Well, now it's very officially over: I moved out from Shan's place today. My new place is a nice little room in an apartment that I share with 3 other people, one of whom is my friend Louise. It's actually thanks to her that I now rent the room! Thanks, Louise :)
During the week that has passed since I came back several things have happened. I regained my capacity to tolerate cold. I looked for a place to live and found one. I got my samples organized. And (I hope you are sitting) I tricked my adviser into cleaning out the lab with me. This is a historical event that should be duly celebrated, since nothing comparable has (to the best of my knowledge, acquired both through talking with eyewitnesses and keen observation of the layers of trash) happened for at least ten years. Old samples from grad students and undergrad research assistants, defunct lab equipment and loads of other stuff have been piled on top of the counters in my lab, making it hard to carve out even a small clear patch to work on. In three or four historical hours last week about 7 trash bags' worth of this junk was shoveled off the shelves and counters and sent to the dumpster. Now I have ONE WHOLE workbench completely free for my work. There's not even a speck of DUST on it. I should get the Order of Merit for precipitating this change, I so swear.
Ok, gotta go to get some laundry quarters and then go see a movie with my ex. See, even if we're exes we still get along splendidly. Of which I am most proud :)
sunnudagur, febrúar 17, 2008
Back in Ithaca, missing Hawaii
After a day of traveling I'm back in Ithaca. It's cold but friendly - the taxi operators didn't answer the phone but a fellow traveler secured a ride for me and all my stuff from the airport into town.
My little vacation in Hawaii was fantastic. I didn't do as much as I had planned - no hike out to Kaena Point, no visiting old stone temples or heritage sites, no Bishop Museum. What I did do was a lot of relaxing, meeting fellow travelers at the hostel and hanging out on Waikiki beach.
The absolute highlight of my stay on O'ahu was the surfing lesson I took on Wednesday. I joined two other ladies for a group lesson at a surf school next door to the hostel and boy, did we get lucky! A ridiculously handsome and broad shouldered tanned blond guy took us out to the Queen's Surf and had us riding waves in no time (well, the other two were riding waves in no time). For some reason it didn't come as easily to me as two years ago... but with my usual stubbornness I finally made it :)
The good thing about taking a lesson (apart from actually learning how to do this stuff - and (in this instance) the eye candy factor ;) is that the instructor gives you a push so that you can catch the wave. Try as I might on Friday, when I rented a board and went out by myself on Waikiki to fight for space with the other novice surfers, I could hardly paddle fast enough to catch the wave by myself. My arms were already impossibly sore after Wednesday's surfing, and so were my knees, the tops of my toes, the insides of my arms and (of all places) my pubic bone. Yep, it's a hard life :) But even if I didn't manage to ride a wave it was fun and as beautiful as can be, with Diamond Head in the distance and the white-sand beach stretching for miles.
Thursday was supposed to be all about snorkeling and cultural exploration on O'ahu's west (leeward) coast. As I was driving to the town of Wai'anae, where the snorkeling boat trip was to happen, I heard on the radio that the season's biggest swells were headed for Oahu's North Shore and that the waves might reach 20 to 30 feet. Being the surfer wannabe that I am I instantly decided to speed over there after the boat trip and watch, ditching all other plans.
The boat trip was fine. The heavy swell/surf had stirred the coastal waters up a lot so that the choice of snorkeling sites had become limited, meaning that all the boats doing this operation let their guests out in the same place. Thus, congestion and collisions were the order of the day during the snorkeling session itself. In the end we managed to put in about 20 minutes of hanging out in the water with all kinds of rainbow-colored fish. I was also lucky enough to spot a sea turtle hurrying away from the 50 or so tourists crowding her living quarters. At another point we saw schools of dolphins in the water and tried to get into the water with them, but they swam away as fast as they could when we started splashing in the water. Another attraction during the trip was a small pod of humpback whales. Very nice indeed although honestly, snorkeling is not really for me. Not enough action, you see.
