The Life of Emily

A post about Naxos which turns into a rant about hostel bookshelves

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 01:07:00 +0000

After heading out from Antiparos, we took the ferry to Naxos. Naxos is known for a number of different things, but I’m sure one of the only things that will stick in my mind about Naxos for years to come is the story of Ariadne. Oh you don’t remember Ariadne? I am being to suspect that I am the only person whose entire grade school education was made up of Greek myths. Theseus ventured to Knossos to slay the Minotaur, the half bull/half man monster that lived in the labyrinth there (and was the child of the Queen- yuck). Ariadne, the king’s daughter, gave him a ball of twine, which he dropped on the floor as he went, and which he used to find his way out after slaying the Minotaur. Ariadne was probably thinking to herself, “Awesome, now I don’t have the monster in my basement that keeps eating all of those kids, AND I get a hot man out of the deal.” Theseus, the bastard, took her away from Knossos, but abandoned her on Naxos. Worry not for poor Ariadne though, she ended up marrying Dionysus, the god of wine and merriment, so I suspect that she didn’t complain that much. If this tale intrigues you, wait until later entries where we visit Knossos and Athens and the story continues.

Anyways, Naxos turned out to be a different adventure altogether. We set out in search of our hotel when we got there. In contrast to earlier lodgings, we had a map to get there, and it actually led us in the right direction. We, however, are either incredibly confused about metric measurements, or these hotel proprietors have no sense of distance, because it took us at least 15 minutes to reach our hotel on foot when their website promised that it was located “300 meters away.” This turned into a running joke on our trip as everything was “300 meters away.” Looking for the beach? 300 meters away! The summit of that mountain? 300 meters! That island in the distance? A mere 300 meter swim! We eventually got there, and our hotel manager looked a little annoyed with us which was inexplicable because we were the one who hiked 2 miles uphill to get to his property. “You were supposed to get here at 2 PM. I was going to come pick you up at 2 PM.” Hot, sweaty, smelling worse than the donkey that Darden would ride later on in our trip I was annoyed that he was annoyed by our earliness. An air conditioned room and a shower quietly undid my resentment.

We continued onto our exploration of the city. Naxos Town has labyrinth streets, allegedly to protect residents from the frequent pirate attacks that used to infest the city. Nowadays, they serve to bewilder tourists and create quiet walkways to stroll on. We headed to the Kastro. This was a section of the city that used to be inhabited by Venetians who came to the city and that still contains crumbling Venetian mansions, a Catholic church and an old school, among other things. There was a water microbiology conference going on there at the time we went. I found it to be a neat place to attend a conference, though you probably lost at least half of the attendees as they tried to find it.

Darden headed back to the hotel for a bit, and Leah and I wandered around before we got hungry and ate a waffle. Actually, I just wanted to have a place to sit in the shade, and the waffle restaurant, entitled “Waffle House” was enticing as was the smell of waffle drifting into the street. We sat next to an elderly gentleman who had enjoyed a waffle then fallen asleep in his chair. The waiter got a kick out of this; at first, he stood around the corner and took pictures on his cell phone- when he saw that I had noticed him, we both shared a laugh. Later, he got bolder and stood out in the open and used an actual camera to take pictures of him. Apparently, this was the most fun he had had in years. I should mention that this waffle eating came an hour before we ate dinner. But I attribute this more to the fact that I was boiling and wanting shade and less to the fact that I was seduced by the smell of waffles. Me? Choosing to eat a waffle covered with whipped cream, and hazelnut ice cream before dinner? Why on earth would I choose to do something so decadent in regards to food?

The next day, Darden really wanted to have a use for her running shoes and track shorts, so she and Leah decided to go on a hike. Me, feeling less sporty, went for a walk to the beach. Now there are some nice beaches in Naxos. But none quite equipped to take me and my vampire like skin- one hour in the sun would have required more sunscreen than I had. So I went in search of a shady place, which, in Greece, is like looking for a holy man at a midnight, Bourbon Street, Mardi Gras parade. I finally found a spot, but only obtained it by stalking the young Greek girls who sat there, and pouncing as soon as they left. I settled myself under a tree, and lay on the slimy, wet, flat rock next to a tidal pool. It was actually quite heavenly until a dude who looked like a German hustler decided to seek the shade of the tree and perched above me and spoke angry German into his phone for an hour, all the while staring at me like I was a mermaid. I finally left, but only after finishing the terrible book that I was reading.

Now here’s a pain that I felt acutely while in Greece- lack of good reading materials. I brought two books and one magazine with me to Greece, and they were finished within my first two days there. The rest of my trip, I was left to the mercy of the hostel/hotel bookshelves.

For those of you who have wondered about the reading level of the average European traveler, look no further than the hostel bookshelf! On this noble shelf you will probably find about sixty magazines, 90% of them in German and approximately ten years old, the rest in a mix of English and French, boasting such tantalizing titles as “Caterer and Hotelier Weekly” (which is about as boring as you can imagine, and makes you wonder about the person who carried this ALL THE WAY from the UK). The books you find will mostly be in German as well. The books in English will fit into one of three categories:

A. Travel books about Europe/the place you are visiting (mostly Lonely Planet, Let’s Go, and free travel books you get from airports and travel agencies)
B. The drama books such as Sci-fi books where every other word on the jacket is made up and specific to that book, or true crime novels where a girl goes to work as a babysitter in Iowa only to find out that THE ENTIRE FAMILY ARE BLOODTHIRSTY CANNIBALS!!

You think I exaggerate here for comedic effect, but if you were visiting Santorini or Antiparos last week, you would find these selections gracing their shelves. The third selection of books to choose from are no less frightening than selection B and will probably make you wish that you read a AAA travel book instead. The books that I ended up reading were from answer choice C:

C. Trashy British romance novels

Now, this in and of itself is not a bad genre. “Bridget Jones,” for example, was delightful. And considering that the Americans didn’t seem to be leaving any books, I suppose I should be grateful for the books left. But NO. Just NO. It is not possible to be grateful for these books. One of the books that I read from this glorious shelf, in particular, still makes me want to weep for the downfall of the English language (and the fact that this book was a bestseller). In this book, the girl is just SO SICK OF her irresponsible boyfriend. She dumps him, and while going home her boyfriend meets a fairy! Who loves him! And wants his baby! And the girlfriend realizes how controlling she’s been and she wins him back! But only after the fairy has to go back to her land through the portal at Stonehenge! And she gets her fairy baby in the end and the boyfriend and the girlfriend reconcile! And I can only use exclamation points because that’s how awesome this book was! And these are the books that British women seem to be transporting around Europe and leaving in hostels for desperate girls like me to find. Anyways, long segue later, this was the book that I finished on my slimy rock in Naxos, and which I had to replace later in my trip.

No pictures today, because I have a slow and unreliable internet connection, but soon, I hope. The next entry will be about Santorini.

Paros and Antiparos, Greece

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:08:00 +0000

After leaving Mykonos, we finally reached Paros, where we had hoped to be two days earlier. But as Mykonos turned out to be lovely, none of us did a lot of complaining about our late arrival.

Originally, we had planned to spend a night in Paros, though since we were behind schedule by the time we reached it, we skipped our day there and headed straight to Antiparos. Antiparos is “unspoilt” as was quoted to me twice by my guidebook, and my good friend Kathy, a Greek-Australian (interestingly, if you have been following my blog from the very beginning, I originally met Kathy on my first trip to Europe and we still stay in touch- I will even be seeing her in America in a few months). To get to Antiparos, you must take the ferry to Paros, then hop on a bus to a small “city” at the end of Paros. I use the work city loosely, because as far as I could tell, the bus pulled up to a ferry, and that was all there was of the city. Anyways, this ferry was the best deal we got during all of our time in Greece- it was a car ferry, but it carried passengers, and only cost 0.60 cents for a 6 minute trip. On the way back we swam the distance with our luggage to save the money- just kidding. But we could have.

To your left, you’ll see the rare lone picture of me without the benefit of any pretty scenery in the background. You’ll have to trust me when I say that this was on the ferry ride over. I actually had a nicer picture, but this dude tourist insisted on standing at the front of the ferry and enjoying the view and the breeze and subsequently ruining my glorious and inspired photo.

