ZIPpy dee doo dah!!!!!!

I've had such a great week so far, and it's only halfway through! Tuesday night, I mentioned to Mark how I felt like it should be the weekend because I had done so much with my week that I felt content. A feeling I usually get closer to Friday. It was nice - and it has only gotten better from there. I'll do my best to fill you in.


Sunday, May 30

I was asked to be the chorister the week before and gladly agreed. I had put on my blue Chinese dress that day and because the slits have been sewn up so far down, I can't open my legs very far in them. Needless to say, even after taking my heels off and walking barefoot all the way to the Stake Center (running - no, waddling - to the grass when the pavement was too hot), I made it just in time for the last 2 verses in the opening hymn. I didn't even finish doing my hair so one side was straight and the other wavy. Hehehe. Apparently Bishop announced that I would be leading the music and they had a couple of moments of awkward silence before Marci volunteered to fill in for me. Oh well, next week I'll get it right.

Being the 5th sunday of the month, we had Relief Society (for the women) and Elders Quorum (for the men) combined where we watched an emergency preparedness video on Tsunamis. I thought it was really interesting how we learn these things in Church. I am in the best religion ever.

Later that evening, the Guests Services department for the PCC (where I work) had a musical fireside in the auditorium. For you non-LDS folks, it wasn't an actual fireside (although I did go to one the week before at Jasons house and stuffed myself silly with marshmallows). It's just a term we use for a spiritual gathering I think because back in the days of the pioneers, they would do it around actual fire. Don't quote me on this.

Anyway, it was really cool getting to see the spiritual and musical sides of the people I work with everyday. We got to hear a few of them bear their testimonies, and many of the others sing in their own languages. It was really neat. I got to sing too. The "Chinese guides" (supposedly the Chinese-speaking guides, but all Malaysian Chinses joined in too, even those who didn't speak Chinese much, like me) sang "Because I have been given much" in Mandarin. We had a sheet with phonetics on it. It came in handy. I talked to my supervisor Lofi later during refreshments and gave her a hard time for not performing during the fireside. She joked about wanting to come up with us and sing in Chinese. Lofi is Samoan so that would have been really funny. I wish she had.

The fireside was just awesome. It's just too cool to be able to work in such an environment.

Right after that, we went over to Hale 6 (one of the guys' dorms) kitchen for Bill Gay's fairwell. Bill Gay's not really his name it's thingmummy billig or something. He's Mongolian, none of them have names I can really pronounce. Bill Gay works for me. He was going to leave on his mission to Pocatello, Idaho. It wasn't much of a farewell. Just some mac&cheese, a few of us sitting around the table talking. Bill Gay was reading a book full of cool missionary tips like "Buy socks all in the same color so if one side has a hole, you'll still be able to wear the other". He had already been set apart as a missionary and Justin was his companion (missionaries must be with their companions 24-7) and was reading us random quotes from the book "The Devil's Dictionary". The book basically had quotes on many subjects. For example, under "Woman" it would read "God's second mistake". We had a good time.

I have to say however, the highlight of my evening was when Justin looked up from his book and asked "Who's anon?" Hehehehe hehehehehehe heheheheheheheh eheheheheh ehehehehehehehehe. Still cracks me up everytime! He thought it was some greek philospher or something. Why I'll say. He sure had alot to say and came up with some of the wildest quotes ever!


Monday, May 31

At the farewell, plans were made to go hiking up to Laie Falls (the waterfall on the mountain range behind us) the next day, MEMORIAL DAY!!! I'd never been hiking here before and always wanted to so it was a perfect opportunity.

We planned to meet at 8.30am. I still don't know how I managed to get up that early on a holiday. Brandon took the lead, and took us behind the school back to where the treatment plant was to a non-existent trail head. Instead, we got to a fenced up area with "KEEP OUT" signs. After a short detour though, we finally made it to the trail head.

Hiking with us was Brandon, Justin and Bill Gay (from left to right). We put them in that order to admire the different shades of their leg tans in that order. Brandon and Justin are the 2 most wired people I know and they pretty much went charging up the hill. Bill Gay, being Justin's companion had to follow suit. I couldn't quite keep up with them but kept a steady pace. Mark was nice to stay with me the whole time.




