My Boys are fine (Monday 7/12/04)

Okay... poor Amanda. Let me calm everyone's fears and worries. I have taken care of the cat situation. I took care of it almost immediately. Yes, it was a pain in the ass and caused me a lot of worry and frustration, but things are okay. My friend Emily has been taking care of the boys for the past week+, and my other friend Sara Henry just happens to need a place to live right now. She's moving in today to take care of the apartment and the kitties. I would never leave my boys to fend for themselves. I appreciate all your concern, but everything is under control.
Now, I'm just trying to figure out my financial situation. Argh! If it's not one thing its another. BUT! Don't worry about that either. I can take care of it. :)

Well, Zach and I are leaving Suva in less than an hour. I can't wait. It's been raining all day and I'm just not crazy about this city. Anyways, I went with Mark Hay and his sons to Gavinda, a REALLY good vegetarian India cafe. Zach was fartin' around making fish food and other crap, so I didn't have anything else to do. I'm glad I went though. It was an interesting experience. Remember how Dad used to smack our hands with a fork or knife if we ate with our fingers? He'd have a FIELD DAY in a traditional Indian joint. They don't use utensils. Normally, I would think that's cool, but Suva is such a dirty place, I wash my hands first thing when I return from downtown. I couldn't stomache mixing my rice, curry, and veggies on my giant silver platter with my bare hands (which were black from touching things while walking through the stores in Suva).

You should see how much shit Zach and I have to transport to Tagaqe! I hope we can fit it all in a taxi. I have serious doubts. Out taxi driver's gonna hate us. It's such a pain lugging this crap around, but what can one do? There are no stores on the coral coast that sell the field supplies we need, and no grocery stores within 30 - 45 minutes (which wouldn't be bad except we have to pay for a taxi everytime we want to go). So, we had to buy all of our groceries and supplies in Suva and now we have to lug them with us all the way to Tagaqe (over a 1.5 hour cab ride). Oh well. I can't wait to be at the pretty coral coast though. It will be much less depressing than this place.

Take care and I miss you all!
Until later,
Sara

Success! (7/10/04)

I spent 2 hours online today at Fintel, an internet "cafe" in Suva with no food or drinks. It's only $6 an hour to connect, but they wouldn't let me hook up my thumb drive that had all of my posts. So, here I am again, online in the lab. I was smart today and brought my power cord with me.

I went out of my way to try to plan this trip, and you know me, I'm usually fly by the seat of my pants. I'm begining to think that this "planning" crap is just that... a bunch of crap. There will ALWAYS be things that pop up unexpectedly. Like the girl moving out of my apartment who's suppose to be taking care of the boys. And, today when I went to check my bank account, realizing that Ga Tech screwed me out of $500 this month! (My paycheck was $500 less than it should be). I bugdeted this trip down to the wire, and now I'm kind of screwed. The check sent to my credit card company may bounce. I transfered money from the little I have in savings. I'm hoping that will prevent any bounced checks... but I'm living on the edge - - tightening my waist belt. I may end up sitting on a piece of cardboard in front of the McDonalds or KFC with the Indo-Fijians begging for money... selling shells or dried peas.

Before being bummed out by my financial fiasco, I had a great day. I spent it walking around Suva and checking out the market where villagers come to sell their wares (woven baskets, wood carving, shell jewelry, etc). I also went into "mom & pop" clothing stores (where they make the clothes from scratch - not mass produced). The other guys here like to go into "fancy" stores equivalent to Old Navy in the States, but I like to support the smaller shops. Plus, I got 3 long skirts (sulus or wraps) for as much as ONE would cost at Wai Tui (fancy-schmancy place). I also went into some really cute "sweets shops" and tried some strange pastries. They were good, but the best snack here is the spicy green peas. If I can, I'll try to bring some home.

This morning I went shopping at the hardware store for field supplies. They "Hardware" store is very interesting. They sell everything from power saws and nails to nail polish and coconut graters. Anyway, I bought cable ties, large nails, a big tarp, rain coat, hammer and chisel, and dried blood. The nails and cable ties will be used to mark coral heads. I have numbered tags that I will connect to the nails and the nails will be driven into the substrate near a coral. If I do a shading experiment (to test the effect of decreased UV light on coral health), I'll used pieces of the tarp to shade corals. The dried blood will be added to slow released fertilizer I bought for an experiment investigating the effects of elevated nutrients on coral. Dried blood is rich in nitrogen and iron, both of which are limiting in ocean water.

