Match Day

Friday morning at 6:30 am Utah time (so 3:30 am Hawaii time) we received and e-mail from National Matching Services (I think that's what they are called) informing us whether or not we had matched for internship. Marie wasn't all that stressed out about the matching process but I was freaking out. See, here's the thing, statistically speaking you have the highest chance of matching if you apply to 12 sites and don't limit yourself geographically. I applied to half that many sites and limited myself geographically. So overall, the odds were against me. I don't think I'd EVER been so anxious about anything in my life! I REALLY wanted to match and the chance of not matching felt very real to me. I didn't sleep at all Thursday night (well, that's not completely true I slept from 12:00 am to 1:30 am and then from 3:30 am to 5:00 am) and ate a bunch of junk food for comfort! So anyway, the e-mail was scheduled to come in was at 8:00 am Utah time, luckily it came in earlier or I might have started having panic attacks. The news was good... I matched and so did Marie. I waited until 8:00 am Utah time (yep, 5:00 am Hawaii time) to text Marie to let her know I'd matched and confirm that she had too. It's a good thing Marie loves me enough not to block my number on her phone after 5:00 am wake up texts (I have a tendency to forget the whole time difference thing, although Friday's text was deliberate despite the hour). I'm thrilled and extremely relieved (massive understatements) that I matched! We won't know until Monday where we are going but we know we are going...

So, Friday night Ose came down to Provo with his friend Nicole and helped Debbie move some stuff in his truck. So, we took advantage of the fact that Ose was in P-town and chilled and celebrated matching Cabral style. I had e-mailed my mom a few days before to find out how she made fondue and what types of cheeses she used and we decided to chill/celebrate by making fondue. It had been years since we'd had fondue and it was lots of fun to make (none of us "kids" had ever made fondue) and it was REALLY tasty.  

Ose stopped at the State Liquor Store (the only place we know of in Provo to get anything which higher alcohol content than beer or cooking wine) and Debbie and I went to the store for the cheeses (Gruyere, Fontina, and Emmentaler) and bread. When we lived in Quito we'd go to this place called "El Espanol" to purchase our fondue cheeses and they would shred the cheese for you. The grocery store here, however, won't do that for you because apparently "the soft cheeses ruin their blades."  So, we gathered all the cheese graters we could find at my house and Debbie's and did the grating ourselves. Ose cut the bread and worked up a sweat doing it but blamed it on the fact that Debbie keeps her house too hot and I melted the cheese over the stove and thought the temperature of the house was just right :). So, here are the pictures of our "Fondue Night:" 

  

The "Ose the drunk" picture. 

The "Ose with a knife" picture.

The "Debbie helped Ose figure out how to properly use a knife to cut bread" picture. 

The "Ose looking pleasant while posing with Quel by the stove as Quel melts the cheese in the wine" picture.

The "Cheese, wine, and fondue pot" picture

And finally, the "Three beautiful women with Ose as photographer" picture.

A week of cultural experiences

This is the Byodo-In Temple. It is situated in a place called Valley of the Temples Memorial Park. I initially wanted to go see this place to see if the temple was like the ones I've seen in Cambodia. It isn't much like the Buddhist temples in Cambodia, although it is a Buddhist temple. This temple was built in 1968 as a way of commemorating the first Japanese immigrants to Hawaii. It is a replica of an ancient temple that stands in Uji, Japan. This temple was built entirely without nails and is meant to represent the mythical phoenix.


This is the bon-sho (sacred bell) in its Bell House. The bell is made of brass and measures 5 feet high and 3 tons. The resonant sound of the bell is meant to create an atmosphere of tranquility conducive to meditation. It really was relaxing to feel the deep vibrations of the bell echo throughout the temple grounds. Typically people would strike the bell with the wooden log before entering the temple as a representation of spreading the eternal teachings of Buddha.

Tuesday was a good day for Steph and me to come to the Valley of the Temples because it was kind of rainy and cold (not appropriate for other water activities we had in mind!). The memorial park and the temple grounds were beautiful and very peaceful.

On Friday night, we had another game night. These are a few of our friends that came (several others had left earlier in the evening). Steph hosted it at her house and it was a blast!! We played Cranium, mafia, murder in the dark, psychiatrist, and the sign game. It was really fun and our cheeks hurt from laughing so much! We will probably plan another one soon because every week we get multiple requests to do it again.


No game night (or any activity for that matter) is truly complete without a good pyramid! :) Although our photographer had a bit of difficulty capturing the beauty and form of our magnificent structure in its entirety!

With brains a little fried and feeling a bit punch-drunk, all members of our game-night team headed happily home well after midnight!

