Chiquita

July 31, 2010 Riding Chiquita

We began the day by going to the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reverse. We spotted a family of coati's! But soon after, it started pouring. No monkeys. :(

When we came back into town, I went to the Orchid Garden. Besides seeing the world's smallest orchid (couldn't take a picture because the flower was so tiny and I was using my camera phone), I saw a beautiful colored bird, blue-crowned motmot.

In the afternoon, we went horseback riding. For $25, we saw the countryside. We had the most beautiful views of the surrounding areas. Chiquita was my horse. She was a little small and a bit of a free spirit. She had a tendency to wander off the path. :) I got to take quite a few pictures, and we had fresh guava along the way. Afterwards, we had lemonade with queso empanadas. Pretty good. And then, we also had sugarcane and coffee! We had a chance to see the coffee plants and banana/plaintain trees, and we were also shown other things (sugar cane plants!) growing around.

Long

July 31, 2010 | 3rd & Washington

Yeah, the day was long and full of stuff.

First I helped Kevin hang out his friend from California. In the morning we went up the needle, had lunch at the center, walked through the market, and then took a bus to Chinatown to the dragon training place. There we made plans for the evening. I wasn't eligible to run like these people :( so I went home and came back later.

Going back wasn't easy. My bus got stuck on the bridge for 30 minutes because of a car fire. Didn't stop me from taking pictures as far down the road as I could.

Then I returned to Chinatown, found the watching party (9 people, all of whom except Steven and Hanna left a short while later), and we watched the parade. I was watching the Asian groups in particular, and finally the dragon came up. Kevin's supposed to be under there somewhere. Apparently, he's around the middle and wearing a blue belt thing.

After the parade, around 11pm, we finally had dinner. But first we drove around downtown for a bit - ha ha. And then we drove everyone home. And took a few detours to show Kevin's friend where stuff is. And so I didn't come home until 1:45ish.

Canopy

July 30, 2010 Selvatura Park

I went zip-lining today! Followed by treetop walkway across the bridges. Zip-lining was a blast! Except I was pretty afraid after the first two lines and needed a guide to take me through the other eleven or so cables. The views were pretty amazing. I just couldn't do it by myself, because I was too afraid to go fast and I wasn't sure when I was nearly pressing down on my own wire.

The Tarzan swing was after the zip-lining. It was fun. Quick and dirty, not really dirty though - just quick. I was like :O and screamed going down because I was caught a little off guard.

We went across the bridges ('packaged deal'). Not much to comment here. The bridge gave us more time to observe the canopies and enjoy our surroundings.

Stars

July 30, 2010 | Second floor of PAA

Today was the last day of week 6 of summer quarter - only 3 weeks left, wow! - and also the last day of both Summer Challenge and Summer Stretch. My sister gave a 5-minute talk on "Ursa Minor, variable stars, and triple star systems". Pretty impressive.

凱文的朋友今天下午到西雅圖來了。 明天我們一起花時間在西雅圖玩。 我會花很多錢。 我希望明天會好玩。

Sloths

July 29, 2010 Pura Vida!

Today was ridiculous. With little forethought and preparation, we went canyoning (waterfall rappelling today). And in the evening, we went on a night walk. I'm very battered with the former. Crashed into the rocks a few times. Yikes. But it's okay because the rocks are smooth.

Although we saw a sloth on our night tour, we had a better view in the trees basically in front of the hostel. The sloth mama and the sloth baby have been there all day. We saw them this morning sleeping, and after we got off our shuttle bus following the tour, we saw other people from our hostel gathered outside watching the mama sloth move about and eat.

Japan-bound

July 29, 2010 | RC Lounge

You see Kenneth, wearing a China shirt and carrying a bag packed with camera equipment, leaving the RC. Tomorrow he leaves for Japan for the second part of his international summer course.

This is supposed to be an inconspicuous waist photo, whereby you hold a camera by your waist and release the shutter. I had one chance, and I was able to capture the moment - right when he saw me. I hope I did well enough.