Tomorrow I'll head to Cost U Less to buy groceries and dishes for my expedition. I'll also get a mosquito net. A very important purchase seeing as I've nearly been sucked dry so far and I'm only in the CITY. The "jungle" will be a sweet blooded white girl's nightmare.

Here's a story specifically for 'Shell and 'Manda (and whoever else reading this loves heartbreakingly cute ki-ens). During my shopping spree this morning, I went with Zach to an aquarium store. They didn't have what I needed so I was fartin' around waiting for Zach to get done. I saw a hairball in the corner and when it started to move, I went over to investigate more closely. Oh my god... hold on, I'm getting verclemt! It was a 5 week old ki-en with spiky soft fur and a nubbin tail. She was white with black spots and big, pitiful blue eyes. She went "mew" in a high pitched little kitten voice as if saying "Sara, don't you want to play with me?" Of course! I picked her up and she started puring so loud I thought her little engine would pop out of her chest. She was soooo tiny, she fit in the palm of my hand. (I'm tearing up at the pain of her cuteness). I put her back on the floor and she started attacking my feet. I wanted to stuff her in my pocket and take her home, but the owner seemed to really love her. He said he'd had another cat in the shop for years and someone stole it. He missed it so much and his customers were so used to coming in to visit the "shop cat" - - then this ki-en came along... so he took her in. She seemed happy. There were PLENTY of kitty TV's, and lots of things to play with. *sigh* Ki-ens are so cute when they're spiky and clumsy.

I miss my boys.
Okay... gotta go work on my paper and start organizing things to pack up tomorrow.
I'll try to get up another post or two before heading out to the village.

Cheers,
Sara

The village (7/9/04)

Yesterday (Wednesday here, 7/8) I went to a resort called The Hideaway. It was filled with plump, wealthy Aussies, Brits, and New Zealanders. Not my cup of tea. Everything was too “programmed”, to “fake”. Whatever… I wasn’t there for the games. I was meeting with the dive master who owns the scuba shop. He offered my colleague (Zach) and I a deal on air tanks when we move to the village ($10 Fijian per tank per day). It’s a great deal and seeing as we’re doing shore dives (when we’re not snorkeling), it’s very affordable.

Most of the day we snorkeled to get an idea of what’s on the reef. It was a veritable coral graveyard, but still better than the Caribbean. I can work with it. We won’t be doing our work right off the resort, which is actually a marine protected area, though you wouldn’t know it by looking at it. It’s covered with fleshy algae. The weirdest thing is that all of these corals, sponges, gorgonians, and algae are living in this shallow water that becomes completely exposed at low tide! I was very surprised. You could just walk along and look at corals in inches of water – tidepools!!

The reef I’ll be working on is owned by the village Tangang. We met with the Chief to get permission to work and live on his property. It was a very formal “ceremony” with Kava drinking and Fijian etiquette. Dress was a long skirt or loose pants, and no one sat down until the chief picked a spot and told them to sit. It was interesting and exhilarating (but a little stressful too). I was so afraid I would do something to offend. No problems though. The chief was very agreeable and gave us permission to pretty much do whatever we want on his reef. He offered us an old forestry lodge to stay in (quite rustic and dirty, but it will do) for $5 (Fijian) a day and the villagers will prepare us meals for another $5 if we choose. Our site is just across the road, so it’s very convenient. The Hideaway is a 15 – 20 minute walk in one direction and a backpacker’s resort is a 20 minute walk in the other direction. The backpacker’s will probably be more fun… more people in my age group that share my interests (and more affordable drinks!). The closest “town” (with a place to buy food) is a good 30 minutes by car, but that’s only a $5 cab ride or a $2 bus ride. Zach will be staying at the lodge too. He’s working on a different project, but will be snorkeling and diving with me. It’s good to have a “buddy”. We move to the lodge on Monday. I will be out of contact for several weeks. When we go to Sigatoka (for groceries), I’ll try to find an internet connection to check/send emails. I think there may even be a connection at the backpacker’s resort.