The hike up was just gorgeous. I've been hiking some back home but the vegetation here was new to me. And the view of the ocean. Oh gosh. It was just beautiful. I brought 2 cameras with me, my sister's digital and my Canon EOS. I wish I had taken more of the scenery and that Su's camera would have captured the colors better. Pictures don't quite do the actual majesty of the view any justice anyway. At one point, I commented to Mark on how I felt like I was in an IMAX movie. Heheh. We show 2 IMAXs at the PCC - and I usually bring my guests to one and sit in with them.




In trying to make the color bright and decent looking, I had to compromise on the blueness of the ocean. You can't really see where it touches the sky in this picture - but I can assure you, it was just gorgeous. (However, still nothing compared to the topless hunk beside me in the picture)

The sign at the foot of the hill said that it would take us 1 1/2 hours to get to the falls. I'm not sure how slow we were but I think we took closer to 2 hours. The last 1/2 hour or so was this narrow river of mud we had to hike up. It was fun, but very sloshy and very gross. Justin took his sandals off and hiked it barefoot looking like somewhat of a hobbit at the end. My shoes are still sitting outside my room caked in mud. I have no motivation whatsoever to clean them.

Brandon had brought his infamous ukulele along with him to the falls. They had beat us to it and as soon as we could hear the water, we could hear him strumming on his ukulele too. It was just a welcome sight. Su had been there before when I was still home with her (now ex) boyfriend. She told Zui that it was "like our backyard waterfall". Somewhat disappointing after a long hike compared to the humongous waterfalls we could simply DRIVE up to back home. However, I had no complaints. It was cold, flowing water and it made a nice picture. I couldn't ask for more.



You can see Brandon holding his ukulele on the far left.

We had the whole place to ourselves for quite a while and that was lucky - we had run into a good number of hikers on their way down. We ate the food we had sacked from the cafeteria while Brandon favored us with the song he wrote (which we all love so much) "I Shop At Savers". Our favorite line - which cracks me up everytime - goes something like this:

I met a man the other day,
It was quite by chance.
He didn't know what to say:
I was wearing his pants.

He also mentions his sheepskin vest (which he wears nearly ALL the time) in the song "It's like wearing a hug". *sigh* It's at times like these when I get reminded why I love college so much.

A few girls from school got to the waterfall sometime after that and we talked to them some. It was perfect because they helped us take pictures. Justin and Brandon both got into the water. Poor Bill Gay wished he had gone a couple of days before - missionaries aren't allowed to swim. I was wrestling with the idea of jumping in and finally talked Mark into joining me but as soon as we sat on the edge of the rock, our legs immersed in water, I changed my mind. It was too freaking cold. Just like me to be fickle. It started drizzling then so we packed up and started heading down.

Going down was definitely alot faster than going up. Mark and I kept up with them for a little while as we sang silly songs from Vegetales and a few other random songs. At some point though, I got tired of running downhill and just took it slowly. It felt longer getting down than coming up - I'm pretty sure it wasn't, but it was more fun going up than coming down so that could've been it.

By the time we got to the bottom, we were too demotivated to walk some more to campus so Brandon went back to get his car so he could pick us up. Heheh. We got back at 3pm or so, tired and muddy. I said goodbye to Bill Gay (he was leaving that evening for the MTC) and the guys, and parted with Mark to go back to my room and take a shower. Oh gosh was that welcome. We had missed lunch so Mark and I were planning to go somewhere after that, but the both of us - separately - collapsed in bed after showering and fell asleep. It was the best feeling ever. Complete exhaution, cooled down by a shower, clean and fresh, and the breeze coming through my window. That was the best sleep I ever had.

Later that evening, I had to go filming a scene at the nearby motel. You can imagine how reluctant I was. I went to dinner half asleep. I suppose I was weak from the lack of nourishment too, but didn't notice till after I had eaten.

That was definitely a memorial day to remember. Like Brandon would say:


It's good times.


