after finishing my praxis (is the plural praxi? or praxises?), i gpsed my way over to debbie's house. a lot of people were there, getting ready for the wedding, which was to take place at a local hall. there was a lot of laotian food made up. i ate some of the eggrolls (awesome) and the sticky rice (awesome) and the ground up fish with the special sauce that you were supposed to roll up in the lettuce leaves (a little messy but awesome), but passed on the dish with the minced up tripe (it's a consistency thing. something about chewing up some animal's rubbery guts...). didn't really get a chance to rest, as the praxis had seriously delayed my schedule, so i got dressed, and got the kids dressed too, and it was off to the hall for the wedding...
the hall was a large room hung up with christmas lights. it had a stage, and when we arrived, some local thai/laotian band called "blue sky" was doing a mike check. btw, the sound was super loud. cranked up to 11, as they'd say in spinal tap. there was actual concern about the placement of the cake too close to the speakers, as this would collapse it, or perhaps spray icing into the crowd (no such concern was given for irreversible damage to ear follicles).
lynn and i were given the duty of watching the reception table. we kind of got a late start to that duty, as we were on again off again participants in the ceremony itself. how can i describe the laotian ceremony? well, first of all, the bride and groom were dressed in beautiful laotian attire. for soukan, the groom, this consisted of a white silken suit, with a blue sash running from one shoulder to the contralateral hip. debbie was dressed similarly, with a white dress and an ornate blue sash. there was a large mat laid out in the center of the hall, and on that mat were two- i don't really know how to describe them- little mountain monuments made out of green leaves and flowers, with dollar bills folded around toothpicks stabbed into it all, and offerings of fruit and chicken and eggs around the base, and white streamers hanging all around... the couple knelt before these "monuments", and the family knelt all around the couple. a "priest" (dressed quite ordinarily, in a suit) began a long and intricate chant in laotian, punctuated periodically by the crowd shouting "oooh!" at certain points, members of the family laid hands upon the bride/groom, or used their hands to support the arms of the bride/groom, symbolizing how the family would provide support for the bride/groom in their new life together. and then, towards the end, the bride and groom tied white bracelets around each other's wrists; i was told that these white bracelets contained the best wishes of people, and were not be removed. individual family members also tied the bracelets around the wrists of the bride and groom and also got bracelets themselves. after that, the bride and groom blew out candles/incense at the tops of the monuments, exchanged rings (actually a very minor, almost hidden part of the ceremony), and had a kiss...
oddly enough, after this laotian ceremony, there was also another "ceremony," conducted by a largish man dressed in something akin to what an informal catholic priest would wear. he also conducted a very brief ceremony in english, and using the language of catholicism: "by the power of the father, the son, and the holy ghost..." it was this man who had and officiated over the formal and legally binding papers (i remember there was some question about whether the bride and groom really needed to sign them or not)... this, to me, was interesting. i wanted to know about the relationship between catholicism and laotian culture; was it similar to the situation in certain lands, like haiti for instance, where christianity/catholicism mixed with the indigenous religion and rituals to form a kind of hybrid religion? or was it more the case that the two operated on different levels, with one being the "blood" religion of the people, and the other being the "raiment" or white clothed "voice" religion?
after the ceremony, well, it was a big long party. people streamed in, decked out in nice suits and dresses. formal, but not in the typical wedding style. in some cases, it seemed as though people were dressed up for prom. and this seemed appropriate, as it did feel like a dance party, with the band playing full blast, and the alcohol being poured and imbibed to abandon (the favors, which lynn and i passed out at the door, were shot glasses with the character for love printed across the front). as i said, lynn and i were responsible for greeting guests, receiving gifts, having people sign in, and giving guests the shot glass. we were admonished at times for being too demanding (apparently signing in, or receiving the shot glasses was voluntary), and at times for not being demanding enough (apparently signing in and receiving the shot glass was obligatory). lynn and i both learned the standard greeting, "sabaidi" (which our translating assistant, kai ? said meant, basically, "how are you?"). we started out saying it awkwardly, and then began to flourish it with hands held together in prayer formation as a greeting. at first, guests mirrored our awkwardness, seeing we were clearly foreigners, but as the night progressed, we seemed to get more into it. at some points, guests actually thought i was lao, and would engage in conversation with me (usually about the hennesy, which, i gathered, they wanted me to pour into their shot glass)...
