Deploying

June 30, 2010 Deploying the rosette

This is our rosette. It is a baby compared to the other one. We're only doing two bottles at a time because we're sampling along the way to our first destination. I'm very tired after deciding yesterday to stay awake until it was my turn to help. It then turned into an all-nighter. I got some rest this afternoon, but I'm still very sleepy.

HUB

June 30, 2010 | HUB Lawn

The HUB closed today. I went through the building one last time, taking pictures. Then I left for SIMUW pizza.

I also returned Oh China. I'm using Alan's copy for the summer. And since the book seems to cover approximately the same content (and characters), that's less work for me.

I hope you're feeling well on the boat. It's going to be July in a few hours. From then, a month until August. Though, for me, it's a summer to enjoy and use before a bad year.

Today's June 30th. It's been one year since we first met at Sushi Aoi. So much happened in that year... Wow.

Office

June 30, 2010 Ship's Office

There are two 'public-use' computers in this room. The computer/01 lab has two, and the crew's lounge has one. I go missing and hide at one of these computers to update the blog and come say 'hi' to the outside world.

Stuck

June 29, 2010

I wasn't sure what to take a picture of, got my camera, and realized I can't take off the lens cap. As you can see, it's stuck. (I switched lenses.) I took it off afterward. Neither the lens nor the protective UV filter were damaged.

After class my dad and I went to Fry's again to take another look at the Acer Aspire TimelineX. They don't have exactly the model I want (they have the 13" and I want the 11"), but I got a feel for the keys. They're bigger than what I'm used to, but I quickly got used to the slightly bigger keyboard. The 11" also looks cute, so I'm pretty much decided.

Land

June 28, 2010 Exeunt Land

We arrived near Puntarenas again today to exchange personnel (ie. swap out my advisor for someone else). So, today marks the beginning of ~28 days without land in sight. I'm home sick and a little sea sick. I did make an important discovery today though. I have more music on my usb stick than I thought I did which is great because I was starting to crave a few songs.

Family

June 27, 2010 | Trout Lake by the Foss Lakes Trail

Be sure you've seen yesterday's post as well.

On the way to Cooper and Malachite Lakes, we paused and ate a snack (bananas). There, a bird was feeding its chicks. I see two in the picture, but there may be more hiding in the log. It flew to the log, put food in the chicks' mouth, and flew away for more food. I wish I had a faster telephoto with me to take a better picture. This will do for now.

Box

June 27, 2010 "Hot tub"

There is a hot tub on the ship. Haha. It's really more like a bigger, deeper bath tub. It's quaint and nice and can accommodate at least six people. When I went up last night, it was dark (the outside world becomes dark around 1900). Actually, the night becomes suspended and never reaches pitch black, though that may be because of moonlight...Last night was full moon except the moon was hidden by clouds for most of the time. And the stars. At night, I have been able to see big squids and flying fish. It is a scary thought that I am in open waters, just a speck in the ocean. I have faith in this boat. We have nice survival gear that makes us look like some sort of super hero. Pretty awesome.

Malachite

June 27, 2010 | Foss Lakes Trail approaching mile marker at 3760'

On Sunday, we hiked the Foss Lakes Trail up to Cooper and Malachite lakes, hence the title. (Malachite is a gemstone, so I doubt that the title will come in a more direct context.) Thus, we saw three lakes on the hike. It was cloudy, though. But I like taking waterfall pictures. There was water all around: huge waterfall that we hiked up to (but ended up going around a bit), rivers that had to be crossed by rock- and tree-hopping, and snow at the two upper lakes.

The hike took pretty much all day.

Spider

June 26, 2010 Birthday cake and inside joke

Today was Bob's (a crew member) birthday. I heard he got bitten by a spider, hence a spider cake. The web was placed on a rectangular cake sheet. The cake was chocolate, but somewhere in the spiderweb was peanut butter frosting. Yum. We get dessert after every dinner. This is very bad because I love dessert. I'm getting very chubby. Ewww. I should start skipping dinner and cut straight to dessert. Hehe.

Owl

June 26, 2010

Our Pacific Northwest Native American art finally got replaced with a picture of my sister. There's an owl playing a funny three-string instrument.