This is my friend Manu who works at the counseling center with me. She is a Master's level intern in Social Work. She is amazing! She is awesome to talk to and we just laugh and have a ton of fun. She is from Hawaii and knows about everything cool here. I was fortunate enough to be invited to go with her and her family to a carnival this weekend. This was not just any carnival. This was the Punahou School Carnival! It is an annual event and one that is a very special tradition for them. No matter where they are living, her children try to get back each year to attend the carnival together. Manu and some of her children attended Punahou school and the carnival is a way for students to give back to their community.

We met lots of their friends and classmates there. The carnival was huge! There were booths for games and food. There were rides and a store to buy Punahou appearal and donated items. The food was fantastic! Another point of interest about this carnival and the school is that this is where President Obama went to school. He graduated from Punahou school in 1979 and worked at this carnival for years. I met several of his classmates while I was there.


This is us riding the Fireball, a ride that takes you a round a big ring so you are haning upside down and screaming as you feel all the blood rush to your head! Not sure why we get such a thrill out of things like that, but it was great! I had a great time at the carnival and with Manu's family. I was especially grateful to be included in something that was so special to them.

I didn't get any good pictures of this, but last night when I returned from the carnival I got to participate in BYU-Hawaii's Food Fest. All the clubs make food and sell it to raise club funds. It was really cool to see all their booths and the different types of food from all over the world. It is a big deal here and there were hundreds of people there. I, of course, visited the Cambodian club and saw some friends I haven't seen since I was there on my mission. It was a fun full night.

Things are still going well at the counseling center and in my classes. I have a full case load right now and some very challenging clients that are keeping me busy. I turned in my rankings for internship this week and am now just waiting to find out where this next phase of life takes me. We will know where we are matched for internship on February 23rd. Oh, other random news...I am speaking in church today and teaching the gospel doctrine lesson. I'm exciting to be teaching but hopefully the members of my ward won't get too sick of hearing from me! Other than that the week ahead looks good...still hoping for good weather durning the week (instead of just on the weekends) and looking forward to the President's Day holiday that is coming up. We are trying to plan a camping trip. So the work and play continues as my time slowly runs out.

Fun vs. Nature

Another week just flew by! Things have been crazy at work...my client load is getting pretty full and I'm starting to recognize more of the challenges and problems (maybe even obstacles) we have as a counseling center here. I love the people I'm working with and wish all of you could meet them. There are a lot of really fun things about working here and the people are definitely at the top of that list.
So I had some big plans to get out and do some exploring and go hiking and lots of other things this week, but the weather did not agree. It was really rainy and cold...just yucky really...all week, until friday. This weekend has been beautiful, and yesterday I was able to spend most of the day at a place called Waimea beach. It is gorgeous and the waves are really big. I went with Vickie and we hung-out on the beach and did some boogie boarding and some body surfing. I had a very good taste of how powerful the waves are here. I'm always really careful because I know how dangerous it can be. However, the waves yesterday were perfect! Big enough to shoot you, at break-neck speed, up onto the shore if you caught them right, and only occasionally get pummled by them. There were a couple times I got smashed into the sand and had a thorough salt water cleaning of my sinuses! :) All in all we had a really great time and got some sunshine. That made for a fun and relaxing day.
Last night, I drove into town...to Honolulu...with some friends. We hit Wal-mart, had dinner, and went to see Australia at the dollar theatre. I was really fun and I loved the movie! It was long, but I would definitely recommend it to those who haven't see it yet.
The pictures above and below were taken as the evening sun sunk behind the mountain. We caught these last beautiful rays as we drove along the coast toward Honolulu. You get some pretty amazing scenes with the ocean crashing in a few feet away on one side and the majestic peaks rising up immediately on the other. Wish a picture could capture it, but they all pale in comparison to the real thing.
This week should be busy and full again...especially if the weather stays nice. Hopefully, I'll get to do some hiking and explore a place called Goat Island, as well as hit a couple of basketball games. The big deadline this week is internship rankings. I have to have my sites ranked and submitted to the people that do the internship matches. Then it is all out of our hands and we don't hear where we are matched until the end of the month (February 23rd I think). A little nerve-racking! Hopefully, this week will bring more adventures, stories, and good pictures! :)

