The world is filled with strange and unusual things. Although, if you live seeing something your entire life, it can seem perfectly normal.

Food for Thought: The Traditional (and not so traditional) Foods of Hawaii

Ono(licious) adjective - Hawaiian vernacular for describing something with taste and quality. Derives from our quirky pigeon language.

Aina noun - Hawaiian for 'land'

An Unexpected Encounter

Pie. Raspberry Pie. Cooling just next to the oven on a wire rack. The sweet, tart fragrance fills the kitchen, making my mouth water. It’s my Grammy’s pie. She always makes it for my mom’s birthday. Her log cabin up in the colds of Canada is one of my favorite places in the world, and the smell of raspberry pie can instantly bring me back there. But I’m not there now. I’m standing outside a bakery somewhere far from her log cabin, an insane grin plastered over my face at the smell of raspberry pie.

Have you often dreamed of picking up your life and heading overseas? Thought about the joys and challenges of teaching in another culture? Envisioned yourself making a change in yourself – and others? Educator Sandy Bornstein did just that – and has written a compelling, honest, and interesting glimpse into the life of an international teacher.

It’s cold. Painfully cold. So cold, I begin to question the logic behind my thrill seeking madness. It’s these sort of crazy people that end up on the news, right? The headlines screaming American Found Frozen Between Tectonic Plates, Iceland. The water is only up to my ankles, and already, a string of eclectic language has escaped my lips. It’s now or never, though. The frozen body of a Hawaii teen was located in the chilly waters of Iceland… I double-check that my mask is on tight, dry suit valves are locked and closed.

When I lived in Montenegro, I used to play Minecraft with two of my friends.  It was a lot of fun for us.  When my family left Montenegro, I was sad that I wouldn’t be able to play with my friends anymore.  When I was in Chiang Mai, Thailand, for a week, I met two other traveling kids who played Minecraft, and I played with them when we could.  Recently, I decided to try to arrange a time for all of us to play over the Internet, to connect and have fun.

Descending further down into the ocean, seeing the water enclose over the top of your head, is just a taste of what it is like to SCUBA dive.  Being under the ocean in a marine inhabited area is truly breath-taking.  When you’re ninety feet under the water, you forget all the worries and problems that you had on land, and completely check out.  The ocean is one big Zen.