laotian music has a simple square beat. the singing can be very intricate and passionate, especially when women sing it (the female singer was exquisite, her voice was like that of a beautiful bird, straining at the constraints of her cage). the dancing was very simple, and in certain respects resembled a bon dance, with people forming lines that spun slowly around the floor in clockwise direction. the women would do this flipping movement with their hands, reminiscent of (to me) awa odori. some of them could be surprisingly suggestive with this simple movement (of course, their fitted dresses helped). the men, on the other hand, would do a more palms down pushing motion, kinda like they were saying, "hey, it's cool, it's cool."
lynn got a chance to dance with kai during the laotian "la bamba" cover. i also cut the rug for a bit, and thankfully didn't injure any nearby bystanders.
it was a long but fun night. we left the wedding party as it was beginning to wind down, at about 10:30 or 11:00...
okay, enough for tonight.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
feeling minnesota
we returned from our minnesota trip this afternoon.
we went up to "the land of 10,000 lakes" to attend debbie's (lynn's sister) wedding. we left for minnesota on thursday afternoon, immediately after the kids' violin lesson. so: thursday afternoon to tuesday afternoon, with commutes averaging 12 hours apiece... you can do the math. it was a whirlwind of a stay, with our circadian clocks severely misaligned and "off." add to that the fact that i had to take my praxis exam during the trip (as the praxis is only offered on specific weekends throughout the year, and one of the dates just happened to coincide with my time in minnesota), and the general chaos surrounding weddings in general (particularly this one, in a fascinating new culture), and you may understand why i'm not quite in my skin yet...
one of the reasons things did NOT completely degenerate into chaos was the wonderful planning and hospitality of wayne and jean takeshita. jean is irene's (my mother-in-law) sister. (oddly enough, wayne and jean are well-acquainted with a friend of mine, shari, who attended macalaster college during her undergraduate years- the world is a very small, tightly circumscribed circle). jean and wayne allowed me to borrow their car and their GPS (THANK GOD FOR TECHNOLOGY), and also opened up their home for my children and i. wayne and jean also planned several of the activities for us during our stay, including the wonderful day when our family "split up," with aiden going to a train museum, willow making new friends with wayne's nieces, and lynn and i exploring minneapolis by foot. wayne also gave us one of his famous tours of st. paul, making the place come alive with his unique historical perspective...
***
let me try to recount some of my memories... first of all, i recall jean and wayne's beautiful home in roseville (one of the older subdivisions in st. paul), with a spacious backyard (with no fences separating yards! symbolic) opening out into the woods. the trees- they were magnificent. many maples, cypresses, oaks, all in the full spectrum of verdancy, various shades of green, some almost looking blue in the grey light, and others "blushing emeralds." on that first night, with the sky only beginning to darken significantly at 9:30 pm (!!!), i recall studying in the quiet, fueled by jet lag and coke (and a healthy dose of fear), and taking breaks to breathe in the peacefulness of the place and peruse some of the books on the shelf of the room i was staying in. among other things, i found a lot of "island heritage" books i'd read as a child. one of them stood out; it was called "the old man and the astronauts," and it was about the reaction of an old man in papua, new guinea to the news of the first man walking on the moon... never quite understood it as a child, because i couldn't discern what was really happening from imagination ("alligators" on the moon, eating moon rocks...) in any case, i experienced a small surge of nostalgia at that...
i didn't get much sleep. i studied until about 2, and set the alarm for 5:30. i woke up before the alarm, largely because at 4:30, all of the birds began to sing. each individual bird in that freaking forest... no, i'm not complaining. in a way, it was fascinating to hear each voice announcing itself, with its own melody and rhythm. still invisible in that darkness and blue-grey haze, but singing, like the initial tune up of a symphony of hidden jewels... woke up, had some breakfast, received some encouragement from wayne (did he ever sleep?), and drove off...
