The Hawaiian Sunshine Market

When traveling I like to get the local experience as much as possible. I also really love to try different fruits and foods that aren't available in a typical back home grocery store. That said, the farmers market today was a real treat. Some lady told us to be there by 11:45 even though it opened at noon. I walked up to a crowed of people standing in front of a line of orange cones separating the crowd from a road leading to an unseen land of goods. It resembled the beginning of a race only a very slow-paced courteous one. A man with a big straw hat and a very long gray beard was making announcements. He urged us to make sure and ask about the food, where it was grown, and who grew it so that we could have a connection with it. (After all, this is Hawaii). He had all of the elderly, disabled, and pregnant persons go first so that they could situate themselves and be included in the purchasing. After they had disappeared up the road, he let the rest of us follow to a small area with tables and car trunks and lots of fruit and flowers. We weren't allowed to buy though until the sound of the whistle(didn't I tell you it felt like a race?)Below are my findings:

The Lychee (Lie-chee) fruit has the same texture of a grape once you peel off its' skin but is a lot sweeter and has one big pit in the middle. It looks a little creepy peeled, kinda like an eyeball or something.


These are called Apple Bananas. They taste like regular bananas.







The far right fruits are called Mountain Apples. They may be competing with some Utah company but these are the Hawaiian sibling. I haven't tried them yet.



These last ones were my greatest find. The lady calls them "Wing Beans". She got the seeds from some many from Uruguay. How he got the seeds from Uruguay and through Hawaii customs I don't know. They are bitter and have pea-like seeds in them. they are really rare around here. She may be the only lady who has a Wing Bean plant on the Island. It was a fun day at the market.

Linguistics

I've been looking around at several school programs in the UK lately. Just for fun for right now, but I think it would be a great experience to get a Masters Degree in England. I did my Undergraduate in Linguistics at BYU. Oxford had the best explanation of what Linguists study that I'd seen in awhile:

Linguistics is the study of language in all its aspects. Linguists are interested in the structure and history of languages; the meaning underlying instances of language use (semantics); how languages are related; how children learn language; what goes on when people are speaking; how people understand, mentally represent and generate language; what features are shared by all languages; why languages differ; how language is used in literature, the media and by various social groups; what happens to language abilities when the brain is damaged by stroke or injury; whether computers will ever be able to understand language; how we can model human language use. http://www.ling-phil.ox.ac.uk/prospective

I love linguistics! Yes I did study all that. One reason I did is that it is through language that we learn about all the other things around us and build bonds with other people. That was my undergrad experience and it made me happy to revisit it for a moment and remember the cool things I learned. Someday I hope to know many more languages than I do now. For now though, I enjoy knowing a bit more how Language works in general. Delightful stuff!

Easter

This Easter was like none before.

We had a ward musical fireside with about ten songs performed celebrating the Savior Jesus Christ. I sang "Abide with Me Tis Eventide" in a duet with a friend. It's been a long time since I performed anything singing. It's far more frightening to me than getting up in front of thousands interpreting. After some serious sweaty hands I felt like I'd done well and it was a great evening.



I volunteered at the White House Easter Egg Roll as an interpreter. There were 300 people dressed up in Character costumes. They had numerous activities including Yoga, Hula Hoops, Football, Storytime, and a Music Stage. Most of these I only briefly grazed with my eyes. I was assigned to the music stage, which meant I spend all my time in a secure area with all the visiting talent, the VIP tent stocked with food, and twenty minutes between each show to meet people. Michelle Obama walked past me and tapped me on the shoulder and said "Happy Easter." It took a moment to register who that familiar face was and by then she was gone. I also met Sarah Bareilles, Justin Beiber, The Jonas Brothers, and several Sesame Street Cast members including Maria and Gordon. I found them to be pleasant and personable. Maria was as excited to see how I signed certain things as I was to meet her. By far, Elmo was the highlight of the day. A friend of mine has a niece who loves Elmo dearly. Kevin Clash, the voice of Elmo, kindly made this movie for me when had asked for merely a picture.



Yes, Elmo ate my Blackberry.

I enjoyed a fun Easter Egg Hunt and a big Easter dinner with friends (you are never too old for some things). After all this excitement, I must say that the best part and best celebration of Easter still occurred in a simple Sacrament Meeting at Church as I took the bread and water and remembered Christ's resurrection and Atonement. It was the most powerful experience of all and the most pure celebration of Easter. The cool thing is anyone can have that experience and they don't need a talented voice, a ticket to the White House, or hard boiled eggs to enjoy it.

