As you can see most of the posts are on my birthday. In fact, the number of posts is larger than the statistical allowance for normal by almost 10 times. Just something to think about. Though I didn’t actually run the numbers, the percentage of friends who posted was about 20%, not bad I guess.

I fly back to Hawaii on Monday!
-Andrew

The harmless, green foam that invaded Orange and LA County beaches in late July has extended down to San Diego County. Last week, researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography also found Tetraselmis, a microscopic green algae, in samples from Scripps Pier. The foam has persisted this week, though it’s patchy distribution make it visible only at some beaches and the foam becomes more apparent in the afternoon when the wind and waves mix the surface waters. This green flagellate which is only 10 micrometers in size has been found in concentrations as dense as 15 million cells per liter of seawater. There are no documented health hazards with swimming or fishing in areas of Tetraselmis blooms.
- http://www.sccoos.org/data/habs/news.php

So the good news is, it won’t hurt you, the bad news is, it looks kinda gross.
-Andrew

The real interesting thing about San Diego right now is how cold it has been for the past month. While the rest of the country has been hot hot hot, San Diego just barely gets above 20°C. It has been cloudy and overcast almost all day around the office I work in and I have been needing to wear my HPU sweater (got to represent!). Not only has it been cold, we had coldest July in 77 years. Just so you understand how ‘big’ this is, it was front page news in the local paper. Outside of work I’ve had some cooking adventures that I will post about soon.

-Andrew

On the way to Kauaʻi I had a 24 hour stay on Oʻahu. While there I got to show my brothers my school and also take care of some registration business. I am now all set for the upcoming semester where I will be taking the following classes: Intro to Japanese I, Calculus II, Physical Chemistry I, and Physics I. It is looking to be a busy semester for me.

After a quick 30 minute plane ride to Kauaʻi a stop off at Costco and a 1 hour drive to the north shore we arrived at the Hanalei Colony Resort where I would be spending the next few days.

Each of the buildings had 4 apartments, while the buildings were identified by letter they were also identified by a Hawaiian name. The building I stayed in was named after a Hawaiian Owl

I stayed on the second floor of the building and we had a rather nice view of the ocean.

The first day I drove back to Kapaʻa to meet up with a friend from HPU to go hiking. After which it was our turn to make dinner for the whole family. Having lived in Hawaii for some 2 years now, I have some idea as to what would be some good local flavor to introduce my family too, so I made spam musubi, ahi maki, spicy ahi poke over rice, and teriyaki chicken. It was a big hit with the family, though some didn’t eat any of the fish because it was all raw. There was plenty of rice and all I was missing for a good plate lunch was some mac salad.

The next day was a beach day. I, along with my brothers, walked down the beach to a place called Tunnels, about a 2km distance. While at the beach I did some swimming around the reef and managed to spot a very colorful eel and a healthy looking turtle. I don’t have any photos unfortunately.

On the 4th of July itself we were again responsible for dinner for the family, about 20 people and guests. This being America we decided to cook up some American food, hamburgers, hotdogs, and corn on the cob.

The above photo is of my brother cooking the corn. Earlier in the day we had all posed for a family portrait.

Much food was had and the countries independence was celebrated, naturally, by blowing part of the country up with fireworks.

With my stay in Kauaʻi soon coming to an end we took one of the last full days on the island to go check out Waimea Canyon also known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. It was very impressive.

On returning to the mainland I only managed to spend one night in my own bed as the next day I, with my brother who was moving there, drove to San Jose for the weekend. Things didn’t return to normal until yesterday.