Sueños de Chile

It's been almost a year since I finished up my degu work in Chile, and I was feeling nostalgic the other day.  Luckily, I was able to catch up with both Tina and Morgan and reminisce about our giant bag of mustard, silly names for all the street dogs, coffee and ice cream obsessions, and general sense of wonder that pervaded those 5 months.  I found the blogs written by the current students in Chile who are on the same grant that we got to participate in last year.  Most of their posts are actually about their projects and scientific theory and all that "appropriate" stuff.  While Tina and I do (honestly) plan on finishing up and publishing our projects, it was the Chilean experiences- with some amazing kindred spirits- that will always give me a warm fuzzy feeling... and a simultaneous twinge in my heart.

Little daily reminders in my room: the Chilean flag from a fonda, mug from Pablo Neruda's house, and of course, Slothsicle; Valparaíso degu. 

*** Oh dear. I never actually finished writing about my trip to Southern Chile after finishing degu work.  It took me all the way down to Patagonia (the region, not the store) and in the town of Puerto Natales there is a cave where they found fossils of a giant ground sloth (milodon) and have a fantastic statue I wanted to pose with.  On the last day I was doing some souvenir shopping and found a woman who made little clay figures on top of pencils.  The best was obviously the milodon, but she had just finished painting them and couldn't put it in a bag.  Instead she wrapped a paper bag around the pencil part (for what reason was lost in translation) and promised it would dry shortly if I let it air.  So we walked around for the rest of the day holding a sloth pencil like a popsicle- which, incidentally, is what my hand felt like since it was freezing outside and I couldn't keep it in my pocket.  That's a lot of background, but I can't remember laughing so much that my eyelashes froze since :)

Stumbling into Coincidences

I recently stumbled upon www.stumbleupon.com. I don't know exactly what it is - just that it is like a guided tour of interesting pages on the internet based on a couple of questions and an uncanny insight into your head.  You sign up, select a couple categories of interest, and start clicking the "stumble" button.  It brings up a page - a blog, a photo, a video, anything - and you can like it or dislike it, see what other people have thought of it, and then move on after as little or as much time as you please.  It shows you things based on what people with similar interests have liked, and I have to say. I was Impressed.

Tonight, after clicking through half a dozen or so somewhat interesting pages (for some reason it really wants me to like the Maldives), I stumbled upon a TED talk on crows.  First of all, I love TED talks.  Short talks by insanely intelligent people on interesting and thought-provoking topics.  Score.  But CROWS? I have had a number of conversations lately on the merits (or lack thereof) of crows, and someone mentioned teaching crows to pick up coins from the street which I thought was a bit clever.  Turns out it is MUCH cooler and crazier than that, and this talk was by the guy who designed that study.  I have a new respect for crows and all, but the real point is - it is kind of creepy stumble sent me that video, on that topic, a couple of days after I had that seemingly totally random conversation.  I am sufficiently impressed (and a little creeped out).

This is the link to the talk.  It really is fascinating, and will definitely give you something to think about the next time you see a crow!

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2zBIz8

P.s.  I just remembered another crazy coincidence this weekend.  We were being chided by our professor last week as none of us could come up with the name of the man given credit for starting the Green Revolution and thus saving over a billion people from starvation in the 1970's.  On Sunday, while waiting for the bus, I randomly selected a podcast to listen to and it happened to be about food science.  And of course they spent a few minutes talking about the Father of the Green Revolution.  So now, next time that question comes up on Jeopardy, let's all be sure we can answer correctly "Who is Norman Borlaug?"

Riding the Big Blue Bus

I feel like a true urbanite using public transportation every day.  Los Angeles is the city of the car, but the roads (rather the highways) scare me and the little CRV, so I stick to the bus as often as possible.  Plus, parking on campus costs something like $20 a day and that is waaayyy beyond the grad school budget.

I am starting to get a handle on the bus routes through the process of trial and error (example: even if the route looks close enough, where the bus will actually stop may be much further away than desired.  Duly noted).  Going to school I pretty much have to chose a line and commit, as there are 2 close by but in opposite directions.  At first I was closely following the printed timetables (ok the Google Map timetables) but somehow I was waiting 15-20 minutes for the bus EVERY TIME.  So I have started just leaving when I am ready and hoping it works out for the best.  (Where's your equivalent of nextmuni.com, Los Angles? Get on top of it!).

Given the erratic nature of the bus schedule I typically leave my house fairly calmly, then begin to get nervous I'm going to miss the bus and power walk the alley to the main street.  I have found that the alley is my best option because it provides 2 options - if I don't see the bus I can walk half a block against traffic and wait at the closest stop.  More often than not, however, I seem to time it and see the bus passing me just when I am nearing the end of the alley.  Luckily (in these situations, anyway) there is usually enough traffic in the morning to hold the bus up at the next stop light and I'm able to make a run for it through the 7-11 parking lot and make it on.  Nothing like a little heart pumping action first thing in the morning.  It is incredibly frustrating when I see the bus whiz by on a quiet morning and have no chance of catching up with it and am stuck waiting a full 20 minutes for the next one to come along.  Some day I will get brave enough to ride my bike...

On a side note, the walk down the alley gives me a chance to observe one of the other urbanite experiences, that of the bottle (or just trash) collectors.  There are dozens of people that methodically go through every recycle bin in the alley looking for cash-redemption bottles and cans.  The 7-11 may draw them in, but there are clearly enough gems to keep them coming back.  The major downside to this is that there is a dumpster grouping just outside of my window and there aren't conventional business hours for this system.  The other morning I was startled awake around 4am by a bang- the dumpster lid being thrown open and hitting the side of my building (aka the wall 3 ft from my head).  Good morning to you, too, Los Angeles.