Antiparos is what you would call a family island (ironic, when I explain our events later in the day). There were some tourists, mostly families, not many single tourists. In general, there weren’t many tourists there. I imagine during high season there are more. Again, we benefitted from travelling in the low season. The hotel we stayed in there was one of the nicest in town, and it was only 60 euros per night. It also had a lovely porch on the front where we sat and watched people go by. In general, a car came by every five minutes or so, and most of the time people strolled in the street or rode bicycles.

We enquired from our hotel manager as to a good beach to head to. He replied, “Well there’s one to the right- close, but touristy. There’s one farther to the left, past the campgrounds, that’s nicer- I prefer to go to that beach.” So we headed that way. Getting there, Darden and Leah informed me that apparently he had something else that I had missed- “They wear less clothes there.” Turns out, it was a nudist beach. We set up camp on the periphery of this beach. There was a volleyball net set up- for nudist volleyball, I guess. There was also an older gentleman flying a kite, wearing a shirt, but nothing on the bottom. We tried our best to concentrate firmly on our books, and do a little swimming. Before we left, we chatted with a nice older British man, who had searched for the beach by walking along the entire shore of the island. He too didn’t seem to have been informed that it was a nudist beach. Just because it was asked of me when I told this story, most of the people on this beach were older- 40+, deeply tanned, not in the best shape.

After this adventure, we went shopping. Darden bought earrings from a Danish man who had moved to Antiparos years ago. He informed us that Tom Hanks and Madonna had both bought land on the island. I don’t doubt that fact, but I was more skeptical about his claim that Tom Hanks was coming back “next week.”

The next morning we had to leave, sadly, though we left with a delicious breakfast (included with our hotel stay). We were seated, and the hotel manager kept bringing us food- all told, we received a loaf of bread, butter, coffee cake, boiled eggs, yogurt with honey, orange juice and coffee. Leaving, I had time to reflect on our trip there on the 6 minute boat ride back to Paros. Antiparos was a lovely island, very relaxing, not the place for partying or museum hopping, good for a quiet day of sitting and watching the locals and tourists stroll by, good for shopping and a little eating, and perfect for some nudist beach tanning.

In the next instllment, you’ll hear about our trip to Naxos and Santorini.

Mamma Mia!!! Or, an introduction to Greece, Pireaus, Syros and Mykonos

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:16:00 +0000

Hello folks!

Well it's been a while since my last great adventure, so welcome back!

My latest trip took me to the great land of Pericles, Theseus, the Minotaur, gyros, Doric columns, Zorba the Greek, and of course, the musical Mamma Mia! I headed to Greece for two weeks with my two friends, Leah and Darden. You might remember Leah from my last postings on our trip to Canada last year. Darden is another old friend, dating from our middle school days. Together the three of us packed backpacks approximately 2 times our body weights with industrial size strength sunscreens and took our 15 hour trip there.

The plane rides were surprisingly non miserable. We all sat apart from one another on the longest plane ride. Darden did some nice detective work and ended up with three seats on the way there which she then stretched out on and went to sleep. Leah, gaining sympathy from fellow travellers for being a seemingly alone minor, spent her time drinking the only can of Fresca or Coke Zero that was available in the drink cart. And I shared the empty middle seat next to me with a nice Greek gentleman where we stored all of our stuff.

Arriving in Athens and finding the airport bus was very easy. What was not as easy or pleasant was the 1.5 hour bus trip to the port city of Pireaus, where we were to take a ferry to Paros. The bus had no air conditioning, and all of the other people on the bus didn't seem to mind at all, to the extent that they didn't even open the windows. When the lone open window imparted a breeze, it was so smog ridden that I wished that it was closed. By the end of the trip I felt motion sick and miserable.

Luckily, we finally ended up in Pireaus. This is a fairly unremarkable and unfun city, asides for the fact that it was one of the only places in Greece where we found lamb gyros, to Darden's infinite excitement, and ongoing frustration, as she enquired for lamb gyros at every other place we visited, always to be disappointed. Apparently, this is an American thing. There are pork and chicken gyros almost everywhere, at the cost of only two euros (about $2.70) or so, though after eating approximately 100 on this trip, I think I'm done with gyros for a while.

We were to take a ferry late that afternoon to Paros, where we were to spend the night. The ferry trip was long-about 5 hours or so. We waited to board the ship in a ferry passenger terminal. We were all tired, and Leah and I ended up falling asleep waiting. We were awaken by a Greek man yelling, "Come on, go, go, go, here, I'll take your bag, one euro, go, go, go!" at us; a very rude awakening. We rushed on the ferry (two hours early, but the earliest we could board), and ended up with sweet bench seats (most of the economy seats on these ferry are simply chairs around tables on the deck). We ended up sleeping for most of this trip.

When we woke, we had reached our first island. Darden exclaimed, "Oh, great! We're here early!" We grabbed our bags and headed off the ferry and in search of our pension. After wandering for 15 minutes or so, we still hadn't found it and asked a local woman for directions. She kept looking at our map and finally said, "This map is for Paros. This is not Paros," whereupon, we all looked at each other and back at her. After repeating something similar multiple times (and looking at us as if we were well fed American morons) we finally realized that no, we were not in Paros where we had hoped to sleep, but instead, we had absconded the ferry too early, and had ended up in Syros, an island with, undoubtedly, many pleasant characteristics, but not the one that we were hoping for which was being Paros. We wandered back to the main street, and approached a man who was hawking rooms. He led us to his wife who, after a hike up a veritable mountain, finally brought us to their pension room where we all fell into a deep sleep (well, where I did at least, I believe Darden and Leah ended up with bug bites the next morning and had reason to curse this pension. I was ok).

The next morning we headed to the ferry office where we bought a ferry ticket to Mykonos. We had never planned to go to Mykonos, but the next boat to Paros from Syros was two days later and, as Syros is not really a touristy island and had not much to recommend itself for another day there, we headed to Mykonos. To our credit, the ferry office employee told us that there were a number of tourists who had accidently disembarked in Syros the night before so at least we weren't the only ones. For this reason alone, I'm sure the pension owners earn a tidy sum in Syros.

Mykonos turned out to be lovely, and one of our favorite islands. We had originally decided not to go because it was a party island that was very expensive, but as June is the low season, it was not overrun with tourists and the prices were lower. We accepted an offer (and a ride) from a hotel propietor at the port, and the hotel ended up being one of our favorites. The beautiful pictures above and below are of our hotel.

The island itself is quite lovely. The guidebooks refer to the houses here as being "sugarcubes" and they do resemble them. Cubic, white houses, with blue or red doors and windows. There are also a number of windmills on the island, seemingly not in service anymore (though on Crete, later in the trip, I saw new, metal windmills running and generating wind energy).
There are also flat, solar panels on the top of most of the roofs here. I saw these in Moorea; they are used to heat water. I've never seen these in use in America, though I'm sure they are somewhere, maybe someone can enlighten me?

I'll finish my post on Mykonos with a little info about Petros, one of Mykonos's most famous residents. Petros arrived in the 1950's, blown in during a storm. He quickly took up residence and was taken care of by the residents. Now, the original Petros is probably dead, but there are 2-3 Petros' still in residence. Petros is a three foot tall pink pelican. He turned up on the waterfront during dinnertime and a swarm of tourists (including me) surrounded him and took pictures while he waddled along.

More posts to come in the upcoming weeks. I am heading to New Orleans tomorrow to visit family, but I will update with the rest of my trip soon. Upcoming: Paros and Antiparos!

End of the Road

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:07:00 +0000

So I'm back in America, but I thought I would update on the rest of my trip.

My foot is back to normal. After Quebec City,we returned to Montreal. The hostel in Montreal was a bit miserable, so spending time out of it as much as possible was preferable.

Montreal was quite nice. It was a place that I would rather live than visit, though. We spent five days in Montreal, and frankly it was too much time. We had run out of things to do by the end of our time there. That doesn't mean we had a bad time though. The food in Montreal is really incredible. We had smoked meat (known in the States in pastrami) at Schwartz', possibly the most famous restaurant in Montreal. We were crammed into a table with a bunch of other people. We ordered the "medium" fatty cut of meat, and ate a humongous portion of it. Delish. Boy do I love meat.

