Praxis = Blagh!

So I take my Praxis Exam as soon as I get home from my big trip and it's kind of stressing me out.  Basically, it's a comprehensive test of all the history, government, economics, geography, and psychology classes I've ever taken in college, spanning a total of nine years, mind you.  So it's an overload of information that I need to relearn and unfortunately I have to relearn it while on vacation, on top of thinking about my student teaching and getting unit plans together.  An additional stress is my lack of study material that is convenient for travel.  A few college text books would be best but hauling those around Europe would be a sure strain on my back and shoulders.  So I am looking for a creative way to get my studying done while on this trip.  Hopefully I can come up with something!!!

Travel, travel, travel!

So we finally got an itinerary together.  I feel a little less stressed now that that's outta the way, although there is still so much to plan (daily itineraries, maps, intercity transportation, sleeping arrangements, clothes and bags, etc.) and I am still a little bummed that we cannot see more of Europe.

The reason I am okay with this particular plan is that our itineraries are closely matched (we either fly into Spain or fly into Germany).  That should make it easier to plan things out, especially for where we will sleep.

So our itinerary is as follows:

Fly into Germany:
Germany
Munich (3 days)

Italy
Venice (2 days)
Florence (3 days)

Fly into Spain:
Spain
Seville (1 day)
Cordoba (1 day)
Granada (1 day)
Barcelona (3 days)

Italy
Florence (2 days)

From there the itinerary is the same, as follows:
Italy
Pisa (1 day)
Rome (4 days)

Ireland
Dublin (2 days)
Killarney (1.5 days)
Ring of Kerry/Dingle Peninsula (1 day)
Cliffs of Moher/Shannon (1 day)

England
London (3 days)
English countryside (2 days)

France
Mont St Michel (1 day)
Bayeux/D-Day Beaches (1 day)
Paris (4 days)
Versailles (1 day)

Writing it all out makes it feel exhausting!  I have looked and looked at the map of Europe trying to pattern out an itinerary that allows me to see the highlights without wearing me down, but nothing seems to work just perfectly, especially when I don't know where I fly into and I HAVE to leave from Germany.  So I am sticking with this plan for now, a mixture of train, plane, and car.  And it is still less exhausting than my original itinerary so, hey, things have improved.

I did buy the train pass today, so I got something done.  Hopefully this will all feel more exciting than stressful once I get more detailed worked out.

More Visitors from the Outside

I had a pretty full day on Monday.  First, I woke up and found a cane spider in the bathroom.  It was a little disconcerting to go pee with this big creepy spider waiting to die just two feet away.  Now usually I don't kill spiders.  They eat bugs and that puts them on the friends list.  But this guy was just too big and creepy so he had to go.  Sorry, bro.

Then in the evening Nick found a little gecko on our bed, and I mean little!  This guy was the cutest little thing but I was not a fan of him being on my bed.  I don't care if he ends up crawling on me, I just don't want to roll over and smash him into my sheets!  So, he also had to go... outside at least.  Isn't he cute though?  He was very curious about us.

Then, late at night, I killed two fat cockroaches before going to bed.  I thought, 'All I need it a slug sliding across my ceiling and I'll have covered it all today' - hey, it's happened, folks.  It sure makes me wonder how many unseen critters live in our apartment.  The smart ones stay outta sight!

Another Great Weekend with Dart

Although we had hoped for a few more days during the week, we were happy Dart had the weekend to hang out.  And it was another great one!

Saturday, we went to the Arizona Memorial and the USS Missouri.  Dart told us that Japan surrendered and ended WWII on the USS. Missouri when it was docked in Tokyo.  Sure enough, there's a lot of memorabilia from that event on board the ship.  How sad that I didn't know, considering I'm a soon-to-be history teacher and have been on the USS Missouri before!

Anyway, after lunch we went out to Hanauma Bay.  I have to say, I always enjoy Sharks Cove more since the snorkeling conditions are more favorable - it's usually more open and the water is clear.  Hanauma Bay, however, does have a striking variety of fish that definitely outdoes Sharks Cove.  So it was fun to swim with all the different fish and Dart had a good time with his underwater camera.

On Sunday, we did the Laie Falls hike.  It is definitely a workout!  The whole thing took us almost 4.5 hours, though we stopped for pictures here and there and stayed at the falls for at least 20 minutes.  But the weather was nice - cloudy and breezy - and Dart seemed to enjoy the terrain and the exercise.

We spent the evening at the beach.  The water was lovely and I could tell Dart was tapping into his inner child, especially when he started constructing a sand castle.  He and I worked on the castle for quite a while and created quite a fortress!  We happened upon a little crab and I tossed him into our fortress so we could have a resident.  It was fun to chase him around the castle.

