Hawaii Club's 21st Annual Lu'au...

Now attacking campus with Lu'au posters and shirts...a collaboration between me and Colby! Yay! We have been working on it since winter break. I remember meeting in various Starbucks locations around Hawaii. Colby claims that it is a good environment that keeps him productive, but I find the dim-lighting and quiet music sleep inducing...

I'm so glad that we've finally finished that!

But Lu'au is in two weeks!
Ahh!

I've been telling everyone I see to come and watch Kayla perform the Hula.
She responds by telling everyone, "Jenna's doing Tahitian. She'll be shaking her ass the whole time. At least I'll be pretending to be graceful."

>>;;;

No, no, no...I'm not shaking my butt.
I'm doing a figure-eights with my hips.
And it's so difficult.
And quick!
I need to work on it.

P.S. The dancers will also be practicing kapu, in which we refrain from having sex, drinking alcohol, and consuming refined sweets. The first two is easy, but I don't know if I can survive without getting my daily dose of sweets everyday...I should not have started the habit of eating chocolate the minute I wake up.

Sakura Matsuri Report

Sakura Matsuri, the fruits of our labor, was an enormous success and I am very happy!!! The only unfortunate thing is that my camera broke during spring break, so I don't have too much pictures to commemorate the event... I made a mistake during my taiko performance because I was nervous, but not many people mentioned it.



The dance was amazing, but my legs hurt for three days afterward. It was difficult to walk and difficult to sit down (anything that had to do with bending hurt so much!) The dance is incredibly intense, but it is so much fun!!! I would love to perform again in the fall!



I was able to play all of the songs for our sanshin performance because I practiced until past midnight during the night before. Many people came to see us! ^^

I also finally got to watch Kaoru's group, Takohachi, perform and it. Blew. Me. Away. I knew Kaoru was amazing. I thought she was fierce. Some of her teammates make her look laid back. The leader of the group was the definition of fierce. When my group performed, I thought that Chelsie had strength and Hillary speed. But the leader of Takohachi had both speed and strength. They truly understood the meaning of entertainment and what it meant to be performers because they were not simply drumming - they were dancing and interacting with the audience at the same time. I don't even want to put up a video of them because a video and the real life experience is just too different. It was the first time a performance has made me cry. It messed up the slight make-up I was wearing, but I couldn't stop the tears.

I bought as much of their merchandise as I could with the little money I had. XD

Ladies from the School of Ikebana came to visit us and I got to make my own for free!!! I've always wanted to try flower arrangement.



My posters were popular! Kenny was contemplating selling them, but that would be a little too much. We ended up giving some extras away. Some people stole posters. Others told me that they wanted to cover their bedroom walls with them, haha.

My shirt was also very popular! Since many people requested for a shirt of their own, I will be writing a check for a second order! :)

A phone call with mother always, without fail, ends in tears.

Getting Ready for Sakura Matsuri!

These posters may look familiar if you are a WU student...I will be raiding campus with them!


The shirts that I've designed have also been delivered! Yay!

I'm really glad everyone likes the posters and the shirts! I've already had two people ask me if they could buy a shirt...! *^^*

Aieeee, I just might have to give up watching the movie, "Sherlock Holmes" and going to that Korean BBQ dinner on Friday night since I will be so busy doing preparations for Sakura Matsuri (along with finishing projects and studying for exams). But it'll be fun so I'll try not to get too overwhelmed by it all! ^^

P.S. I got hired by Willamette Integrated Technology Services!!!

Shock

I found out at dinner today that one of my Building Bridges member's boyfriend is 34 years old.

She is 19 years old.

Apparently, she met him from her part-time job at the bookstore and they have been going out for six months before she left for America.

After seeing my reaction, she asked, "Are you in shock?"

Well...yeah.

I only hear about little girls (and she is literally smaller than me) and older men dating in manga or movies. She asks if this age gap difference was normal in America. Um, I don't think so?

She tells me that it is normal in Japan and that her best friend is currently dating a 45 year old man. He used to be their high school teacher.

It is all very puzzling to me.

Economics and Love

In my economics notebook, I was rewriting the law of diminishing marginal utility:

"As you consume more of a good, a point is eventually reached when your total utility will increase at a slower rate because of a fundamental psychological tendency for one's ability to appreciate more of the good to diminish,"

when this new thought came to me. Doesn't this definition also apply to love?

Of course, I do not have much experience with love so I wonder: Is love a fleeting thing? When you have too much of the other person, will you start to appreciate that person less over time?

You've heard me say that I'm busy before, but I am currently the busiest that I've ever been - so much that I even skipped class...for the first and only time in my life! D: I figured that since I didn't do homework, there would be no point in me going to class. All we do is sit for an hour and a half talking about the stories we're supposed to have read the previous night. It gets really frustrating at times, especially since the majority of our class is very quiet and the discussion isn't interesting. I also don't enjoy most of the stories I have to read for class.

The next few months will be busy, busy, busy! On top of classes with homework and exams to study for, I have Soran Bushi (traditional Japanese dance) practice on Monday nights, JSSL meetings on Tuesday afternoons and Tahitian dance practice on Tuesday nights, Shodo Club on Wednesday afternoons and Taiko Club on Wednesday nights, Sakura Matsuri Committee meetings on Thursday afternoons, and Sanshin lessons and Kobudo lessons on Friday afternoons. On top of all that, I also do have the occasional Asian Student Association meeting and Hawaii Club meeting to attend, as well as Hawaii Luau Committee Meetings every weekend. I am also a Building Bridges leader, so I have obligations to hang out with TIUA students every week (haha, not that I am complaining about anything...! :D)


This past Wednesday, I had my first Sanshin performance for Hina Matsuri (Girl's Day). I have to continue to practice for my second performance at Sakura Matsuri. I thought about dropping out of Kobudo, but Miwa sensei says she expects me to do a Kobudo demonstration at Sakura Matsuri as well (!!!)
There were many times I felt like dying, but I know that it was my decision to be involved in all of this.


I've been exhausted...yet my friend still managed to convince me to go on an overnight stay at Thetford Lodge 45 minutes away from campus. We left on Friday night and returned Saturday afternoon. We did not do much, but I really enjoyed myself. There were only seven girls, including me, so it was like a slumber party. I am really glad that I went because it was a nice, relaxing break from the stress of campus life.

Next week, I will be volunteering at a local elementary school and sharing Japanese culture with the students there. Apparently, it's their "reward" for being good in class, haha. Wow, a presentation by me? :D I feel flattered, haha.