Bagels are another Montreal classic. Some assert that the best bagels in the world are made in Montreal. Now I haven't tasted the bagels everywhere so I can't tell you if this is true or not. What I can tell you is that they are definitely different from the bagels I've had in America. The ones here are very doughy. The ones in Montreal are very chewy. They get made in a brick oven and the dough is soaked in honey infused water. The result is a chewy, slighty sweet bagel. First we had bagels at St. Viateur's. These bagels were on bagel sandwiches. The sandwich itself was good, but the bagel was hard and not that tasty. Towards the end of our trip we went to Fairmount bagels. These bagels were very good. They sold only bagels, no bagel sandwiches. You could buy cream cheese but only from a tub. So Leah and I bought a tub of cream cheese and a bunch of bagels and tore off our bagels piece by piece and dunked them in cream cheese. We had two each. And this was AFTER we had just had lunch. Tells you that we really couldn't wait til the next day to eat them.

In the center of Montreal there is the aptly named Mont Royal (after which the city is named). It is Montreal's equivalent of New York's Central Park, only with more altitude. Our first day in Montreal we had no idea where we were going and ended up on this hour long hike up the mountain, to places unknown. By our last day there, we had figured out that there was a bus that would take you up the mountain. On our last day there we took the bus up, then walked a short distance to the Chalet there.

Leah found out quickly on our trip that I am a sucker for a good view. As Montreal and Quebec City are quite hilly the trip became an ever evolving game of finding the best view. The view from the Chalet was probably the best view. Our guide book told us that you can see the Northern Appalachians from here, though I'm not quite sure about that. I do know that the view was incredible, and you could definitely see a lot of mountains from Mont Royal.

We also visited the Oratorie, the largest shrine to St. Joseph (Jesus' earthly father) in the World. It was quite magnificent. Very Montmartre looking. Another climb up it. I thought I would get a bit of a rest on this trip, but it turned into a lot of climbing. Well, at least all the food we ate didn't go straight to our hips. Even with four meals a day, I think I might have lost weight.

Travelling with another person can be an eye-opening experience. One thing I never realized about myself is how much I eat. I can REALLY put it away. One day we had a really pleasant picnic by a lake in Montreal, and Leah would have a piece of bread with some cheese on it, and in the same amount of time, I would eat two sandwiches with cheese and roast beef. I don't know really how to explain this, except maybe I just have a really high metabolism? I do walk much faster than everyone I know. Hmm... Might also explain how inevitably all talk on this blog turns to food. I blame my food obsessed family for this. When you grow up with a family who talks about dinner while we're having lunch, you do become a bit focused on food. That and having a lot of good cooks in a family, I suppose.

We also visited a BBQ place out in the suburbs of Montreal. This was a sort of bizarre trip. We got off the subway and entered the restaurant and everyone was speaking English to one another, even the people who worked there. Although I wanted to speak French I figured I'd fit in here not speaking French. The chicken was good, but there was no BBQ sauce to speak of like there is on chicken in the South. There was this spicy gravy to dip it in. Very different, and I have to say I like the BBQ in America better.

One day we also headed to the Jardin Botanique (Botanical Gardens) in Montreal. I figured that this would be fun for a couple of hours, but we ended up spending the whole day out there. It is the second largest gardens of its kind in the world, after Kew Gardens in England. It is pretty neat. There is a Japanese garden and a Chinese garden there, an Alpine garden, a poisonous plants garden, a functional plants garden, and a huge arborium. Plants are neat, that's all I can say after seeing some of these incredible plants.

On the way home, we had a stopover in Memphis. Boy am I glad we did. I had the best BBQ in the airport, Jim Neely's BBQ. It was incredible. Memphis is a small airport, but it has good food. It made the next flight, where we were flying above a tropical storm bearable. That, plus the nice grandmother, Pat, who I sat next to and chatted with for the flight.

Hope you enjoyed my blogs about Canada! Next time I travel...you'll know where to find me.

Emily

Incapacitated in QC (and not in a good way)

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 23:18:00 +0000

Hey all!

Still in Quebec City. On Monday morning (early, early, 6 AM) we leave by train and head back to Montreal.

Today was a bit of a bust, for me at least. I did something really bad to my right foot, and each step on it is pure pain for some reason. I don't think it's broken- but it is really sprained. Today I stayed at the hostel most of the day and slept, trying to let it get better. We went shopping a bit at the end of the day and went to get dinner, but otherwise I didn't do much. We did head to Mountain Equipment Cooperative. This is a bit like REI in the States, a huge outdoor sporting goods shop. Perhaps something most people don't know about me is that I'm really into outdoor goods. They're just built to last, plain and simple. They're also small, compact and heavy duty. I picked up a hat, from the same company as the hat I wore in Moorea (that hat was my dad's so it went back to him). This hat is pretty awesome. One of the best things about it is that it has a forever warranty. Not just a lifetime, but a FOREVER warranty. So I fully expect my great-great-great-great grandchildren to be wearing this hat. Camping gear rocks.

So anyways, a little bit about the concert we attended last night. It was located at the Baie du Beauport. To get there, we had to take two buses, which took about 40 minutes. Once we got there we walked for a little over a mile to get to the location. Apparently everyone in Quebec was also interested in attending- there were probably a couple hundred thousand people there. We saw this strange Cirque du Soleil like show, then two musical acts before we decided to leave. On the way back to the bus my foot was really killing me. I've never had such intense foot pain before, but it was really hell. The worst part was to come- there was a crowd of a couple hundred people waiting for one bus that would take us the the city. It took forever to fill a bus, then forever for a new bus to come. We must have waited through 5 buses before we finally got on one. The woman next to me exclaimed, "C'est terrible, terrible." I've never seen the rationale for people rioting before, but I could see people rioting there- and I would have freely joined in. In the end, it was a good story to tell later, but a bit of a miserable experience at the time.

Last day in Quebec City tomorrow. I really like Quebec City. It really doesn't compare to Paris, besides the fact that they speak French and it's old. There are not boulangeries and patisseries on every corner. Most people speak English perfectly (at least in service positions) with a Canadian accent. But it has a soul of its own, plently to see, and it's very safe. Just don't come expecting France-it's not the same.

More later,
Em

Days in Quebec City

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:11:00 +0000

Hey everyone!

Yesterday we took the early morning train into Quebec City. It's complicated why we decided to spend a day in Montreal before moving to Quebec City, but we will be heading back to Montreal in a few days.

Quebec City is really beautiful. Some say they can't believe that such a European city exists in North America, but it does. It is very different from Montreal. Montreal is more a city I would want to live in, while I'd rather visit Quebec City. There is a lot to see here. Mainly though, I just like walking around the streets. It is much hillier then pretty much any other city I have been in. Up and down hills, over and over. My feet are killing me. I gave in and bought a pair of knock off crocs. All I kept thinking was that my Aunt Cat swears they are the most comfortable shoes she owns. They make me look stupid, but they are more comfortable. There are croc stores all over Canada, so I don't feel that bad.

Today we headed up to the Citadelle, which currently houses the "Van Doos" or the 22nd Royal Battalion of Canada. They are the only all French speaking Battallion in Canada. They have fought in a number of wars and peacekeeping operations. So it was pretty cool to visit.

Did you know that Canada has had 3 women gouvernour-generals?

Anyways, mostly we walk around and eat a LOT. The plates are huge, and we have tried all sorts of Canadian specialities. So much maple syrup- I never knew there were so many uses for maple syrup. Cookies, pies, bread. Yummy, yummy! And lots of meat pies, including some with wild game. I have ate way too much.

The hostel we are staying in is really nice. A very traditional hostel, that is, really loud and noisy, but really friendly people and everyone hanging out at night together. It's a fun atmosphere.

Tonight, there is a free Moby concert, so that is where we are heading. More later!

Love,
Em

Oh Canada!

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:17:00 +0000

Greetings from Montreal!

Well my latest travels take me to our neighbor, Canada. I decided that I wanted to travel here because I wanted to go someplace without jet lag, with a currency exchange rate that wouldn't kill me, and somewhere where I could speak French. Thus begins my trip to Montreal and Quebec City.

This time, I'm accompanied by my friend Leah, who is always up for my crazy adventures and loves travel as well.

We arrived last night around 8 PM and didn't make it to our hostel until 10 PM. My limited and rusty French got us there, which I was proud of.

As for the hostel, as I told Leah, there are hostels and then there are HOSTELS. Ours is the latter. We are in a huge room in the attic-y like upstairs. We're sharing a bunkbed with air mattresses as mattresses, in a huge room that is subdivided by curtains. Yeah, it's no Miss Sophie's (see posts from Prague).

