Meanwhile in Hawaii...
It has only been a little over a week and today was only the first day of school and I'm already going crazy missing my girls. The only plus has been that I've been getting alot done including making good use of the Craftsman wood chipper (now the second best piece in my tool arsenal) I recently bought in an attempt to regain control of the jungle's advancement while I was on the mainland.
Today the school year got started with a bang. In events that were very near and dear to my heart, my friend and now former student Kaori successfully defended her doctoral dissertation and joined the ranks of proud UH PhD grads as graduate #3 all-time from our program. This completion was particularly special for me for a number of reasons.
As a first year PhD student, I got to know Kaori in working with her as she finished her Master's thesis. I'll never forget the week we sat in the biomechanics lab over Spring Break as the ONLY 2 people in the department who were even still in town and hammered out the final analysis of her thesis. After a year out working in the real world, Kaori invited me to meet her at Starbucks and talk about whether she should come back and start a PhD. I of course told her I'd be mad at her if she didn't. :)
So, Kaori's first year in the PhD program was my final year finishing my dissertation and Kaori was part of a faithful crew that spent many long hours in the lab helping me collect my dissertation data.
During the last 3 years, I have enjoyed many good times working with Kaori and I hope that these experiences have been as valuable to her as they were to me.
Unfortunately, in about 10 days Kaori is moving to Taiwan which means no more hour long nerd sessions sitting in my office talking about some bit of biomechanics theory or weekend seminars in the anatomy lab standing over a cadaver while Kaori translates my attempts at explanation into coherent Japanese.
But, I will also miss Kaori for another very important reason...
She has always LOOOVED my girls...
And as you can see, they have always loved her:
Godspeed Dr. Tamura - I will miss you more than you know!
No comments:
Post a Comment