Mas Invitados

A few weeks ago Rod's cousin Haley and her friend Julie came to visit. As always we enjoy having guests and showing them around. The first couple of days Rod had work and I was of course at school so the girls took the island by storm like champs on the bus. Props to these girls. . . they even got their hitch hiking on (sorry Robynn, I had no control). They also went skydiving!! Rod and I went when we lived here in 2007 and it really is amazing. I was so glad they got to go while they were here, we were super jealous but it was fun watching them do it.

Rod took them to the Maunawili Falls hike where they went cliff jumping.

They went Snorkeling at Shark's Cove

Turtle Chasing

And there was lots of delicious food involved - including Haleiwa Eats, complements of the girls. Mucho Mahalos ladies!

Dunzo

Today I said Aloha to King Intermediate for the last time. I am SO glad to be done, but I was surprised at how sad I got when saying goodbye to the kids. They were swarming me with hugs, leis, and cards. It was so great and totally made all 20 weeks worth it.

Here is a pic of me and my favorite class

Next up:

Selling Suzie tomorrow (there is a 99% chance that I will cry and chase the car up the street)
Packing
Thailand
Saying goodbye to Oahu
Utah
Jobs?

I thought I would be ready to go home, but lately I have been so sad about leaving the island. Hawaii will always be a part of me. I already miss the ocean, our friends, our shack, our one horse town, and so much more. Luckily our futures are bright. I'm excited for what we have to come.

Rodney's Book Club

Yesterday was my last day of work at Sleep Center Hawaii. The past week was crazy as I had to find and train my own replacement since my boss is in Germany for two months. I was sifting through resumes, contacting people, and interviewing candidates. At the same time, I was on the other side, applying for jobs in Utah and hoping that I would hear back from companies I was interested in. I had two hours to train my replacement, and it was insane.

My coworkers threw me a little party, got me a lei and a balloon, and ordered California Pizza Kitchen for everyone. Sorry this picture is so blurry, it was taken on my phone.


Although I hated my commute to work and spending over 2 hours in the car every day, around January I got smart and started downloading book tapes to listen to. I listened to the following:


I only ever made it to book 3 in the Harry Potter series. When I saw "The Deathly Hallows" in theaters, I decided I wanted to at least read this last book. I really liked it, and the guy who reads it does an amazing job.


I had my doubts about this book. I mean, how can a guy cutting his arm off fill an entire book? I was on the edge of my seat (my car seat that is) and it really is such an amazing story. Let's hope I never have to drink my own urine, but now I know that if I had to, I could. I am also excited to see 127 hours (I'm a little behind).


Since I haven't been in school for a year, I am scared that my brain is turning to mush. I decided every so often I need to read a somewhat educational book, but that's boring. This is me meeting myself in the middle. This book had some interesting concepts and tried to relate economic principles to real life situations. My favorite chapter was all about baby name patterns (black kids vs. white kids, rich vs. poor, etc). It was written quite a few years ago, and it predicted what baby names would be popular soon. Madison, Ava, Emma, Bronson, Jackson, Grayson, and Chloe anyone?


Tanya talked me into reading this book. I tried to go into it with an open mind, but I really didn't like it. The characters are even more unlikeable in the books than the movies (if that were possible) and the voices of the readers drove me nuts.


This book had a few good pointers and did an okay job about motivating me, but I have very little respect for the author. He talks crap about his dad the entire time, and he acts like anyone can be as successful as him (even though he had a bunch of amazing opportunities dropped in his lap). Toward the end, I was really tired of being talked down to.


I started this book because I didn't know what else to read, it was on the New York Times bestseller list, and I heard there was a movie of it coming out. I really liked the concept of the story and the main character's description of life with the circus, but for me it didn't really go anywhere. There weren't very many twists and turns.


I loved this one. Tina Fey's classic writing style, pop culture references, and one liners kept me laughing aloud through many a commute. This is one of the rare exceptions where I would actually recommend listening to the tape over reading it yourself, because Tina herself reads it and that adds a lot of character.


I read this on the recommendation of our friend and my future marketing colleague Jozie. I would love to start my own company someday, and this gave me some good pointers. I'll need to listen again with a pen and paper and take some notes.


My favorite movie of all time = my favorite book of all time? Sort of. I really liked the book. It went into a lot more detail about the business and the scientific aspects of "Jurassic Park," which was interesting. However, I didn't much like the ending. The book followed the movie really well (or visa versa I guess) for the most part, up until the last few chapters. I felt like it kind of dragged toward the end.

My parents will be in Hawaii in 4 days. This time next week, Tanya and I will be spending the night in The Philippines. Then it's on to Thailand. We've been planning this trip since October. I can't believe it's so close to actually happening!

A Hui Hou!