The Adventures Continue

This is my friend Kristen. We are standing at a place called Pali Lookout that overlooks the city of Kailua and some other cities right on the coast. It is too dark to see in this picture, but the lights of the city were beautiful behind us. You can see all the way out into the bay and up the coastline. It is an awesome sight! Kristen is also the courageous one who took me out surfing, with some of her friends, on Monday! It was a blast! I mostly came back with alot of scrapes, bumps, and bruises, but we had a great time and I'm getting a little bit better.
On Friday, we had a retreat for the Counseling Center staff. This is Leilani. She is in charge off all the special needs resources in the center. She's hillarious! We had a lot of fun in the car as we drove to and from Waikiki to go to the aquarium and to lunch, before we had our training/planning meeting. The aquarium was awesome! It had a lot of animals and information, but it wasn't a huge aquarium. My favorite part was this gigantic cylindrical tank full of moonjelly jellyfish. They were in dark corner and you could see the light glowing off of their gelatin bodies. You could stand right next to the tank and it almost felt like you were in the water with them (without the fear of getting stung! :) ). It was really cool. It was also fun to see creatures that I saw for the first time last summer while snorkeling in the Philippines, when David and Annette Wells and their family and I joined Grant and Susan's family on a boat trip there. It was weird to think that my first experience with many of these animals had been in the water a few feet away from them! Pretty cool!
The weather was beautiful and windy Saturday morning, as we joined our Elders' Quorum for an activity in the park by Kekela beach. We grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and enjoyed the sun. The sand on this beach was really fine and soft. That made it really nice to walk on and play in but when the wind picked up the fine granules swirled in the air sandblasting anything or anyone in their path! :)
This is Vickie. She is a friend from the ward. She's really funny and fun to talk to.
This is the view from Kekela beach. The waves are much smaller and gentler here than the waves along the north shore, partially due to a large stretch of reef several hundred feet off-shore. It is a peaceful and lazy place to play along the shore or in the water. This same afternoon, I went up to Waimea beach with my friend, Steph. Waimea is a large beach up on the north shore. The waves were huge and the view is beautiful. My friend Teresa (who lived here for a few years) told me Waimea was her favorite beach to go to when whe lived here. I didn't get any pictures of it, but I'm sure we will be going back there soon.
This was a busy week that really flew by, but I had a lot of fun with new friends. It has been great to find some "real" friends and connect with them in meaningful ways.
Oh, I also was given two callings in the ward this past week. They asked me to be the activities committee co-chair (this is new for me but ought to be fun) and a sunday school teacher for our gospel doctrine class (woohoo! this would be the calling I'd choose if I got to pick). I'm excited to makes some waves and meet some new people! :)
This week is super full and busy at work, and I have some hikes and other activities planned with my friend Steph. So hopefully, it will be full of adventures and fun!

Settling in

This week has been a total whirlwind! So many things have happened. Let's start with the best news...I'm officially done with internship interviews! Woohoo!! I did my last one on friday. So now I have to figure out how I am going to rank the sites I interviewed with. Rankings are supposed to be submitted in early february and then we get matched later that month...I think. I'm not positive on the exacty dates (probably should figure that out, eh? :) ). Anyway, so I kind of just wait to see what (and where) next year will bring. Now that interviews are done, I need to get focused back on dissertation stuff. I'm hoping to complete it and defend during the spring when I am back in Provo taking my last class. So that's the word on the school pressures.

As far as work at BYU-H, things are going much much better. I am really busy, but it is very familiar and settling to have clients again. I never have two clients in a row that are from the same place, have the same cultural background, or even speak the same native tongue. That has been fascinating and really challenging. It makes appropriately administering and interpreting assessments pretty tricky. The classes I am teaching are great. I totally love teaching! I've been learning a lot of new things as the sole teacher and the only one responsible to make sure we cover everything, get grades in, and influence the kind of experience my students have in class. I can totally see more teaching, of some sort, in the future.

Ok, now for the fun activities of the week! I was in charge of the activity at Family Home Evening, for our ward, on monday night. So I decided that they needed to learn to play dip-dip-dip. A classic game that everyone should know (and love!). It was hilarious to watch everyone play! Different levels of understanding, competitiveness, and humor made for some interesting dynamics. Everyone seemed to enjoy it though. Then tuesday was basketball. We had a ton of people but it ended up being pretty good ball (well...you know...as far as church ball goes) and fun. Wednesday we had a game night at my place with 7 or 8 friends from the ward. That went well and people just stayed around and talked for several hours...everyone probably took off a little after 11pm. Thursday was Institute (which is good and frustrating...more on that later...maybe). Then Friday hung out with a friend from the ward. We were planning to have a movie night, but we never got to the movie. Just spent several hours "talking story" as she like to call it. Then Saturday, I headed to the swap meet with a couple people. I had actually never been to a swap meet before. This place was about an hour away from Laie and it reminded me of the markets in Cambodia...only cleaner and more expensive. But it was a really fun place! And I bought a cool Hawaii visor for $5. Can't beat that! So we just spent a lot of time driving that morning. The weather was fantastic and the drive along the coast was gorgeous! It was a perfect day to just get to know some different parts of the island. When we got back into town, I went to the women's and men's basketball games. They both won and played really well (games worth watching).
Then this morning, we had a breakfast. Our ward doesn't meet until 2pm so we have a lot of time in the morning. About 6 of us gathered at my apartment and I introduced them to the deliciousness of Norweigan pancakes (I highly recommend them to those of you who have never had them), and our friend Sina made a corned-beef hash with tomatoes to put over rice. It was an excellent breakfast (if I do say so myself! :) ) and we just hung-out and talked for a few hours. It was really fun! We swapped stories about our favorite games (such as mafia, ulitimate red-light green-light, and smash 'em!), accidents and injuries we've had, music interests, hobbies, and anything else that came to our minds! I have met some pretty cool people here so far. Her are some more pictures of our breakfast activity (and my little studio apartment).


