Homezies, yah

Home. At last.

Back to school soon! Classes start up on Feb 7! This semester:

-Chemical Reactions
-Cell Physiology
-Biomolecular Science
-Indigenous Peoples (GE requirement)
-Statistics for Science

Cheers until my next adventure, which will hopefully be this summer when I participate in a Research for Undergraduates Experience (REU) somewhere in the USA!

LOVE!

Byyyyyyye, byyyye, Miss Hawaiian sweet...pie...?

HI!

We're going to be experiencing our last day of Hawaiian awesomeness today. Sad face.

Before we leave, we plan to do the following:

1) eat a delicious breakfast (made by momma!)
2) chill by/in the pool
3) chill by/in the ocean
4) put our heads underwater to listen to the humpback whale song (HAPPINESS)
5) chill with our toes in the sand
6) watch whales from the lanai
7) chill with the sunshine
8) feed a bird from the lanai
9) send postcards...finally...
10) shower in the greatest shower EVER
11) kiss the floor of 613 Honua Kai and worship it for being such an amazing condo
(12)...(ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, ....................pack...................maybe.....................................)

Red eye flight stuff: Hawaii-->Los Angeles-->Chicago-->Dubuque.

Snow (AND COOPER!!!! Thanks for watching him, Gramma and Fred :)!!!), here we come!

LOVE!

Look! Look!

I've uploaded whale videos! And the video from our presentation!

Click me!!!!!

Maui is fantastic :) Honua Kai is the most glorious and luxurious place EVER!

Seriously.

So, the luau was amazing last night (BIG HAPPY FACE)! Yup. Photos to follow.

Adventure for today: my foot got murdered by coral. Ouch. I'm ok, but MAN did it hurt. We chilled by the pool/beach all day. Super relaxing.

Tomorrow: whale watch in the morning and then lunch/dinner at Lahaina Pizzeria! YAY!

Then, we don't have any plans for like, ever. Until Monday morning, when we go snorkeling out at Molokini (sp?)!!!!

We fly Wednesday night. I actually kinda miss snow...........

LOVE!

Days 14, 15...and the rest of my trip until mom and dad pick me up on Thursday (1/20)!

Day 14/January 17, 2011
Today we had field research in the morning. There were so many boats out--it took us forever to find a pod where we could have a before boat period of at least 15 minutes. But, our persistence paid off and we found a really good one! Woohoo! So after that, we got back and ate lunch (I was feeling very veggie-y, so I ate a bowl of corn! It was so delicious. Mmmm!) and worked on data analysis for yesterday and today! Then we worked for a little while on our group research paper. Then we made an awesome group dinner! Spaghetti! And awesome garlic bread! It was so good! Even though we only had 10 minutes to spend eating it because we had to get over to the Marine Sanctuary to hear Dr. Green give a lecture to the public about the impact of sound (military sonar, boat traffic, and seismic geological testing with air guns) on marine mammals. Super duper interesting. Then we came back to the condo and we've all been studying FOREVER AND A DAY for the final exam tomorrow night. I'm totally going to bed soon.

Also, mom and dad arrived safely in Maui :) They experienced luggage problems, but I think those were resolved. They were going to call me when they got to the condo, but mom texted and said they were super sleepy, so I'll just talk to them tomorrow!

Day 15/January 18, 2011
Today is bittersweet. It's bitter because it's the last day of field research (sad face!) but sweet because I get to see my parents!! They're going to meet us at the field and observe us doing our research! I'm so excited!!! I'm going to go for a run on the beach, study all morning, and then we've got field research in the afternoon and then our final exam 7-9 pm. Then we're going to work on our team research paper. Then we're going to sleep.

Day 16/January 19, 2011
We've got all day to work on our team research paper...whoa sauce. Then we present it at 7 pm to the class! I'll post our research paper when we're done :)

Day 17/January 20, 2011
Today my personal essay is due! I'll post that when it's done...tonight I'm also going to a luau in Lahaina!!!!! One last hoorah with the team :) I'm super stoked. Mom and dad haven't decided if they're going to come, too, but either way they're going to pick me up from Menehune before the luau and we're going to head off to Kaanapali for the week! <3!

I'll update accordingly while I'm with my parents. For now, though, I'm going to be too busy to think straight! So much work to do and papers to write.

LOVE! And thanks, again, to everybody for reading my blog :)

Days 12 & 13 (Jan. 15 & 16, 2011)!

Hi!

It's been a crazy couple of days, and just like last J-term, my posts are not going to be as frequent over the next couple of days because of all the wrap up activities that take place when wrapping up the program. Over the next few days I've got to first take a test, then finish a group research project, and hammer out my personal paper. It's going to be cuuuuhrazy!

I'll tell you about my life the past few days, though. I can't remember if I followed up on what happened Friday night...we went to the WhaleSong.org benefit concert in Paia, which was fun!! Really earthy, hippy,  and sweet music (whale song duets with clarinet and soprano sax!)...Hawaiians are so chill. Seriously. Anyway, we left that about 8 pm and got back to the condo and I did laundry, typed some notes, and went to sleep! Then Saturday happened.