Getting back to shore I couldn't get to the North Shore fast enough. When I finally made it up there, through the pineapple plantations of Central O'ahu, the traffic jam strung out for several kilometers - I obviously wasn't the only one who'd thought of going north for the day. It was pretty obvious where the action was at: people had parked their cars along the highway in Waimea Bay for the best views, almost reducing the road to one lane. I camped out in Waimea for a while, watching the incredible surf and incredible surfing (check this video to see what was going on), I drove up and down the coast to check out other famous surf spots and finally ended the day by watching the sunset in Waimea Bay.
And now it's back to the everyday life. Do my tax return. Find a place to live. Pay the credit card. Order more lab supplies. And life goes on.
My little vacation in Hawaii was fantastic. I didn't do as much as I had planned - no hike out to Kaena Point, no visiting old stone temples or heritage sites, no Bishop Museum. What I did do was a lot of relaxing, meeting fellow travelers at the hostel and hanging out on Waikiki beach.
The absolute highlight of my stay on O'ahu was the surfing lesson I took on Wednesday. I joined two other ladies for a group lesson at a surf school next door to the hostel and boy, did we get lucky! A ridiculously handsome and broad shouldered tanned blond guy took us out to the Queen's Surf and had us riding waves in no time (well, the other two were riding waves in no time). For some reason it didn't come as easily to me as two years ago... but with my usual stubbornness I finally made it :)
The good thing about taking a lesson (apart from actually learning how to do this stuff - and (in this instance) the eye candy factor ;) is that the instructor gives you a push so that you can catch the wave. Try as I might on Friday, when I rented a board and went out by myself on Waikiki to fight for space with the other novice surfers, I could hardly paddle fast enough to catch the wave by myself. My arms were already impossibly sore after Wednesday's surfing, and so were my knees, the tops of my toes, the insides of my arms and (of all places) my pubic bone. Yep, it's a hard life :) But even if I didn't manage to ride a wave it was fun and as beautiful as can be, with Diamond Head in the distance and the white-sand beach stretching for miles.
Thursday was supposed to be all about snorkeling and cultural exploration on O'ahu's west (leeward) coast. As I was driving to the town of Wai'anae, where the snorkeling boat trip was to happen, I heard on the radio that the season's biggest swells were headed for Oahu's North Shore and that the waves might reach 20 to 30 feet. Being the surfer wannabe that I am I instantly decided to speed over there after the boat trip and watch, ditching all other plans.
The boat trip was fine. The heavy swell/surf had stirred the coastal waters up a lot so that the choice of snorkeling sites had become limited, meaning that all the boats doing this operation let their guests out in the same place. Thus, congestion and collisions were the order of the day during the snorkeling session itself. In the end we managed to put in about 20 minutes of hanging out in the water with all kinds of rainbow-colored fish. I was also lucky enough to spot a sea turtle hurrying away from the 50 or so tourists crowding her living quarters. At another point we saw schools of dolphins in the water and tried to get into the water with them, but they swam away as fast as they could when we started splashing in the water. Another attraction during the trip was a small pod of humpback whales. Very nice indeed although honestly, snorkeling is not really for me. Not enough action, you see.
Getting back to shore I couldn't get to the North Shore fast enough. When I finally made it up there, through the pineapple plantations of Central O'ahu, the traffic jam strung out for several kilometers - I obviously wasn't the only one who'd thought of going north for the day. It was pretty obvious where the action was at: people had parked their cars along the highway in Waimea Bay for the best views, almost reducing the road to one lane. I camped out in Waimea for a while, watching the incredible surf and incredible surfing (check this video to see what was going on), I drove up and down the coast to check out other famous surf spots and finally ended the day by watching the sunset in Waimea Bay.
