February 4, 2012
Went to Indy with a friend tonight to check out the SuperBowl goings-on and almost got trampled by an extremely rowdy crowd. Seriously…what is it about beer and football that make people crazy? Pics on fb if interested (not of the crowd, unfortunately). This is probably the one and only time Indiana is going to get this much attention. Whee Hoosiers!
March 24, 2011
spring break whirlwind
(I need to take a break from studying anatomy so i’m typing this up. Btw, the limbs are more freaking complicated than i thought…why do muscles have to have 4 part names (like flexor digiti minimi brevis)?)
Sooo, spring break was a blast!! Friday-Sunday was spent at Manna retreat, which was at a new location, Tuscurora retreat center in PA. It’s not as woodsy as Blairstown, but much much nicer in terms of accommodations and food. For all 3 meals, you go to a dining room where waiters serve you! No choice in food, obviously, but the feeling is akin to a country hotel. I got to lead a small group, which was great fun and a blessing. I realized its definitely different attending retreat as an alumn now. First, its weird cause on one hand i feel like an outsider because i don’t know a lot of people, but on the other, i feel as if i never left. Praise was so refreshing, as its something I feel like my life has lacked in the past months. But praying for people and listening to sharing has definitely taken on a new quality — like i’m more distant and not quite sure how to relate to these students anymore. Part of it is that, while in Manna, i don’t think i realized how much of a spiritually sheltered environment it was…that is, it was EASY to be a Christian because there were so many structured things to establish discipline: daily prayer meetings, small groups, discipleship, etc. Now that I’m completely bereft of those things, its been so much harder to progress spiritually. I love Manna, but it doesn’t prepare you well for the real world.
Monday: DKL and I flew out to Vegas in the early morning. We’d booked a hotel at the Signature at MGM Grand, which is basically a bunch of suites/timeshares. And it was NICE…we had a view overlooking the Strip and a balcony on the 28 floor. Also most comfortable bed I’ve slept on in a while. Did typical LV things…DKL shelled out some $$ for craps (which is the only casino game I would ever play, and its so much fun!), and actually won ~$400!! Since he had used the winnings from a previous Atlantic City trip to pay for our hotel, now basically the entire LV leg of the trip was paid for by gambling money, lol.
Highlight of Vegas: we had dinner one night at Prime Steak in the Bellagio. Here’s the setting for the most romantic, gorgeous, scrumptious dinner ever — a balmy summer-like night, a table for two on a vine-covered terrace (you actually feel like you’re in Italy), directly on the waters of the Bellagio fountains, front row seats to the fountain show that goes off every hour-ish, a bottle of wine, and two amazing melt-in-your-mouth steaks (best DKL’s ever had, and he’s had a lot of steaks). I’d say it was THE BEST part of our trip. (But it also happened to be the most expensive meal of the trip, heh.)
Wednesday flew to San Francisco, drove to Napa. Stayed at a cute B&B. Visited two wineries, Domaine Carneros and Hendry Ranch. Not too much to say about the first, but Hendry’s is awesome. For a 2.5+ hour tour and wine tasting, its FREE and they’re totally not pretentious. They dumbed it down to the basics for wine-novices like me and actually explained how to taste wine. So I (sorta) know how to swirl and smell now. But gosh, Napa is so gorgeous. Even though its pre-planting season, the landscape and miles and miles of vineyards are so idyllic and picturesque. I can’t really describe it in words.
Thursday drove back to SF. It’s much colder there than I thought (mid-50′s), and for the rest of the weekend it rained and rained, so a lot of the stuff we had planned to do didn’t happen 
DKL also got food poisoning at the end which made for a sad end to the trip. I blame it on us over-indulging in too much food for the week. Seriously, this spring break all we did was eat. We had some amazing food, but probably more than was good for us. Here’s a rundown of the restaurants we went to (most come highly recommended on Zagat/Yelp, and I agree)
LV:
- Prime Steak
- Burger Bar
- L’ Atelier
Napa:
- Celadon
SF:
- Boulevard
- Bi-Rite Creamery (a Bent Spoon-like place, met up w/ katie hsih here)
- Ozumo (rando place we went to cause it was raining, and probably where DLK got his food poisoning)
- Baker and Banker
- Waterbar
- Ghiradelli’s
- Gary Danko (one of the best restaurants I’ve ever been too!)
I got on a plane Sunday night to fly back to Indianapolis, landed at the airport at 6am. Home by 8:20 am. Class at 10 am. End class at 5 pm. What a looong day.
