(no subject)
transbubble- this is Joy's livejournal name. She is one of my friends here on the program, and cause she's on live journal, i encourage people to read hers too, cause she is prob more detailed then me, and you can read the things i've missed.
So i just got back on my field trip, which was about 2 1/2 week long journey from monteverde, northern carribean side, down to Panama. There was a whole lot of learning to be done, but this time i was actually prepared for it. out of all the taxonomic info which surpasses 150 plants and animals, i think i have about 2/3 of it memorized. which might be more then most. My goal- A on the exam that i previously failed.
Ok Bullets of the trip
-We left for our trip by a 17 kilometer (<10 miles) hike from monteverde to Penas blancas. that would be with our 30-40lb backpacks. now see, i have never done this and all of my eqipment is quite makeshift, including my pack that is my bros bf Steve (who is 6'4, meaning his pack wen to below my butt, without waist straps) which was real fun to carry. Natuarally i was in team slow, a name settled by team memebers asmatic erica, smoker joy and asmatic smoker rachel. We were way behind everyone, and we were the group that took several breaks and taled about random childhood stories and adult sexual questions. We came in about an hour after everyone, there were rivers crossed, and indiana jones style bridges. and lots of constant up and down mother fucking hills- constant. Afterwards, my collar bones were swollen and bruised, something I didn;t even know was possible.
- One of the best things i got out of penas blancas were refirmation that i was doing the right thing. There was a night early on that i wsa feeling really worthlless in this program. And i started praying- just admitting that i can't do this alone and that i needed help. Wouldn't you know, the very next day i got my help. It came in the form of Natuarlist Mark Waingright. for those who don't know bio titles, a naturalist is similar to a biologist in capacity for knowledge, but they dont have a bio degree. Which, is exactly what i would be cause environmental studies isn;t a formal bio degree. Mark Waingright specializes in Amphibians but knows about all sorts of stuff. I talked with him after his lecture (which was on chytrid fungus, which is an epidemic, sort of like froggy aids, that within the past decade has threatened populations, some even to exstintion). we talked about how there is this elitism in the bio world, and though alot is being discovered and studies, its written and compiled in a way that most of the population could never understand. People seem to stuffy to breakthings down to non-bio population. Which is fucked up. I related to him, because he works on being that bridge between the science world to normal world. I can't really explain it, i was inspired. that without a degree in bio, if i have passion and am willing to work, i can work to be abridge for people. after that, i started to become a taxonomic encyclopedia.
- Now the journey out of penas blancas was ridiculous. again about 10 miles outside the valley, with 40 lb packs. in the beginning we had to cross this rushing river about 6 meters wide. The river was so intense that we had to tie a rope from one side to the other, to pull ourselves across. My dad is proud to know that the beamer he bought me (no joke its the size of my face, biggest beamer i have ever seen because only my pa can find ridiculous things like this) became the salvation. People fatened there backpacks to the rope, incase the river took them, there bags would be saved. which happened to a few people- very very scary thing to watch. But we all got across and we supported oneanother. Then team slow reunited for the rest of the trip. we collectively fell more then 70 times. that might seem like an exageration, but exageration it is not. You have to imagine that its is raining throughout the hike, and that we are trucking in mud, that has become mud slide due to all the previous walkers. Erica wasn't ever trying to walk anymore, she perfected her but slide down the trail. once we had gone up the mtn out of the valley, it was time to go down. aka, one giant mud slide. Joy titled it the 'the hill of infinite fun'. about 5 minutes after hearing this, i saw joy take the bigest spill i have ever witnessed in real life. Now joy does have a certain knack for clumsiness, but this was insane. It was one of those falls i thought she was dead. We are head spirally down a mtn, and she is at a ledge. let it be known, i had the mst perfect view. She starts to loose her footing, and falls backwards with her pack down a ledge at least 4 or 5 meters (15-20ft). I'm tlaking full body tumbles, i copmpletely lost count. After her body tumbled like a ragdoll she lands face first in a pool of thick mud. this is when i thought she was dead, until her body starts vibrating from laughter face down in the mud. I fall in the mud, laughing my ass off- i'm talking tears down my face, closer then a 5 year old about to pee on herself. That image will rplay in my head for my entire laugh. Remarkably, she was completely ok, and didn't suffer any injuries. the rest of the hike, i would break out laughing just thinking about it, i hope my description of this is funny enough that some of you got some laughter- if not i failed. Once again, we were about an hour after everyone, commencing our arrival by jumping in a lake with our clothes on.
-we are now in poco sol. a place that might go in the top 5 most beautiful places i've seen. our cabins resembled tree houses, with all sorts of ladders leading to bunks. Besides all the fun learning that went down, most memorable thing here was a suprise from our staff. Our last night we were told we had to learn all these statistical format. BAH! turned out the analysis was done on who was the cheapest date, determined by 8 different rums ranging in quality and price. YOu all would be happy to know, that out of 24 people, i was the 3rd for best taste- aint no cheap date. Of course, you can imagine after sampling lots of straight drunk, we all were quite tipsy. and we all collectively drank more and celebrated and all ended up naked swimming in the pond, TA's and teachers combined. with all these naked bodies everywhere it seemed a crime not to start pinching ases. I recruited friend vanessa and greta, and we began the naked ass pinching brigade. Noone knew it was us, ah...sort of vanessa, and i laughed soooo much. one great image i have, was teacher alan playing his harmonica, corey witha drum, and matt with a gutitar, all being a naked acustic group. afterwards, we all went back to the cabins, got clothes, and sang and danced till the morning.
ok i need to go to lunch, this is half the trip. maybe i'll write the other half if i haven't tired you all already.