Monday, September 26, 2011

Happy B-day Suyoung



The dogs wanted wanted to wish Suyoung a Happy Birthday. They practiced all day and when when Sujin got home from work Lelu put on her hat and show started.

Monday, August 22, 2011

yes...it's been confirmed...

sorry for the lack of posts!!!!!!!

and for all those who are wondering if joe and the dogs ever made it...yes they did! all made it to hawaii safely!!!

work has been so busy! 10-12 hours days are no bueno! so...once i get a break, i'll post something in regards to joe and the pups being here, the dragon boat race, the Kiewit Intern Volunteer Project...and news about work.

so be waiting....or ask joe to start blogging. :)

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Woo Hoo!

This will be a very short post.
All I have to say is that I'm very excited that Joe and the dogs will be here soon!

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Work, work, and more work

So...in the past few weeks, there really hasn't been much going on except for a lot of work. The work schedule is usually 7 am - 5 pm, Monday-Friday, plus Saturday 8am - 11am. Well, lately, it's been 6 am - 6 pm. Yikes! And its been like that for awhile it seems. But at least I have my Saturday afternoons for beaches. And I have pretty cool co-workers who invite me to anything that's going on after work. I will say having so much work has made me so tired by the time I go home that I forget that I'm by myself.

With that said, I'm back to work! Today will be a 6am - 5pm day! Woo hoo!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Sorry for the delay!

Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay in posts. It's just that since Joe left, I felt like I didn't have much to say. But I realized I was wrong! Much has transpired since Joe has gone back to CA.

***Congrat's to the Basua on the new baby boy! 9 lbs, 21 inches! Hi, Baby Michael Beck Basua!!! I guess I can post photos later when I see him. :(

Ok...next, I guess I can now say that after Joe left, I was super bummed. I'm in a city where I know no one. I feel out of place here (really...this place is soooooo different from Ventura. you can laugh at this comment, but there are so many Asians out here!). People do things differently. Say things differently. Drive differently. The other day my co-workers were telling me that I have an accent. All I could say was, "Really? What kind of accent?" They said, "A non-Asian accent. You sound like a haole. You look like you belong, but you don't talk like you belong." Well, I guess I look the part. :)

Funny story about being a Californian: So at work we work in these "pods". My pod-mates and I were working away when all of a sudden I turn to my co-worker, Dee (more about Dee later), and say, "Dude! Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!" In all actuality, I have no idea what I said after "Dude" because as soon as the word left my mouth, everyone in super slow motions just turns towards me and Dee says, "Did you just call me "dude"????" Yup...it slipped out. Evidently, everyone thought it was hilarious. I think the funnier part to the story is that as soon as everyone was done laughing at my expense, I got an email from Amber and she started her email off with, "Duuuuuude...." Yes, I was laughing at myself as I read that one. :)

Back to my co-workers! So I work with a fairly younger bunch of professionals. The average age in the office is 36 years old, which is wonderful! Even upper management is fairly young. It seems like most of them are in their 40's. Needless to say, we all get along fairly well. Dee is pretty awesome! She's basically been there for me this entire time. We go out to dinner, hang out on the weekends. She's introduced me to her friends and now their my friends! Through Dee, I've met Kimi and An. They're pretty cool chicks who know how to have a good time: beach, sun, good food!

During Memorial Day, Dee, An and I went to Waikiki to watch the Lantern Festival. It was definitely one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. The Lantern Festival is a Japanese ceremony in which the people celebrate/remember those who have passed. I thought it would be a great way to remember my ancestors and Joe's grandpa. So at sundown, over 3,000 lanterns are release into the bay and light it up. So are done by volunteers in canoes, or you can walk out into the water and release your own. It was heartbreaking to see some of the people that were there for closure. The one I remember the most was an elder gentleman walking back after releasing his lantern. He was uncontrollably sobbing as his lantern was for a young granddaughter who has recently passed away. I don't know any more of his story than that, but then again...that's all I really needed to know to understand his grief.

What else has happened? Well, I found our home! We now live on 888 Ahuwale Street, Honolulu, HI. We aren't in the city. We're just outside to the East in an area called Aina Hina. Here's a youtube.com video you can watch that the landlord posted. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXG4oe2xAxQ We've got a really nice view of the ocean and the hills. The wind blows through the area and cools the house down A LOT! It's 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. It's got a great lanai for BBQ's and small get-togethers! I'm really excited about it! Sooooo, if you want to visit, you have a place to stay!! :)

Work has been really busy for me lately since we had a fairly large project to get out the door today. I've been getting to work around 6:30 am and leaving around 5:30/6:00 in the evening. Thank goodness it's not every day! And thank goodness I can go back to a somewhat normal schedule for a little while starting tomorrow.

Last Friday was King Kamehameha Day. It is a government holiday like Cesar Chavez day, but of course we were working....

Yesterday, I played kickball with our team. They needed another girl so they volunteered me. What does Joe ask me? "Do you know how to kick a ball?" REALLY???!!! I'll kick you! Well, I'm happy to say that I was up to "bat" twice, and I ran home twice. That's right...I can even steal bases! Pfffffft! Can I kick a ball? We did end up winning the game! 15-0. And 2 of the 15 came from me. :) We're in the finals now that we've won that game. It's already been proposed that I play again. Like I said, my co-workers are great!

The Lexus is now Hawaiian! Yup, the car got her Hawaiian plates today!

