Dewey Dewey Dewey. You know the world'll be rockin to-ey to-ey to-ey

I love Dewey!

I love Dewey for two reasons.

1) He established a curriculum at McKinley High School that eventually helped truly democratize Hawaii. It put power in the hands of the people and broke the old missionary oligarchy.

2) THE DEWEY LIBRARY SYSTEM! The thing is Brilliant. They may look like little random numbers. But oh hoo they are so much more. With the Dewey number system, I can quickly locate any book in every library with efficiency and swiftness. Praise the Lord! I am competent!

And then England took Dewey away. Or, rather, I guess they never had him.

Apparently, the Brits use some other system based on the book’s title. It confuses me. I spend dizzying minutes looking for the books I need. In the US, this would be like looking for organic broccoli in the supermarket—it takes a little looking and a little time, but if they don’t have it oh well—pesticides for you. In Britain, it’s more like Photohunt or Hidden Pictures LIVE. You can win! You can lose. British students don’t buy books because the assigned readings often go across a huge range of sources. If you do not find your books at the library, you won’t get your classwork done. And there’s a bit of a math problem: there are fifty students in the class; there are two copies of the book.

Not to be outdone, last Monday, I burst out of class and ran to the library. I would beat this borrowing scheme! I would have my books! I tore to the appropriate aisles and then stood and looked. As I stood blinking at the shelves of books, other members of from the class sauntered up. Nobody acknowledged that we were from the same class or that we were all holding the same syllabus in our hands or that we were looking for the same exact books. It was an awkward few minutes as everyone hovered above the shelf. Every now and then a student would lunge forward and take a book. Eventually, one by one, the British students left in victory. I, on the other hand, was left with only two of the 10 books I needed.

I miss Dewey.

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Cutest moment from yesterday:

All the bathrooms in McDonalds looked full so I was waiting on the side. The door on the end started to swing open, so I walked over, cursing my stupidity in not noticing the open stall. From the doorway, out poked a small head. The head belonged to a little Chinese girl. She was about 5 and had round chubby cheeks and chin length hair, all shiny and jet black.

“Excuse me,” she said in a small British accent. “Do you know how to lock this?”

I went in and showed her how to put the little bolt in the hole. It made me so happy.

It's nice to know how to do things and be grown up, I thought to myself as I walked to wash my hands. Then I realized I didn't know how the sinks worked, and a girl, of about 10, had to come over to show me.

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