This has been a very exciting week for me because I have been learning so much and have had many opportunities to do fun new things. I'm grateful to be making some interesting and good friends. Next week we have a holiday (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) and a training retreat for the counseling center. So it promises to be a busy week, but I'm feeling a lot more adjusted and happy to be here. I'm even going to (hopefully...cross your fingers for me) start working on my surfing skills tomorrow morning, with a new friend who has graciously agreed to help me learn (she probably has no idea what she is getting herself into!)!
Thanks for all your interest, love, and support! It is great to hear what is going on in your lives, so anytime you have a minute give me a call or send an email. I hope things are going well for you too!

Childhood Friends...

Luiza and I met when we were in Ms. Nellie Green's ESL class. Although I only vaguely remember meeting Luiza in the first grade, she always reminds me that when she first moved to Academia Cotopaxi (the international school we both attended) she didn't speak English so she would ask me (in Portuguese) to ask Ms. Nellie if she could go to the bathroom (in English). So, Luiza and I met in the first grade and remained friends through out high school (we both did pretty much ALL of our schooling at Cotopaxi which is REALLY unusual for people attending international schools). After graduating from high school Luiza went to college in Boston and I went to college in Idaho.  I couldn't find a picture of us in the first grade but here's one of us when we were in the 3rd grade.

On Thursday I got an e-mail from Luiza, who now lives in LA and works for a company that produces movies, letting me know that she was going to be in Park City for the Sundance Film Festival and was wondering if there was any chance that I'd be able to make it out to Park City during the short time she'd be there. I could not pass up the chance to get together, so tonight I drove up to Park City and we went out to dinner. SO FUN!!!! You'd think the last time we'd seen each other was last weekend! We had a great time catching up on each other's lives and updating each other on what we knew about some of the other people we went to school with (not gossiping... just catching up... honestly we were just catching up). 

Finally some fun in the sun

So Friday was the most beautiful day we've had since I have arrived here. I was only at work, on campus, for a little while, and the sunshine and warmth was a clear invitation to finally get down to the beach. On Friday, I went to a beach that is right here in Laie, called Hukilau Beach. There were quite a few people there playing in the waves and just hanging out on the beach. I mostly spent my time relaxing, reading, and soaking up the sun. There's nothing quite as soothing as feeling the breeze off the ocean, smelling the salty air, and taking in the warmth of the afternoon sun on your skin. Even the smell of sunscreen can't be replaced! Everyone said that the nice weather wouldn't last through Saturday. So when I woke up and saw the bright rays of sunshine through my window I knew I needed to get down the beach before the clouds rolled in and hid the sun again. So I went to a beach down the road called Castle beach. Lots of surfers like this beach. There are cool areas out off-shore that have waves breaking in lots of different directions. It was fun to watch the surfers popping up out of the water and gliding different directions with the waves curling at their heels. It was a great place to do some boogie boarding, which I happily did for a couple of hours. It was beautiful and warm. Then as predicted, the sky grew dark and the clouds demanded their turn in the sky.


Here are a few more pictures of campus. This is the main road going into campus...the only road actually. As you drive in you see about 60 or so flag poles proudly displaying the flags of many of the nations that the students here call home. It is a pretty cool sight and represents and even cooler multicultural dynamic on campus. A friend here told me that BYU-Hawaii is currently recognized as the most diverse university in the United States (haven't seen any solid statistics, but that's pretty amazing!).


So in general, the weekend was productive and fun (figured out laundry, advertised some more for a roommate, and got a promise that a shower rod will arrive by Monday!). However, Sunday has been really hard. I was very homesick today. Sunday always leaves alot of time, free from too many distractions and responsibilities, to think about things. I miss everyone alot and am still in the process of getting settled and trying to remember why it was I decided to come out here alone. I have met some really cool people already and tonight I had dinner with a really good family friend and her family. That was really fun and I felt very welcome and loved AND it still hurts to be away from the people I care so much about. I hope all of you do still feel how much I think about and love you. Thanks for being an important part of my life and for caring about me.