Other interesting things happened today. For once, an old friend whom we haven't seen for several months now, suddenly returned. After the lounge closed we went to play Starcraft II for a bit. Most of us have never played before, so it was quite fun. Also, I got a chance to realize that I pretty much fail at Chinese. Sad. But how can I not, with the amount of practice that I'm getting?

Autobus

July 28, 2010 This is good-bye to Puntarenas

Look at that strange bus stop! It doesn't look very official. We left the shelter of the Double Tree for Monteverde today. The bus ride was nice and cheap - 1250 colones which is about $2.50. The ride was about 3 hours long, and our hostel, Cabinas El Pueblo, was probably 2 minutes from the bus stop! Really frickin close. Heather and I are basically staying at the Santa Elena City Center. The streets are lined with tour companies and restaurants and a few shops (and a supermarket).

Currants

July 28, 2010

I got fruits today. Or, rather, berries, but I think they are technically fruits. The currants are ours, the grapes aren't.

My exam went fairly well. I think. I hope you're having lots of fun in the rainforests of Costa Rica.

Swimming

July 27, 2010 Swim-up wet bar

Look at the pool! Isn't it super clear? The Double Tree has two wet bars which brings much excitement to people's hearts. I kind of feel trapped here. I know it's a resort, but things are getting old (probably because I'm not drinking) and I am very ready for my adventure which begins tomorrow! Yatta! I'll miss the bed though. Ahh, heavenly. It's like being hugged all around by a cushy person.

Candy

July 27, 2010 | Chinese

So, apparently today was candy day. This was planned, even though I only found out yesterday. There was more than enough junk food to go around. Most of it (a subset is seen here) was opened during our long break, but Raymond's shipment of corn dogs and dumplings (via mom) was delayed until middle of last hour. What's more, we played restaurant during the last hour. It was a lot of fun. 李老師 played the waiter, and spoke pretty much only Chinese, with a few exceptions like:

- Wo de peng-yau...

- Peng-yau? Wrong dialect!...

We need to do stuff like this more often. Actual conversational practice instead of the theoretical book learning that we've been doing up to now.

Oxcart

July 26, 2010 Welcome gift

I have arrived at the Double Tree, and I am officially never returning to the R/V Melville. Isn't this a cute little gift? And coffee caramels? Yuuummm...I would buy a bag of the candies, but the bag is big, and I shouldn't hook myself on something I can't have for life.

The bed is increi

ble! The sheets are so nice. I just drown in a sea of plushieness. And five pillows for me! What am I supposed to do with all of them? Loveeee. The food sucks. The fruit bar is a bit of a disappointment. And where are the mangoes??? I still have yet to get Costa Rican mangoes. Is it the wrong season? Oh well, at least I get to go to a coffee plantation soon. YAY. This trip is a dream come true. I hope it stays that way until the end.

Foxes

July 26, 2010 | Chinese

Today they drew foxes. Cute?

Otherwise, I'd share a picture of the RC. The EEP Drama Society meeting was there, to determine the time of Drama Day for this fall. Kind of funny, how they had to work hard to fit it in with the rest of the activities for the time. But, it's been decided.

Now, in Chinese, we draw animals. Otherwise, I'm worried about my acquisition. I thought I'd have plenty of speaking practice - turns out, that's not the case. Other languages, maybe, but CHIN 134 is not immersive. At. All.

Calle

July 26, 2010 Looking at the boat

You can see the Melville near the center of the picture which means I was not on it. Which means I was on land! (Or I guess, shuttle boat.) After our second floor bar (and some pizza), we, the majority of the science party, meandered to the restaurant across the street next door. This restaurant's name translates to "hot feet", and here, more drinks were enjoyed with loud music and some karaoke singing. There was dancing and much joy. :)

Bee

July 24, 2010 | Olallie Meadows

I knew I'd be uploading a picture from yesterday since I knew I'd be doing nothing noteworthy today. I knew correctly.