CTF today was a bit frustrating. Mainly because some of the high school people quit on us and sat by MUS listening to music. Also because I didn't have enough defenders. It's frustrating when you're on defense guarding jail, and people are sweeping the bushes around you, and you can't do anything, and no one else is around. We ended up with a tie, 6 to 6.

Otherwise, today was spent figuring out which laptop to get and how to secure it. I think I figured out most of it, just need to get the technical details down, and of course, take another look at the laptop. It'll probably be the Acer Aspire TimelineX AS1830T.

I miss my old netbook. They don't make ones like it anymore. No more 8.9" screens, no more buttons on two sides of the touchpad. Oh well....

Sink

June 25, 2010 Butterfly in the sink

How the butterfly got near the boat and inside it is a mystery. Nonetheless, it has a nice pattern. I wonder why it wants to hang out in the icky sink. Who knows what we've been dumping down that sink. On my first full day or so, I saw an amazing moth. I didn't have my camera with me, but it was just chillin' on the boat. It had a gorgeous wingspan that looked very similar to parts of many small leaves overlapping.

StudentRND

June 25, 2010 | Northup, Bellevue

This evening I was at the opening party of StudentRND's office and workspace. It's in a business park off Northup Way in Bellevue. StudentRND was started by a few students from Interlake, and the founder, whom I've met through math, invited me to their new establishment.

Pretty impressive. They have a basic 3D printer and a few computers, and some electronics stuff. The students that you see are watching / playing Halo.

Workspace

June 24, 2010 My bench

I work in the "computer lab". I was really busy today between running samples on the spectrophotometer and setting up the rosettes for casting. These things take up a lot of time! Hopefully, things will slow down a bit. At least I seem pretty happy doing all these things. I do want more time for studying. I can't believe I've been gone for nearly a week. It feels like 2 or 3 days.

Ripe

June 24, 2010 | NRH Woodlands Park

I took my camera along today. I figured, I could leave my coat at home - it was (still is) a very warm day. The salmonberries are ripe, and the blackberries are flowering.

We had a test in Chinese. I couldn't remember the meaning of 高 (it was a name in the dialogue, but it also means "tall") . Otherwise, I think I did ok. A friend (Raymond) came over to class. He's in the heritage section, and he wants to switch over. Heritage is a much better class, but it's hard. I moved on to chapter 2 in their book and am struggling with it. It's harder to study, not being in the class. I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up with the pace. As for my class, it is occasionally exciting but mostly boring. Pronunciation is hard to pick up because there are so few Asians in the class, and the one we are learning has been Westernized.

I guess I won't get to talk to you much while you're on the boat. It's ok, have fun and write often. I'll go back to trying to read this passage.

Rosette

June 23, 2010 Sampling device

Today we began sampling. Oh, let me tell you: medicine is awesome. Although I was drowsy for a while, after taking sea-sickness pills, I felt soooooo good. We were stopped today in a random spot doing practice runs; we are currently en route to our first destination. Actually, as I type this, the internet is down. The satellite is probably blocked or something. This Rosette is used by a few labs. My lab has its own rosette which is supposed to be more metal contaminant-free. The Niskin bottles on the Rosettes capture water and can be fired off individually at different depths by command via a computer on board the ship. My job so far, other than helping with getting the two rigs in and out of the water, has been sampling the sea water for concentrations of a certain compound. Today after taking samples from the large Rosette, I tested all 24 depths. Damn, that took a long time! I don’t mind it though. It was kind of fun.

Labbit

June 23, 2010

I should really be asleep right now, but I'm not so here's a bunny with a moustache. Remember tha labbit?

Chinese is a lot of work. Traditional characters are complicated, and studying out of two textbooks doesn't seem to fit in. I'm still on Chapter 1 of Oh, China. I should have moved to chapter two today. I started reading it on the bus, but then I fell asleep.

Not much is happening. Silly phone conversations in the RC. Chinese is becoming more fun. One of our TAs, in particular: he showed us a stack of paper, said: "I was planning to do character practice, but we don't have time, so... forget it." Then he started asking us questions in Chinese, called on some guy in the back, pointed to a girl in the front, and asked: 他是你的朋友嗎? The student found the right response: 我不知道. Then he briefly mentioned that it's okay in Eastern culture to ask personal questions and asked me if I had a girlfriend. I was honest and said yes, but if he asks more-detailed questions, I might lie.

