My HI Life: spring semester

May 10, 2019 No comments

Hi everyone,

Today I wanted to share some of my first impressions and thoughts of the current spring semester. I have never done a post like this before, so let me know if you like it and what you think! Would you like to see more of these posts in the future? Comments are open so leave me your thoughts below ↓↓↓

Historically, the spring semester has been my slowest, most uneventful ones. However, this time around I’ve decided to load up my plate and take much more than I’m used to. By this I mean I will be taking 18 credits, 6 classes, and will be hoping to God that I succeed. I’m taking 18 credits to hopefully make my last semester one of relaxation and one where I can be fully present with Hawaii and enjoy more of where I am. In the meantime, let me tell you a little bit about my classes...

Taking 18 credits is no joke, and I have quite a few thoughts about my classes and what they'll end up being like. For me, I'm much more of a traditional, pen-to-paper note taker where I can sit down for an hour, listen to my teacher lecture, and be on my merry way. For some reason, and probably because of the time we live in, all of my teachers are part of this wave of educators who prefer to be "creative" and "hands on" with their teaching. And let me tell you, I hate that style of teaching. Group work, group projects, multiple presentations, and the "I'm not going to talk much because that's not my job" attitude makes learning so much more harder for me. With two weeks under my belt, I've already found that I enjoy class a lot less when I don't have to keep sharing my thoughts.

Don't get me wrong, I understand why teachers do this. But to have all of my classes be taught this way is exhausting. I believe that teachers have the right to implement their own kind of teaching style, however I do wish that more teachers remained traditional in the pen-and-paper sense.

Another tough concept to grasp is the lack of homework. Now, I don't mean to say that I end class every day with nothing to do, (quite the opposite, actually) but rather, all of my classes seem to be reading heavy and don't focus much on writing or testing. This makes me constantly feel like I'm forgetting to do something, and I also catch myself wondering, "Well if I don't understand the reading will I understand the class?" Turns out, if I don't understand the reading I likely won't understand the class.

With all of this being said, we can move on now to more uplifting news. You guys already knew this, but I am extremely excited to be one semester closer to graduation! In this new season, I am going to be consistently reminding myself that it is okay not to rush through things (note: take time) and that things don’t have to be perfect to be good.

My new mantra for this semester is, “Surround yourself with people who deserve your magic.” I love this phrase and think it is such an important message to keep at the forefront of my mind. I know letter boards kind of took off this past year, and I won't lie, I kind of love them! You can purchase one similar to mine here. I've been switching out quotes every so often and finding that, when I place it in an easy-to-see place, I tend to start my day feeling more confident.

I hope this has let you get a glimpse into my life these past few weeks. To end off, let me share some words of advice for this new semester: surround yourself with people who deserve your time and energy. Life (and the semester) is too short to be miserable with your company!

January 18, 2019 No comments

January 15, 2019 1 comments

Hey everyone,

Our quick break has come to an unfortunate end. I hope you all spent it relaxed and comfortably. Now, onto our first week back!

My first week back started rather rocky. My classes, while I was excited for them, were rather disappointing. In Korean class, I was met with about 18 other students who were cliquey and snobby, being told once that "We might become friends one day." by one particular girl in the class. This same girl appeared to be their ring-leader, and made me feel very much uncomfortable.

My class after Korean was American Foreign Policy, which was another one which I had high expectations for but ended up being a rather slow (and dry) class. I could tell immediately that this class' main audience was the senior who was "just trying to graduate" as most of the students in there were older guys who looked like they've seen better days.

Following that was my Chinese Language & Culture class. I'll admit, I was rather taken aback at the amount of actual Chinese students in there, as I am one of two white students. Most are actually either from China or of Chinese background. At first it was rather unsettling, especially because all I heard at first was an entire class speaking Cantonese and not being able to understand a thing, but now I don't mind it as much. Similar to like my other class, AFP, most of this class is seniors who are taking it to meet their major or minor.

That was Monday. After classes I met up with Daniel and we were able to go get dinner at Gen and walk around Ala Moana. While there he also bought me a beautiful watch!

After dinner I decided to make some changes to my schedule. I had higher hopes for a better Tuesday.

With my change in schedule immediate, I was happy to be able to have class at 9:00 the next morning, Global Politics, and be in a different Korean class. I was able able to take one of the classes, American Foreign Policy, online! This was especially important because it meant I would no longer have to run to my next class, as it would be online and I would have the luxury of doing it whenever.

My changes definitely worked out in my favor. Korean class was great and, as the week went on, I began to feel more confident than ever. It's still review, but for now I really enjoy the class.

My online class has yet to start, so until then I am able to spend time getting to and from classes with ease. This won't change throughout the semester, but I anticipate that when the class does begin that I will need to be more proactive and at least remember that I have a class online.

Work has also been good, but I sometimes wish I didn't have to work and could just spend my time elsewhere. I like the people that I work with, but this is one of those mind-numbing jobs that leaves me just exhausted afterwords.

You may have noticed something interesting about my schedule this semester. Did you notice I'm not taking a Chinese class? That's right! I'm taking the semester off of Chinese and I could not be happier. That class, that teacher, put on me so much stress and anxiety that being able to say "You know what, I don't need this class" has helped immensely. Changing my major also helped, too! Now I'm just minoring in Chinese, and I already feel like this has made such a difference in my semester. No wonder why my first week was so relaxing!

Also, an apartment update. I can happily and gratefully say that I am loving where I live this semester! The girls I share a space with are all very kind, considerate, and very respectful of myself and my things. I am no longer stepping on shards of glass, stepping over dirty needles, or getting complained at constantly! It feels like such a breath of fresh air. I cannot stress enough how much I love my new space.

