get school credit?). So that's what I'm up to this week.

Also, I read an article by the Sportsguy about his dog The Dooze. I like the way he wrote about her, and how she became a part of the family. Even if you aren't a dog person it's a good piece of writing. Here's a link

Welcome to Good Burger, Home of the Good Burger

I know it's Wednesday, but I had a great weekend, as it was of the extended variety. We had an extreme weather warning Friday, and school was cancelled (also, we got no more extreme weather than a few drops of rain). Then, with MLK day Monday our weekend was lengthened to 4 days.

I took this as an opportunity to get myself mostly settled in my new place, and to go eat a burger at the greatest restaurant I've ever been to…well, that may be a bit of an overstatement, but it was a good burger joint nonetheless. It’s called Burgers on the Edge, or something like that, and it is delish. You start by picking your pattie, it can be standard chuck, Japanese Kobe beef, or if you’re a wussy vegetarian, a chicken breast. And if you’re a really wussy vegetarian, they have some kind of mushroom pattie thing too.

Next, you get to choose from a bevy of cheeses and sauces( only 1 of each, unless you want to pay more). I went with sharp cheddar and a garlic aioli. For those of you who don’t know, an aioli is basically just a fancy French name(well, I think it's french) for a garlic and olive oil sauce. So it didn't really need to be called "garlic aioli" because an aioli has garlic, by definition. But I digress. Lastly, you get 4 toppings to throw on this sucker for free. I got grilled onions, roasted red pepper, sundried tomatoes, and bacon. Mmmm Mmmm good! My friend and home-teaching companion Jon got bacon, bacon, bacon, and bacon on his.Here are the pics! Ok, actually, I don’t know how to put the pics from my phone onto my computer yet, so I’ll do it later.

Registration and my dinner

Saturday my boss Carolyn took us out to a really nice seafood buffet for our company Christmas dinner. It was good, but I was disappointed in the lobster. Actually, the catfish was the best fish by far, suprisingly enough. It was really fun, Carolyn is the best boss I could ever ask for.
Today I registered for next semester. I was a little bit upset because I had to wait until today to do it even though there's been online registration available to the upperclassmen for almost a full week already, but I went and spoke to a couselor and got everything worked out. I'm signed up for 19 credits, which seems like a lot, but 6 of them are Korean, which shouldn't be too hard, and 4 of them are Japanese 101, which should also be pretty easy. Plus, if it ends up being too much, I can always just drop one after the first week or whatever.

Friends

The past week my friends Mike, Matt, and Craig came to visit. I felt like a bad host at times, because I don't have a car, so I couldn't really show them around,(we ended up renting a car) and I had to go to class for the first 2 days, because UH only gives 2 days of break for Thanksgiving. But, I don't think those guys really cared that much about that stuff, it seems they had fun anyway. Next time anyone comes to visit I'll do better though, I swear.

We had fun hanging out at the beach, Hanauma bay, the Dole pineapple farm, Polynesian Cultural Center, and the swap meet. It was actually really fun to just hang out with the guys again, it didn't really matter what we did.You know what? It's kinda weird that I've only been around enough to hang out with my friends for fewer than 4 months of the past year, but when we get together, it's pretty much the exact same as it always has been. We're all pretty blessed to have such good relationships with one another I guess. I'll post some pics of the trip later.

So today I found a few cool websites. The first is www.studentsreview.com. I wish I'd found it when I was in high school. It has a bunch of surveys from students of over 3000 colleges in the U.S.(and perhaps elsewhere) detailing what they like, and don't like about their school. Interesting stuff. BYU has a satisfaction rating of B+ which puts it right alongside Harvard, and Arizona State(go figure). My current school, however, is a C+, and over 60 percent of the students said if they could do it over again they would choose another school. hmmm...

Ok, the second website is a bit funnier. It's an emo band name generator. You simply type in your name, and it comes up with some kind of ridiculous name perfect for your own personal emo band. Everyone should try it, my emo band's name is Without My Vanilla Satellite. It could work...

Try it at
the Emo Band Name Generator

Stupid name, smart movie

I saw Quantum of Solace Friday night, and I have to say, It was sweet. Loads of cools places: Italy, Haiti, Bolivia- not to mention the sweet action,(minus the boat scene, it was a bit to jerky for my liking; it looked like they actually filmed it from the boat)nice cars,and babes made it a real treat for the eyes. In fact, other than the boat scene, and name, (Although I guess ridiculous names are in line with the Bond tradition)I liked this one better than the last. On top of that, the song for the opening credits was done by the beautiful and talented Alicia Keys,(and the weird looking guy from the White Stripes)and you've got yourself one heck of a movie.In fact, I thought this was the best action movie I've seen this year. Then again, I still haven't seen The Dark Knight. My friend and I were talking about it after, and we decided this James Bond is more rebellious and bad to the bone than ever. He's basically James Dean on steroids. And HGH. Also, I was lucky enough to fall in love during the movie too...

Just look at her. Her name is Olga Kurylenko, and she plays a half-Bolivian, half-Russian chick with revenge for her dead family on her mind. People said she did a bad job, but I don't think so. Although... it is possible I just didn't pay any attention to her acting. Now that I think about it I can't remember much in particular about her acting...Dang she's fine!


The past few weeks have been kinda crazy. With my boss out of town, I have had to go clean a few more places than I typically do; luckily, she let me use her car while she's gone visiting her son's fam (having a car here is so great, I can't even tell you). On top of that, I house-sat and took care of her dog Ellie at her place for a week. She lives way up in the mountains, and it has great views, and is incredibly beautiful. There are Lemon, avocado, and Guava trees right outside her house, too. Ellie is an english cocker spaniel, and she's super smart, but spoiled. She even has her own treadmill that she walks on every day.

So anyway, today my boss came back, and I gave the car back. Part of me is relieved, because that mean I have less responsibility, but I know it won't be long until I really wish I had a car.