Sailing

June 22, 2010 Leaving Puntarenas

So, we departed around 1730 - scheduled was actually for 1800, not 1600. I can't wait for the first stop. We'll finally stop moving so much. I'm definitely getting on some medication tomorrow. I can't believe I didn't bring my own! Ahhh. Yuck. I need to go rest up. Hopefully, I'll be less seasick tomorrow. I'm also homesick. :(

Dental

June 22, 2010

I visited my dentist today. She poked around my teeth and gave me the usual free stuff. And told me to come back. Not fun.

Chinese is taking up a lot of time. More than I'd have liked it to. I had boxes left over on the character sheets again, so I copied some characters from the heritage book. I hope they don't yell at me for that...

Imminent

June 21, 2010 Sunset and some storms

This is the first sunset that I have seen here in Costa Rica. Yeah, kind of a surprise, right? Eff. I've been on the east end, I think, this whole time. Or somehow in the wrong direction anyway. Maybe you can't really see it, but there is a storm brewing. This happens somewhere every night. Yay, tropical storms!

Also, tonight will be my first night sleeping on the ship. The ship is a sad, sad environment. Like a WADOT ferry, but sadder and more cramped and smaller. I love the A/C though. Ahhhhh, feels like home.

Being on this ship, all dizzy and such, I feel like cursing like a sailor.

Chinese

June 21, 2010

This is all Chinese stuff. Two textbooks, two workbooks - I'll buy two more next week. Then there's my homework for tomorrow: 5 pages of listening exercises and 4! pages of characters. Note my excitement there... that's 24 pages of characters. No wonder it took all day, and good thing I started right away. Future homeworks will be less, I heard.

The other book is Oh, China, the heritage text. I'm using it as supplemental material. I really don't like it when there's a more advanced version of the class that I can't take. Not sure how long that'll keep up, though. It's open to an introduction from Princeton 大學. Not sure who it's meant for, but it includes translations in parentheses for a handful of words. Probably an inspiration for students who wish to take the course, or maybe to scare students away. Who knows.

Today's the first day of summer by American standards. Colloquially, summer began 21 days ago. It's cloudy here, and highed at 18 C. Sad. My guess for when summer will start: either 4th of July (traditionally the case) or mid-August (judging by weird El Nino pattern, though I know nothing about that).

Puntarenas

June 20, 2010 Map for Puntarenas

Here is a map of the relative area of where I am. There is supposedly a post office. I want to find the "Central Market". I also want to find the banks. Unfortunately, I haven't had the time, and I don't think it's a good idea to wander off alone. Can't send postcards yet! Aaaargh! Can't even buy postcards yet. Oh well, I will do it at the end at the very latest. *yawn* Deseo dormir.

Box

June 20, 2010

This also came from Russia. A. Korkunov, Morelia - pralines with hazelnuts. You might notice that the box is slightly damaged. Yes, it didn't survive the trip very well. The chocolates came through fine, though, and are pretty good. I tried a couple today.

What's more in respect to Russian food at our house... the rooster got finished this morning. My mom made pirozhki this evening.

Class tomorrow! After last quarter, finally. I hope I'm not disappointed, though. I'm excited, but I also have high expectations.

Bar

June 19, 2010

We went to a bar today after visiting the ship (which requires taking a small boat to the ship). We met up with a few other people on the cruise, took the baby boat to the big boat, got on the ship up a rope ladder, and got off and left just as quickly. The meals are pretty expensive actually, but I'm getting the stipend in the end. The food is okay. Lots of seafood. I had ceviche yesterday. Today, I had sea bass for lunch and mussels for dinner. I want ceviche again. It's tasty. I wonder what the boat food is like. I hear possibly not so good. But that will be good because when food is less tasty, I'm less likely to fatten myself into a ball.

We're on this island/peninsula thing which means waking from one coast to the other takes about 8 minutes. Lengthwise, it's probably about 30 minutes of walking or so. I haven't seen any gift shops along the way. So, I will need to hunt them down and send off those postcards!