first time i ever used a gps. it was actually quite easy. maybe it's because i'm used to women telling me what to do (hope lynn doesn't read this!!! :P). every time i made a mistake, the gps would utter (with some annoyance???) "recalculating." i think i will adopt that as a catch phrase whenever my kids do something wrong... "recalculating..."
i got to dunwoody institute of technology, where the test was to be held, at around 6:20. check-in was supposed to start at 7:30, so i had some time to kill. i walked around the area, notably to the basilica (can't recall the specific name, but it was advertised as the first basilica in the united states; will post pics later) and the "sculpture garden." the latter was a beautiful "park" filled with a variety of modern sculptures. at 6:30 am, in the early morning chill, i was almost the only soul in the place. i did spy a guy doing some "ancestral qigong" in some out-of-the-way corner, but all in all, the place was my own to stroll through and appreciate. i think that quiet time alone really grounded me for the ordeal that was to come...
okay. let me just say at the outset that the praxis tests i took were the worst administered tests i have ever experienced. first of all, we were supposed to check-in at 7:30, with the test starting (at the latest) at 8:00. remember that i was perhaps the first person there. i was waiting inside the building, and then at around 7:00, with no one making any announcement, i discover that there is a whole line that i was supposed to get into. so i go out the building, and find this long line going all the way out into the parking lot. i get to the back of the line, and, get this, i end up waiting there for OVER AN HOUR. it was pretty cold, and although i had dressed to be comfortable in an air conditioned room, i did not anticipate having to stand outside beneath semi-rainy weather for hours on end... so, we ended up actually starting the test at about 9:00. a whole hour late. the test administrators, the proctors, whatever, were very unprepared. they didn't have extra pencils, they were uncertain about some of the rules, etc. during the test, they held mini-conferences in our presence, whispering about what they were supposed to do... very disturbing.
the first test, the plt (principles of learning and teaching) was a ridiculously long test. it had 12 "short" answer questions, in which we had to write responses to different case studies, along with about 40 (?) multiple choice questions. the short answer questions were killer, not only because i tend to write lengthy responses, but also because the questions were very open-ended. "name two ways that you would improve this lesson." "name two things that were good about this lesson." etc.
the second test (which i had to wait in ANOTHER line for, for an additional 40 minutes or so) was the SPED core contest test, and that one was relatively easy. 60 multiple choice questions, 1 hour. again, there were administration issues. i was still copying down the "honor statement" ("i certify that i am the person taking this test...") when the proctor (honestly, she seemed a high school student; she couldn't read some of the words in the instructions correctly) said to begin the test...
... so that was the praxis. my feeling is, if i did well, then that's that. if i didn't, then i'm sure i and the 300 or so other test-takers will have sufficient grounds to complain about the invalidity of this so-called standardized test...
***
whew! well, i do have a lot of other things to talk about, but jet lag exhaustion is starting to hit me again. i will continue later...
we went up to "the land of 10,000 lakes" to attend debbie's (lynn's sister) wedding. we left for minnesota on thursday afternoon, immediately after the kids' violin lesson. so: thursday afternoon to tuesday afternoon, with commutes averaging 12 hours apiece... you can do the math. it was a whirlwind of a stay, with our circadian clocks severely misaligned and "off." add to that the fact that i had to take my praxis exam during the trip (as the praxis is only offered on specific weekends throughout the year, and one of the dates just happened to coincide with my time in minnesota), and the general chaos surrounding weddings in general (particularly this one, in a fascinating new culture), and you may understand why i'm not quite in my skin yet...
one of the reasons things did NOT completely degenerate into chaos was the wonderful planning and hospitality of wayne and jean takeshita. jean is irene's (my mother-in-law) sister. (oddly enough, wayne and jean are well-acquainted with a friend of mine, shari, who attended macalaster college during her undergraduate years- the world is a very small, tightly circumscribed circle). jean and wayne allowed me to borrow their car and their GPS (THANK GOD FOR TECHNOLOGY), and also opened up their home for my children and i. wayne and jean also planned several of the activities for us during our stay, including the wonderful day when our family "split up," with aiden going to a train museum, willow making new friends with wayne's nieces, and lynn and i exploring minneapolis by foot. wayne also gave us one of his famous tours of st. paul, making the place come alive with his unique historical perspective...