Again, I hope you are all having a restful first week back. Can you believe after this semester I will be halfway through college?

Until next time,

Aislinn

January 13, 2018 No comments

Hey everyone!

I hope everyone is settling back into their routines nicely. I am happy to say that classes have gotten much better (and yes, this includes Chinese!) and I am slowly but surely appreciating my schedule.

I won't lie, the first few days have been pretty difficult. I had quite a bit I needed to work on, and felt like I wasn't making any progress in my work. I also have an on-campus job now, and this takes up either 3 hours of my time in the morning or evening. My shifts these past few days have been in the morning, which I like because I get out of work pretty quickly, but the downside is that I have to go to bed at around 10 so that I can wake up by 4. This has been really hard since it means I have to try and get my homework done before 10, which is usually when I'm doing it, and saying goodnight to my friends a lot earlier than I would like. I'm hoping that as I get settled in that I will be able to manage my time better. I like my job, but I wish I had more time to see my friends and do homework. Unfortunately I've chosen homework over socializing, so I can only hope it pays off.

Anyways! Like I said in the beginning of this post, my classes have been getting much better. Chinese, which I believe everyone could tell stressed me out, was actually a lot better yesterday. I think the teacher picked up on that only a few students were understanding her, so in class yesterday she acted out more of her speech and I feel like she "dumbed down" her vocabulary. I'm not too sure on the late, but I am positive I understand more of her yesterday than I did the day before.

After Chinese was my long break (which I spent trying to nap) and then East Asian Studies. That class also went by very quickly, and the lecture was about classical China. So far my impression of that class is that it's going to be pretty easy. It seems like a lecture and a paper halfway through the semester. It really doesn't seem all that demanding, and the focus is on China, Japan, and Korea. His syllabus says Taiwan, as well, but he never mentioned it on day one so I doubt I'm going to learn much about that country.

After East Asian was Honors Genetics. Truth be told I'm not entirely sure what science class this is, so I'm just calling it genetics. Yesterday my professor, who seems very laid back, told us to "not take any notes, just sit back and listen". He also ended the hour and a half a bit early, which I appreciated. What I like about this class is that there are no exams and no tests. There seems to only be a paper during the semester, and at that it's a topic of our choice. The class is pretty small, about 8 kids, and they seem to be upperclassmen.

After that I went back to my room and tried working on some homework. I met up with the girls for dinner in Waikiki, at the udon shop, and then returned to finish my work. I'm about 30 characters down, but I need to memorize 50 for tomorrows Chinese test, and I also need to do some pages in my Chinese workbook. I'm thinking I may dip out of my math class early today so I can work on some of my Chinese.

It's almost Friday, everyone! Hang in there.

Until next time,

Aislinn

January 15, 2017 No comments

Hey everyone,

Today is one of those days!

I woke up early, again, and decided to use this time to shower and get an early start on my day. I had my tea and was able to relax since I spent much of the night before finishing up my Chinese homework. The homework was surprisingly easy, but I don't want to get ahead of myself. With 50 new words I know I'm going to spend a lot of my time tonight working on character sheets upon character sheets. I'll attach a picture later so that you can see the kind of work I have to do for this class alone.

Then was Chinese class.

My Chinese class honestly stresses me out so much and I've considered switching to a different time just to try and calm down my nerves. However, I checked today and the class I would switch into has been removed, probably due to how few students are in the class. The fact that I would switch classes should tell you how worried I am about this semester. Additionally, my teacher was true to her word and only spoke in Chinese. She even asked me a few questions and I didn't understand most of what she was saying. I know that my listening comprehension is my weakest area, but in my defense she was also using a lot of the new vocabulary that we got yesterday.

When the class finally ended I had to rush to the other side of campus in a record time. My calves were burning but I kept going. Then, after going to the wrong hall three times I finally found the classroom and went inside the room the exact minute it started. And, of course, the professor had already begun teaching by the time I walked in. He wasn't rude but he wasn't pleased that I was "late". I'm just glad I only have this class twice a week.

Finally I had a break! I have, conveniently, a break from 11:45 to 1:30, and then I'm off to Math 100. I don't have much of an opinion on this class, just that I'm taking it to get the credit. I am glad, however, that I at least know someone in this class. As excited as I was a week ago to be in classes with people I don't know, I forgot that people sometimes pick classes based on their friends, and so they're gonna be more of a clique than a welcoming group.

Update: Math 100, if I were to not go to a class , would be that class. The professor announced that attendance was not mandatory, and that we would be "okay if we didn't go" He showed us how all of his materials are online, and only asked that we get the access code as soon as possible so that we could begin our homework assignments, which are also online. So far everyone I have talked to about that class has told me there's no point in going, and for now I think I will go to a few lectures before deciding.

After class I went to the beach with Shannon and later had dinner at the cafe. And then after that we then went back to my room to work on homework. I had about 15 minutes in doing my work where I was able to leave and finally swap christmas gifts with the girls, but I had to hurry back to Lokelani so I could finish working on my Chinese. As it is I'm not done with it yet, but I'm going to try and finish it tonight and Thursday night. The only problem is that I have 5:30 am shifts now at work, which means I'm waking up at 4 and going to bed around 10, so when you think about it 4 hours isn't giving me a lot of time to work on my Chinese class. My second, and last, 5:30 shift is tomorrow morning, so I'm hoping that after that I can come back, nap, and then work on my homework to prepare for my first vocab test.

I'm going to end this post here, but as promised here is a picture of the work I have to do (only 10/50 of what I need to get done) for Chinese class.

Until next time,

Aislinn

January 11, 2017 No comments

January 09, 2017 No comments

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