Well, it’s late and I’m very tired.
Moce!
Sara

Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!! (7/8/04)

I was so close, damn it! Picture the scene: me in a cute, knee length flowered skirt, a red tank and flip-flops. We just returned from dinner and a movie (The Chronicles of Riddick – rating: “eh”). It’s 11:00 at night here, so I’m a little tired. But, I haven’t checked email in a while, so I figured I’d get it done tonight. You see - it takes anywhere from 2 – 5+ minutes to load A SINGLE page during the day. So, it’s nearly impossible to get anything done online. Late at night isn’t so bad, but Sunday is the best. This will all change (I’m assuming) next week when the students get back from holiday. Anyway… back to the story at hand. I dashed back to my room and grabbed my laptop to take to the lab across campus (a few buildings away) where there’s internet access. Of course, all the doors were locked since it was late. No worries, I know a way in. Unfortunately, I wasn’t appropriately dressed for my 007 action. Whatever… that didn’t stop me. With computer in hand, I hopped down into a drainage ditch and crouched to avoid the prickly shrubs and bushes, all the while dodging lizards, hermit crabs and frogs. Once I made it to the opening, I crawled under a large cement wall. I was able to push my laptop up under a grating into the building. Then, I hiked my skirt up around my waist and jump up between two cement pilings. I shimmied my way up to the first floor by pressing my back against one piling and my feet against the other… “walking” up the wall. I grabbed hold of a stair railing and pulled myself up the rest of the way. Whew! Finally, I squeezed through the railing, grabbed my laptop and headed for the lab. Success!

Once connected to the internet I started checking my email. Thanks to all of you for responding. Unfortunately, my email was screwing up. I couldn’t reply, forward or create new messages. Thus, I was stuck reading the emails everyone sent, but not being able to reply. I decided to update my blog instead and fill everyone in on what’s been going on. Then my computer shut off… it ran out of battery! Fricken fracken bricken bracken!!!!!! *pulling hair out*
Needless to say, I was a bit irked. Oh well. I’ll post this message (along with the rest) tomorrow and you guys will just have a novel to read about me, and my adventures in reality.

ta ta for now,
me

Bula! and welcome to Fiji (7/6/04)

I’ve been in Fiji for 2 days now. I’m not overly impressed, but I hear it grows on you. Suva is VERY dirty. There is trash everywhere, and things are just grimy. I also noticed that there are a lot of emaciated wild dogs and poorly kept horses (way too skinny). In addition, being a woman here is quite different than being a man. I notice it more than the men do, but even they (my colleagues) pick up on it now and then. For the most part, women are ignored. If someone does pay attention (usually because I force it) it’s not always amiable. I was surprised when even one of the “Western” professors behaved that way towards me. He was very rude when I had to deal with him alone, but as soon as my colleague (Zach) came in, his demeanor changed immediately. The only person I haven’t experienced this with is a prof named Klaus (from Germany), with whom I’m suppose to collaborate on a project. He’s very nice and seems to want to make sure that I have everything I need, etc. The women are friendly to me if I make sure to greet them openly and with a broad smile and exuberant Bula! That’s fine with me… I enjoy chatting with them.

Upon landing in Nadi, I had to pay 150 Fijian ($75) for a cab ride to Suva (a 2 hr ride). It was only suppose to be 100 Fijian, but I had not idea where the hell to go in Fiji since the god damn University lodge doesn’t have an address. The cab driver and I spent a good 20 – 30 minutes in Suva trying to figure out 1) where the lodge was, and 2) how to check in. Sounds rather simple, right? Especially since the campus is very small. We were directed all over the damn place. It turns out that you don’t check in at the lodge, or even anywhere on campus for that matter. You pick up your key from some random building a few miles down the road from the main campus entrance. It would have been helpful if someone who worked at the lodge had answered the phone to give us directions, or if ANYONE at the University knew what was going on… we eventually found where to go by asking a girl who worked in some Indian fast food joint. Who would have thought that SHE would send us to the right place? Oh well. I found it and got my room just fine. The accommodations are meager, but work nicely for now. I leave my windows and doors open all the time… a wonderful sea breeze keeps the room comfortable and smelling great, but the mosquitoes are a bitch. A storm came through last night with pounding rain and howling wind… I love to be in a cozy room during weather like that. It’ll suck when I have to deal with that while staying in the village though, which will be a bit more like camping.