Day 12/January 15/Saturday!
Yay for having an off-day! I woke up at 8:30 am (ahhhh, relaxing!) and went for a run on the beach! Because of the most recent storm (the one that flooded everywhere in Kihei), the beach was/is a mess. I was doing a walk/jog/sprint routine, and every time I hit the "walk" stage, I'd save shrimp and small ocean invertebrates from being washed up! They were still alive, so I threw them back into the waves. Shrimp are so cute. :)

After I got back from my run, a plan was finally created for what we were going to do on our day off! We originally wanted to SCUBA/snorkel...but, the waters were pretty murky and full of sharks, so we opted out of that. Instead, we rented a jeep and drove to Big Beach in Makena and hung out there all day!! I LOVE TROPICAL BEACHES. Little Beach (aka the nude beach) was right over the cliff. I didn't go there, but one my roommates did. Anyway, on our way TO the beach, we stopped at a little roadside stand and I got a pineapple rice with fruit salsa taco! Yay anti-globalization and supporting the locals!

Swimming in the ocean was AWESOME! Although, I lost my snorkel mask because I got bulldozed into the sand by a huge wave and the ocean swept my goggles right off my face! I still have the snorkel tube, though. And I've got an extra pair of swimming goggles with me, so when I go on the snorkeling trip with mom and dad, I can just wear those. But yea! Then we drove back to the condo, ate dinner, and went to class. In class, we watched a movie called the Dolphin Dealer. Christopher Porter is a horrible human being, and the Ocean Embassy organization and SeaWorld and everything in Dubai need to be dismantled and suffer as much as the dolphins they put in captivity suffered. I was/am extremely upset at the way humans treat marine mammals, and animals in general.

After the movie, my roommates went to a lounge downtown Kihei, and I stayed and typed up notes and began my personal essay. The movie was kind of a buzzkill and I felt really sad about it, so I just felt like cuddling in my jammies and not moving.

Then I went to sleep :)

Day 13/January 16, 2011/Sunday
Today we woke up bright and early to go on a whale watch!! Hawaii Ocean Rafting is the company, located in Lahaina--SUPER AWESOME SAUCE! We got within 20 feet of a female whale who was tail slapping in the company of several aggressive bulls that were vying for physical proximity to her! I don't have time right now to upload the videos, but they're super amazing :) :)

So, we were on that from 7 am-9:30 am, and then we explored the town of Lahaina for a little bit! It reminded me a bit of Bar Harbor, ME...except, without the hills and the water is a lot bluer. We ate lunch at a restaurant called Cheeseburger In Paradise and our waiter was super friendly...ex-military who is completely nomadic (lived in 8 countries and 32 states). Whoa sauce.

Then we went out for afternoon field research! The sun was brutally hot today and there wasn't much of a breeze. So much sunscreen was used. Oh my gosh. And I still got slightly burnt!!! We got some pretty good data.

Then we came back to the condo, ate dinner (I had yogurt and strawberries and toast because I had a big lunch), and went to class! Class was, once again, a horrible movie about dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan. Crying through the whole thing--the movie is called The Cove. I had to look away many times, but I could still hear the screams of the dolphins as they were being murdered. Japan is scary. And it's a very influential movie. See it at least once--the "disney" version, like I saw. Apparently the raw version is exponentially more graphic. I can't even imagine seeing the raw version...I could barely handle the "disney" version. So, all in all, it was another great day that ended with discussion of dolphin murder and human desire for greed and domination--aka: speciesism.

So, tomorrow we've got morning field research and mom and dad are flying to Maui!! Wooooooo!!!! We're expecting a big storm tonight (Sunday) that will go into Monday, so I'm a bit worried about the whole flight situation, but mom and dad are smart, so if the plane has any trouble, they'll know how to steer it to safety :)

Love!

Day 11/January 14, 2011

Oh my goodness! The internet is working INSIDE the condo!! I just ate breakfast and turned on my computer to type up my notes before we left for the field this morning and LO AND BEHOLD: when I reflexively clicked Mozilla to reflexively check my email, it worked! Anyway, yea. So, I'm really excited right now.

I'm also really excited because I did really well on the first test!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The next test is on Tuesday. Supposedly, it's easier. I'm not going to change any of my study habits though. Apparently a lot of people didn't do well on the first test...but Laura said that our team did the BEST out of all the teams!! We're such superstars.

So, yesterday the weather actually cleared up! However, there was so much flooding on the road, they closed it, so we couldn't get to our research site. We went on the roof of Menehune, instead! We ended up finding a really cool pod of whales...except they were exactly ON the horizon (not a "tick" or a "1/2 tick" down on the binocular compass), which made it SUPER hard to see anything. The only behaviors we could see were blows, breaches, and any other surface splashes. No body parts. The person on the theodolite confirmed blows, though! YAY! After we did our afternoon shift, then, some of the girls went to the grocery store (all I needed was yogurt and cheerios, so I didn't go...Amber picked them up for me and I paid her back! W00t!). While they were there, Miss Jillian and I went through the initial data analysis! Then we ate dinner. And the group was back at that point. Amber made homemade guacamole, which was really yummy!! Class happened--not in the classroom, but in the TA's room (106)/because of the flooding we couldn't get to the classroom. Class discussion was about N30, WTO, globalization, privatization--yea, pretty much against globalization. Where's the fun in cultural homogenity?! Why go to Sri Lanka if it looks exactly like Atlanta, Georgia? No uniqueness. And, (possible) privatization of water?! REALLY?! Wow. Humanity sucks. I've got more to say on that, but this post is an unexpected diversion (because the internet actually WORKED!) and I've got to type up some notes before we leave!