Yesterday I brought my 50mm lens along for the hike. The point was exactly this: to take pictures of flowers. Of my flower pictures from yesterday I like this one best. Thank you, bee, for staying on the flower long enough. I wish you a good harvest.

I don't know why, but I'm really sleepy right now. This is not good, as I still have Chinese homework to do.

Shipping

July 24, 2010 Packing up the van

We're done! We're packed, and we're on our way back to Puntarenas! I'm really frickin excited about land. I'm a little tiny bit sad to leave the boat just because it has been my home for the past month, and I'll never do it again. I need to pack up my belongings now. The boat gets in on July 25, but we're spending the night and leaving on the 26th (for the Double Tree Resort!). I'm going to be land sick. Yay!

Lake

July 24, 2010 | Pacific Crest Trail South of FS 9070

Like I said, today we went on a 18-mile hike. This is 5.5 miles in (out of 9 miles total), past the Olallie Meadows and almost into the forest again. The Meadows were nice, but nothing compared to the Washington Meadows of the North Cascades or Grand Park of Mt. Rainier.

The trail went in a forest briefly, then up the ski slope clearing, then back in the forest, then through these meadows, then here, then back into the forest again, and finally to the lake. We're all tired. I hope your last day went well.

Not sure why I like this picture. Notice how dark the lake is? That's what happens when I turn wind my polarizer filter up to maximum. It's unrealistic. Maybe that's why.

Styrofoam

July 23, 2010 Final deep cast crush

Today was the last 3000m deep cast. Everyone decorated lots of cups and ice cream containers, filling up two sizable mesh laundry bags with foam goodies. I wanted to miniaturize an instant noodles container. It isn't incredibly small, still 2.5 inches or so. At the suggestion of grad student Carly, I decorated a foam rack that held 15mL Eppendorf tubes (pretty frickin sweet, I'll show it to you sometime mayhaps). I'm pretty sure getting to crush sytrofoam objects made this trip. I should have made more cups.

Gull

July 20, 2010 | Drumheller Lake

I don't know why I didn't upload this on that day and went for cards instead. Maybe you haven't seen this picture yet. If you have, it's in higher resolution here.

Basically, on Tuesday, a few of us with cameras went to Drumheller Lake to take pictures of birds. I got a few good pictures. And this was probably the most fun thing I've done this week. Summer is unusually boring.

I'll share with you a photo of the Asian library sometime. I discovered it while looking for a Chinese to English dictionary (for a class dialogue). It's pretty amazing. I've also discovered Gowen Hall's maze of little twisting passageways. I might share that too.

Cast

July 22, 2010 Team Trace Metal!

These are the people I work with most closely (L to R): Heather, Jagruti, Carly, Dreux, Stephen, and Matt. This is our last trace metal cast for the cruise. The weather has been pretty nice (almost too nice), clear skies and quite hot. I have a different hat than the one I thought I would be bringing. It's super fashionable.

Folder

July 22, 2010

I got this for winning some game in class weeks ago. I don't even remember what it was. Our teacher brought us folders from her university in Taiwan.

國立臺灣師範大學

It's a folder from Taiwan. Yay!

Bow

July 21, 2010 Picture Day

After our last weekly Wednesday fire drill, the science party gathered on the bow for a group picture. Today was a very beautiful day. I will show you the picture of us sometime if you want, but I don't have it on my own camera. So close to being done! So strange! It feels like I have been here for eternity and not at all at the same time.

Taller

July 21, 2010

And bigger. The one on the right got finished, but fell just before I could take a picture.

I think I left my book in the RC today. Doing homework without a textbook was a bit complicated, but I've done most of it. We'll see tomorrow if it's still where I left it.