Anyways, the people here are nice, and the location is good, and at $20 a night, who am I to complain? We decided to get up at 8 AM which seemed good at the time, though we were the last people to get up. When we finally got out on the streets, there was no one there. Apparently, the rest of the world doesn't run on hostel schedule.

For our first visit, we headed to the Biodome. This is a natural history museum/zoo/aquarium. There is a huge exhibit for a tropical rainforest, an arctic area, and an area that is based on the traditional ecosystems of Canada. Personally, I liked the Canadian part the best- it was just different from what I'd usually seen in museums. And we saw puffins and penguins in the Arctic part which was neat. We also saw divers cleaning out the tank in the Canadian exhibit. They all wore drysuits and full face masks-apparently, if they are in the water for 15-20 minutes with just drysuits, they get hypothermia. Just another reason why I like to dive in tropical environments.

By the time we left the Biodome it was about 11 AM and we were starving. This wouldn't be unusual, except for the last meal that we ate was at 2 PM the previous day. We weren't even that hungry. I guess this is how people slowly starve to death. You just lose your appetite.

Anyways, no starving to death for us, we made it to this famous bagel place downtown. Montreal bagels are renowned- they are supposed to be much better than inconsequential American bagels. Frankly, I wasn't impressed. They were chewy and very bread-like rather than dough like. But you know, now we know.

After that I introduced Leah to my way of sightseeing, which basically consists of aimlessly wandering until you see all the important things you're supposed to. We walked nearly a mile (maybe 2) from the bagel place to reach Mont Royal. There are a number of important things you're supposed to see on the mountain. Our strategy was probably not the best for seeing all of them-we just kept walking around and around the path on the mountain. The path isn't steep, which means it's nice to walk, but which also means that it takes forever to get to the top. After about a mile or so, we ran into a set of stairs, and me, believing that there is wisdom in groups, decided to follow the crowd up to the top. It wasn't bad- a beautiful view of the city. Then we made our way down the stairs and the mountain in general. There are a number of other important sights on the mountain, but frankly, I had had enough of the slow windingness up it, and Leah, in flip flops, was more than happy to acquiesce with me.

Our travels had put us near McGill University, an English language speaking university in Montreal. We wandered around that for a bit, and then took on the epic task of finding a way into the underground.

Under Montreal, there is a maze of shops and restaurants that connects the city. During the cold Montreal winters, you never need to go underground. As there were eight entrances around McGill alone, you think it would be a breeze to find an entrance, alas, we walked a mile before we could find one. It was a huge mall, but frankly, it was overwhelming. If you knew exactly which store you wanted, I don't know how you'd ever find it. By this point we were exhausted, and headed back to our happy hostel.

The weather is beautiful here, 70s, and next we head out on the town. More later.

Sending smiles and moonbeams from Canada,
Emily

Field work or The End

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:52:00 +0000

So a proper trip deserves a proper end.

I got home two days ago and since then have been too exhausted to write. My body is in Florida but my sleep clock is in Moorea.

Although I traveled to Europe for the same amount of time last summer, I am feeling reverse culture shock much more acutely now. In Moorea there weren't many places to shop, many people, much media entertainment, and since being back in America I am inundated. I go to the mall and just wander around in dumbstruck awe. Bandaids can cost up to $10 a box in Moorea, and I wander into CVS and spend $2 on a box. So many different food options here, Chinese, Italian, Greek, Mexican, Indian. I speak to salespeople and am amazed that they understand perfectly what I'm saying. It is surreal.

More so than Europe too, I am much sadder for leaving. I think this is because there is such a community in Moorea. It is a small island, and the scientific researchers are well known on it. The people at the pizza shop knew my name, people waved as I biked past, there was an aquaintance working everywhere we went. And at the research stations, since they are so small with the same group of people at them for week after week, I got to know all the people there really well and they all became close friends. There is also a sense of belonging that comes with being in one place for as long as I was. And even though I hated it sometimes, people always really looked out for me and took care of me.

There are so many people I would thank for making my experience a great one, but this is not an acceptance speech and I have not won any awards. Those who have made a difference to me know who they are. And to everyone out there in cyberspace who have been keeping up with me once more...thanks again, and the next time there's a big adventure, you'll know where to find me.

Love,
Em

Field work or Field work, terrestrially

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:38:00 +0000

Hello everyone!

So fun things have been happening in the past few days! On Sunday and Monday I got a taste of life as a terrestrial biologist. My roommate Erika studies an invasive tree species in French Polynesia and its pollinators, a couple of species of birds. She was heading to a new field site, and she invited me along.

Before we headed to the site, we went up to the Belvedere, a lookout point in Moorea, where Erika had left some poles. As we got there, it started pouring, and we had to hike into the woods in the pouring rain. I was expecting to be sweating, so this was almost refreshing. Plus, as I told Erika, I'm a marine biologist, why would I mind being wet? When we got to the Belvedere, we looked on the side of the mountain, and we saw nine waterfalls cascading down the side of it. It was pretty awesome. There is usually only one, but the pouring rain (the most I've seen since I've been here) created eight more.

We then went to the site, on the south side of Moorea, about an hour away. It's called Le Maison de la Nature, and it's primarily used as an educational center for schoolkids. We camped on Sunday night there, and got up early on Monday to catch birds.

She sets up large mist nets, about 40 feet by 10 feet, which are made of very delicate, nylon nets. When you set up these nets against dense vegetation, you can barely see them. Birds fly into them, and you retrieve them to collect fecal samples, band their feet with small metal bands, and collect data on whether they are moulting, incubating, etc.

Most birds are active in the morning, so after a night of camping, we woke up at 5:30to set up the nets. Within ten minutes, we had caught five birds. We then had to delicately untangle them from the nets. This is a lot harder than it looks, as they struggle quite a bit, and get themselves really tangled up. The birds that we were primarily collecting are silvereyes, small with silver rings around their eyes. They are pretty small, only about 10 grams. They were super cute, but got pretty upset being stuck in the nets. Some bit me as I was trying to free them, though it really didn't hurt that much.

The previous record of birds caught in one day by Erika was 25, but we caught 53 and had to set 10 free because we ran out of supplies! She was really excited. It seems that I am good field work luck.

So I realized a few truths about being a terrestrial biologist versus a marine biologist. For one thing, terrestrial biologists get far too dirty and sweaty for my liking. There is still mud on everything I own. There are also bug bites all over my legs. On the plus side, you don't have to worry about running out of air while you're doing your work, or worry about buoyancy. Erika also made a wise distinction between marine and terrestrial biologists that I think is interesting to share, "You Marine Biologists come in from field work, wind swept, sunkissed, tan, in your bikinis, we come in dirty, sweaty, in utilitarian clothes." I think Marine Biologists just want to be more glamorous, and that's why they like going in the ocean. Not to mention that peeing in the woods is not fun or glamorous in any sense of the word.

Anyways, asides for the bugs, I had a great time with Erika! Holding birds and setting them free is lots of fun, especially because they're so cute. And terrestrial Moorea is just as beautiful as marine Moorea.

Lots of love,
Emily

Field Work or The trip to Tahiti

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:49:00 +0000

Bonjour tous!

My french lessons continue...when I ask people what they think of my french the answers range from "A little, then a little, then a little" from a shopkeeper in Tahiti, to "It's not bad" from another shopkeeper in Tahiti, to "Well, I can understand you, but it's not good" from the ever critical Mohsen. I guess Tahiti would be a good place to start this blog.

A couple of days ago, Alexandra, one of the students here at CRIOBE, had to get surgery on her finger, so Florent, Julie, and I took her to Papeete, the capital of Tahiti. To get there, there is a forty minute ferry ride. To get to Moorea, you can take a ferry or a plane. When I first arrived, I took a plane to Moorea; it was about 10 minutes long. To get to Papeete this time we took a ferry. Jada knew that I really wanted to go shopping, so she proposed that I go with them to Papeete. Although this trip was really for a hospital visit, I went shopping in the meantime.

The market at Papeete is really terrific. There is touristy stuff for sale (mostly consisting of pareos, vanilla beans, and monoi oil), and lots of food (fresh fruits and vegetables and precooked meals). When I was in London last year, they had a bunch of markets like this, full of delicious foods, and they were one of my favorite places to visit (ed. note, if you're bored, you can scroll back to these older posts in my blog). The marche at Papeete was similiar. I bought some souvenirs and for lunch I went back and bought some poisson cru, a traditional meal here, it is raw fish marinated in coconut milk and lemon juice, then mixed with cucumbers, onions, carrots and sometimes lettuce. It is quite delicious and refreshing.