Tonight we're going to a benefit concert for the founder of WhaleSong.org! They buoy he puts in the water with the hydrophone that records the humpback whales singing costs a lot of money (and right now it's not in the water because he doesn't have the funds), so he's having a concert to raise some moolah! We'll be at that for a while tonight and then we'll come back and tomorrow is our day off! We talked to Laura and she's got a friend at a dive shop who is going to try to give us really good rates so we can go SCUBA diving/(snorkeling) off of Molokini (sp?)!!!!!!! Ziplining was >$90/person, so we opted NOT for that. We're going to have so much fun! I hope I have time to write some postcards, too. It's been crazy busy. If I don't send postcards while I'm at OMI, I'll send them the week I'm with the parentals :)

For now, note typing time!

PS: I forgot to tell you what I ate yesterday! The greatest thing I ate was yogurt and chopped up fresh strawberries (from the farmer's market!) and shells in white cheddar noodles. Yumm-O! K, bye.

PSS: Did you know that there's such thing as monkey poop coffee??! Don't worry, nobody is drinking it here. Apparently it's extremely expensive. Ummm, that's really gross.

Day 10/January 13, 2011



Here's the radar! Kihei is right where the "i" in Kahului is!



Aaaaaaaand the storm is continuing! Here's a picture of the radar (hopefully it worked). Pretty epic, yea? Kihei is right where the "i" in Kahului is. The power has gone out so many times this morning...mostly before 6 am. Anyway, so the morning groups probably aren't going to go out and if they don't go out, the likelihood of the afternoon group (us) isn't too good either. Looks like we'll have another 2-class day! And today is a food run, but I don't have much to pick up. Just a box of cheerios and yogurt. I'm probably going to start my personal essay, too! The essay is supposed to be our assessment on the state of the oceans and we're supposed to come up with a unique "something" we can do to help improve the state of the oceans. If anybody has any ideas, I'd love to hear them! Anyway, yea! So, that's pretty much it! It'll be another low-key day. Sad, really. I miss the whales :(

There is lots of flooding, too. The picture here is just a taste...the entire road in front of Menehune is flooded. Flash flood warnings are in full swing! This is just a picture of the beach area.

Flooding! Oh my goodness!

Update: with all the rain and stuff, Marsha has said she doesn't think the Road to Hana is a good idea. I wasn't going to go anyway--I'm probably going to go snorkeling and ziplining! Or, if that doesn't work, I'll probably end up chilling on the beach and reading my book :) <--major happy face. I love the ocean.

Love! And, I'll try to update again soon. It's tough because the internet is so finicky...we can only access it on the lanai, and even then it's tempermental. Oh, and my parents shipped my camera and the post office dropped one of those "re-deliver" sheets off, but I think I'm deducing from the fact they haven't come back to drop anything off that I've got to bring the sheet "requesting" a re-deliver TO the post office. So, I'll do that at some point.

Day 9/January 12, 2011!

Today, field research was cancelled because all night and day we had crazy thunderstorms on and off. The weather here is so unpredictable! Maybe it’s an island thing. Anyway, I woke up this morning about 5:28 am and looked out my window and it was super duper windy and stormy! The way the light projecting from Menehune was angled with the building and the way the wind was blowing the raindrops made it look like the raindrops were actually snowflakes! It was a little disconcerting, but then I remembered that I’m in Hawaii. ANYWAY, moving on. So, because we didn’t find out field research was cancelled until 8:45 am (we went down in our rain jackets and waterproof gear and were ready to go! But, the team leaders failed to let us know that we weren’t going to do field work in pouring rain and gale force winds on the edge of a cliff…), we spent the morning reading articles and chillaxing. I was really sad, though, because field research is the best part! And, all of us are so used to being in the outdoors, there was a little cabin fever going on—I know I really wanted to go for another run on the beach and one my roomies actually felt a bit ill because she didn’t go for her usual run! (See, world, we need to take care of the environment because it’s essential to the maintenance of our mental and physical health!!) Yup, so we had two classes today—one 3-5 pm and one 7-9 pm. The 3-5 pm class was a discussion on PR firms and their invisible manipulation and how the world is an oligarchy of corporations all acting for money, and the 7-9 pm class started out with discussions on acoustic pollution in the oceans and ended with a discussion on PR firms and the fascism and repressiveness of our government. The world is scary. Like, I wish there was another planet. Other countries seem really appealing. For a variety of reasons—like, the European Union refuses to use GMOs (genetically modified organisms/food), for example…GMOs have been proven to reduce pesticides, but they’ve also proven to physically damage your organs. I don’t know who to trust any more other than myself. PR firms terrify me. It’s like there’s a whole ‘nuther world within our world…Edward Bernays, the nephew of Freud and the originator of public relations states that “democracies need an invisible ruling elite…the public is not capable of thinking on it’s own and making their own destiny.” With this in mind and inspiration from his uncle Freud, he (essentially) created the scientific method of mind control we call public relations. PR firms manipulate; to be a democracy, people need all the information. With PR, there is suppression of information; well, with the merging of government and corporation, where’s the public knowledge? And, now that corporations are now seen as individuals in the political sphere, they can fund political candidates and push their own corporate viewpoints…money speaks wonders. Anyway, so that was today. I found it oddly ironic that the video we watched (Toxic Sludge Is Good For You, based on the book John Stauber) was almost a public relation technique in itself—promoting anti-public relations. Make sense? I just want truth. Dr. Green gave us several websites to get “real” information from—here they are: PRwatch.com, TruthOut.org, ReaderSupportedNews.com, and DemocracyNow.com. Let me know if these are credible; internet is only accessible from the roof or the lanai, so I don’t know when I’ll be able to access it. Daddy, I’ll be interested to see what you have to say. Please, when you and momma come to Hawaii, we should talk in detail! Then I went to sleep after typing up my notes.

