Posted on August 10, 2013August 25, 2013

Saturday Morning Woks

This post is a continuation of a previous post, Saturday Morning Walks. I’ve been consistent in eating (oops, I mean exercising) each Saturday morning. I’ve explored Kaka’ako, Ala Moana, & Waikiki, and have settled on Chinatown as a favorite route. I believe that Chinatown has the best food. After sampling all of the phở shops in Chinatown, I’ve moved onto trying different dishes. Recently, I’ve been focusing on Maunakea Street. Strangely, I’ve always felt a connection to Maunakea Street. Then I recalled that this is where my father grew up….

Here is dim sum from Happy Garden. I think there are three “levels” of dim sum. You have the high-end (i.e., Legend Seafood,) middle (Mei Sum,) and then the economy level. Happy Garden is a nice hole-in-the-wall.

This is melt-in-your-mouth awesomeness! (And really cheap too.) This is the beef tendon & beef flank w/ look fun noodle soup from Lam’s Kitchen. They specialize in rice soups and look fun noodles.

This is stewed lamb with tossed noodle from Family Kitchen a.k.a. Family Noodle House. It’s tucked away inside of a market.

The Maunakea Marketplace has a huge market and a food court with all kinds. This is the pad thai from Malee Thai/Vietnam Cuisine. You can also find Indian, Filipino, Japanese, Singaporean food, and bubble drinks here.

Chinatown is a great place to try a new cuisine, buy produce, and take pictures. Some people avoid Chinatown because of the rat scare. My feeling is that if the food weren’t so amazing here, the rats would’ve left a long time ago. Haha….

Posted on August 8, 2013November 13, 2013

Back to School

Today was the 1st day back to school, and my 1st day at the high school. It was special. It was also a big day for the incoming freshmen and new invitees.

I spent most of the day helping teachers with their setups. I also helped a bunch of lost students find their classrooms.

Here is my workspace in Bishop Hall. Not quite as luxurious as my former office in Kekela, but awesome teammates as well!

We affectionately call this place “the frat house” (four dudes sharing a decrepit corner of campus.)

It seems like I’ll be eating a lot of these during this school year. I’ll either lose weight or get fatter, depending on how my body reacts….

The day ended with an assembly in the auditorium. Spoiler alert: I think this will be the first class to choose “white” (newly added) as its class color.

Looking forward to this new adventure. Imua….

Posted on August 2, 2013August 3, 2013

Holoholo….

Most of my posts this summer on Twitter & Instagram have had the term holoholo as either the caption or #hashtag.

I’ve had the privilege of hosting out-of-town guests from China (see previous post) and Japan. It’s been a blast! Really, they’re much more than guests, but amazing friends.

This week I got to hang out with Ryan who teaches English in Osaka, Japan. He used to be at a school that I had visited in Kawachinagano back in 2001. He’s here for the Punahou Keiki Kamp. We went to Hanauma Bay & Waikiki Beach. He also attended a service at Inspire Church and visited our small group Bible study.

We also enjoyed good food. Here’s the pad thai from Thai Herb Kitchen on Kapahulu Ave. We also had poke bowls from Pa’ina Cafe and checked out the Eat the Street event in Kaka’ako. It was nice to reconnect with such a great friend.

We also holoholo-ed a bunch with our KS EdTech team this summer. We hiked Diamond Head during our planning retreat.

After work today, we hiked the ridge above our school’s campus. I don’t think I like hiking much, but I sure enjoyed the great company.

Blessed & thankful to live in such a beautiful place with the best of friends. We go holoholo….

Posted on July 12, 2013July 13, 2013

My Punahou Lab School Experience

Blessed & privileged to have served as a co-facilitator at this summer’s Punahou Lab School. Please see my education blog post here. I learned a lot and was inspired by the many amazing educators in my cohort. But for me, it’s all about the relationships. We bonded together as a team. This particular post will be about the educators from Beijing, China.

At first they were complete and total strangers to me. But after four days, they’ve become some of my dearest friends. It’s amazing how something like this could happen. I am very thankful.

I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to go holoholo with them. We went to Waikiki Beach with Liz & Kimble after our Tuesday session.

Here’s Waikiki Beach at sunset. (Click to enlarge.)

They helped me celebrate the “anniversary of my 29th birthday.” Haha….

On Thursday, we had a fun adventure at the post office. After our visit to KS, we went sightseeing at Sandy Beach & Makapu’u.

Dinner was at Nico’s Pier 38.

The four days flew by quickly. It was sad to say goodbye. I miss them already….

Posted on June 2, 2013June 26, 2013

Missions Trip Day 1 & 2: The Journey

So blessed to have been on this medical missions trip to Thailand and the Philippines. Follow the team on Facebook.

We met at the airport on Tuesday, May 21st at 8:30pm. Our flight was actually after midnight on Wednesday, the 22nd. To make matters more complicated, we lost a day (Thursday) during our travels.

We were awakened at 1am by dinner service. Philippine Airlines pilot Captain Percival a.k.a. “Mr. Sunshine” was making his final flight after 35 yrs. of service. He nailed the landing perfectly, to the cheers of the passengers.

After a 10-hour flight to Manila, we had a 3-hour layover before a 3-hour flight to Bangkok. We were greeted there by Pastor Goi and Yo. We were also greeted by the most incredible humidity that I’ve ever experienced in my life. It felt as if you were standing in the sun with a hair dryer blowing on your face.

Soon we arrived at the Kantary House Hotel just outside of Bangkok.

Thank God Bang Kapi was not as hot and humid as Bangkok. Only 99˙. We rested and had our team devotions.

Here’s a street vendor outside of our hotel. I was advised not to eat the street food due to parasites. Bummer….

We walked across the bridge to the Bang Kapi Mall. Here’s a water taxi.

I had sour spicy noodle soup, chicken rice (khao mun gai,) and braised pigs feet. So ono. Tomorrow we travel to Mae Sot. Can’t believe I’m here. Thank you Jesus.