After next Tuesday I am officially a certified teacher. The past five months have been hard, tiring, rewarding, frustrating, hilarious, and inspiring.

I really want to remember everything that has happened this year while teaching Teen Health at King Intermediate School.

Here are the highlights:

The things they say . . . I could go on for days.

I teach 12 and 13 year olds, which is a category all by itself. Add to that the fact that they are Hawaiian 12 and 13 year olds . . . they pretty much have their own language. It took me a long time to get used to some of their lingo, but now I even find myself talking this way. My favorite Pigeon includes:

The fact that they only call me “Miss” not Mrs. Rasmussen, not even Mrs. Just Miss.

“Ahhh Miss, thas junk” EVERYTHING is junk (meaning bad, dumb, silly, gross)

“Da Kine” Whenever my students don’t know what to say, they say: “you know, da kine?” It’s what they use to fill sentences kinda like when we say “you know that thing?” It’s funny but frustrating because I never know what da kine means.

One phrase that I picked up more from the teachers that I work with is “Try”. Instead of saying “You better bring your planner next time” I now find myself saying “Try bring your planner next time” or “Try do your homework for once”. Sounds so weird, I know.

Scrap/Scraping = Fight/Fighting (which happens a lot at my school – usually two girls fighting over a guy)

The word “one” can be used instead of “a”. So . . . Instead of saying “can you bring me a book?” they say “can you bring me one book?” Still not used to this one.

“Oh Miss, I cannot.” They almost NEVER say, “can’t” it is always “cannot”. I really don’t know why.

Favorite Things:

· The students attempting to learn my last name – most of them didn’t even get close. Guess that’s why they called me “Miss”

· The Valentine cards my students made me

· Spending 80 minutes a day in a car with two other student teachers. We became very close and it was nice to debrief after school with people who knew exactly what I was going through.

· The group of girls that come into my classroom EVERY MORING to give me a hug and talk.

· The time the bridge flooded and I was 30 minutes late for school. The sub was teaching and when I walked in the whole class cheered. That was a good moment.

· Listening to music with my advisory class – this usually would lead to a sing along and/or dance off.

· Supervising the end of year dance – it was darls and hilarious.

· The rumor that I died when I missed ONE DAY of school. This really happened. Apparently there was a car accident and everything . . . they were all very concerned when I came back the next day.

· My students telling me that I am way too young to be married, asking what my husband’s name is, what he looks like, what he does, etc.

· The very troubled student that I somehow made a connection with – he loved talking about watches and tried to steal mine off my wrist on several occasions. He was good in my class after that.

· The day I perfected “the look”. I can give a crusty like you wouldn’t believe (or maybe some of you believe it ha ha!)

· The morning bulletin. A news program anchored and filmed by students that gives the morning announcements. It also usually features a short video filmed by the media class – made my morning every time.

· The looks on their faces when discussing the reproductive system – priceless. Also, the questions that followed.

· Watching my students do jumping jacks and then try to breathe through a coffee straw to experience what it is like to have emphysema. Hilarious.

· Walking around the campus and having students yell out “hi Miss!” it’s so cute. (This campus is gorgeous I can see green mountains and blue ocean out of my windows).

· The multiple times I brought students to tears – usually not really my fault, sometimes it was.

· Watching their faces change when they finally understand a concept. Amazing.

I know this is a lot, but I don’t want to ever forget it. I have such mixed emotions about my life right now. I’m sad to leave Hawaii, but so happy to see family. I’m sad to leave my students, but happy to be done with school.

Bring on the next chapter!

And please bless I get a teaching job!

I love this pic. . . the rainbow almost made my head explode. I couldn't stop looking while I was teaching!

A Day In The Life

One of the many reasons we are sad that our time here is drawing to a close:

A Day In The Life from Rodney Rasmussen on Vimeo.

Happy Mother's Day

This is dedicated to my mother, Pennie Tapp who loves Stefon.

Laters

Today I put in my two week's notice at my job. It was a bittersweet feeling.

This was my first real job out of college. I have learned so much since I started. I have actually become close to the people I work with. I scratched and clawed my way to a point where I'm earning a fair salary. I finally know what I'm doing and feel comfortable with my job. I learned from my boss what to do (and what not to do) when running a business. I genuinely enjoy what I do and, for the most part, don't dread going to work when I wake up every morning. I get paid to go to networking parties and schmooze with people. I got to see every part of Oahu.

On the other hand . . .

I hate driving over an hour each way to work. Sleep disorders aren't the most exciting subject matter to market. Like I said, I had to scratch and claw my way to the place I'm at, and it wasn't all fun and games. I had to do some ridiculous things that were not part of my job title (walking my boss's dogs for example?) I've learned everything I need to from this job and I'm excited for what's next - whatever that may be

Beauty

I'll sure miss this backyard.