Days 6, 7, and 8 (today)

Hey there! Sorry I haven’t updated in a while. Here’s what’s been happening:

Day 6/January 9, 2011 

One of the many "sticks" on the beach. Dogs love these.

So, that was Sunday. Let’s see, what’d I do. Ok, so I went for a run on the beach, which was SUPER amazing! There were so many dogs playing with sticks and people and like, it was awesome!

One sad thing, though: I found a dead green sea turtle (endangered) in the corner of the beach next to Menehune Shores. Amber, one of my team members, works with rescue networks in the Virginia Beach area, and I told her about it and we got in contact with the Maui rescue network. They came out, looked at it last night, but Monday morning when they came out to pick it up, it was gone. I took a picture of it—by the time Amber saw it, it was a lot more torn apart. We think that the bulldozer that does erosion control on the beach early in the morning scooped up the turtle. Can you say ILLEGAL!! Anyway, so that happened.

A dead green sea turtle: endangered. Very sad. There is a thin strip of plastic wrapped through it's body...we're destroying the oceans.

We did our data collecting in the afternoon and I got a lot of sun! I also operated the theodolite for most of the time and got tons of data points! It was super exciting. After we came back, we ate dinner, read articles, analyzed our data, and went to class!

Me in the field!

Class was awesome. One of Dr. Green’s friends, Kalasara, is a native of Arizona but has lived in Hawaii now for 15 years and is an environmental activist. She gave a talk on speaking with the whales. Now, I know you’re probably thinking that’s crazy, but I totally related to her and understood and like, she’s awesome. So, here’s how it goes: our brain is divided into 2 sides—right and left. The left side is our empirical, sciency side. The right side is our intuition. Because of the way we’re raised in American, European, any “advanced” non-indigenous culture, the left side (empirical) is more developed than the right (intuition) and is able to override and essentially shut down any thoughts the right side has. So, it’s like when you have a “feeling” about something, but you don’t act on it because you rationalize—that’s the left side shutting down your intuition. Basically, what Kalasara talked about is trusting your intuition. We’re all a part of this earth—everything is harmonious. Evolutionarily, there’s a disconnect that has occurred between the heart and the mind—we’re trusting our mind rather than our heart and our intuition and it needs to be the other way around. Here’s an experiment for you to do—it’ll hopefully prove my point. And don’t read ahead, after this test: draw a picture of yourself. 

 Alright, so you’ve either drawn a picture of yourself or imagined what you would draw were you to draw a picture of yourself. Most people draw a picture of just their heads. If you drew a picture of another animal or of your head and body, kudos for being one with nature. If you only drew your head, this shows that psychologically, there is a predominance of the mind vs. the heart. We know we have a body and we know our head can’t live without our body, but the focus is so much on our mind, that we inadvertently disregard it. That makes sense, right? Think about it. To continue, she then talked about how she can actually talk to the whales. And I believe her. It’s hard to explain, but it’s like when Cooper (my dog) is hungry—aside from his barking at me, I get this “feeling” before he does anything that he’s hungry. Similarly, when I was younger I would always bring home stray dogs—somehow, they knew they could trust me. It’s that whole animal instinct thing—animals pay attention to their intuitions and their instincts. When the stray dogs would follow me home, I was probably somehow communicating that I wasn’t going to hurt them and that it was ok for them to come home with me. For lack of another word, it’s telepathy. And ducks! When I’d feed the ducks with grandpa—they’d come really close to me. There’s a similar interaction that occurs between mothers and babies—but, people are hesitant to call it telepathy because it’s considered a socially “weird” thing to do. Mothers “know” when the baby is hungry. Marine mammals do the same thing—actually, all animals in the animal kingdom do. We are no different from them, even though we think we are. Anyway, so she was talking about how she talked to the whales and she actually swam with them in the Dominican Republic at the whale sanctuary there ($1,100 for a weeklong boat excursion—something I’m TOTALLY doing someday).

It’s unknown why they sing (it’s not to attract mates)—but, she asked them why they sing and they answered, or rather she got a feeling in heart and she knew the answer, that they sing their lineage. But, of course, there’s no way to scientifically prove that—I think it’s brilliant, though! Oh, also: with dolphin chirps, they’ve actually figured out that their chirps correlate to 3D images—so, dolphins are, in fact, communicating telepathically with one another through their chirps. Which, in terms of survival, is very efficient because they’re not expending the extra physiological energy to use abstract words to describe what they’re saying—they’re just showing what they’re trying to say. And Kalasara also said the whales are desperate to let us know that humans are destroying the feminine energy of the earth (this ties in with other feminine repression around the world—sex trades, how women are still paid $0.75 to the man’s dollar, etc.) and that the whales are wise and that the whales know humans are capable of being more than what we’ve become. We’re meant to love each other and we, as humans and the mega-predators and parasites of the earth, are spiraling ourselves to doom with the destruction of the ocean environments.