Tuesday, June 1

Wait, the week's not over yet - there's more! Tuesday was back to school. Just like a regular day, but work went exceptionally well. I only took 3 parties in my tour - but it was a regular size group of 15 - and change. 1 was a single chick from Australia, travelling on her own. She openly admitted that she was more thrilled by all the hot topless polynesian performers than the shows themselves. At the end of the day, she said to me that it was a day worth spending and wished that her girlfriends could've gone with her. I was just thrilled. As if she hadn't flattered us enough, when I handed out the surveys, she said "I'll bet you hardly ever get any bad comments, though". That just made my day.

The other party was a mother and son from Michigan. Cori was 12 which was perfect because the other party, had another 12 year old boy too! The 3rd party from Ohio and was made of 2 grandparents, (grandpa was Phillipino, and grandma haole) their 3 daughters and their spouses, plus their kids. They had 10 adult tickets and 1 child one but they had way more kids with them than that. There were 2 babies under 1, Calvin and Mia who danced and clapped along to the shows, 4 year old Jolene who put on her grass skirt when it came time for hula lessons, Zach who was 12 (like Shuan, my brother!) and then there was Kelsie - 14 year old, absolutely darling girl. She's special (I wish it didn't sound so mean to say that) and kept asking about when dinner and the movie was going to be all day. She was just darling though, gave me a zillion hugs and called everyone "darling".

Cori and Zach became good friends. When Cori's mom took a break to get a smoke, the family pretty much adopted him and they did everything together. Oh, it was great to see the group get along so well.

At the end of the day, I was rushed for time and made a slip up giving them Japanese videos for souvenirs. Hehehe. We all had a good laugh. I had such a good tour that day I was so sad when I had to say goodbye to them. I wish I had tours like that everyday.

Richard, my lead (he assigns the tours) knows that I love children and I asked him to give me all the ones we had. He's been doing that these past couple of times and I love it. I wonder what's in store for me today.

After reluctantly leaving my tour when I sent them to dinner, Laurie (another tourguide - who is absolutely CUTE) and I were talking when a guy who worked at the stores walked past and she flipped because he was so cute. "Is that Brendan Frasier?!" It was so funny. He was way hotter, by the way (though no one beats Mark). I ended up accompanying her to the store pretending to window shop for jewelry so we could find out his name. It's Wes, I think. She didn't work up the courage to talk to him, but it was still fun.

Laurie's the coolest. She flirts shamelessly and it gets her special privellages like free ice cream. So hanging around her definitely has its perks. Had I been single, I would view her as competition but thank goodness I'm already dating the hottest guy on campus.

Later that night was less exciting. I spent the rest of it studying for a Developmental Psych test on school age children (7-11), 3 chapters (which I had neglected to do all weekend) so I could take it before the testing center closed. I ended up getting a 95% on it. 3 misses. It was multiple choice, with a study guide so you would have done as well too if not better. Nothing too impressive.

Is it wrong for me to always be disappointed when I get less than 100% on those tests?


Wednesday, June 2

Nothing exciting at first either. But I found out in Psych that I had the highest score AND that I got extra credit for one question. So I suppose it will do. =)

I met up with Mark after class for lunch, like I always do on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and had a nice surprise. He was wearing a beige long sleeved, collared, shirt and jeans that day as opposed to the usual T-shirt and shorts and he had sneakers on instead of sandals. I felt kind of bad because I had mentioned how he always wore the same thing the day before but he insisted that it was because he was out of clean clothes. I still don't believe him. What was even funnier though, was how I got dressed up that day because I was out of clean clothes and had a light blue denim type sleeveless dress on with a beige shirt underneath. To make the long story short - we mathced! I'm a girl. I love matching. I can't help it!

After a good lunch, he went to work and I went back to my room to prepapre for my oral presentation for my psych class on Adolescent sex education. Oral presentation on sex ed. Hmm. That sounds kinda bad.

[clears throat] Anyway, I let myself get distracted for a little while and played Text Twist on MSN zone. I beat my previous score which now makes me a 5 star player!!! Thank you, thank you very much.

Later that evening, we met up again for dinner which was Dominoes pizza (every Wednesday, without fail) and my appetite was so good, I went back for seconds. It's a rare treat for me to have that much room for food.