I thought it was cute that Dart kept going back into the water every five minutes, then coming back in to keep helping with the castle.  He was definitely enjoying everything.  It's fun to see people love Hawaii.  It makes me remember how lucky I am to live here.

I'm sure glad we were able to visit and do such fun stuff.  Something tells me Dart is going to be scheming a plan to get back here sooner than later.  And that's just fine by me!

PICTURES:

Here is the seal on the deck of the USS Missouri in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  Click on it to see what it says!  What a historic place, my goodness!

There are a lot of men who died on the USS Arizona and remained underwater when it sank in the harbor.  Those who survived have the option of being buried there on the ship with their shipmates.  These are their names and the dates they died.  I think that's pretty cool.

This flag flies above the Arizona Memorial over the sunken ship.  I must say that I feel pride and gratitude when I see the flag flapping in the wing.  What a great country!

Sunday, we hiked the trail up to Laie Falls.  Here is a view of Goat Island, where I went last Monday.  Pretty awesome!

I love the green mountains behind me.  Ah, the beauty of Hawaii.

We made it to the falls and this bottle of water was sitting on the rock.  I just thought it looked funny, like it was either a booby trap (drink me, I am so enticing after a long hike) or an offering to the traveler who didn't pack enough water.

I was playing with my reflection in the water there.  I thought this turned out cool.

And then there is the creepy rain drop version - mwuahaha!

The leaves in the water were so beautiful.  I was trying to get a good shot that showed the cool colors.  This one turned out pretty good.

This cool red dragonfly kept resting on the rocks near my feet.  I got up close and personal.

I love this shot.  Dart looks cool, casual, and in his element with his camera in hand.

And it wouldn't be right without a Team Taylor picture.  We had the falls all to ourselves so that was nice.

Dart and I working hard on our fortress.  I made the different quadrants and put holes in the walls for passage between them.

Then I chased our resident crab until he used the passage in the wall.  As I suspected, he felt quite safe inside and decided to stay.  It was rad.  Click on the photo to see him in the hole!

Dart was the expert wall builder.  We had a good three layers to keep the fortress from flooding by the rising tide!  As you can see, it held up well.  Everytime the water came dangerously close, Dart would yell, "Save the queen!" Haha!

Driving Home thru Beautiful Oahu

So I was driving home on Tuesday after a long day running errands in town.  I was coming up the highway and saw this magnificent rainbow stretching across the mountains.  I remembered my camera was in my purse and tried to get a few shots.  Of course, it doesn't do it justice.  But I was driving and didn't want to kill people taking pictures.

I also got a shot of some of my favorite mountains on the island.  I can see these mountains from the high school I will be doing my student teaching at.  It's a great background.

Click on them to see a bigger picture.

Goat Island

It was so hot on Monday that I just had to skip class and hit the beach.  I met up with my friend, Kate, and suggested we swim out to Goat Island.  It's a little island not far from the coast and I have no idea about the goat reference - sorry.  You can swim there in 15 to 20 minutes and even walk there when the tide is low, which it was. 

Most of the island is a sanctuary for birds and they take advantage of it - there are a lot of holes in the ground where the birds make their nests.  On the outskirts though, you have a mixture of craggy crab-filled rocks, tide pools, and beach.  The beach is small but it's a great place to swim as it feels so remote.  You are usually the only one on the island.  The tide pools are fun with lots of little hermit crabs living there.  And the craggy rocks are filled with movement as it's a popular crab hangout.  I caught this guy hiding out in some drift wood.  I didn't see him there and shrieked when I noticed him.  Oh, by the way, he is dead.

On Land and On Sea

What a beautiful day!  Dart had the whole day off and we had a blast seeing the beauty of the island.  We went to the Botanical Gardens at Waimea and saw some cool plants and animals, along with a nice flow at the falls.  Dart and I were busy with our cameras, that's for sure, and the weather couldn't have been better. 

Then we had a picnic up by the old Hawaiian temple that overlooks Waimea and took a quick power nap before heading down to Shark's Cove for some snorkeling!  The water was cool and calm and it made for a great experience. 

The highlight of the day was that we saw THREE turtles, the most I've ever seen in one day!  The first was small and headed out to sea so we couldn't follow.  The next came right after and was much larger.  He popped up for air and then headed down to hide out under some rocks.  The last turtle was the best.  He was in shallow water feeding on some plants and was so big!  I got to just hang out within arms reach of the guy (or girl) for a good ten minutes before heading back in.  How cool! 

Then we came home and I made some soup and we watched Avatar (Dart hadn't seen it).  It was a perfect day!

So here is my photo recap of our experiences.  Here are Dart and Nick among the foliage of the gardens.

And Team Taylor, of course.

We saw lots of cool animals, like this peacock up in a tree.

And here he is in all his majesty.

I got the feathers of one on the ground.  There are quite a few peacocks at the Gardens.