 Don’t worry, I’m not turning crazy liberal or whatever. I’m actually becoming repulsed by our entire governmental system—so, I suppose I’m becoming more aware and independent in my opinions. It probably sounds a bit radical coming from me, though…maybe. I dunno. I’m just realizing that the world is being ruled by an oligarchy of a few powerful companies and their minions. It may sound silly to some, but all of this makes me just want to go off the grid, escape from the cage of modern living, and live off the land, away from everything where I’d be able to truly be in harmony with the earth. (I don’t know if I could do it forever, but at least for a little bit. Or, at least be in an extremely small community on an island in the middle of nowhere—that’s the more practical approach, I guess. The one the left side of my brain is telling me. I’m sick of using the left side of my brain, though. I’m just going to follow my intuition from now on.)

 Day 7/January 10, 2011 

A sailboat with sail: SBS code for our data collecting. 

Yesterday was a bit rough—I fell asleep on Sunday night with a pretty bad ache in my head and I woke up at 3 am with a raging headache—much like a migraine. So, I was pretty out of this morning. So out of it, in fact, that I was nauseous and I was trying to stay in the field but my head hurt so bad and I was so pale, clammy, etc., that Laura made me sit in the car and Janice came and picked me up in the field after I’d only been out there for a couple of hours. I felt really bad for leaving my team, but I was taken back to the condo, slept for a while in a dark room, given excederin and it made me feel a lot better. I drank tons of water and was able to keep down some food, too, which was nice. The people here are amazing. And my team is the best! In the past, teams or research groups I’ve been in have been like, all about self-preservation and not helping team members, but my research team here is fantastic!!! They rose to the occasion and even though I wasn’t feeling good took charge and I’m just really proud to call them my team members. I like them :) Anyway, so I spent the afternoon studying for the exam, which is tonight! I still had a dull ache in my head after taking the first excederin, but I took the second one before I went to sleep and woke up feeling a lot better. I’ve been drinking tons of water.

 OH! And there was a wicked crazy, windy, hurricane-esque (ok, that’s an exaggeration) storm before we left for class!! They had to drive us because the lightning and thunder was so bad. Yup, my first Hawaiian storm! Hawaiian rain smells weird. And you know the smell of after rain? Hawaiian after rain smells weird, too. In the states it smells like worms, here it just smells…weird and gross. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just Kihei…? I know Kihei can smell good—when I went running it smelled amazing (…like the ocean…even though salt doesn’t have an actual smell…whatever).

 Lecture last night was AMAZING. First off, Laura is a biomusicologist (in addition to being a Sea Shepherd). So, she presented her Master’s thesis research to us about the humpback whale song. Super fascinating. And then, David Rothenberger (sp?), who is a Professor of Philosophy and Music in New Jersey and a jazz musician talked about his research with the humpback whale song and bird song! He basically has jam sessions with birds (with his clarinet). He played some of the jam sessions with birds (the laughing thrush was my favorite!) for us and it’s amazing. He’s on YouTube, I’ll try to find a link for you to listen/watch. He’s my favorite lecturer so far. He also had a jam session with a humpback whale! He put a hydrophone in the water and played his clarinet while the whale was singing and the whale “dueted” back. Like, SO COOL.

 Our team stayed after “official” lecture and talked to Dr. Green at length about the random mass killings of animals that have been washing up on European beaches. Google: “HAARP” and “DARPA”. Basically, what is causing the mass killings of birds and fish across the globe is our Navy and the Air Force working with a high-powered sonar system that penetrates the ionosphere, heating it up and making it gelatinous and full of electric currents/hot. When this happens, they’re able to somehow direct that hot energy to a specific coordinates and cause earthquakes, mass killings (the birds’ hearts exploded, making it look like a heart attack…but, the birds were also then fried while flying, too, and then they crash to the ground in flocks), messing with plane systems (high profiled politicians that have died recently, anyone?), and other extreme things (like messing with the magnetic field in the oceans). There’s a HAARP mechanism in Alaska. It’s very secret, apparently, but now you know. If you’re interested in talking about it in person, I’d be more than happy to—it’s kind of hard to describe in this blog. But, HAARP and DARPA are the newest weapons of mass destruction. Yay humanity: finding new ways to destroy each other daily.

 And then I studied for the rest of the night and got to bed around 11 pm.

Plan: wake up at 6:30 am to study. Team study session: 9:30-11:30 am. Lunch: 11:30-12:15. Field research: 1-4 pm. Study 4:30-5:30 pm. Dinner (and study): 5:30-6:30 pm. Exam 7-9 pm. Wish me luck! :)

Also, a debate in class the other day was: Do humans have the right to develop a plot of land if it will cause the extinction of a species? Here are some arguments we came up with in class; what do YOU think?

 Pro/humans have the right: • Make safe houses for the endangered species. • How do you determine the net value of a species? Kind of like insurance values on body parts. • People need jobs and people need to survive. • Going to be destroying species no matter where you go. • They’re already vulnerable if they’re endangered, so what’s to say another environmental change won’t kill them? They’re going to die eventually. • Selfish gene theory: we have the right to let our species flourish over others; we’re using the tools of nature...nature is allowing us to do this. • Bible says, “man can have dominion over the environment.” • It’s the owner’s land, they can do what they want.