Right now, I can either hear waves crashing or thunder in the distance. Haha. Probably the waves though. There is a lot of lightening in the evening time on the land across from this peninsula. They make nice big lightening flashes across the sky.

Fog

June 19, 2010 | Trail to Lake Serene

The plan today was to hike to Glacier Lake (about 11 miles round-trip), but we found out this morning that the trail was in very bad condition and settled for Lake Serene (about 9 miles round-trip with a waterfall detour). The lake sits right under Mount Index (a really tall mountain that's pretty well-known in the area). And there were supposed to be very good views from above.

The weather wasn't very good, though - it didn't rain, but it was cloudy. When we got high enough, we entered very thick fog that you see in this picture. No chance at views... we couldn't even see the mountain. What's more, we forgot our lunch pack (the backpack with all the lunch) at home, so we didn't eat at what could be seen of the lake. We only had marmalades and three bananas for the four of us - we didn't have four bananas.

And there was a spur trail to "lunch rock". Sad.

We returned just enough to have dinner - which was good, we got a bunch of stuff and I had the stomach to eat all of my portion; and drive me to CTF. We also stopped at the REI in Lynnwood and got me expensive clothes.

CTF was quite fun: some high school people from Seattle apparently heard about CTF and showed up. They were fun to play with, though. Before CTF, two of our players decided to compare Cantonese and Mandarin. The conversation went something like:

1: Well, start a conversation.
2: Ni hao.
1. Ngoh gei hou. (or whatever that is)
2. I didn't say "ni hao ma"!
1. It doesn't matter.
2. Yes it does!

And on the way home, I thought: I'll be learning Mandarin in two days! And then I thought: I want mandarines.

Landscape

June 18, 2010 Costa Rica greenery

I know it's blurry, but it's one of my nicer shots from today. :) Puntarenas is not this green. Since it's out on a stick of coast, it seems to be mostly just sands and buildings. Small buildings. I'm going to take a nap now, but I'll probably be too tired to come back to talk to you. :/ It's so warm and humid here, not the greatest feelings.

Chess

June 18, 2010 | Tapioca Place

We had a somewhat fail dinner/movie today. The fail refers to organization (Kevin wasn't organizing this time) and the movie: Kevin, Steven, and I didn't watch, and the other four didn't get tickets (and presumably waited over an hour for the next showing).

Kevin drove Steven and me home after dinner (Cheesecake Fact.), but first we went to this Tapioca bubble tea place in Mountlake Terrace. Kevin decided (who's not organizing?) that since I wasn't getting bubble tea, we should play Chinese chess.

So this was my first Chinese chess game. It was fun, but somewhat long, and I missed you by 20 minutes :( Steven and I played against Kevin. I initially used the known-to-me chess strategy, we lost material, then I adjusted the strategy. I think I'm getting a feel for the game. It's an interesting variant of chess, at least.

It's good to know that you arrived safely in Costa Rica, and that you have good Internet where you're staying. I'll talk to you soon, even though not tonight.

Car

June 17, 2010 My "first" car

My dad finally found a car at an agreeable price. It's not bad. Very shiny, pretty inside. The seat is a little high. I'll have to get used to that. It has an awful, awful burning car smell because it is super new. Smells like burning tires or something.

Rooster

June 17, 2010

To celebrate my sister's "moving up" from primary school, we cut a rooster piernik. (To save myself from transliterating Russian words, I'm using Polish.) My mom brought this rooster from Russia, and it's been sitting above the bread box until today.

Festival

June 16, 2010 粽子

Today is a Chinese holiday: 端午節. I was unaware until my mom started cooking at 10-11PM. She made them by hand (she makes cooking look so easy). So, unfortunately, I won't be having any today because I'm fat and not at all hungry. Oh, actually, I'm starting to show signs of hunger right now, but it's way too late at night to be eating.

9.0s

June 16, 2010 | Walker-Ames Room, Kane Hall

Meet the 9.0s! There's 36 of them this year, but a few (five, as you can see) couldn't make it to the reception.

My backpack was stolen today :( I'll probably never see my little Acer again =( But it squeaks a little, and I gave the police its tail number, so there's a small chance that it would turn up.