Dinner

July 20, 2010 Grilled fishie

Yay! The fish from yesterday was cut up for dinner. The flesh is quite nice though I think I would have liked to have tried it raw. Hehe. I want sushi and sashimi when I get home. And bubble tea and Szechuan food and spicy eggplant and ice cream and vegetables and okonomiyaki and tofu and tomato & eggs and basil plants and fruits from Yakima Fruit Market and creme brulee etc. Fooooood.

Tower

July 20, 2010 | RC Lounge

This is how far Kevin D. got with the card tower today. Only 5 cards to go. Unfortunately, the probability of the thing not falling as you put more cards on it tends to decrease exponentially.

I'm starting to talk to people in Chinese. I don't know if they understand me, and I usually don't understand them - that's what the hour of drama is for. Kevin's one of the RC regulars who know Mandarin, and he's often there. I'm getting beyond the psychological barrier, and that's good. After all, that's why I'm learning the language - to use it.

Wahoo

July 19, 2010 Wahoo fish, Acanthocybium solandri

A fish was caught today! It is supposedly over 40lbs. You can see its gills in its mouth. O.o This picture reminds me of a crime scene. I watched the Chief Engineer- he caught the fish- filet and cut open the fish. It was pretty impressive. It's a she according to my scientist buddies; it has ovaries. Innards are so cool!

Traditional

July 19, 2010 | RC lounge

To explain the things on the board:

First, a few days ago someone asked what the vector "hat" notation meant. That's in the lower left.

Second, my comment in reference to a commonly occurring element in simplified characters. Top.

Third, Kevin's piece of art. 坏小孩 was eventually shortened to 坏小子. I drew an arrow and wrote 這是什麼？And then some middle school kid corrected my Han writing to a more modern style. How dare he?! That was to be expected, of course. Center.

Exam was good. Yay! Have another one tomorrow, though.

Rainbow

July 18, 2010 A rainbow past the stern

I was having my dinner outside today which was nice because I didn't miss the rainbow like I have before. Someone pointed out the rainbow, at which point I leaped out of my seat and ran to my room to get my camera. I am ridiculous. Well, I think this is the first actual rainbow I've caught, as opposed to spectra created by water fountains or light. Unfortunately, the rainbow was incomplete and did not touch on the other side to the ocean.

Homework

July 18, 2010

Since I didn't go hiking today, I don't have a picture of trees, and mountains, and lakes... So this is what my homework looks like. This is a packet of 7 pages that we rip out of our workbooks. I guess I could have been smarter and wrote my responses on a separate piece of paper - this allows reusing the workbook. Note the heading with my Chinese name.

陶義明
２０１０年７月１９日

Anyway, tomorrow is review so hopefully I'll catch up to chapter 9 of material. This means studying chapters 8 and 9 tomorrow, and fixing up the chapter 6-7 stuff that I don't know very well. And remember what I said about starting to go to office hours for speaking practice. Tomorrow is office-hour heavy.

Edit: I'll say again: I like your picture with the rainbow. It's sharp, and the colors are good. Keep taking good pictures!

Lounge

July 18, 2010 The crew's lounge

This is the crew's lounge where wandering members of the science party occasionally crash to waste away time. There are hundreds of movies and TV shows on the shelves (and three copies of Twilight...). Some of us recently got hooked on True Blood (a sexy vampire show that is very, very different from Twilight). The writers are so brilliant. They write in cliffhangers, and it's so obvious that they're just trying to play their audience to make them watch the next episode. Sadly, though their tactics are obvious, I can't stop watching.

Words

July 17, 2010

Prof. Crossland of CHIN 134 suggested that we make a list of two-syllable words we know so far and split by tone pattern. I did that as a way of studying for the midterm. (Except I did it differently: instead of making neutral tone as a separate category, I added words with neutral tone into the most fitting existent category.) I think I did all right, since the words I had trouble with (especially 練習, 複習, 預習) weren't on. Not sure how much the list itself helped. Maybe it will help with drilling pronunciation.