 Con/humans do not have the right: • Throw off balance of the environment; irreversible changes; scientific evidence that this happens. Take mosquitoes away and bats die and then owls die. Take bees away and flowers die. Symbiotic relationships are essential to the survival of everything because everything is interconnected. • Business people always find a way around stuff, they can find a way around killing a species • Playing god isn’t ok. We can’t decide which species live and die. • We can’t abuse our human power. • Keeping species around could be the cure for a new disease and if that species is gone, we can’t bring it back. • Bad impacts or good impacts—we don’t know, but if they’re bad, we can’t reverse it. • Everything has a right to life. • Domino effect of damage with trophic cascade and other stuff in the ecosystem. Not worth the risk to develop land. Better to play it safe than destroy the entire balance of the biosphere.

 Another question that follows this one is whether or not all creatures have an inherent right to life. Whatcha think?

Sunset :)

 Day 8/January 11, 2011 
Hey! It’s 1/11/11! Make a wish (with your eyes closed) at 11:11 am/pm and if it changes to 11:12 when you open your eyes your wish will come true! So, studying this morning and then field research in the afternoon, dinner, then the exam. Then we’re going to analyze our data from today because then tomorrow morning we’ve got the morning field research shift! We were supposed to go on a whale watch tomorrow, but the weather has been super stormy so they’ve rescheduled for next week. Anyway! Ciao!

Day 5!

Hi! Yesterday was awesome. We went into the field in the morning! And while the whales weren’t too active, we got a “control pod” we’re able to map and one pod with boat interference. Yay! Anyway, we came back from the field, ate lunch, finished our data analysis from the day before, and worked on our group presentation for the night!

 Our group presentation was fantastic. We re-enacted an episode of Whale Wars! We had face paint, signs, “harpoons” (nerf footballs), “rotten butter” (empty butter containers), a powerful water gun (one of those floppy swim noodles), and binoculars (toilet paper rolls stapled together). It was the Sea Shepherd’s vs. the Japanese! The team leaders actually videotaped us and it’s going to be on YouTube AND they’re going to email it to Captain Paul Watson! I’ll let you know when it’s available! Feedback from afterwards: Dr. Green was smiling and laughing and said she REALLY enjoyed it and all of the team leaders were really enjoying our skit! The class of fashion majors were kinda like, “Oooooooooooooo-kay…..”, but who cares! We had fun. It was AWESOME!

 So, after we came back from that, Laura told us our field grades! Amongst other awesome feedback about me (personally), Laura said that our team is the best out of all the teams!!! We’re really standing out and Janice is super stoked about us. Yippee!!! The rest of the night consisted in us wrapping up our data analysis from that day’s data, celebrating our awesome presentation with popsicles and cookie dough, and going to sleep!

Now, I’m awake at 6:36 am. I just ate breakfast and am updating my blog. I’m going to have a fun-filled morning of reading articles…I might go for a run on the beach later! Field work is from 1-4 pm and then we’ll eat dinner and attend class! Team 3 is presenting the readings for tonight—it’ll be interesting to see what they do! They’ve got a lot to live up to! :)

 Alrighty, that’s all! Off to shower! It’s kinda chilly this morning, but I’m sure it’ll heat up! Today I might actually get some sun when we’re in the field!! For being in Maui for 5 days already, I don’t have any tan lines or sunburn at all! Which is good (I suppose) in the long run, because it means my chances of cancer are slightly decreased and that my 50 SPF sunscreen is working….but, it’s still a bit pitiful (superficially speaking). The other people in the course (well, not our team because we study a lot) chill by the pool all the time and are super tan.

 We also discussed last night what to do on our day off! Since we’re pretty much on our own that day, we might do snorkeling ahead of time on some morning before our day off at a beach right up the road and then on our day off go ziplining in Kaanapali or just take the bus up to Kaanapali, rent bikes, and snorkel at all the beautiful beaches! Don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything alone. I don’t want to get abducted. Stranger danger!

 Ok, now I’m really gonna shower. LOVE! And I hope everybody had a wonderful weekend!

Day 4!

Hi! Today was awesome. But first I'll tell you about last night!

I stayed up until about 11 pm typing up my notes--all done! Yay! So, now I'm continuing to catch up on reading and stuff. That's what I did this morning. I guess last night wasn't as interesting as I thought it'd be. Hmm...anyway, moving on.

So, this morning I woke up around 7:50 am. Everybody else was already up. Super early risers! Like, we're talking before sunrise. Super cool. But yea! Then I showered, ate my Honey Nut Cheerios and then read all morning. We had the afternoon shift in the field today, so at 12:30 we went down to Laura's room where we then left for the field!

Note: my new camera has broken :( Each time it's turned on, the shutter has to open and close. Well, the shutter won't close so it doesn't feel like it can reset itself and I can't take a picture. Booo :( So, I called mom and dad and they're going to mail me my old camera, which is still a super nice camera. But, not waterproof. Blessing: dad has a waterproof camera, so when he and mom come at the end of the month I can use his for a little bit (maybe, hehe!). OH! And, I figured out how to mail stuff. There's a mail drop by the office. And any mail that comes to me will be given to Dr. Marsha Green. I warned her tonight that my parents love to send mail...and sure enough, she handed me a couple of letters. Thanks, Emily and Mom, Dad, and Cooper :)!!!!

Anyway, so we were out in the field and we got FANTASTIC data! We got a really great before/during/after boat period to plot! Here's a picture after we were done collecting data!