Other than the market, I can't say there is a ton to do in Papeete. Alexandra, Florent, Julie, Jada, et al. are not too impressed with Papeete for various reasons, including that it is dirty, crowded, not pretty, etc. But for me at least, I was excited to be in a big city again. I really enjoy big cities just because there is so much to do, and see, concentrated in an area where everything is in walking distance. Shopping was such a change from Paris in that all the shopkeepers had long conversations in French with me. I could understand most of it, and used charades for the rest. Some of them spoke English, but I told them that I preferred to speak in French because I was learning. When I walked into one surf shop, the guy there struck up a long conversation with me about how I was doing, how it was going. It was actually pretty strange because I felt like I hadn't told him that I was doing research but he already knew that? It turns out he has a house just right down the road from CRIOBE and was looking for someone to rent it. Anyways, he implored that I get more tan before I leave. Will do, slightly creepy guy.

Long conversations ensued with other people there. It's so different visiting a country where you speak the language. Even if it is as terrible as mine. Which brings me to something else I have realized- in order to succeed at learning a foreign language you must be willing to look stupid 24/7. I always look like a fool speaking French, but I'm learning! And people are quite willing to help if it is evident that you are making an effort.

Alexandra speaks English quite well, and when we speak to each other, I speak to her in French and she speaks to me in English. She has also been teaching me some bad words. Some of the guys at CRIOBE caught wind of this, and one, Johann, told me as a consensus among everyone, "We do not think Alexandra is teaching you very good French." I also use words like "bouffe" which is a very casual way to say food, to which they have replied, "You may say that here, but elsewhere, it must be nourriture." D'accord (ok!)!

I could go on and on about adventures in French I am having. Overall though, I think people are impressed that I am trying at all, even if it is ridiculous. So I encourage people to speak terrible French/Spanish/Italian, etc., if really makes all the difference.

Anyways, so field work continues. We are not in the water as much because Jada has cuts all over her hands and feet. MDR Staph is very common here, and the marine biologists in particular get it quite a bit, so if you don't take care of your cuts, you can lose your body parts. Yikes.

Later,
Emily

Field work or Learning, learning, learning

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 02:27:00 +0000

Hello there!

Three posts in three days I hope will make up for the days when I didn't post! Two days ago, I had dinner at CRIOBE and sat next to Cedric, a masters student here who speaks a petit peu l'anglais (a very little bit of english). So we struggled in French together. Another person next to me asked me how long I studied French and I responded, "Oh I taught myself." I asked Cedric how long he had studied English and he said "It's a secret," while the man to my left said, "We have to learn English from the age of six in France," though Cedric responded that he "had a bad English teacher." So Bon Courage my fair readers! You too can learn a foreign langauge if I speak better French than a guy who learned English for many years speaks English! I tried some anise as well last night, which as far as I can tell, tastes like licorice and is one of the primary ingredients in absinthe, that fair weather French drink that all of the Bohemians in Paris drank in the 1800s and which caused (supposedly) wide spread insanity. All I can say is that I had more courage to speak French after it and the French wine. No insanity to report.

Yesterday was an interesting day at CRIOBE. Early in the day, the French Ambassador to Fiji came. As we started the meeting, everyone around the table introduced themselves and said what they did at CRIOBE. I was last. Julie, one of the managers here, leaned over right before I was about to go, and whispered, "You can speak English." Jada was quite impressive, and introduced herself and her research completely in French. I, on the other hand, bumbled around half in English, half in French. The ambassador assured me that it was ok that I spoke English. And then we watched a slide-show about CRIOBE. I actually somewhat followed as it had multiple pictures. But I think by the end some people were falling asleep. Tell me (Dit moi), have you ever seen an interesting slideshow?

So although I have only been here a week, I am already speaking French almost exclusively to everyone here except for Pip, an Australian who seems determined not to learn French. It makes it hard as I believe I only know 10 verbs or so. I am always asking, "Comment dit on...." (How do you say?) and have learned such helpful phrases as "Can you help me open this can?" (Peux tu m'aider ouvrir du botte de conserver?) and "Naia, go in your doghouse!" (Naia, va dans da niche!) along with other winners such as "Naia, come here!" (Naia viens ici!) and "Naia is under the table." (Naia es sur la table.). So as you can see, most of it involves the dog. A fair bit involves food as well. "A fork, spoon, glass of wine, plate" (une fourchette, une cuillere, verre de vin, une assiette). I guess it is evident where my priorities lie.

Earlier yesterday I was sitting in the living room studying and speaking to myself in French, and Julie came in and we had a long conversation, in French, about why I want to learn French, and such. There is definitely a truth to the statement that people really appreciate it when you make an effort to speak the language when you go a new place. I think most of the people who come through here who don't speak French make no effort to speak French, and so the fact that I'm trying is admired by the French, even if I butcher it continually.

So today we went to a rugby game. Rotui is the Moorean team, and they were playing in the semifinals against a team from Tahiti. We know five people on the team, so it was exciting to cheer for people we knew. There were about 10 of us, then the UCLA class showed up so there were about 40 of us in all. We all cheered for team Rotui and I think it was their largest crowd yet. The team was really psyched to have us there. There were about 40 other spectators, so we made a big impression. Rotui lost in the end, but they played a good game. I am slowly building on my rugby knowledge.

Lots of love,
Emily

Field work or A picture is worth a thousand words.

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 06:07:00 +0000

So blogspot is being even more ornery than usual with regards to uploading photos. I could only choose one, so I chose this one, because it illustrates a lot of things. To begin with, to see it better, you can click on it and make it bigger than full screen (thanks Dad!). Anyways, in it I am looking for urchins on the reef, so my head is under, because they like to live in cracks and crevices. There is a writing slate in my left hand. When I find one, I have to mark down which species it is. On the reef itself, you can see some tiles. They are bolted to the reef, and these are the ones I talk about so much. So this explains quite well, one of our tasks that we complete regularly underwater.

Later,
Emily

Field work or You can learn French in ten minutes or less!

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:40:00 +0000

Hello everyone!

So things are going good! Living at the French station has turned into quite a learning experience. It is small compared to Gump. At meals, we all eat together, and there is typically about ten people at the table. Yesterday, Jada and I were assigned to cook. I think everyone was expecting some American dish, but we made a chicken and rice stir fry with a soy sauce base. Every other meal I've had here as had a cream base, so this was probably considered out of the ordinary. It turned out pretty good. I think I am a hit here, if only for everyone to laugh at my ridiculous attempts at French. Mohsen is a student here who speaks English quite well. He had the bad idea to sit next to me at dinner last night, so all night long I was asking him, “How do you say “You taught me that?”” or “Ok, for the tenth time, how do you pronounce dessert and desert in French? No, I do not put an L in every word I say.” Everyone thought my pronunciation of the word fork was particularly hilarious, and that's when I turned the tables on them by making them pronounce everything in English as well. I told them (in French, how impressive) “I will learn French, and you will learn English.” Dacord (ok, or agreed).

Yesterday we also went up to visit Matahi at the Botanical Gardens. Matahi is a Maori from New Zealand who is here to do a bunch of wood carvings. His bigger project is that he is building a boat (sort of like a canoe) to travel from Tahiti to New Zealand. They are supposed to travel without modern day ship navigating techniques, though I think this idea has been vetoed. Anyway, in the past when they have done this they bring little water, and eat things they catch and water they collect from rain. The idea is to see how people would have done the trip thousands of years ago. Until he sails out, he is doing a bunch of wood carvings right down the road from Gump. He actually just sold a bunch of them to a Polynesian Musuem in Bora Bora. Jada is taking pictures of them for him and helping him compile a slideshow. Matt, the captain of the Braveheart, came up with us yesterday to give him a book and a cd that has ship routes on it so the trip will go easier. I went up, and when we got there, Matt and I were put to work. Some of Matahi's carvings are 12 feet tall, and Matt and I were given the task of staining one of them. Matt rubbed on oil, and I had to rub it off. It looked quite nice when we were done with it. Anyways, needless to say, Matahi is a pretty interesting guy. I fear that most of the people I meet here are much more interesting than I am.

