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Day 6: Time to Say Goodbye

Finally had a good night of sleep! Slept 7 hrs straight and forgot where I was. Had coffee with Liz and Doug in the lobby. Just completed our final session today. Here is Maggie, one of the student emcees for the closing ceremony.

All of the dignitaries and student leaders were able to express their gratitude and share what they had learned. A student stayed up all night to complete the closing slide show. The song selected was “Time to Say Goodbye.”

Here we are presenting our gifts to Principal Shu and C.Y.

Then it was time to say goodbye to great friends. Here’s the amazing rockstar, Jessie.

This is my friend, King. Said goodbye to my student Azure, then got picked up by Dannis for another tour. Dirk & his wife and the three Finnish educators joined us on the tour.

This is Tiananmen Square. It was extremely cold here (I’m guessing in the 20s.) My ears were frozen. I was actually tempted to buy that panda beanie….

Then we entered the Forbidden City. This complex is said to have 9,999 rooms.

Again, another surreal moment. So blessed to be here.

The area is too large to cover in a few hours, so we were unable to reach the largest palace. We ended our tour at the gardens.

We got dropped off at the Dong Hua Men Night Market. This was another adventure!

I was able to split this scorpion with Doug. It was deep fried and crunchy. It also had some type of teri sauce on it. It was “OK” and definitely had that distinct insect flavor.

One of my dreams was to eat pigeon. Liz took video, so I went for the head. The meat tasted alright (yes, tastes like chicken,) but I was disappointed that the meat was so tough. It was actually difficult and messy to eat. Still, a lotta fun….

Taxi Story:
We tried to hail a cab to go back to our hotel with no luck. Every taxi that passed by had passengers. After about 20 minutes, one pulled over across the street. As the passenger was getting out of the cab, his door struck an oncoming bicyclist and cleaned him out. Katoosh! While they were arguing, we ran across the street and jumped in. We just started laughing! No one got hurt, so it was a blessing in disguise. (BTW, taxi fares are very low in China.)

A little while later, Jessie, Raj, and C.Y. took us out for dinner. It was so nice to have spent this time. Although I saw amazing things on this trip, my highlight was spending time with these wonderful friends.

This is the famous Peking Duck (Peking the ancient name of Beijing.) It was incredibly delicious! Our friends started ordering these amazing dishes and it became another one of those hundred-course dinners. And they wouldn’t let us pay for any of it.

And then it was time again to say goodbye.

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Day 7: Monday Monday

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Today was our travel day. Doug left earlier in the morning. For Liz and I, it would be 1½ hrs to Korea, then another 8 to Honolulu. We left Beijing on Monday afternoon and arrived in Hawai’i Monday morning. Tim was able to pick me up.

We had time for breakfast, so we got dim sum from a street vendor near the subway. We couldn’t understand each other, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that a bag of dumplings costs only $1.

These French style bakeries are also popular in Beijing. Quite a contrast of photos.

Here we are at the Incheon Airport in Seoul, Korea. This is the nicest airport that I’ve ever been in. In fact, it’s more like an upscale mall with airplanes outside.

I was able to talk story with Liz a lot, and that made the trip so worthwhile. Without her, it wouldn’t have been as much fun and I would’ve stayed at the hotel more.

It’s been a dream to eat kalbi in Korea, and this is probably the best I’ve had. They say they use real Korean cattle. Hmm….

More photos from the trip.

Final Thoughts:
People freely use the expression “once in a lifetime.” For me, it’s “once in a lifetime…. only if you’re lucky.” I have been so blessed to have had this opportunity. I didn’t deserve it. I just hope that I was able to contribute and represent my team well. This experience has made me rethink what is possible, to re-imagine. Finally, my heart swells up when I think about my friends in Beijing. I will miss them.

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TEDxHonolulu 2013

TEDxHonolulu was held today at the historic Hawai’i Theatre in Chinatown. The theme was entitled “Cultivating Community.”

This year, I was a volunteer instead of an attendee. I volunteered from 7am to 6pm. The staging area was across the street at The Arts at Marks Garage. We also brought our officers from our TEDxYouth@Kamehameha student club.

I was assigned to the production crew as a stagehand. My key responsibility was to make sure that Kenny Endo’s taiko drum did not fall off of the hydraulic platform.

Registration was staged outside at the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park, behind the old Indigo Restaurant.

The event got kick-started with a traditional dragon dance. There was a great lineup of speakers. Unfortunately, I spent most of the time backstage. Fortunately, I got to see the production side of things. The production team was very professional. I also met a lot of nice people. It was interesting to see that accomplished speakers get nervous too.

“Lunch roulette” was a cool concept. Your lunch ticket was good at participating restaurants in the Chinatown area. Each had a choice of three different menu items. I selected HASR Bistro because of its charming courtyard. I had always passed by on my Saturday morning walks. The Pesto Chicken Carbonara was ono.

Photo courtesy of @TEDxYKamehameha.

The highlight for me was seeing our students experience real-world learning. They were awesome! They were also able to collaborate with students from Punahou and ‘Iolani. We are very grateful to have had this opportunity.

The afterparty was held at theVenue at BambuTwo Café and sponsored by Toyota. It was a long, but an extremely worthwhile day.

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EdTech reTreat

The Kamehameha Schools Education Technology Services group held its annual retreat this week at the Podium Raceway in Kapolei. It was an amazing two days. Day 1 started off with pule, and then a presentation on servant leadership by Alt Kagesa.

We had a pizza lunch and an impressive spread of refreshments.

Then it was race time. It was an absolute blast! They do a great job at here the raceway. It was a great day of learning and relationship building.

We convened on Day 2 at the Academy of the Pacific (AOP.) After pule, we played a game of Play-Doh charades. Then we were given a surprise challenge. We broke up into teams and were given $25 and 3 hours to perform community service. My awesome team consisted of Erin, Carmen, Kelly, Gary, and Steven. Carmen suggested that we deliver goodie bags to the Shriners Hospital for Children. Because $25 was not enough, we all agreed to chip in our $10 lunch allowance.

We went shopping at Price Busters in Kalihi and Target in Salt Lake. We assembled the goodie bags in the Target parking lot from the back of my truck. We included toys, stickers, bubbles, coloring books, and personally written greeting cards.

We delivered the bags to the reception area. We felt very blessed.

We had lunch at Auntie Pasto’s. Carmen shared about what the Shriners Hospital had done for her daughter. Today was a great day to give back.

We returned to AOP where everyone shared inspiring stories, photos, and experiences. I believe that today, the world became a better place, and we became better people. Ka hana a keu.

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#CrockPotWednesdays

A new tradition has begun, Crock-Pot Wednesdays! Each week, someone comes up with the recipe & grocery list. We crank up the crock-pot early Wednesday morning in our office (a.k.a the “Frat House”) before heading off to our appointments.

We’re greeted at noon by the most incredible aroma! It’s like magic. So far, every dish has been “winnahs.”

But this blog post is about more than just that. I’m blessed to work with such an amazing team (brothers.)

Tim is our captain, an outdoorsman, surfer, triathlete, the “pride of Damien Memorial,” and an all-around awesome person.

Lance is the math wiz, devoted family man, fisherman, 80s R&B fan, and the nicest guy in Honolulu.

Kimble is the consummate writer, musician, skateboarder, the “life of the party,” and is way cooler than you & I could ever hope to be….

Of course these descriptions fall short. Extremely blessed to be working with these knuckleheads.