This is me! With the theodolite, which is just a really high powered telescope.

We got back to the condo and I ate a peanut butter (creamy) and jelly (strawberry jam) sandwich with a couple of fresh strawberries and tomatoes and big glass of water (I haven't eaten the passionfruit yet...partly because I can't figure out how. If anybody has advice, please share!!). It was a delicious meal. And then I worked on the data calculations! Between the mapping and the mathy-calculation part: I really, really enjoy the calculation part. It's so interesting to see the extreme differences in "down times" before/during/after boat periods. There was a boat today that was literally on top of a whale--we were so angry. The whale ended up doing vertical avoidance for more than 14 minutes before surfacing nearby. Stupid boat.

Oh my gosh, amazing factoid: for those who watch Whale Wars...my team leader, Laura Laut Van Asyma, is a Sea Shepherd! (I'll let that one sink in for a second). She was supposed to be on the boat right now as the "voice of the Netherlands" but she chose to do this instead and is going to be there next year! Seriously cool!!!!! She's so great.

So, tomorrow we've got morning field work (9 am-noon) and then we're going to work on our group presentation that we're giving tomorrow at 7 pm for class! Also, the speaker last night at the Sanctuary (David Mattila) was super interesting (he works globally with disentangling whales and the genetics of whale distribution (using the mtDNA: they figure out the approximate size of the historical populations based on the maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA samples!)...so, he's going to be hanging out at the Sanctuary so I'm going to go over and talk to him about whale genetics :)

I just ate some crackers and colby jack cheese. Yummers! And, some girls are making a food run because the next food run isn't until next Friday! I've got them picking me up a few more things, just to last me (milk, OJ, bread, etc.).

Miss you guys! Hawaii is really pretty.

PS: it's really tough to get a photo of a breaching whale...especially since my (temporary) main camera is my cell phone. Also, during field work, it is scowled upon to use any form of technology other than binoculars and the theodolite. And sunscreen.

PSS: on my day off, I think another girl and I are trying to figure out if we can go ziplining! Or, there's a great snorkel place down the way! We might go snorkeling!

PSSS: Haley'Bug, the shower pressure is in fact awesome and a very important part of one's trip anywhere! If the shower pressure's bad, one feels dirty, which then impacts the pleasure of the trip. Unless you like being dirty, which is not that far-fetched a notion given that humans constantly feel the urge to go back to our primal roots of living in the woods and being all primitive!

Day 3!

Hi!!

As you can see above (look at the "hello" section immediately above this), I've started a facebook album that has more photos! So, click that link (or here) to view the album! You don't need a facebook profile to see it; it's the "public" album link. Yay!

Anyway! Last night we made our food run: I spent $100 and pretty much got most of my food for the entire trip...soup, frozen dinners, canned veggies, frozen fruit, granola bars, cereal, bread, etc. Hawaiian Bread is only $2 here! Is that cheaper than home? So, as far as food goes, then, all I'm gonna need to keep up on is cheese, yogurt, milk, OJ, and fresh fruit from the farmer's market down the way!

This is the cliff we stand on! We stand where the plateau is, not on the precipitous edge.

Today was great. Woke up around 6:45 am, showered (was done by 7:07 am...w00t!), ate Honey Nut Cheerios with 2% milk and a glass of Simply Orange Orange Juice. I then did some of the readings for tonight. At 8:15 am my team walked down to Laura's room (team leader from the Netherlands!) and we drove out to the cliff where we then studied whale movement 9 am-noon. The whales weren't too active today and they were pretty far from shore. On Tuesday we saw a lot of mom-calf action, and today the most action was (we think) a mom whale tail slapping at least 30 times after another couple of whales breached nearby. Hypothesis: the mom whale was threatened by the breaching whales and was tail slapping to warn the breaching whales away from the calf.

Note: breaching whales are the most magical sight ever. You think they're great on television...see one in person and it's life changing.

Anyway, so we did research and then stopped at the farmer's market! I spent $14 and got a passionfruit (never tried it...), a solo papaya, strawberries, apple-bananas, a kiwi, cherry tomatoes, and a red pepper! And then we went back to the condo for lunch and I had a salad with an apple-banana and cherry tomatoes, a cheese/bread sandwich, and a glass of the most delicious 2% milk ever. Then Laura came over and we learned how to plot our data on a map! Lots of math and logic and figuring our of before/during/after "boat time" with the whale action. The final result of our data each pod is the statistic of "X whale behavior/minute/animal", X being a number--the numbers we got today were 0.30 and 1.50. Super cool! I really like it.

Now I'm gonna heat up something to eat (I love microwaves...God's gift to man, except for the whole cancer causing aspect if you put your face too close to them, or something...is that right?) and then at 5:30 we're heading over to the lecture (which doesn't start until 7 pm, but we've got such a big group they told us to get there early so we can get seats) and then we've got class whenever that's done until 9(ish) pm! Then I'm gonna stay up and read ahead so that (eventually) I can type up my notes into my computer and a) incorporate them into my blog and b) use them as a study tool/study guide.

Phew! Time to eat. Love! And I miss everybody! I love what I'm doing, but I keep thinking about how great it would be if everybody were here to share it with me :)

Can't wait to see you when I get back!!

Day 2!