***
let me try to recount some of my memories... first of all, i recall jean and wayne's beautiful home in roseville (one of the older subdivisions in st. paul), with a spacious backyard (with no fences separating yards! symbolic) opening out into the woods. the trees- they were magnificent. many maples, cypresses, oaks, all in the full spectrum of verdancy, various shades of green, some almost looking blue in the grey light, and others "blushing emeralds." on that first night, with the sky only beginning to darken significantly at 9:30 pm (!!!), i recall studying in the quiet, fueled by jet lag and coke (and a healthy dose of fear), and taking breaks to breathe in the peacefulness of the place and peruse some of the books on the shelf of the room i was staying in. among other things, i found a lot of "island heritage" books i'd read as a child. one of them stood out; it was called "the old man and the astronauts," and it was about the reaction of an old man in papua, new guinea to the news of the first man walking on the moon... never quite understood it as a child, because i couldn't discern what was really happening from imagination ("alligators" on the moon, eating moon rocks...) in any case, i experienced a small surge of nostalgia at that...
i didn't get much sleep. i studied until about 2, and set the alarm for 5:30. i woke up before the alarm, largely because at 4:30, all of the birds began to sing. each individual bird in that freaking forest... no, i'm not complaining. in a way, it was fascinating to hear each voice announcing itself, with its own melody and rhythm. still invisible in that darkness and blue-grey haze, but singing, like the initial tune up of a symphony of hidden jewels... woke up, had some breakfast, received some encouragement from wayne (did he ever sleep?), and drove off...
first time i ever used a gps. it was actually quite easy. maybe it's because i'm used to women telling me what to do (hope lynn doesn't read this!!! :P). every time i made a mistake, the gps would utter (with some annoyance???) "recalculating." i think i will adopt that as a catch phrase whenever my kids do something wrong... "recalculating..."
i got to dunwoody institute of technology, where the test was to be held, at around 6:20. check-in was supposed to start at 7:30, so i had some time to kill. i walked around the area, notably to the basilica (can't recall the specific name, but it was advertised as the first basilica in the united states; will post pics later) and the "sculpture garden." the latter was a beautiful "park" filled with a variety of modern sculptures. at 6:30 am, in the early morning chill, i was almost the only soul in the place. i did spy a guy doing some "ancestral qigong" in some out-of-the-way corner, but all in all, the place was my own to stroll through and appreciate. i think that quiet time alone really grounded me for the ordeal that was to come...
okay. let me just say at the outset that the praxis tests i took were the worst administered tests i have ever experienced. first of all, we were supposed to check-in at 7:30, with the test starting (at the latest) at 8:00. remember that i was perhaps the first person there. i was waiting inside the building, and then at around 7:00, with no one making any announcement, i discover that there is a whole line that i was supposed to get into. so i go out the building, and find this long line going all the way out into the parking lot. i get to the back of the line, and, get this, i end up waiting there for OVER AN HOUR. it was pretty cold, and although i had dressed to be comfortable in an air conditioned room, i did not anticipate having to stand outside beneath semi-rainy weather for hours on end... so, we ended up actually starting the test at about 9:00. a whole hour late. the test administrators, the proctors, whatever, were very unprepared. they didn't have extra pencils, they were uncertain about some of the rules, etc. during the test, they held mini-conferences in our presence, whispering about what they were supposed to do... very disturbing.
the first test, the plt (principles of learning and teaching) was a ridiculously long test. it had 12 "short" answer questions, in which we had to write responses to different case studies, along with about 40 (?) multiple choice questions. the short answer questions were killer, not only because i tend to write lengthy responses, but also because the questions were very open-ended. "name two ways that you would improve this lesson." "name two things that were good about this lesson." etc.
the second test (which i had to wait in ANOTHER line for, for an additional 40 minutes or so) was the SPED core contest test, and that one was relatively easy. 60 multiple choice questions, 1 hour. again, there were administration issues. i was still copying down the "honor statement" ("i certify that i am the person taking this test...") when the proctor (honestly, she seemed a high school student; she couldn't read some of the words in the instructions correctly) said to begin the test...