After that was the highlight of my day and Mark's too - SWING club!!!!! There weren't a whole bunch of people there, but more guys than usual. There wasn't a whole lot of dancing going on as much as it was experimenting with stunts and such. Mark and I learned a good number of new moves, some of which were really crazy. I don't know any of their real names so bear with me.

We did all sorts of spins (Mark's getting so good at leading!) and even learned to do one where I sit on the floor get spun around and then pop back up. The peak of the whole event however, was when we were trying to do what we call "The Banana". It's a dip where I'm completely lifted off the ground, feet up in the air, and resting on his knee for a split second. We had learned it before but never quite mastered it so we were working on getting it right.

On one try, I got up on his thigh and there was this strange pop sound. "Oh the Doritos!" I exclaimed and as soon as I landed, pulled the bag of chips that I had smuggled out of the cafeteria earlier out of the pocket in my overalls (the one down by my knees). It was funny, but not as funny as the way Mark was laughing at the whole incident. I've never seen him laugh so hard in my life and it's awesome everytime he breaks out in his uncontrollable laughter. It was one of those things that you just had to be there to get it.

The last time he found anything remotely as funny was last week when we challenged our friend Scott to eat 6 saltine crackers in a minute. Scott stacked them all up and took one big bite, getting at least half of it in his mouth. The expression on our faces triggered Scott off so he started laughing and cracker bits were flying from his mouth in all directions. That triggered us off and we spent the next two minutes laughing till our sides split. Needless to say, Scott failed the challenge. I'm still cracking up as I am typing about it and my roommate is probably thinking that I'm such a weirdo.

SO... back to swing. We watched some couples experiment with all sorts of dance moves - some of which looked like it came straight from the kama sutra. *giggles* Not wanting to be left out on all those fancy moves, I asked Su to teach Mark and I how to do the candlestick. That's the move where the guy swings the girl to his right then to his left, she stradles him then gets flipped up in the air, legs straight and upwards before landing.

We basically spent the rest of the time at swing trying to get it right. Oooh! It was so fun! Who needs wings when you have a good dance partner?

I'm also absolutely thrilled by how excited Mark is about this as well. It's just so fun to seem him thoroughly enjoy something with me. I love it.

After swing, I had to go over to the motel again to film. It's not really supposed to be called the motel. It's the Laie Inn. I guess it's sort of a motel but we call it the motel because of the "The West Hill Motel" which Glenn makes films about semester after semester. There were 5 of us plus Glenn there last night - the most people we've ever had in one scene and it was fun.

I film just once more - the day after my birthday - and that will be it. I can't wait to see how much I butchered his movie. Hehehe. It'll be fun. He does a pretty good job with editing and cinematography. The only thing he doesn't do so well is casting, and writing the script. Oh well. That's why so many people get involved in Hollywood.


Thursday, June 3

What - after spending my whole day doing hardly anything but blogging, you expect me to have something interesting to say?!

I logged on MSN just earlier and got to talk to Faith though. That was really neat! I talked to Lyanne on Yahoo too last night. *sigh* This new life is great, but I miss the old friends too. I wish there was a way to merge the two together.

Talking to Faith was especially fun because she talked about planning to bring her mom and Sydney (her daughter) to Hawaii for the Summer. AAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!! Oh golly! You have no idea how excited I am. I'm going to get all sorts of brochures and such together now to help her plan her trip. If/when she does come, I'm going to take them through the PCC myself. It will be a blast. It's so silly how I'm just totally hyped up over this.

My Dad's planning to come here sometime in July and I'm not half excited about that (although he will be bringing stuff along with him from home!!!) I feel pretty guilty. On the bright side, I'm not DREADING to see Dad or anything. Alot of the feelings I've had over the last year have not been resolved yet and I think now is a good time to work on it. I need to be more greatful. After all, he is paying for my education and I am here at his expense.

Golly. That was a really long blog. I have to go actually LIVE now. Work probably won't be as great as it was on Tuesday, but I can try to make it so.

Ahhh. What a wonderful life!