Hey there, people! Today was a pretty lazy day. I woke up around 7, went to class around 10, ate lunch at noon, and then read all afternoon on the lanai! It was really peaceful. And now we've got class tonight 7-9 pm and then grocery shopping (finally!).

Sunset!

Tomorrow we've got morning field work and then the afternoon to read and class/lectures at night. On Friday we'll have afternoon field work--it shifts each day. Our midterm is next Tuesday and our "off day" is on January 15, when we will go on the Road to Hana! (I think...I'm not sure! Or snorkeling!). But yea!

Anyway! Here's a picture of what I'm looking at right now. It's really pretty, to say the least!

Day 1!

The view from condo 623 (aka: our team's condo!) :)

Last night around 11 pm, this is what I wrote: "I'm going to write more tomorrow because I'm doing this from my phone and the internet doesn't work on my bed and I'm too lazy to leave it (haha)...but! Today was awesome!! I saw whales! And collected data! And...well, I'll tell you more detail tomorrow because we have got freetime from noon to 7 pm :)"

This morning, around 8:12 am,  I realized that nothing posted!

When I took a walk down by the beach, this is what I saw!

I'll start with what I did yesterday. Woke up at around 4 am Maui time, which equates to 8 am CST. I was still trying to adjust to the time change. Tried to go to sleep, but ended up just showering at 7 am. I woke up to the sound of waves crashing against the shore, palm trees waving in the wind...bliss. The condo is super nice--the bathrooms are really spacious and there's pretty nice water pressure! And then I ate breakfast and went for a walk on the beach and called mom and dad! Then we had a meet-and-greet with Dr. Green and the team leaders! There are a bunch of students from Albright and about 10 interns--all girls, only 2 guys (burly football players that hit on everything that moves). Dr. Green gave us an overview of the program, history of her work: did you know that she's the one who got the government to protect humpback whales in Hawaii?! She did the research, was a plaintiff in the lawsuit, and was the leader, backed by several animal rights organizations! She's brilliant. Anyway, we were in class until around noon and then we broke for lunch and then my team went into the field for 4.5 hours! We drove up the coast on the highway to Lahaina and parked at some cliff where we set up foldable chairs and the theodolite! The theodolite is basically a really high powered telescope that surveyors use to mark longitude, latitude, figure out distance using trigonometry, etc. Anyway, there are 5 people in my team: 1 person operates the theodolite, 1 is the information recorder of whale pod behavior and the theodolite readings and time everything occurs (I'm using military time! Be proud of me!), and the other 3 are looking and calling out whale behaviors while looking through the binoculars! It's super awesome. We saw a whale breach (aka: jump out of the water) yesterday!! And then a momma and a calf were chilling right in front of the cliff and the calf was trying to slap its pectoral fin on the water, but the calf was so newly born that it was all floppy and SO CUTE! Anyway, in addition to monitoring the whale positions, we're also monitoring any boat activity and documenting how the whales react to the sounds and presence of the boats. They always go away from the boats. So, with the data points we're collecting, we're going to plot the pod movement on a map (learning how to do that tonight, actually) and (using trigonometry) we're going to figure out the distance from the shorelines the whales were!

The view from dinner at Monsoon India!

After we got done with that, we came back to the condo and the 5 of us went down to dinner at Monsoon India, the Indian restaurant that's kind of like Chapatis, but more expensive. I got mildly spicy tomato soup, a house salad, and cheese naan. So, basically grilled cheese and tomato soup, haha! Whatever. It was delicious! And then after that we went up to the roof to check it out and it's AWESOME! And then we went to class from 7-10 pm! We watched a movie about whales in Hawaii and then we talked about a few of the articles we read. Super interesting!!

Food situation: well, the night I arrived we stopped at the grocery store and I picked up a couple of frozen tortellini dishes, frozen strawberries, oatmeal, milk, orange juice, and carrots ($50 later...wowza! A box of cereal (generic brand) is $8.58!)...but then they told us that they wouldn't be able to take us shopping until tonight, after class! So, we've been eating oatmeal a lot and I'm going to have my second tortellini dish for dinner before class tonight. So, it'll be nice to get some more food!

Today's plan: well, I woke up around 7 am, showered, ate breakfast, and am now typing on my blog! We've got class/lecture at 10-noon, and then free time noon-7 pm! The other 3 teams are going to be doing their field training/what we did yesterday. I'll basically spend the afternoon reading articles and getting ahead on readings! I might even write some postcards off of the jetty by the beach! :)

Anyway, that's all for now! Here are some pictures, too! I'll post more later or tomorrow <3

PS: ALSO!!! We found a gecko in our condo last night! Geckos are cool because they can stick to like, ANYTHING using Van der waals forces (chemistry) and an adhesion-release system in their grippers! YAY for science!!

Flying to Maui!

a picture of the sunset...smiley face. the condo is 90s (hehe!), my roomies are awesome, and I can hear the waves crashing against the shoreline...like...right outside my window. Bliss :) Food run, chillaxing, bedtime, and then waking up tomorrow bright and early to be all scholarly and stuff. <3

I'm @ O'Hare International!

hi, world! so, im sitting the airport...I've already chugged two waters and my flight leaves at 1110 am! I'm gonna sit and read the Quark and the Jaguar, which is an awesome book that unites the simplicities and complexities of quantum physics and biology. I love science. Also, here's a picture of me in the airport. I took it with my phone and am (actually) doing all of this blog update from my phone! Isn't technology great??