... so that was the praxis. my feeling is, if i did well, then that's that. if i didn't, then i'm sure i and the 300 or so other test-takers will have sufficient grounds to complain about the invalidity of this so-called standardized test...
***
whew! well, i do have a lot of other things to talk about, but jet lag exhaustion is starting to hit me again. i will continue later...
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
some old vids of me and chiu style taijiquan
'bout 3 years ago, at kaka'ako park. lots of restarts, btw.
end of 2nd (or 1st) form, whole of 3rd (or 2nd) form:
sword and sabre forms:
end of 2nd (or 1st) form, whole of 3rd (or 2nd) form:
sword and sabre forms:
Friday, June 4, 2010
tonight, lynn and i dropped the kids off at ko'olina to stay with aunty joan and uncle ferman. afterwards, we swam in the nighttime pool together, drifting under the manmade waterfalls, and soaking for a time in the high-chlorinated jacuzzi. the coolest thing was swimming underwater with the strange glow of the pool lights illuminating our skin. oh yeah, that and repeatedly practicing handstands underwater (to the chagrin of lynn... as usual, i'm such a goofball).
in the quiet drive back, the city lights looked different. the windows of houses that we passed looked inviting, like a thousand versions of "welcome home." i liked this feeling, as though the world were settling into its own skin, warm in its shell...
***
i have been trying to transfer old video recorded minitapes into dvd format, so i can give my friend min our old videorecorder. it is strange to see videos from only two or three years ago, to see our children from not so long ago. it makes me realize how quickly time passes. how quickly children change and become, well, themselves (as if they weren't always that)... what a strange thing videotape is... what a strange game it plays with time. it engenders an illusion that we could somehow hold onto moments, to people, to places...
***
in the quiet drive back, the city lights looked different. the windows of houses that we passed looked inviting, like a thousand versions of "welcome home." i liked this feeling, as though the world were settling into its own skin, warm in its shell...
***
i have been trying to transfer old video recorded minitapes into dvd format, so i can give my friend min our old videorecorder. it is strange to see videos from only two or three years ago, to see our children from not so long ago. it makes me realize how quickly time passes. how quickly children change and become, well, themselves (as if they weren't always that)... what a strange thing videotape is... what a strange game it plays with time. it engenders an illusion that we could somehow hold onto moments, to people, to places...
***
the sun was going down like the lit wick of a lamp slowly drowning in oil.
we walked slowly towards the shore of the river. at first our faces faded to secret shadows with the dying light of the sun; and then, as we approached the torch lights on the drifting fishing boats, the contours of our expressions were gilded in orange and gold.
i glanced at her briefly in that light, saw the fire of the still distant torches arc through the horizon of her pupils like the sun behind glass marbles. her lips, so pale and anemic in the dead daylight, looked dark and full and glossy, parted slightly as though building up secrets to whisper to me.
on the water, the fishing boats drifted closer. the black-clad fishermen held torches and the gathered nooses around the necks of cormorants. the slick-feathered birds dove into the shimmering water to feed the hunger of their bellies, only to choke with their wriggling meals bare inches in their throats; a fisherman pulled a noose tight, and deftly snatched the prey from gasping beak, leaving but a taste of a promise of satisfaction. and then, the bird was released, left to play the game of catch and release once again.
we walked slowly towards the shore of the river. at first our faces faded to secret shadows with the dying light of the sun; and then, as we approached the torch lights on the drifting fishing boats, the contours of our expressions were gilded in orange and gold.
i glanced at her briefly in that light, saw the fire of the still distant torches arc through the horizon of her pupils like the sun behind glass marbles. her lips, so pale and anemic in the dead daylight, looked dark and full and glossy, parted slightly as though building up secrets to whisper to me.
on the water, the fishing boats drifted closer. the black-clad fishermen held torches and the gathered nooses around the necks of cormorants. the slick-feathered birds dove into the shimmering water to feed the hunger of their bellies, only to choke with their wriggling meals bare inches in their throats; a fisherman pulled a noose tight, and deftly snatched the prey from gasping beak, leaving but a taste of a promise of satisfaction. and then, the bird was released, left to play the game of catch and release once again.
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