Today's CTF game was sad. I'm not ready to talk about it yet, but it was sad.

Furniture

July 17, 2010 My Room, Part 2

Here is another bit of my room. We have two chairs in our room, but only one desk. I should use the desk. It has a lamp on the inside, but I just use the desk to put random things on top. My room shakes too much for me to be comfortable if I were to use it to study or anything. My gigantic suitcase doesn't fit into my locker/closet. It is an eyesore.

Elephant

July 16, 2010 | Chinese section in SAV

I'm still going to show off the board drawings from my class. Can you see the elephant in this?

I like the mice. txtxtxtx

Bunks

July 15, 2010 My room, Part 1

This is my bunk bed where I have nice dreams. I really like the curtains. They keep out the light. And there is a light attached to the wall above my head. Waking up in the dark isn't very fun. Well, I've gotten used to it by now. But without natural light (I have no windows, I live near the bottom of the boat), it's hard to tell that it is daytime. I guess it wouldn't matter much anyway because I have to wake up before the sunrise half of the time anyway.

Cards

July 15, 2010 | RC Lounge

When I came to the RC after lunch with people from my Chinese section, there were cards stuck in the ceiling. Weird, huh? Well, that's the lounge. Needless to say, card decks in the RC don't last very long - that's one reason why I always carry one around. And it doesn't help with the Stretchees around causing chaos in the afternoon.

We played cards for a bit. Then I went home. This week is midterm week, we have two hour-long exams. Last one was on reading and pinyin, this one will be on writing. So I spent the day writing down vocabulary, organizing by tones, like the teacher suggested. It did take all day, but working in the RC with the Stretchees is pretty much impossible.

I still don't remember all the characters. There should be around 250, excluding traditional. Need to study now. Study more. Make sure I'm caught up with the first half of the material.

Container

July 14, 2010 The lab in the shipping container

You know those trucks that carry those metal boxes around on their backs? Those metal boxes that are loaded onto cargo ships and go to their destinations with their goods? Well, I spend some of my time in this container. It gets rather crowded with five people working, especially when I get stuck in a corner. I like the feeling of family though. Hehe.

Rainier

July 14, 2010 | SR-520 Bridge

I like taking pictures of Mt. Rainier. It's sort of a milestone. Today was a good day, though: it was the evening - good mountain lighting, and clear. Also, the bus window was good enough.

More people are at the RC now than during the summer. This creates usual chaos. I managed to get some homework done before pizza, though.

Hallway

July 14, 2010

Nothing much to report on. My subjects are fairly limited on the ship. This is what the passageway outside my room looks like. I'm on one "end" of the boat (minus some sort of engine room), and on the opposite end is a door leading to some other engine room thing. I wonder why the sills aren't ground level. My first day I tripped over one.

Barred

July 13, 2010 | Central Parking Garage West Entrance

This is interesting: right as I was going to cross out for lunch (after my TA flatly refused to explain to one person about why it is ungrammatical in Chinese to say "as I was waking up, I fell asleep") when two fire trucks raced up, responding to an automatic fire alarm (source: seattle.gov). The bigger one, seen in the picture, turned into the parking garage and stopped, apparently realizing that it's not going to fit. A service van (left) came up, briefly talked to the engine driver, and they left the scene of their own encounter.

I wonder how they fight fires inside, say, tunnels or parking garages. Especially when a fire engine can't drive in directly. Also, those fires seem more dangerous.

Bug

July 12, 2010 I think it's a moth

I was walking along the hallway when this insect freaked me out. 1, because most insects have that surprise effect on me, and 2, because I would not expect any bugs in the middle of the ocean. We see birds a lot. Not sure what they're up, too.

Bear

July 12, 2010 | Chinese section in SAV

This is the usual drill: teacher gives us sentences in English, and we go up and write them in Chinese. There are also a few people who have fun during the long break. These days they're drawing animals (and bacteria).

Our teacher added her touch to the bear, though. As you can see.