Since I've gotten over my initial “Moorea stomach” when I got here, I have been eating voraciously. Part of it is that we are in the water burning tons of calories (did you know that you burn 500 calories an hour scuba diving?) and now that we are at CRIOBE we are riding ten miles a day on our bikes getting to and from work. Anyways, because of this, I am always hungry. I am pretty good about what I eat in general, and don't tend to eat processed foods, but since I don't get to cook that much here (ONE oven in all of Gump works, and we eat meals together at CRIOBE), I have been eating cookies and crackers and such from the package. There is also this awesome place called Snack Rotui that has all sorts of lunch stuff, and Jada and I go there really frequently for lunch. Today we went and I had hachis (basically, hamburger on baguette with this special sauce that's my favorite), gateau au chocolat (chocolate cake), pommes de frites (french fries) and the crown jewel, a coconut. The owner of Snack Rotui, Bob, gets coconuts when they are still green, sands off the bottom so they sit flat, then drills a hole in the top, and places them in the fridge. It is essentially coconut water. The allure of drinking out of a coconut in a tropical paradise appealed to me, though I wasn't really crazy about it. Jada documented it on camera, so there will be a super cheesy picture of it when I get around to posting it.

Tomorrow we have been instructed that we must be at CRIOBE in the morning because the French ambassador is coming for a visit. This was exciting to me, but apparently she comes a lot. Not to mention, all the students here (and Jada and I) have to prepare food for them. But it means I get to sleep in a bit, which is great.

I don't think I've mentioned Erika on this blog, and I was remiss not to. Erika is one of only three terrestrial biologists at Gump currently. For about 4 weeks, she was my roommate too. She's pretty awesome, and I think she's psyched that Jada and I are here because we go on all sorts of fun adventures, though I have regularly distracted her from her work. The reason why I mention her is because she got to drive the Princess of Thailand around when she visited a month ago. So I think the Princess beats the Ambassador anyday, though it just goes to show you how small, though important, Moorea is if we get Princesses and Ambassadors and that's considered ho hum.

David is another terrestrial biologist here, from the same university as Erika. He is here for a year, and has been traveling extensively throughout the South Pacific. He just got back from Rapa Iti on a collecting trip. This is a pretty small island, where boats go out every couple of months to bring people in. Apparently, the only people who come in regularly are scientists and some government officials. Upon getting there, all of the people heard that he was from America, and they all asked, “Oh, do you know Gustav?” Gustav is one of Jada and I's advisors at UF. He is a bit of a legend in the scientific collection world, and has made trips collecting specimens everywhere. All the people on Rapa are apparently eagerly awaiting Gustav's return. One day, I teased David, they will ask visitors, “Do you know Gustav and David?”

I know that this was a particularly long entry. I have been getting complaints from various people that I haven't been posting enough, so I hope this will tide all of my angry critics over in case I don't write for a while.

Lots of love,
Emily

Field work or the move to the French

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:37:00 +0000

Hey there!

Sorry I have been slow to post. It has been pretty busy for the past few days. Yesterday we were in the water for 4 hours, and the day before that we moved to the French research station.

The CRIOBE (the French research station) is located about five miles down the road from the American research station, Gump. It is really beautiful here, surrounded by mountains. CRIOBE is less funded than Gump is, and there are less facilities here. For example, there is no dock here, and less laboratory facilities. CRIOBE is building a lot though, and in the next year or so, it should be pretty fancy. The computer room here is pretty nice, and newly remodeled, completely surrounded by windows.

There are a number of other differences between the two facilities that can be chalked up to cultural differences, perhaps? Most of the researchers at CRIOBE are students, who get paid for their residence by their advisors. Gump, on the other hand, has a lot of professors who bring large, expensive projects into the station, and as such, more money comes into Gump. Here at CRIOBE, everyone eats their meals together in a revolving food group. Most people wake up at 8 or 9, which is a stark contrast to Gump where people leave the dock by 7 AM.

Everyone at CRIOBE is very nice, and they seem determined to improve our French, which, at least in my case, is very poor.

Jada and I are finishing up our tile analysis work, and some of our reef monitoring work, which we have been working on since we got here, so that is pretty exciting. We have a bigger monitoring project that we will start by the end of the week.

As of now, we still need some facilities at Gump, so we are going back and forth for the week. Yesterday we rode our bikes from CRIOBE to Gump in the morning. The ride itself isn't that bad, but it's long, and if we leave too late, it's hot. Between the scuba diving, snorkeling, climbing up and down to the hillside bungalow, and biking, my legs are getting a workout. I expect everyone to comment on how thin I look when I get back.

Today is a computer day here at CRIOBE. My academic credit for coming here is through a paper I have to write at the end of the semester. The paper is due in about 8 days. I have adopted a bad habit of doing any other possible work while I've been here rather than starting on this paper. For example, now I am writing on the blog rather than writing my paper. So I should get back to work.

Love to all,
Emily

Dangerous creatures: them or us?

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:12:00 +0000

So as you can see yesterday was an eventful day!

After working in the morning, we headed to the Motus. They are a couple of small islands right off of Moorea. They are weekend vacation spots, and at that time people crowd them and hang out at the beach, go snorkeling, etc. Since we went in the middle of the week, it was empty. We had lunch, and did a bunch of nice snorkeling around the island. It was great, but chilly! It was overcast, and the wind was blowing, so being in just a bathing suit and a rashguard was cold. I think this was the first time I was cold while I was outside swimming, so it was something. As awesome as all of this was, the best part came on the way back.

We stopped by the boat channel, and got out and tried snorkeling around waiting for the rays! They finally came and they were HUGE! I've been swimming with rays in the Bahamas before, but these seemed to be at least three times those rays' size. When they were vertical, they covered the complete bottom half of my body. They came up and said hello, brushing their entire bodies against me, making me laugh hysterically because they really tickle. The Braveheart crew had brought fish, so we tried feeding them. I'm holding a piece of fish for one in the above picture. They didn't seem too interested. Apparently they get fed by tourists a lot, so they were pretty tame and maybe already stuffed from earlier in the day. As we were feeding them, who would swim up but some blacktipped sharks! There were two. The pictures I have of them aren't too good, but then again, I didn't try to get super close to them. They ate the fish that the rays didn't. Then to top off a whole bunch of coolness, on the way out, there was a huge water spout on the horizon.

Today has been a bunch of database management for me on the computer, and tonight we head out to the Braveheart for Shane's birthday.

Later!
Emily

An illustrated blog, this is

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:53:00 +0000

Just some pics to go with the last entry! You can get an idea of how big the Braveheart is from these pics. I like the one pic of me swinging, until I remember the pain that soon followed!

Later,
Em

Field work or Take it to the Limit

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:46:00 +0000

Hey there!

Well a bunch of stuff has been happening, and I fear I have been lax in my blogging responsibilities. I apologize profusely.

Let's see...we've been spending a lot more time in the water each day, sometimes up to six hours, so I've been busy! I really enjoy being in the water, so I don't complain. I tried to post some fun pics earlier, but it didn't work, so I'll try again later. There's also been some fun things happening.

We went to Allo Pizza two days ago for dinner (otherwise known as the best pizza I've ever eaten!), a place we've been once before. The guy there greeted me with "Hello Emily." I love being a regular, and I must make a good impresssion, if after one time there he remembers my name. So that was fun.

Last night, I went up to a friend's house for couscous, but then after dinner, we got to watch rugby. Now let me say, for all you football lovers out there, I think rugby would be right up your alley. They are having "Super 14" now where the provincial teams of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa are playing. Shane's home team and favorite team are the Hurricanes from NZ, and as a bunch of the people we have been hanging out with are Kiwis, so I think we are a Hurricanes station. I only got to catch the last ten minutes last night because we were eating, but it was pretty exciting! Each half is only 40 minutes long with only penalty timeouts so it moves a lot faster than football. I have been learning about it from Shane for the past year now, but had yet to see a game, but it was suprisingly easy to get into and understand. You can only pass the ball backwards and if you fall to the ground, you have to give it up, but one of your teammates can get it. When I started watching it, the Hurricanes were down by 5 but in the last minute they tied, but then didn't score again, so the game ended as a draw. What's up with that!? In that way, football is one up on rugby, because I don't think you should just draw and no body wins. Maybe it has to do with Americans obsession with distinguishing winners from losers, and other people don't care as much. Anyways, it was way exciting, and I think you should check out rugby if you have a chance.