And now it's back to the everyday life. Do my tax return. Find a place to live. Pay the credit card. Order more lab supplies. And life goes on.
laugardagur, febrúar 16, 2008
fimmtudagur, febrúar 14, 2008
miðvikudagur, febrúar 13, 2008
mánudagur, febrúar 11, 2008
Pictures - by popular demand
Stina asked for more pics. Let me show you what the fieldwork looks like:
First we do the discharge measurements:
Then we take care of the water sampling:
Some of the streams we sample double as the local sewer/trash disposal area, see above, and the local washing machine, see below:
The local kids are always endlessly curious and flock around us to see what we're up to. The drivers, here Titan, are really good with explaining to them what's going on. Usually the grown-ups are around as well but they keep a little more distance than the kids:
Kids, kids, kids:
and more kids:
First we do the discharge measurements:
Then we take care of the water sampling:
Some of the streams we sample double as the local sewer/trash disposal area, see above, and the local washing machine, see below:
The local kids are always endlessly curious and flock around us to see what we're up to. The drivers, here Titan, are really good with explaining to them what's going on. Usually the grown-ups are around as well but they keep a little more distance than the kids:
Kids, kids, kids:
and more kids:
Seventy four samples!!
Fieldwork is all done and I'm heading back to Honolulu tomorrow. As the heading says, this was an extremely fruitful (and wet) field season - I'm now 74 water samples closer to finishing my thesis (not to mention the 24 samples I took while in Hawaii). Which of course also means that I have the lab time equivalent of 98 samples ahead of me. Wow.
If you look carefully you can see the sample labels: PH-08-74. SEVENTY FOUR!! This historical sample definitely merited a picture. I still can't believe that I actually managed to double the number of samples from last year!
All this sampling couldn't have been done without the drivers/field assistants here at NIGS (Nat'l Institute of Geological Sciences) at the UP (University of the Philippines) at Diliman; they are an incredible bunch of guys. Not only do they drive me from river to river in the insane Philippine traffic, they are also happy to stand in the middle of streams for half an hour while we take discharge measurements and then get straight back into the car and go on driving. They're real troopers, these guys!
This is William up to his neck in the Lauis River last year.
Things have gone a lot more smoothly here in the Philippines this time, as was probably to be expected given that when I went here last year I didn't know anybody and had no idea what to expect, whereas now I know quite a lot of people here and also the terrain (a big help when planning fieldwork...). I am very happy with what I accomplished here this time and I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes out of the water back in Ithaca. Oh, and I actually have a lab assistant this semester, whom I'll get to teach the analytical techniques and then have help me with the analyses. That's just too good!
Also, my coworker here is really interested in further collaboration and we're planning to sample over the course of the next year up to 8 streams in various locations around the country. That's really fantastic and I can see it leading to some further interesting work down the road.
So, in spite of my initial misgivings about this field trip I am now very happy with the outcome. Not only do I have a lot of what I hope are really good samples, I also have a nice feeling that my work is actually of interest to someone beyond myself and that I am beginning to become a part of the earth science community here, in whatever small manner that may be. That's probably the result of this trip that is the most beneficial to myself, psychologically speaking, because so far in my thesis work I've felt very isolated and it's been killing me. If I weren't as stubborn as a mule when it comes to my Ph.D., I would have quit a long time ago. Now however, I feel like I belong somewhere again, for the first time since I started my thesis work.
If you look carefully you can see the sample labels: PH-08-74. SEVENTY FOUR!! This historical sample definitely merited a picture. I still can't believe that I actually managed to double the number of samples from last year!
All this sampling couldn't have been done without the drivers/field assistants here at NIGS (Nat'l Institute of Geological Sciences) at the UP (University of the Philippines) at Diliman; they are an incredible bunch of guys. Not only do they drive me from river to river in the insane Philippine traffic, they are also happy to stand in the middle of streams for half an hour while we take discharge measurements and then get straight back into the car and go on driving. They're real troopers, these guys!
This is William up to his neck in the Lauis River last year.
Things have gone a lot more smoothly here in the Philippines this time, as was probably to be expected given that when I went here last year I didn't know anybody and had no idea what to expect, whereas now I know quite a lot of people here and also the terrain (a big help when planning fieldwork...). I am very happy with what I accomplished here this time and I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes out of the water back in Ithaca. Oh, and I actually have a lab assistant this semester, whom I'll get to teach the analytical techniques and then have help me with the analyses. That's just too good!
