7 Quick Takes #54

See more 7 Quick Takes Contributions at Jennifer Fulwiler's Conversion Diary.

This has been one interesting week. Absolutely fascinating! Think I will start from today and work backward to normalcy.

1. I spent all of today blackberrying while attending a meeting in Honolulu. I was blackberrying because two of my employees were in Japan. One immediately let us know that he was okay after the earthquake hit. The other went silent from Thursday evening our time to just a few hours ago (Friday evening, our time -- Saturday in Japan). So, while I am not one who is prone to imagine the worst, I was concerned about not hearing from her. I needed to turn in an accounting for the both our Japanese and Hawaiian employees, including those traveling there this week on business. I assumed that telecommunications went down rather quickly, and that was the case. It was great to hear early this evening that she is fine!

2. Following the tsunami watch here in Hawaii was fascinating. The TV channels had only tsunami information, and I learned many fascinating new things that might serve me in good stead should I find myself in another tsunami. My employees and I picked up extra food in case we were to lose electricity and stores were to close -- they all closed around 10:00 p.m., which is unheard of around here. The locals were evacuated around midnight. That just left us visitors. We were vertically evacuated to higher floors in the hotel. Fortunately, I was already on the 14th floor so I did not have to move. After all that, the wave wimped in, washed out, and rose a bit higher on its return lap, but that was it. Some guy decided to sit on the beach with a bottle of vodka and watch the waves roll in -- we met him in the grocery store, then saw him on TV when the police could not chase him away permanently and finally gave up. I imagine he got his toes wet, but either he had great faith or no marbles!

3. Speaking of faith, Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, and four colleagues and I arose early to catch the 0700 Mass at St. Augustine by the Sea Church. The church is simple. The priest is Polynesian. The homily was appropriate in topic and length. Most special, however, was sharing the experience with four colleagues. That does not often happen.

4. I suppose my arrival should have presaged the troubled (tsunami-tainted) departure. My suitcase, as usual, took its own trip. Truly, it does need to have its own frequent flyer number. It arrived a day after I did. So, initially I was sans clothes -- a comment my daughter Lizzie took to me that I was nude at work. Nah, just stinky.

5. Monday night I spent with three colleagues at Don Ho's in the harbor. Great Mai Tais. Good food. Marvelous company. And, to top it off, a special show. Three boats were turned around right beyond our table and tugged into the wharf. We were told that usually one a night was the maximum that a tourist would see, but we saw three! Watching them was fun.

6. Monday afternoon I helped the Chinese with some language teaching techniques. The teachers insisted that students could not possibly learn function words without days of instruction until I stood in front of them and learned all seven ways to say "and" (kn, h, tont, eu, ji, iji, jiju) in less than ten minutes (and still remember them a week later). I like doing that sneaky experienced linguist thing where a language teacher tells me something is extremely difficult for students and I get to learn it in less than ten minutes. It leaves them with no argument -- and then they have to listen to my ideas on language learning and teaching.

7. Saturday, back in California, was a very different kind of day: shopping for paint and carpets, packing boxes, re-packing (when he wasn't looking) the boxes that Doah packed in a surprisingly unhelpful way that only he can. Our move is starting to seem very real now -- and imminent! It is astonishing how it does not matter if you are moving six blocks or six hundred miles: you still have to go through all the same motions and stuff everything you own into square pieces of cardboard.

That is it for this week, and it has certainly been enough! Wishing you all a great holiday weekend!