Also, the cat is confused. Really confused.

Flags

July 11, 2010 Flags in the bridge

There are a lot of flags hiding here. They have a flag for all the letters (they aren't just the letters though). Apparently, the flags can be used to send messages which was useful back in the day without radios. They have messages for medical emergencies and military codes. The codes are endless and require a code book. I guess these aren't all the flags. I couldn't find Taiwan, and they must have Taiwan! They have stuff from Taiwan. They have definitely been there, I think. I'll have to go back and ask about other cubbies.

Weather

July 11, 2010

This is what the weather is like here. Sunny and warm. A police helicopter flew overhead, and I got outside for a chance that it would do another fly-over, but it didn't.

I just watched the last game of the World Cup. No more football for another four years =P

Controls

July 10, 2010 In the bridge

I was in the bridge today because the third mate spotted a turtle (or two?) swimming in the distance. The turtle(s) was seriously far away. I could barely make out its shell bobbing in the water when I was using binoculars. This is a bit of the bridge, which has many buttons and steering things. One to two people work here keeping watch which isn't too exciting because there aren't many pirates over here if any. I like the bridge though. Nifty place. All around windows. Very good sense of being in the middle of nowhere.

Camerawork

July 10, 2010

My sister is also working on a camera project. We'll see what comes of it.

Saturday's CTF game was not very exciting. We had a small show-up and not much of organization. No wonder we lost both games. (Although that first one was my fault for not checking the front of the building.)

Copepod

July 9, 2010 Birthday cake

There were two birthdays today. So, there were two cakes. This one is fun because there were two copepods on it. Our cooks are very creative with flavors. One cake had some gingery spice, and the other was chocolate with lightly-flavored espresso filling and strawberry bits in the layer. Tomorrow there is another birthday and also the ship's birthday. We have had quite a few birthdays so far and many cakes.

Chinese

July 9, 2010 | Class in SAV

This is Chinese section, last hour of the day. During break some people drew squirrels and bacteria, and wrote that the squirrels fight. The consensus is that squirrel 1 will win.

To explain the words on the right: we practiced the V 得 Adj pattern, and 金老師 (Kim Namwoon, in the picture) likes to ask embarrassing questions.

It was hot today. After class I had lunch, and then a few of us went to the Burke Museum to look at art by people with brain injuries. And then we got ice cream.

Lab

July 8, 2010 Main Lab

This is where many people work. There are also two nice bean bags for napping, reading, and idling. To the right is the wall of monitors (9? 10?) for video cameras and other displays. It's the floor below where I work. And there is a little hole between my floor and this floor, and you can see and hear people mumbling below or above.

Shack

July 8, 2010 | 42nd and 15th

I don't like this house here. It's the one next to Parrington, on what used to be an enjoyable lawn and fir grove. I hoped it would move away. But since they're building a porch, it doesn't seem likely. Don't know why they put plastic on it. Maybe it really is going away.

It was hot today. It'll be slightly hotter tomorrow and then cool down. The RC will be closed tomorrow due to "[the] heat wave and the peculiar micro-climate of the RC that always keeps us a little too warm for comfort on days like today"... And I hoped some people would go get ice cream.

Shrunken

July 7, 2010 What 3000 meters can do

Ta-da! End product! Aren't they phenomenal? Some of them didn't squish quite right. One of mine came out beautifully because other cups decided to congregate on the inside, thereby maintaining the integrity of the cup. After a little hot water, the cups detached from one another.

Cola

July 7, 2010 | RC Lounge

You may not care much about football, but many people in the RC do. In short, today was probably the most important game of the world cup: Spain vs. Germany. Allegiances were divided. Right after the game ended, there was a bit of chaos, RC-style. (Involves one EEPer running after another EEPer.)

Not sure what the face painting was for. The bottles of Coca Cola, though, are explainable: it was quite hot today, and drinking Cola out of a bottle is a classy way to celebrate the game.