June 11, 2010
helloooo world
well, it’s the beginning of the summer, and (if i dare say it) the beginning of a different life. moving back to the Midwest means going back to the old but also probably something new. i’m not a person that deals well with unwanted change and i also easily get attached to places and people that hold special meaning. the past 4 years at princeton will soon be a memory, and i’m scared and sad for what that means. i’ve said bye to almost everyone that has been important in my life these past years, and as i soak up my last days on the east coast, my heart breaks for what i will leave behind. so far, this heavy sense of nostalgia has prevented me from moving forward. medical school should be exciting but i’m still hard pressed to feel excited. this old world’s pull on me is still so strong…i feel as if i will see my friends again tomorrow, even though half of them are scattered around the world by now. i feel as if i will soon take the train back to princeton and set up residence again in spelman. this end does not feel like and end yet. but perhaps that’s what the summer is for. isn’t summer kind of like a limbo state: between two school years, two places, two worlds?
i love this place too much to say goodbye. or rather, it is the people who make the place…so i make a promise to myself, my friends: as long as the people i love are here (east coast, princeton), i’ll be back.
July 19, 2009
end of week 6
This week at Base Camp has passed far more quickly than any of the previous. It’s not because there’s more to do (there’s less actually), and its not because I’m constantly hanging out with people (I’m not)…perhaps I’ve just gotten so used to the daily humdrum of life here that the days pass without me noticing. But whereas I recall complaining two weeks ago that Base Camp was extremely boring, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the past few peaceful days here. Part of it stems from having a huge tent all to myself. No more sharing a cramped space where I can’t even stand up, sleeping on mildewy mattresses with all my gear crammed up next to me. The tent I’m in right now is brand new (I’m the first occupant), it having recently replaced one that was damaged in a storm. It’s a two person tent, but big enough to fit 3 and tall enough stand up in. Aside from having more room to spread out my stuff, it’s been really nice to just have a space all to myself. I can sleep in as late as I want in the mornings, go to bed as late as I want (although I still get up at 8 am and go to bed at 10-11 pm, its nice to have the option at least). It also means I have a quiet space to do my quiet times, which I’ve tried to be more diligent about this week. I’m reminded of how refreshing it is to read God’s word at the end of the day…plus, it adds some of the normalcy of my routine at home that is so lacking here. Meanwhile, I’ve been running more PCR and gels, but I’m sharing the lab and equipment with two other dissertation students, so progress has been slower than before simply because we can’t all used the machines at the same time. That gives me a lot of down time, some of which I’ve spent laying in the hammock and sleeping/getting a tan. I think I’ve managed to get two shades darker from just two days sunbathing, but its limited to my arms and legs so I’ll probably have horrible tan lines. My goals this week were also to: work on medical school applications and finish the presentation I have to give on my project the last week I’m here. The med school apps are….going (everytime I do something like this, I’m reminded of how I hate writing essays about myself), but I made significant progress on my presentation today. Yay…
Only two weeks left, which is pretty crazy considering the end seemed so far away a few weeks ago. And the end of this expedition means that school is not far behind either. The “back to school” period is arguably one of my favorite times of the year, partly because I love buying new things for school: notebooks, pencils, books, etc. And this year, with moving into Spelman, there’s the added bonus of shopping for furnishings and kitchen and foodstuffs. I spent a few hours this afternoon on lnt.com and bedbathandbeyond.com looking at curtains and bedding and crap…online shopping is pretty addictive, and I love searching for good deals on stuff. But in the end, it all comes down to money, of which I do not have a lot, so most of my grandiose decorating plans for next year will probably fall flat on its face. I’m still adamant about that hammock though…
June 30, 2009
Back to Base Camp
During the one week I’ve been gone, the rest of the world has apparently experienced some drastic changes. The first piece of news we got via radio dispatch one night while we were sitting around the campfire: Michael Jackson is dead. The next morning, we hear that the Honduran President tried to circumnavigate constitutional law and run for reelection, resulting in his subsequent removal from the country. Basically a military coup (although the US has not officially called it such) happened while we were happily traipsing through the jungle.
(And before you all freak out, yes, I’m fine. We’re all fine here. The middle of the jungle in the middle of nowhere is probably the safest place to be in this country right now. From what we’ve heard so far though, things have been pretty peaceful, although a lot of people have been on strike (an excuse not to go to work, basically). At any sign of violence, Opwall (the program I’m with) is supposed to evacuate us, so no worries. When I opened my inbox this morning, I also found an email from Dean Kanach from OIP at school: she wanted me to update her on my status and sent me the US Embassy contacts numbers and other emergency stuff. I found it pretty amusing, considering none of us feel threatened at all, but reassured at the same time that Princeton is keeping tabs on us.)
