It has been a while, things got busy, HPU has a new website (did you check it out?) and the link to the student blog page was subsequently lost. Well here it is, everything that I could think of to post in as chronological of an order as I can muster.<br /><br />One of the things that happened pretty soon after I got back from the cruise was the closure of the Don Quijote (that is how you spell it) in Kailua. I had only discovered this wonderful store maybe a little over a year ago, since then it had become my go to place for shopping. I went to one of the last days it was open.<br /><img src="http://www.andrewbarna.org/photos/gallery3/var/resizes/Random%20Stuff/IMG_0197.JPG" /><br />Since they were no longer restocking the shelves, it was interesting to me to see what they still had and didn't have (as some sort of indication to the popularity of the goods). While the ramen, nori and candy pretty much flew off the shelf (there was no ramen left), coming to the soft drinks section, I wouldn't even know that they were no longer restocking.<br /><img src="http://www.andrewbarna.org/photos/gallery3/var/resizes/Random%20Stuff/IMG_0195.JPG" /><br /><br />In japanese class we have been going over the various informal forms of verbs and how to speak informally in general. All this new conjugation feels very complicated and I often try to find examples of the stuff we are learning in Japanese in English. I figure, if I can deal with the arbitrary rules of English, I can deal with the rather sane rules in Japanese.<br /><br />One of the best, fun things about living in a different place is the new foods. A friend and I recently ate at a relatively new establishment in Kaneohe called Fresh Catch, which specialized in poke and seafoods in general (hence the name). Not knowing what I wanted, I opted for whatever the special was for that day. It turned out to be a crab stuffed ahi roll which was quite delicious. <br /><img src="http://www.andrewbarna.org/photos/gallery3/var/resizes/Random%20Stuff/IMG_0214.JPG" /><br />Though, one of the not so fun things about being in a place different from home is the lack of my established comfort foods (mainly mexican). At the suggestion of one of the staff at HPU, I went to check out a place called Serge's Mexican Kitchen in Manoa. Much to my delight it was very close to what I can get in San Diego and they even had Mexican Coke (uses sugar rather than HFCS).<br /><img src="http://www.andrewbarna.org/photos/gallery3/var/resizes/Random%20Stuff/IMG_0226.JPG" /><br /><br />A tsunami happened that was triggered by a very large earthquake off the coast of Japan. Being the only oceanography student in my residence hall, I became very popular that night, mostly reassuring people that where we were on the Hawaii Loa Campus was well above sea level and there was no chance of this tsunami getting us. While Hawaii did have some major damage on the Big Island, we fared relatively well compared to the devastation as seen in Japan (not counting the nuclear crisis). This has not affected my desire to some day study in Japan.<br /><br />HPU's annual talent show, Da Freakshow, was March 15th (I think). I helped out backstage as the stagemanager's runner. The event itself went well and I'm sure from the audiences perspective, nothing went wrong. From my perspective, it was pretty much one crisis after another (all mini crisises). It was my job to make sure that the performers were queued up before they are to go on stage and so I was constantly about 3 acts ahead of what the audience was seeing. Afterwards, I crashed hard with some good sleep (though it screwed up the rest of the week for me).<br /><img src="http://www.andrewbarna.org/photos/gallery3/var/resizes/Random%20Stuff/IMG_0220.JPG" /><br /><br />Finally, I was selected to be a President's Host. It will be my responsibility to represent the university at various events and whatever else I'm asked to do or volunteer for. I must apologize for not giving a full description of what I will be doing as I'm not sure myself. The induction ceremony was... yesterday, and I had the opportunity to meet the (soon to be retired) university president.<br /><img src="http://www.andrewbarna.org/photos/gallery3/var/resizes/Random%20Stuff/IMG_0241.JPG" /><br /><br />More updates more frequently I hope for the future!<br /><br />-Barna