Zach and I are making a day excursion to the village tomorrow. We’re going with a few of the professors to try to work out a living arrangement for a few weeks. Apparently we can stay with one of the villagers for @20 Fijian a day ($10) and they’ll cook for us (kind of like a bed and breakfast). We’ll have to do all (or most) of our work snorkeling though, since air tanks are not easy to come buy in that area of Fiji. Fortunately, the reefs are shallow and accessible by snorkeling. We’re going to scout out sites tomorrow while the professors meet with the Chief to work out an arrangement. So, as of Monday I will be out of email contact for several weeks. I hope to make several trips back to the University though to drop off samples… I’ll try to drop a line or update my journal if I’m able to do that.

I went on my first two dives today. I already described them in an email I sent you though, so I won’t go into much detail. I forgot to mention that the prof I’m diving with is insane. He likes to dive until you’re out of air. I literally ran out of air today. I had to surface several yards from the boat and switch to snorkel. At least now I have a first hand experience of feeling what it’s like to run out of air. It felt like trying to breathe through a thick blanket or comforter. There was still a little air in the tank; it was just really hard to get out. In addition, he and Zach left me on a reef (unintentionally, of course). We were out collecting algae samples and I had my head buried in some rubble pulling pieces of a red, mushroom-like encrusting algae. Mark (the prof) had gotten onto me (teasingly) after the first dive for not collecting enough. Well, I hit the mother load. But, when I finished collecting, I looked up and everyone was gone. I was alone on the reef and didn’t know where the hell the boat was. No panicking though; I quickly assessed the situation. I had an idea of which direction they had gone, but I didn’t want to attempt to follow for fear of getting even more lost and further from the boat. I decided that if I didn’t find them within a few minutes, I would surface, find the boat and head back. I ascended to just above a reef spur (we were collecting in the grooves) and did a 360 turn to scout for them. Unfortunately, visibility had dropped to ~15 feet. I then decided to make a broad circle of the spur and groove, hoping to spot them in the distance or run into them. No luck. I was just about to give up and surface, when during my last go ‘round, I saw bubbles heading in my direction. They realized I was gone and had come back to get me. We finished the rest of the dive after a quick check that everyone was okay. Let’s just say that after that, I watched my compass with one eye and kept the other on Mark’s yellow snorkel for the rest of the dive… screw the algae!

Okay… I’m tired and I have to get up really early to head to the village tomorrow. It’s going to be a long day.
Moce (pronounce "mothey" = see you later),
Sara

Impressions of Okinawa (6/30/04)

Between the food and weather, I think I’ve lost weight. The weather? A mix between a sauna and a hot tub. I thought for sure I’d be used to weather like this after living in Atlanta. Nope. The humidity in Okiwawa makes Atlanta seem like a desert. Everyone at the conference had horrible pit stains, wet backs and butts… I had sweat dripping down the backs of my legs fer crissakes!!! I thought I would have to burn a couple of the dresses I wore. :-{

My hotel was a Japanese equivalent to Motel 6 (ha ha). It actually wasn’t THAT bad, we got fresh slippers and a kimono on our beds every night. The only English TV channel was AFN (Armed Forces Network). Interesting. I watched part of Spiderman one night and I couldn’t get past the commercials. They were more like public service announcements. For example, how to use credit cards wisely; or it’s better to seek marriage counseling than to commit domestic violence; and the best – it’s illegal for a serviceperson to speak negatively about any of the country’s leaders, which would result in a court marshal and jail time. Hmmm.
My roommates at the conference were very cool. I now have two new friends, one at Cambridge and the other in France. Annelise, the Brit, was my favorite. We got along very well and hung out quite a bit.

As for the conference, it wasn’t all that well organized. My hotel was the closest to the conference center, but I was the last one picked up in the morning and the last one dropped off. I was at most 10 miles away, but it was a 30 min bus ride there and over an hour back to the hotel at night. They also only ran 3 buses in the morning from 7:30 to 8:00 then one bus every 3 hours… we were trapped. Most of the time when the bus reached OUR hotel, it was full. What the F---- is that all about? Usually we could bully our way on, but one day we couldn’t get on ANY bus that stopped so we had to take the public bus. The reason this all sucks so much is that we paid a hefty registration fee, which is suppose to cover transportation. Hence people’s hesitation to pay out of their pocket for an expensive cab. Several of us jumped on the public bus that day (which smelled like goat). First of all, it didn’t drop us off near the conference center. We had to walk 2+ miles from the bus stop. In addition, the damn bus cost MORE than if we had split a taxi!!!! Argh!