And a lot of other good things happened today. I scanned in all my papers from last quarter. Sarah Childers, our director, gave a really good speech. It reminded me about how I came to Academy. And she talked about varying grades and uncertain outcomes, and I thought: yeah, that's me. And then we had cake. The cake was good.

Closet

June 15, 2010 New shelves

Here is my new closet with all my shiny new shelves. Yeah, there isn't really much symmetry, and everything just went in wherever. Now I have a little more space for more clothes though. Hopefully, I don't buy any more clothes. I'll probably end up with five t-shirts from Costa Rica. :/ Oh well, my t-shirts go into my other closet. Haha. My room is ridiculous.

Studying

June 15, 2010 | Redmond Regional Library

We studied at the Redmond library today. Studied is a loose term - we mostly looked at med schools, math grad schools, and places to eat dinner. But in this picture we're clearly studying.

Today was probably the last I'll see you until you come back from your research trip in August. I hope we both had fun. Probably not as much as on Sunday, though.

Have fun in Costa Rica.

Strawberries

June 14, 2010 Chocolate covered strawberries

My dad bought strawberries. The problem with strawberries here (versus LA) and especially during the non-peak of the season is that they are quite sour. I really dislike sour fruit. I used to love strawberries, but I don't know why. Anyway, so, no one really eats strawberries in our house, and a third or fourth of the carton tends to go bad. Therefore, I covered them in chocolate, a mix of dark and milk, because we have a surplus of chocolate chips and a surplus of strawberries. "Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down in the most delightful way." Well, strawberries aren't really medicine.

Garden

June 13, 2010 | Iida Japanese Garden, Seattle

Here's more of yesterday, since nothing happened today. This is the Japanese Garden. I don't think it was this yellow, that's just a side effect of my filter. It's probably more colorful in the fall.

And even more from June 13

6-13

June 13, 2010 Washington Park Arboretum

I know we already have a a picture of us together on your post, but I can't do some other picture because they aren't as special as us.

Birthday, yay! I loved the walking and everything. And my new shirt. Hehe. I guess I should have worn mine, so that we could have matched for at least one picture. :/ Oh well, we'll plan for later in the week maybe? Or August?

Post 613. More excitement. Yay!

Twenty

June 13, 2010 | Iida Japanese Garden, Seattle

Happy Twentieth Birthday, Jessica!

Today has demonstrated how two can wander all day in a park. And several hours in a small section of the park. We entered the Japanese Garden at 15:25. We exited after 17:05, thus spending about two hours in this little park, walking along narrow paths amidst rocks and short plants, feeding large koi, and admiring the pond wherein they lived. What about the arboretum? If we include the boardwalk, we entered at 13:28 and stayed until about 8pm - your phone records can establish the exact time. Over 6 hours in the park.

At home I had a vatruška (Russian cottage cheese cake). How was your dinner? How was your cake? I hope it wasn't a fruit cake - you don't like those.

Did you enjoy today? I did :)

Brother

June 12, 2010 Walking into the stadium

My bro is the one almost center in this picture. He's looking at us. Probably laughing because my mom was hitting a GONG. Hahahaha. I can't believe it. Graduation was a while. It wasn't so bad, until the very end when we had to sit there through the names of the doctors and then through the handing out of placards to thousands of no-longer-undergraduates! So many people, I didn't even see when my brother got on stage even with the HuskyTron.

The commencement speech delivered by William H. Gates, Sr. was pretty good. It was more inspirational than the speech I had heard last night anyway. Coherent for an 84-yr-old...perhaps because he was a lawyer. Did you know he has written books? I want to read them now.

Polski

June 12, 2010

My mom bought this box of cookies at the Russian store. I don't like them. She claims they're from Poland.

Which reminds me of Hungary: there was a big supermarket chain called Tesco. They sold lots of stuff and compared somewhat to WalMart. As my Galois Theory professor pointed out, Hungarians don't go to Tesco.

Moral of the day: not everything that comes out of Europe is good.

Faculty

June 10, 2010 EE Department

There is a wave of pointy black mortarboards in the bottom half of this photo. We sat behind the graduating students. The ceremony wasn't bad. Only took about 1.5 hours. I was upset that there was an (extended) family that took up half a row that I am pretty sure was reserved for students. Grrr. The remaining students had to play musical chairs for their seat. After they got up for the walk across the stage, the very last group of students came back. Those who had a seat previously were confused.