And then, this morning we get the news that Obama has finally declared that the US is pulling troops out of Iraq. Wow…so much stuff has gone but it all seems a bit surreal. I feel like I’m living in a bubble here, away from the rest of civilization, so much so that whatever is going on “out there” doesn’t affect us in any way. We’re still going about our days normally, hiking up and down transects, eating beans and rice, etc etc. Same old same old.
But, to recap on the past week: it’s been seriously awesome. I think I’m finally starting to get the hang of this place, and really enjoy being here. Being at Cantiles was entirely different from being at Base Camp. First of all, it’s smaller (fewer people), so the environment is a lot more intimate. There were about 12 of us doing our projects, with 8 more locals who served as our guides/cooks. We all ate together and sat around the campfire together, and really got to converse and live together in a way that just isn’t possible at Base Camp among a mass of people. A couple of nights, the Honduran guides would sit with us and we’d take turns teaching each other Spanish and English. They’re such eager learners and teachers, incredibly patient with us when we have no idea what they’re talking about and just gesticulating madly, and constantly cheerful hiking up and down the transects with us, even when we’re incredibly slow. One night, we helped the cooks make dinner. I learned how to make tortillas! It’s amazing how much people can work together even when they don’t speak the same language, and all of us chopping and cutting and kneading dough really brought us (Hondurans, British, American) together. There was an incredible feeling of camaraderie, and that was definitely part of why Cantiles was so great.
The entire camp is built on a hillside, so every night it was a muddy trek up the mountain to my tent. The camp is flanked on two sides by rivers, one big one, and one little one (more like a stream). We used the big river for group bathing/sun tanning, which we managed to do one day when the sun decided to show its face for more than three hours. It’s so relaxing just to lay out on a big rock and bask like a lizard. The small stream we used for private washing, and there was a little waterfall with a pool surrounded by huge rocks, so it was extremely private and pretty. Imagine those TV shampoo commercials where the girl comes out of a tropical pool in the middle of the forest, flipping her long hair…that’s what the place looked like. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it, so you’ll just have to make do with your imagination.
As for my project, I managed to collect samples from about 20-something tadpoles, so I’ll be spending this week testing them in the lab. To find the tadpoles, we walked up and down the rivers, poking under rocks and leaves. And when I say walking down the river, I literally mean walking in the river, jumping from rock to rock, occasionally falling in and getting soaked. The entire experience was thoroughly enjoyable though, especially when your boots are already squishing with every step you take, so you’re just like, “screw it”, and splash around some more. We had some excitement one night, after a day of looking for frogs, when one particularly stupid (or cold?) one jumped right into our fire. I managed to rescue it before it got too charred, but unfortunately it had twitched its last by the time I got it in my hand. I hope to dissect it later this week and get some tissue samples.
There’s a lot more I can say about Cantiles, but this is a massive post already. Basically there were two instances/thoughts that really struck me this week: 1) during one of the hikes we went on, when we were practically clawing our way up a muddy vertical hillside, and my thought was “I really love this”. After a certain point, being dirty and gross doesn’t matter as much, dying of exhaustion isn’t as painful, cause you’re with people you like and ultimately, going up always means going down later (and go down that steep hill we did, doing crazy mudsliding stunts on the way. I think someone else has a picture of me on their camera.). 2) Just the fact that we are here in the jungle, doing what we’re doing, makes us incredibly privileged compared to the locals who live here year round. I keep thinking that because we’re not in the city, I don’t see as much evidence of poverty, but the guides and cooks who work for us receive a bulk of their yearly income from these few weeks of working for Opwall. They sell chocolate, cookies, and pop to us to make money, but are too poor to afford it for themselves. I thought I was deprived in not having eaten meat in three weeks, but talking to one of the cooks in Cantiles, the last time she ate meat was last year. Most of them have never been to San Pedro Sula, a mere two hours down the mountain by truck (because none of them have cars). It really puts things into perspective, and makes me appreciate so much more what all of these people do for us (aside from saving our butts/keeping us alive in the jungle), and makes me wonder what we can do for them.
Generator is going off in 5 minutes. As always, pictures later. Thanks to everyone who’s sent me a note asking how I’m doing. I know your prayers and thoughts go before me. Please pray for continued health and safety, and that I’ll be able to stay strong in faith and spiritual discipline.