The other bit of poor planning came in the form of a deadly miscalculation of how much Westerners… or even just BIOLOGISTS love to eat and drink (beer and/or coffee). On the first day, sessions broke for mid-morning coffee, but there was no coffee. NO COFFEE!!!! Mayhem! Hordes of tired, irritable scientists with NO COFFEE during a coffee break. I’m utterly surprised that no blood was spilled. That was a quick lesson learned. The very next day there was ample coffee and snacks at both the morning and afternoon break. Salvation. The other miscalculation was in planning the two banquets. At each one, the food ran out within 10 – 15 minutes. Oh well, who needs food? The biological community could deal with that. But, when the BEER ran out!… those poor little Okinawanese looked like frightened goats facing the prospect of being torn to shreds by a Bengal tiger. On Thursday night after we drank the banquet dry, thousands of scientists invaded the city of Naha. Unfortunately the word had spread of only ONE bar. So, hundreds of people were heading for the same place. By the time my group made it to the little bar on Kokisai street, the conference goers had drunk the BAR dry. I’m not kidding. Several of us found a more obscure bar underneath the city. It was a tiny little dance club with strobe lights and funky music. We had a blast dancing the night away to Ludacris and Outkast sung in Japanese. :-D

Back to the conference though… other than the poor planning it was great. The talks were interesting. I was at the edge of my seat for a few. Geeky? Okay, but the science behind some of them (good or bad) was intriguing and I had tons of new ideas (and possible collaborations) spring forth. I made plenty of new contacts and have revived hope for my future. Now I need to push through the rest of grad school. I’m ready to be done and move on. I met several members of a lab in Australia… where the best potential for collaboration lies. However, I peaked the interest of parties in Hawaii, Oregon and California as well. I just hope their interest in me lasts over the next 2 years. I guess I should be working on my paper instead of writing this journal entry if THAT’S going to happen. :-}

Anyway… my talk was well received. I got great feedback and was excited because I was the only speaker (in the molecular realm) that actually presented DATA!! Everyone else just presented techniques that could be used to address questions relating to coral biology/ecology. I made sure to open my talk by stating just that…. That MY talk USED the techniques that everyone had been talking about and actually showed DATA from it. It made me feel pretty good.
I could go on, but I’ll leave it there for now. I’d probably bore you with the rest. ;-)

So for now… sayonara!
-Sara

The rundown on grub in Okinawa… (6/30/04)

Okinawanese food is different from Japanese food. I myself couldn’t tell so much… everything was strange to me, even the sushi.
Here is a description of some of the more memorable experiences I had with food.

Drinks:
Healthy Sour Drink – a vinegar-like drink (but not so strong) that actually tasted like a mix of spoiled lemonade and Luria Broth (a broth used for culturing bacteria in the lab)
Pocari Sweat – why the hell would you name any drink “sweat”? It wasn’t that bad though, tasted like diluted gatorade
Sea Snake tea – yes, dried sea snake mixed with hot water makes an excellent tea that remedies most maladies! I’ll pass.
Bitter Cucumber tea – the Japanese have a very strange love and fascination for this vegetable. It’s EVERYWHERE! In food, drinks, desserts, stuffed animals, key chains, posters… I even saw Hello Kitty dressed up in a bitter cucumber costume many times. Weird. Anyway, the tea was really good. It tasted like a weak iced coffee.
I have to say that of anything else, I’ll miss the tea in Japan... Green tea, Jasmine tea and O-cha (bitter cucumber)… they were all very good and very abundant.