Speech-unremarkable.

I liked the PhD student robes. Nice and fancy.

Sunlight

June 9, 2010 | Rainier Vista

Ok... this picture's from Wednesday. I was walking to CSE to work on Lab 9 for CSE 370 (which I finished today) and the sun came out. It was the day when the weather was schizophrenic, remember? Well, the sun came out, and it suddenly got very warm, but just before the sun came out, I saw the trees far away and the clouds above, and knew that I had to take a picture of this.

Notice the contrast.

I went to karaoke today. It was fun. Before that, though, I took a last stab at the lab, and finished it! Yay! Now I can safely say that I'm on break.

Kooza

June 10, 2010 Kooza illuminated on the ceiling of the tent

Kooza was amazing. I was in pain watching the performers, especially when they would fold (not bend) backwards in half. Every time I even do a back bend, it leaves me in temporary pain. I was also afraid for 90% of the performance and thought someone was going to die. Haha. Me, probably, from a heart attack.

Igor and I do the coolest things together. I think he is officially my favoritest boyfriend. Hehe.

Arboretum on Sunday! Yay!

Chapiteau

June 10, 2010 | Marymoor Park

We went to see Kooza today. It's this year's Cirque de Soleil performance. They put on a show, as usual. The clowns were overdone, as usual. But I enjoyed it much. As usual.

We're inside the outer ring, but outside the stage area. This is where they sell expensive junk food and overpriced merchandise. Also, this particular area is uncovered. And it rained today, which resulted in puddles.

Crocs

June 9, 2010 New shoes

These shoes are for my cruise! I need them for the clean room. Not so sterile anymore...I'm excited by the fact that my shoes came by two-day shipping. Yay! Packages!

Graduation

June 9, 2010 | TS Classroom

The TSers graduated today. Like every Wednesday of finals, when the TSers finish their quarter, we celebrate with cake and ice cream. The cake is partly to celebrate the birthdays of TSers who had birthdays in the quarter (considering that they probably don't have time to celebrate during the quarter =).

Dr. Halvorsen is handing out the cake. A TSer proudly serves ice cream. I don't know what he had done to receive the honor.

(For those who don't know what TS is: a 9-month-long initiation procedure into UW's Early Entrance Program. TS = Trauma and Stress.)

Congratulations, TS class of 2010! Welcome, EEP class of 2014-5!

Bloom

June 8, 2010 Front yard

Isn't it lovely? I like the tri-colors. Colors colors colors! I wish we had more roses and bloom, but it's been really cold and wet. Grrrr. Washington. The Calla lilies are blooming though. They are my favorite, I think, because they are strange flowers.

Pie

June 8, 2010 | RC Kitchen

I was "needed" twice today to take pictures. The first time, it was of this pie, before baking. I should say, they spent the morning pitting cherries, and so a lot of time was put into this pie. The second time, it was for this. They needed to cover the outer perimeter of the pie with foil, but they ran out. Then someone had the idea of using butter (margarine) packaging.

I didn't get to try this pie :( I had the stupid graphics final that gave me a headache.

Sichuan

June 7, 2010 水 煮鱼

My eating is like a cancer. I can't stop eating because my habits goes unchecked. Today, I went with my mommy to our mechanic. Since we were in Chinatown, we had to go to this place- Sichuanese Cuisine- which is probably one of the best restaurants ever. Their food is supposed to be kind of spicy in the tradition of Sichuan food. Maybe I've outgrown spice, or they have toned down. After lunch, my mom ordered some more food to take home. Most of it is gone now. :( TASTY.

Books

June 7, 2010 | RC Lounge

On Friday, everything that could be moved out of the lounge was, everything was cleaned, and everything that was moved out was moved in. This involves a reshuffling of books, as people decide how to organize them this time. This year's is somewhat original.

Visor-hat

June 6, 2010 My new hat

I upgraded from my visor to this hat to provide me all around protection, except for the space in the back...It's floppy. I look ridiculous. But I'm excited to use it. YAY.

I did a lot of shopping today. It was disgusting. I bought a lot of things that I shouldn't have. A lot of dark things that I can't really wear everyday either. :/