Today, we took a break and headed out to the Braveheart. They have a high deck and a low deck, and we all took turns jumping off the high deck. That was pretty awesome. It's always nice when I push myself, especially since I'm afraid of heights. Then we took it up a notch and did the crane. There is a crane, and a rope off of it, and you had to stand completely up on the railing, and then swing off. I tried it three times and swung flat on my face all three times. I'm all for trying, and trying again, but after I figured I would look like a victim of abuse tomorrow, I gave up.

Back to the field this afternoon!

Later,
Emily

Field Work or Full Throttle

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 02:19:00 +0000

Well, most of these photos are self-explanatory. All are courtesy of Jada. The one where I look dressed up is from the Sheraton, you can see their swank bungalows in the distance. A couple of underwater photos, you can see the reefs in the background. Jada is conducting work in one of the pictures, and in another, we are moving between sites and I am carrying writing slates.

Love,
Em

Field Work or Sally Field cries "Union!"

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:44:00 +0000

So a lot of exciting stuff has happened in the past couple of days!

To begin with, Shane is back, and the Braveheart is in dock, so now the fun begins! The Braveheart is a ship that sails around, bringing passengers to different islands in the Pacific, including the Pitcairn Islands. The Pitcairn Islands are worth a wikipedia search, if you have the time. Basically, there are only about 50 people who live there, and they are descendents of crew members of the Bounty. They don't do much there except “feud” in the words of one of the Braveheart crew, and about ten years ago, there was a big trial against a bunch of the men on the island where they were accused of rape of kids. Like I said, pretty interesting stuff. There is also a book about the islands and the trial, though I have been told that Pitcairn natives did not think it was completely factual. Anyways, so the Braveheart, in the time of the trial, used to bring prison guards, lawyers, judges and such to the island. They are still one of the only non-supply boats that travels there. About seven years ago, they used to transport National Geographic reporters and scientists around the Pacific too. The crew are mainly Kiwis, and they are old friends of a bunch of people here in the Station, so lots of people are excited that they are in port.

Jada and I have been collecting species from our work to bring back to Florida. We decided that when we collected 100 species than we would get to go to the Sheridan for happy hour. The Sheridan is pretty awesome; it's the sort of place that honeymooners go in Moorea, with waterfront bungalows, and overpriced items in the gift shop and such. Drinks there are really expensive, but at happy hour they are half off. We went to meet some of the French researchers from the French research station that we will be staying at later. I felt like the alcoholic American when I guzzled down my small drink in less than five minutes. Since we are over 100 species at this point, it may not be that much time before we get to go again!

Later than night, we went to the station barbecue. Right now, there are at least fifty people staying at the station, so it was quite a gathering! There were undergraduate students from Hawaii, researchers from California, MIT, us, so forth. Jada and I decided that our contribution would be macaroni and cheese. Cooking, like many other activities on the island is, in Jada's words, “MacGyver-esque.” I had to modify my recipes from cheddar to emmental, and half and half to cream and milk, mixed together. This was after I threw out a bunch of recipe ideas because we didn't have pesto, basil, rosemary, etc. I cooked two huge serving style trays full of macaroni; I've never cooked that much food for that many people. As I tend to do when I'm cooking for others, I got really stressed out about the whole thing, going crazy wanting other people to eat this humongous serving I had made. I think that in general, it was a success, though we have a plentiful portion of it left for lunch for the next few days.

In other words, our puppy has been adopted! Someone on the island decided to give her a good home. Though we are happy that she has a home, we still miss her, even if in recent days, she had grown accustomed to chewing on all of my clothes, my shoes, the sheets, and the furniture.

There is also a big fuel strike on Tahiti at this time. From what I understand, though I am probably mistaken, people are blocking the fuel from leaving Tahiti, and as such, Tahiti and all the other islands around it, like Moorea, are now living on a finite supply of gas. We are doing ok now, but soon we may run out of gas for the boats, the cars, the land rovers, and sooner or later, the electricity may go out. The ferries are already running less than they usually do. Soon planes may not be landing or leaving Tahiti's international airport. No one seems to be particularly worried right now, but we may have reason to worry soon. Anyone know any good negotiators?

Love to all,
Emily

Field work or Die Hard 2

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:12:00 +0000

Hey everyone!

So things have been busy lately! Mostly in a bad way. Let me explain.

The tap water here is generally not very drinkable unless you are in the dry season in which time most of the locals don't even drink it. So we mainly use that water for showers, washing off dive gear, etc. In the bungalows and the kitchens there are filtered water taps. And that's what I've been drinking since I got here.

So two nights ago I went to a nice dinner next door and the next morning I woke up throwing up. Since I hadn't eaten a lot or dunk a lot, this seemed distressing. The whole day I felt weak, and felt like sleeping the whole day, though I did a bunch of computer work. Later that day I ran into one of the professors here who was also feeling queasy. Then we ran into some of our local friends who are all getting sick too. They said that the filtered water here apparently only takes out the dirt and not the microbial organisms in it. Seeing as how even our local friends are sick, I think something more sinister is going on. Probably a flu passing through or something. I am feeling better today, but more people are getting sick. So it may just be bottled drinks from now on for me!

Today we got into the water and collected more tiles and put back others. Someone asked, and I am getting better in the water at doing what I need to do. It's still difficult though. Imagine if you were at work, and you were trying to get your work done but you were floating around, running into things, worried about running out of air to breathe. It is definitely a different environment working under the sea!

Love to all,
Emily

Field Work or The Empire Strikes Back

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:52:00 +0000

So posts are slower than usual because this week has been a busy week! On Monday the day went from 8 AM-9 PM. So not that much time to struggle with blogspot which is giving me problems. Anyways, a little update on all that is happening.

As beautiful as Moorea is, there is some nasty stuff that goes around. MDR staph is prevalent here, one person in our lab alone has gotten it multiple times since being here, so I am getting paranoid about every tiny cut and bugbite I have. When you think about all the microscopic cuts you have that you think nothing about, but which could cause you to lose your hand, it is pretty scary. So that and dengue fever which also comes here frequently are enough to keep you up at night.

Although a ton of people come to this research station for Marine research (Ecology, Physiology, Oceanography, etc.) there are also a lot of other scientists here. Yesterday, a group of guys from MIT arrived. They build robots that are meant to do things under the water like recording film, checking remote recording devices, etc. There has also been an anthropologist here, a terrestrial bird biologist, a few entomologists, etc. So I guess what I'm saying is that if you can find a niche and money, anyone can come here and do something!

Some people have asked about the island. The island is only about 26 miles around. There are mountains inland, and valleys among the mountains. There are only a few “cities” here. One is Maharepa, where we go for food, mainly. There are some nice restaurants there, a few banks, some surf shops, shopping, police department, doctor, etc. There is a bigger Walmart sort of super market on the other side of the island called Toa. The station has cars that are available to use and which we use for shopping and stuff, but you have to be 23 to drive, so no driving for me! Since they are land rovers with manual, which I can't drive anyways, it's not a big deal. Maybe next time I can come back knowing how to drive a manual stick shift? Anyone want to teach me?

More later, back to the field now!

Best,
Emily

Field Work or I didn't realize this involved land dwelling fauna

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 03:41:00 +0000

As some of you know, I used to be pre-veterinary medicine at one point in what is now seeming like my endless time at UF. I interned for two summers, first with a horse vet, then with a domestic pets vet, before I came to the realization during my sophomore year at UF that veterinary medicine might not be for me. It came around the time that I realized that performing spays and neuters were not really satisfying me. It had to do with the repetition, day in and day out of spays and neuters. I didn't like the idea of being in one place either.

One day, in the midst of this uncertainty, I decided that I should get research experience if I wanted to (possibly) get into vet school. I saw Jada's description of her research on the Zoology website; seeking an undergraduate assistant. The rest, as they say, is history.

One would think that the French Polynesia, diving, when I just learned to dive last year, would be the farthest possible place away from this former life. That seems not to be the case.

While having dinner with our next door neighbors a few nights ago, one of them mentioned that the locals tend to drop off dogs at the research station, expecting them to get fed and taken care of by well meaning, gullible Americans. I am ashamed to admit that I have become one of these Americans.

While working in the lab one day, I walked across the street and saw a small thing moving under the bushes. Sure enough, it is one of these aforementioned dogs, dirty, smelly, covered in fleas, shivering and frightened. What was I supposed to do except give it a bath, and cradle it until she fell asleep?