We also saw this cute little guy called a Moorhen.  They are found only on Oahu and Kauai.

And we saw a big lizard too, hunting for flies.

Of course, it wouldn't be a botanical garden without cool plants.  These were very interesting.  It's not often you see this aqua blue in plants.  Can you find the bee in the photo?

Very cool colors mixed together.  I like the bell shape and the fuzz on the inside.

These are such complicated little flowers.  They are very similar to fuschias except they are reddish orange.

These are just so unique.  I thought of a pineapple when looking at this flower because of the yellow color and the vertical shape.  The white tufts coming out make me think of a bird.  Bizarre but very cool.

And my favorite.  The lighting was so awesome.  No doctoring on this picture at all, it really just looked that cool.

And at the end of the hike through the gardens, you finally reach Waimea Falls!  Yay!

This is where we had our picnic lunch and took a quick power nap before our adventures in the ocean!  It was such a fun day!

Evening with Dart

Nick's dad, Dart Byington, is visiting from Colorado.  His work actually brought him here for an assignment and he jumped on the chance to visit.  It's his first time to the islands so that makes it extra special and extra fun.  He will be here a good while but he will be working a lot of the time.  Still, we plan to see him whenever we can, especially as our visits have been few and far between.

Nick and I drove downtown to spend the evening together with Dart after his work was over.  We stopped by the International Market Place and picked up a few souvenirs.  He even got me a little beach dress which I will have to sport and shoot later for the blog.  Then we had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  I always enjoy the food there but I also always feel like I ate a rock afterwards, even when I barely ate anything.  Needless to say, I made room for the doube-yum cheesecake we had for dessert.  Wow, it was good!

We really enjoyed the night.  The weather was perfect and it was fun to just hang out.  It is fun to see Dart enjoy the different plants on the island and the atmosphere here.  We'll be hitting up the amazing botanical gardens in Waimea tomorrow so he's in for a real treat!

Here are some pics from our evening together!

Dart and Nick near the Hilton Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki.

Me and Nick, also in front of the Hilton.  Check out my blue toes (you may have to squint).

These flowers look like bouquets!  You could just grab it off the tree 

and go to your own wedding with those (not really, but ya know).  Very cool!

I only wish I was cool enough to ride the waves.  This is the closest I'll ever get.  Cool set, huh?

We were waiting for a table for a while so I just some shots while 

sitting outside.  I just liked the composition here.

Then I got some action shots.  I like the moving skinny leg and the contrast between the movement in the front and stillness in the back.

This picture isn't doing any of us any favors but you could at least see our food.  I ordered a Cajun shrimp pasta dish, Nick ordered a jumbo burrito, and Dart got a Hawaiian Pizza (in Hawaii)!

More Printmaking - Mermaid Lady

Yet another print of mine from my printmaking class.  The process is quite complicated, really, but the potential for some cool artwork is definitely there.  You have some sort of a plastic/glass panel that you etch out a design into with this pointy tool.   Then you mix this tar-looking like stuff together and apply it to your panel.  This is where it gets real messy cuz then you have to wipe the tar-stuff off the panel - but it still stays in the grooves you made - and then you take this paper that has been soaking in water and pat it semi-dry.  Then you put your glass panel on a big compressor machine with the damp paper on top and some cloths on top of the damp paper and then roll it on through the machine - all the while trying not to get your black-stained hands all over everything - and VOILA, you have the following. 

This one is a big smudgy but it still turned out good.  Oh, and it's a mermaid, not a serpent-lady as some people have called her.  I guess people just don't get me.  Should I have made the water black?  I've considered it.

Printmaking - Truly an Art

So I am in a printmaking class.  Sadly, it is my last art class.  Not only have I enjoyed my art minor and the fun art projects but I've made some good friends.  There's a group of us that all ended up in the same classes each semester and we've sort of formed a little art class clique.  And I'm glad.  There's nothing more fun than making art and chatting with friends at the same time.

Anyway, printmaking is kind of a process.  It's a little more work than I'd like as far as producing art, though I guess all art takes time.  But with printmaking you really have to have vision.  You have imagine what your print is actually going to look like if you use certain designs and certain strokes.  I keep having to remind myself, for example, that the print will come out opposite of what I designed, or a mirror image.  It turns out fine most of the time, except in the case of Carrie today who had written something on hers and ended up with backwards letters.  Doh!

Well, one of our assignments was to do a multicolor print and I was looking for some inspiration while sitting at home in my living room and my eyes looked up to see our beta fish.  Hmmm... that could look cool.  Well, here is where I lacked the vision.  I drew it out and it looked neat but as an actual print, I was pretty disappointed.  It's just hard to tell that they're fish, really, and I don't think the colors worked well.  Darn.

But I still have the blocks and maybe I'll experiment with some other colors?  Anyway, I still like my black and white, kind of scary chick.  It's a start.