GIS conference and Holomua

So I managed to survive my first conference as a speaker. And with all things that you are nervous about, it went so quickly that I don't even remember much of what I said. I just looked at my screen and told people exactly how to make my map. And if you would like to see what all the hoopla was about, heres my map below.


View Larger Map
If you click on the colored dots you can see all the data about the trees!

I am so grateful that I was encouraged to speak at this conference. It was such a good learning experience and allowed me to take a big step forward in my career. From here, I can only improve and find myself ahead of the curve in the future.

Once I managed to survive that my week went straight into preparing for Holomua. My hula halau has been participating in Merrie Monarch, the biggest hula competition in the world, for over 30 years. Holomua is when the group performing at Merrie Monarch gets to do a trial run and get out any jitters before performing next month. My kumu (teacher) is the main Kumu's daughter and so we got to perform one song at the show. I was so excited to be back performing, but was unprepared for how much work needed to go into the preparation. We had extra rehearsals, one of which was in front of Aunty Mapu, the matriarch of our halau. Thankfully, she just told us to keep smiling and we would be ok. Then there was creating our skirt for the show. This halau is fantastic because we have workshops every month to learn how to make something for our hula. This month was learning to make ti leaf lei and the month before was making ti leaf skirt. But I have to tell you, combing the neighborhood for ti leaves that are long enough for a skirt and flawless can be a lot of work, plus making the skirt, then stripping it to small pieces, I think I was busier preparing for this show then I was at my full time job!

My costume!
But once the show arrived, it was completely worth it. It was amazing to be performing again and just be up there under the lights with all my hula sisters. It was also fantastic to know that I had the privilege to perform a song that was once performed at Merrie Monarch. I can't wait until the Kamehameha Competition in the summer!

Outside of the theater

The stage I performed on