Back in Hawaii for Business and Reflection
'Twas a place of fiction, music, and solace.
From April 1st to the 11th I returned to Hawaii, where I grew up and where my family lives, for both research purposes and for a little R&R/personal reflection. On the business end of things, I was here to see what kind of cross-institutional connections I could establish between NAIST and my old alma mater, the University of Hawaii.
Of course, trips back home are rarely ever as simple as one might want. After all I'd gone through to get to this point in my life, it was strange to see where I had begun as an academic.
The photo above is the place where I spent countless evenings with both the LitWits undergraduate English department club, and the best band I was ever a member of in undergrad, Finishing Move. In fact, once it was past 10pm, we were free to play as loud as we wanted in the grad student lounge, since there were no classes and no one lived in the center of campus.
Those were some of the best times of my life.
The above photo is Paradise Palms, the student cafeteria on UH Manoa's campus, closer to the Hamilton Library and Moore Hall. This was where I spend many entertaining afternoons with my classmates from Japanese class. And what a class that was. Three of us went on to become ALTs on the JET Programme, and I have to admit that is no small feat. I'm proud to still be able to call them my friends. I'm proud of them all, and I miss them a lot. We were able to get together while I was back for some well-deserved karaoke.