That night, Jada and I discovered just how much noise can come out of a dog weighing less than five pounds. She wasn't happy until Jada slept with one hand next to her, laying on the side of her bed.

This dog, I should add, is in addition to the six puppies we are already taking care of. These puppies are slightly younger than ours, and they, thank god, do not cry as much as ours does. Luckily, ours is getting better. Last night, she slept outside and barely cried. I am also getting her to socialize with the other puppies and learn what it is like to be a dog.

Unfortunately, the reason we have so many dogs is because there is a big stray dog population on the island. Fixing a dog runs up to $500, and most people cannot afford it or simply don't feel like it is money well spent. There are a few station dogs, but they are required to be fixed and without fleas.

Our neighbor will come back from her collecting trip tomorrow and we will cede care of the puppies to her. We have a few people looking on the island for homes for all of them as well. So hopefully that will pan out because we are running out of time and patience to take care of all of them with.

A picture of our puppy is included below. Our friend David here mentioned to us that he didn't like dogs or cats, and we asked why that was. He said that “[he] didn't believe that humans should socialize with other species.” I am starting to see his point.

Best,
Emily

Field Work: This time, it's personal

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:40:00 +0000

So second day of field work.

Yesterday, as you know, we loosened nuts on our tiles. Today we actually went out and collected them. And by we, I actually mean Jada. Let me explain.

Because the nuts were already loosened from yesterday, it doesn't take that much time to take off the tiles. Seeing as the reefs are only six feet or so under the surface, we decided to complete today on snorkel. The reasons why we would use snorkel are thus: it's a lot less stuff to get ready and pack, we can get on the boat faster, and when we are in the water we are not as encumbered with gear. We would SCUBA dive when we need to be under for longer, and we are doing something more labor intensive.

So I thought I like snorkeling more, but I am firmly in the SCUBA family now, at least for field work. The waves were more intense then yesterday, and even just floating on the surface, the water is lapping into your snorkel, forcing you to choke on salt water constantly. I don't even want to know how much water I swallowed today, probably way too much. Jada went down and unscrewed the nuts, and put the tiles in buckets. Since she has had a ton of practice, she can hold her breath for amounts of time that can only be described as inhuman. I, on the other hand, swim down (with my eight pound weight belt, still buoyant because of the ridiculous amounts of fat), am there for ten seconds or so, trying to put the nuts back on, and my lungs feel like they are about to explode. So Jada did most of it and I put on one or two nuts. I was quite the helper. Snorkeling is going to take a lot of work.

But things went so much better when the tiles were back in and we looked at them under the microscope. I think a lot of you have either heard me talk about the tiles, or actually seen them yourselves. What a difference to see them in person! For once on this trip, I actually felt really qualified to do something. I knew the algae there, I knew what I was looking for, it just felt great.

Another project I am working on during this trip is on this disease that is killing algae on our tiles. The disease is not well known, and only was recently discovered. We don't even know whether it is a virus, fungus, bacteria, etc. We also don't know how is spreads, the extent to which it kills, what kind of algae it kills, or anything. Jada and I have been corresponding with scientists and seeing what needs to be studied about it and what we already know. So one of my side projects will be tracking the spread of the disease over the time period in which we are here.

Scientists have always seemed to me to be a bit strange at the all consuming obsession they develop over their research. What a change to see this disease! Suddenly, I didn't care about dinner, time flew, and I started to want to skip the party at the station that night in order to keep doing work with the disease. We've only seen it on one tile so far, and I'm already obsessed. Real healthy, right?

Some people have asked about the food I've been eating, so I thought I'd address that here. In every country I travel to I see a big focus on one specific food. Here it is pork. Of course, pork is the one food I don't eat. So we are making efforts to avoid that. Yesterday we were invited to dinner with friends of Jada's and we had a lentil stew, and tonight Jada made shrimp stir fry. There is also this really great snack restaurant down the road and I've had cheeseburgers there. Yum. We also went out to lunch one day and had raw tuna, which had been marinated in lemon juice, then in coconut juice, in a stir fry salad. It is a local classic. Fish is really fresh here. Later, Jada and I are planning to make sushi with fish we get. Other than that, the supermarket is pretty regular. Although, the best produce is at the gas station. I have no idea either.

There has been a undergraduate program here for the past 2 months, and they are leaving tomorrow, so to celebrate they are throwing “Gump Prom” tonight. So that is where we are off to.

Love to all,
Emily

Field work

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:12:00 +0000

Today was the first day of real field work. Ahh!! The highs!!! The lows!! Anyways, I will articulate all that happened.

Well to begin with, I had no idea all the things you have to think about when you are conducting research. It is not just going out in a boat, jumping in the water, and doing stuff. We actually spent part of the morning at a hardware store looking for specific wrenches. We weren't even sure what size was right, because all the measurements were in the metric system. Why on earth would we need wrenches? More on that later.

Anyways, after that was lunch then field work! We spent a fair amount of time getting ready because Jada was training me and showing me everything we had to do to get ready including how to get the boat free from the dock and everything. Like I said, lots of things to think about. After loading up everything we were ready to go!

Our sites are about twenty minutes away from the center, so we had a fair boat ride. On the way there, there were a good amount of waves, and the boat ride was choppy. As you are going over the water, the water is aquamarine colored, and you can see under the water big, round, brown spots. These are the corals.

Jada has been doing this for a while, so she knows where all of her reefs are located from the seat of the boat, even though there aren't any markers. It's pretty impressive. So our plan for the day was to loosen nuts that were holding the tiles onto the reef, hence, needing the wrenches. Not exactly what you expected research being, huh? At least I didn't.

The first reef went ok, I got the good wrench (it turns out the wrenches we ended up buying were too big. It appears that it would be helpful if I had some handyman skills, but, alas, that is not the case). The second reef was where the trouble started. I didn't have enough weight on, so I kept floating away while I was trying to loosen nuts. The bad thing about diving too, is that you have too much time to think. I started getting upset because I kept thinking, “I can't touch the tiles, I can't touch the coral, there are rock fish in the sand, I can't touch anything.” And it didn't help that my vest was too low on my tank, and my head kept hitting my tank. In other words, there were a lot of troubles.

I came up from the first dive feeling fairly frustrated and upset. Jada made me feel better, though, and we made some adjustments so the second dive of the day would go better. I ended up wearing almost 18 pounds of weight. In salt water, most people wear about 8-10 pounds. So this was fairly ridiculous. Apparently, women have more fat than men, which makes them more buoyant. So I am just made of fat. Nice to know.

The second dive went much better, I stayed on the bottom, and was able to unscrew nuts fairly quickly. So at the end of the day, I was feeling pretty good.

I can tell you, one nice thing about field research is that you come back at the end of the day, and don't feel guilty about not going to the gym, or going for that run. You've been doing physical labor all day. So I come back, and write long messages to you!

More later, love to all,
Emily

A little info about Moorea and what made the island

noreply@blogger.com (emilyvux) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:04:00 +0000

Oh my gosh, the picture upload actually worked! Uploading or downloading anything at Gump is strictly regulated because it uses so much bandwidth and the connection is slow as it is. I will try to upload more, but it appears I can only do one photo at a time. This is a picture of the lagoon here, and you can see the mountains in the background. Moorea is very mountainous because at one time it was a volcano, but it slowly started disingrating (bad word choice, any scientists out there will hate me for it), and now it is no longer active. As it collapsed, a fringing reef was created around the island. This reef used to be the base of the volcano, but now it is merely a reef that surrounds the island like a ring. It is about 500-1000 meters away from the island. In the lagoon (the part inside of the reef) it has pretty calm waters and there is a ton of coral. Nearer to the fringing reef, the coral is pretty beat up and there is not a ton of living coral because the waves are constantly breaking on it. Outside of the reef there is a lot of coral as well, but the waves are harsher, and you are not as protected if you are diving out there. Because of that, most people conduct their research in the lagoon. But there is still some pretty incredible stuff outside of the reef; a couple of the grad students went diving out there not too long ago and came back with these incredible photos of sharks and sea turtles swimming amongst them. Because it requires bigger boats and more bravery than at least I am equipped with currently, we won't spend a lot of time outside of the reef. Jada's study sites are inside the lagoon. I actually won't be diving that deep. The coral that we will be working with are only about 6 feet below the water surface. We'll be heading to the sites and diving later today, so there will probably be a post later if the internet holds out.

Love to all,
Emily