Also, my coworker here is really interested in further collaboration and we're planning to sample over the course of the next year up to 8 streams in various locations around the country. That's really fantastic and I can see it leading to some further interesting work down the road.
So, in spite of my initial misgivings about this field trip I am now very happy with the outcome. Not only do I have a lot of what I hope are really good samples, I also have a nice feeling that my work is actually of interest to someone beyond myself and that I am beginning to become a part of the earth science community here, in whatever small manner that may be. That's probably the result of this trip that is the most beneficial to myself, psychologically speaking, because so far in my thesis work I've felt very isolated and it's been killing me. If I weren't as stubborn as a mule when it comes to my Ph.D., I would have quit a long time ago. Now however, I feel like I belong somewhere again, for the first time since I started my thesis work.
miðvikudagur, febrúar 06, 2008
From the observation deck
My bank in Ithaca SUCKS. Do NOT under any circumstances do business with CFCU. Ever. I'm taking every last penny out of my accounts there as soon as I'm back in Ithaca. Just thinking about these people makes my blood pressure go through the roof.
Other than that, all's well in the Pearl of the Orient*. It's beginning to feel positively cozy to get into a tricycle, breathe some quality exhaust and bump your head in the roof about 10 times on the 3 minute ride from Philcoa to Makatarungan Street. Já, Manila er ágæt:
Tomorrow I'm taking off with Titan, the gentle giant, for some more fieldwork. This time we're going around Laguna de Bay and over the mountains east of the lake to Infanta. While we're there our lodging is at Titan's uncle's house. I'm excited about that, having never really been in a real Filipino home. Afterwards we're headed for two days in the Mt. Pinatubo area, returning only to deposit me on a plane to Honolulu. Amazeen how time flies when you're having fun. Which is what I'm doing (even if the morons at my bank tried their hardest to ruin my trip).
Am planning on a visit to Iceland this summer. I hope August works for people. While I'm there the plan is to attend the IAVCEI (International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior...) conference and say hi to some buddies there. My work hasn't much relevance to the topics of the conference but I can at least go there to observe... and to drink beer with fun people. That's the primary function of conferences anyway, right?
A hike would be nice too. Anyone up for doing Bárðargata with me??
* That's what they used to call Manila
Other than that, all's well in the Pearl of the Orient*. It's beginning to feel positively cozy to get into a tricycle, breathe some quality exhaust and bump your head in the roof about 10 times on the 3 minute ride from Philcoa to Makatarungan Street. Já, Manila er ágæt:
Tomorrow I'm taking off with Titan, the gentle giant, for some more fieldwork. This time we're going around Laguna de Bay and over the mountains east of the lake to Infanta. While we're there our lodging is at Titan's uncle's house. I'm excited about that, having never really been in a real Filipino home. Afterwards we're headed for two days in the Mt. Pinatubo area, returning only to deposit me on a plane to Honolulu. Amazeen how time flies when you're having fun. Which is what I'm doing (even if the morons at my bank tried their hardest to ruin my trip).
Am planning on a visit to Iceland this summer. I hope August works for people. While I'm there the plan is to attend the IAVCEI (International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior...) conference and say hi to some buddies there. My work hasn't much relevance to the topics of the conference but I can at least go there to observe... and to drink beer with fun people. That's the primary function of conferences anyway, right?
A hike would be nice too. Anyone up for doing Bárðargata with me??
* That's what they used to call Manila
sunnudagur, febrúar 03, 2008
Still on the road
Just a quick sign of life here, over instant coffee and spaghetti for breakfast. We're thundering through the Philippine countryside, sampling lots of rivers, measuring discharge with soldiers on their day off (and wearing only their underwear, or what looks like it anyway) towing us through the raging torrents and whatnot. Very exciting, all in all.
More later.
More later.
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