I think that's about it for now. I'm doing great. I have good friends and co-workers. I have a home. People are looking out for me, and I'm looking out for them. It's different from home, but it's nice to know that there's a new home out here for me too. Even though I miss everyone soo much and sometimes feel very lonely, I'm extremely lucky because everyone out here has accepted me for who I am, even if I bust out with a few "Duuuuude's" or "Gnarly's". They've accepted me with open arms and in all honestly they treat me like family. With that said...I bid you all adieu!

Nitey-nite!!!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Car fires and sea turtles...all in one day!

This past weekend was an interesting weekend.
It started off with some job-site training. The subject: tilt up buildings. I know...I know...it's just tilt ups. But it was actually a pretty cool 5 hours of learning about the nuts and bolts of these buildings. :) Yup...hard core nerd-tastic! Training took place at Pearl Harbor which just added to the coolness factor because it required me to clearance to get on base.

So after training, Joe and I went to Nico's at Pier 38. They had some yummy food and a rocking band playing. It was a good times. From there we went to Roundtop Road. It's a road that goes around one of the mountains/hills of Honolulu. On our way over there, Joe stopped to show me a a swing that someone has set up that looked down the hill. He was nice enough to give me a push and soon I was swinging away.


Check out that view!

We went out to a vista point that overlooked all of Honolulu-from Diamond Head Crater to Pearl Harbor. The view was magnificent. Joe attempted to take a panoramic picture of the view....but messed it up. When he gets back, we'll have to go up there again and reattempt to take the photo at which time I'll post to the blog. This was the only picture Joe sent me from the vista point.



After we were at the vista point, we took off for the top of the hill. On our way up there, the traffic had stopped and there was this woman walking towards our car. So we rolled down the window to find out what happened. Yeah...the lady's car had caught on fire. Here's a picture of her car...engulfed in flames. It was CRAZY! Things were exploding (probably some seals breaking loose from the heat) and sparks were flying and the flames were getting pretty high. Here's a picture of the car in flames.


After that, we headed to Koolina to check out sea turtles. Joe had been out there earlier in the morning and he said that the turtles were so friendly that when you were in the little cove out there, they would come up to you and bump their head against your leg because they wanted you to feed them! When we got there, there weren't that many and they were pretty far out. But I did see a couple of turtles and they looked pretty satisfied.

Sunday morning, Joe took off back to the mainland. I'm pretty bummed about it, and I think he is too. But it is what it is. In the meantime, I'll be looking for a new home for us to live in and Joe will be packing the house up for our move to Hawaii.

In the meantime, I'll be going to a kickball game tomorrow night (Kiewit has a kickball team). And I'll be going on a charity walk with my co-worker, Dee, on Saturday. Evidently, it's the best kind of a walk: 6 mile loop that's being hosted by the tourism board of Hawaii. So instead of water stops, there will be a bunch of delicious food stops! I'm all in!! :) I'll have to get some pic's for you guys later.

Until then, take a look at the picture below. Can you see the fishy? Joe took that one sometime last week.

Here fishy, fishy, fishy, fishy! Or you can watch on of my favorite Sesame Street clips ever! Hopefully, the clip posts properly.
Until next time....

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Oh the rain!

Aloha!

So much has transpired since I last wrote.
-I started my job.
-There has been torrential rain, water spouts, flash floods, horrible traffic (that's standard and totally not dependent on rain. Just made worse by rain).
-Test drove a couple of cars.
Ummm....I can't remember much more than that.
Well, job. Job's going great! The people I work with are wonderful. Definitely a bunch of characters. They've already recruited me for their kickball team. And they've roped me into a Canstruction project. And all before the end of my first week! :)

Rain...it's been raining every day since we've been here. Good parts: It's 81 degrees and raining and the sun is shining. We've seen a rainbow, more often a double rainbow, everyday now. They are big, bright, and brilliant! Along with the rain, one day, there was a crazy thunder/lightening storm. The newspaper said there were over 40,000 cloud-to-ground lightening strikes in a 30-hour period. It was a pretty nice show to watch. Bad part: The people out here CANNOT drive in the rain. I mean, the literally stop in the middle of the road when it starts raining all of a sudden. It's like Californians driving in Utah snow. Except worse, because there are a bunch of crazy Asian drivers out here. And a lot of them are old. It doesn't help that traffic is really bad on a normal basis. But throw the rain in and it's chaos. I guess I'm just going to have to get use to it.

In the meantime, Joe's been taking it easy. Hiking, snorkeling, taking me to work, picking me up, doing a little bit of work sprinkled in between. He's been sending me photos while I've working. You can see them below.

Rainbow!

Near the Halona Blow Hole

Down the cliff where the previous picture was taken. Some fishermen setup shop here. And, hey....there's Joe's finger!

A shrine at the fishing site.

The blow hole while it's blowing

At the tabernacle

Tabernacle

At the tabernacle grounds

So we've decided not to purchase a new car out here. Yup...it's been decided that financially more prudent to just ship the car over to Honolulu. Thank goodness that I have a wonderful brother-in-law that's willing to get it ready to ship, drive it over to Long Beach, and drop it off for shipping! Thanks, Jeff!!!! So in the mean time, Joe returned the Jeep (I'm sure he shed a tear or two)and picked up the new rental. You can see what we got int he picture below. Yup...no more 4-wheeling for Joe.

The new rental car

Sorry if some of the pictures are sideways....I didn't realize that they were that way. And to reformat them isn't an issue. It's the uploading that is. Internet isn't that awesome out here and it takes a long time to upload just a single picture. So either turn your computer monitor or turn your head sideways. :) I'll make sure that future pictures are orientated in the correct direction before I upload them. :)

Ok...That's all for now! Gotta get ready for more fun at work tomorrow! Bye!