Mad Hatter Tea party

My laptop has been bobbing in a sea of non-cooperation but all is well now. I'm now posting what I have been planning to for the last little while.



So remember the new Alice and Wonderland movie that came out in March? Well, my friends and I decided to add to the experience of watching it and not just by donning those nifty 3D glasses. We 'fell' into it. After receiving fancy and delightful invitations by mail, guests attended dressed as wonderland characters. We had the Hatter, the Hare, the Doormouse, several Alices, several cards, a flower, the caterpillar, the Cheshire cat, a few random characters, and a killer Queen of Hearts.

The table was made to be slightly chaotic. There were at least seven different colorful tablecloths, white roses spray painted red, mismatched chairs, and mismatched tea cups. A few extra cups were placed at random for a clean cup as needed. The fare included special herbal teas, hot chocolate, cucumber and egg salad sandwiches, petit fours, Beef wellington, scones, and berries, the scones of course being placed far from their complimentary jams and clotted cream. We even had a stuffed white rabbit and a fake pocket watch that we filled with jam and butter. (The best butter of course!)

It was mentioned by many that one of the best parts of the good clean silliness and jovial company was the rotation of seats that sporadically occurred. This was because we had the chance to talk and laugh with everyone at the table and not just those in the near vicinity. We did walk to the theater in costume and don the glasses too. After a lot of hard work by a lot of people it was a tremendous success of fun!

Quantico

Recently I had the opportunity to go on a tour of the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA. It was a fascinating place! I watched them training agents in the famous Hogan's Alley, an urban street built by Hollywood set designers and learned of some of the cool stuff that they are doing to enhance their training (on a very basic unclassified level of course.) We passed by the FBI lab and peeked into the dorms. It's a nifty place. I'm grateful that there are people who are willing and trained to put their lives at risk to help the world be a safer place and go after the bad guys. I wouldn't want that job. I've shot a gun once, at a water bottle filled with sand, and although I hit the target, it wasn't something I enjoyed.

Amidst all the excitement, one thing was the most significant to me. Placed in an otherwise empty courtyard is a Granite monument commemorating September 11th. It was already destined to be something I'd like as that day has a very significant place in my life and heart. I served as a missionary in New York City, and received my assignment to go there the week after it occurred. The base was the Pentagon, the twin towers stood tall in the middle, and an outline of the state of Pennsylvania with a star where flight 93 crashed. In front of it were debris from each of the three catastrophes. It was very well done, created by the Class of 2007. Again, I'm grateful for those who work to make the world a safer place and aid in bringing understanding and resolution when it is not. It was a very enjoyable experience.

A few quotes from the front entrance:

"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful." Samuel Johnson

"Courage is the resistance to fear, mastery of fear and not the absence of it." Mark Twain

"Prosperity asks for fidelity, adversity exacts it."
Seneca

You Know You Live in Washington When:

1. The traffic report regularly states that the beltway is backed up to the Mormon Temple.
2. When you tell your friend you want to go with her to the mall and ask for directions, she guides you downtown near the capital building instead of to the stores.
3. You get a random paycheck from the United States Senate and it takes you awhile to figure out what you did to earn it.
4. If it snows a few inches the entire town closes down and you can find diplomats sledding with their children in your backyard. Sometimes you can join them too.
5. There are actually more acronyms than can be found at BYU.
6. You can trick-or-treat in many countries just by walking down certain streets. (Embassy Row).
7. Some of what you call work, others would be doing for sightseeing. Yet others would call another some of it sheer boredom and drudgery.
8. Ward cultural events activities include historic sights that most people only read about. i.e. Mount Vernon, Ford's Theater, Shenandoah, etc.
9. You eat lunch with at least one new person a week in entirely different locations.
9.5 You don't have any change for the toll road so your commute time gets doubled because you get lost in the back roads. Then again, a 6 mile stretch can take twenty minutes to traverse sometimes depending on the road.
10. You get to be amongst amazingly bright and talented individuals who make life interesting and thought provoking.

New Year's Resolutions

This is one of mine. My goal is to post at least once a month to stay more in touch with family and friends and share some of my experiences, thoughts, etc. So far, I'm looking forward to a great New Year with some great new ideas to implement. Do stay tuned...