Food:
One word… Goo Cup!!! Ha! The Japanese equivalent to Waffle House. This is where you end up at 2:00 in the morning with a strong buzz. Expect similar staff, but with all of their teeth, but don’t expect waffles or grits or pancakes or eggs… expect rice or noodles and various unidentifiable meat forms. Although… I had a very good vegetarian dish there (I was also drunk). Hmmm.
Back to the snake… there’s a very poisonous snake on the island and the Okinawanese like to dry it, cut it up and use it to make soup stock. Mmmm, MMM! Where's THAT dish at Thanksgiving?
Slimey Okra… so, I didn’t realize that Okra is NOT a southern thing. I always think of fried okra at grandma’s house. Well, if you LOVE okra, I can bet you wouldn’t eat it here. It’s very small (a little bigger in diameter than asparagus) and they mix it with some red pepper-like things. The whole mix looks like I stuffed the veggies in my mouth and sneezed them out my nose with a very bad cold. They are COVERED, and I mean covered in sticky, slimy white-ish, yellow slime. I wish I had video of us playing with them!
Green Caviar – looks like beautiful laced tiny green pearls. Fortunately it’s not REAL caviar, but seaweed. It looks good, but I didn’t get a chance to try it.
Rice/Bean patty – sounds kinda good, right? Okay, it’s a dessert. First, they boil the rice until there is no more rice pellet… just goo. Then they strain it to get a nice rice gluten with a consistency like Jell-O but thicker. This is formed into a sand dollar shape (but thicker) and filled with black beans that are slightly puréed and very sweet. I thought it might be good, but the consistency of the rice gluten and the saccharine sweetness of the beans made my stomach turn. (You can also get it with spinach blended into the rice gluten).
Squid on stick – yes, you read that correctly. “Squid on a stick”. No further comment necessary.

So, what did I eat at each meal? Why, let me tell you what was served.
Breakfast:
Fish and rice, noodles and unidentifiable meat, slimy okra, miso soup, and if I was lucky – half a banana. I skipped breakfast.
Lunch:
We had pre-packaged boxes of food. I could always count on the rice and soy sauce, but the accompanying vegetables provided much entertainment (i.e. the slimy okra). Although, I did encounter quite a few very delicious treats… yams, an odd potato puff, some kind of soy product, and other strange veggies.
Dinner:
I tried Soba noodles a few times, but they kept serving it with pork and fish cakes (which looked like white elongated communion wafers, but oily and thick). My stomach couldn’t take it.
So, I generally stuck to rice and mixed vegetables, if I could get it. I had gold fish crackers and beer more than once for dinner.
I guess that’s it for the food.

I miss cheese.
-Sara

Bummer

I'm sitting here in a cyber cafe in downtown Suva. My plan was to bring my thumb drive with me so I could post all the journal entries I've been writing. But, I can't get the stupid computer to recognize my drive. I'll work on it some more. This is all so very frustrating. :{
I'm going to the Market again today. I went yesterday and it was definately an adventure. I'm trying to find a sulu. Those are the skirts the men wear here. I like them more than the sarongs. I also need to buy a long sleeve shirt since it's colder here than I expected. I'm gonna try to find a mosquito net too, since the bugs are really bad on the coral coast. They don't bother you on the beach because the wind is too strong, but in the forest, they are horrible. I already look like I have a skin disease on my legs (ha ha!).
It's interesting walking around downtown by myself today. Yesterday I went with Zach and didn't have any problems. Today, by myself, I can't seem to walk a block without hoots, hollers and unwanted attention in general. I'm not dressed inappropriately. I'm not sure what it is. Oh well, as long as they leave me alone.
I had to go to the immigration office yesterday to get an extension on my travelers visa. I had to pay $90 (Fijian), which is a hell of alot better than Zach, who had to pay $645 (Fijian) to extend his. They took my passport though. I had to go back today to pick it up. I was scared they were going to say "oops, we made a mistake, you actually owe $1000, pay up or you don't get your passport back." That seems to be how things work around here. Everything is different depending on who you talk to or what kind of mood people are in. Fortunately, I got my passport back and an extension on my stay with no problems. I guess I shouldn't say that quite yet... we'll see when I try to leave the country. :}

Okay, I have to go because I'm hungry. What will it be? Indian food, or Indian food. Ah, variety the spice of life... here it's curry.

Moce (pronounced "Mothey" = see you later)
Sara

"Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto"

Hi all... will update tomorrow. I just got into Suva, Fiji today (July 4th) at noon. I've been traveling since 5:30am July 3rd. I'm beat.

later,
sara
p.s. I sang that song almost everyday... "Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto" over and over and over and over......... argh! ;)

Hard at work.