Song Contest

Friday, 17 March 2006

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I forgot to wear green today, and my kindergartner told me that my shamrock sticker was "too little" and she was going to pinch me anyway!
My older boys had fun with Bert again. Bert is the Jackson chameleon Mike rescued from the street about a month ago. I brought him to school because we are writing animal reports and the students thought it was the coolest thing when I brought him yesterday. Today, we looked for bugs and watched Bert lick them up.

Picked up lunch for my brother and dad and showered Dad earlier as they need to head to the song contest at 4:30 pm. Tonight is the Kamehameha Schools' Song Contest. It's been 12 years since I was in this televised live cultural event. It will be my first time as a spectator, and my stepsister Lindsey's first time as a participant (she's a freshman). My cousins Lauren and Geoffrey, in 10th and 11th grade respectively, will also be participating. I picked up lei for them, and I'm dragging Mike with me. Tonight's event features the music of Lena Machado. Song contest means a lot more to me as a graduate of Kamehameha Schools, which made me so proud of my Hawaiian culture and heritage. Basically for the past three months, the daily schedule of the high schoolers change so that all of the students (since it's a graduation requirement, no one can claim that they CAN'T sing) practice selected songs for women's, men's, and combined class competitions. The students are judged on musicality and Hawaiian language. It is an amazing cultural event including hula and more singing, all student led and student produced, on live television. Each class has a different color, and will be wearing lei to show their unified class color. So, I bought a pink 'ohia lehua lei for Lauren, a green leaf lei for Geoff, and well, I couldn't find a red flower lei for Lindsey, so I bought a nice fragrant ginger lei instead. I'm excited.