Nicaragua!

I just got home from a 3 week trip to Refugio Bartola, Nicaragua. I was working as a teaching assistant for a class of undergrads at UCLA. We didn't have internet there (we only had electricity for part of the day too), but I wrote some entries I will be putting up over the next few days. It was an amazing experience- waking up every day to the sounds of birds and howler monkeys, hiking in the rainforest, canoeing down a lazy river, discovering tons of new animals and birds and plants... It's nice to be home and catch up with my family and friends, take a hot shower(!!), and wear clean clothes. But it felt good to not have all the pressures of normal life- constant email access, a never ending to-do list.

Another year of adventures (Part II)

To continue my re-cap of the fun, local, and exciting events of 2012...

6. Weddings. It was the beginning of the rush of marriages I am bracing myself for in the coming years. Although I've never been a wedding obsessed kind of girl, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to see friends I love find partners they love, and the weddings I went to this year were incredibly sweet and wonderful.

My roommates Ari and Keith get married with a bunch of UCLA-ers to celebrate

Laura and Ken's beautiful Los Angeles wedding 

5. SeaQuest. This was the slightly insane brainchild of Laura and Ken (see wedding above!). The thought was- we all spend a lot of time on the roads in LA, but who ever gets out and walks? So walk we did, from the farmers market near the center of the city, all the way to the ocean in Santa Monica. The 12 miles(!!!) brought us through West Hollywood with bottomless mimosas and great people watching, through Beverly Hills and happy hour on Rodeo Drive, past the one bathroom in the parking area in a swanky mall, through my neighborhood that I walk or bus through almost every day, down the final stretch of Santa Monica, and straight into the Pacific! It was totally nuts, but I think with almost a year to recover we are all ready to do it again.

My favorite photo of the day. We just passed under the 405 and were so excited, but some reason were convinced the picture would take a mirror image, so we are holding up our hands as "504". 

 4. New Mexico. Ok, so not really local at all. I presented a research poster at the Animal Behavior Society meeting in Albuquerque, NM this summer. I got to meet back up with Tina (who you probably know from Chile and months of picture of us eating ice cream) and my former advisor from Clark. The meeting was great, and then we had a couple of days to visit Santa Fe and Tent Rocks, which were amazing. It wasn't even close to enough time to explore this amazing state!

3. California Central Coast. I had never even heard of Cambria, but once I discovered it I want to go back as often as possible. A small town West of Paso Robles, I think it might be the most magical place on earth (sorry Disneyland). I went camping there with my department, and in the span of 72 hours saw sea otters, elephant seals, sea lions, seals, grey whales, and zebras (at Hearst Castle). It is also prime olallieberry land, and Lynn's in town makes an amazing olallieberry pie. Dave and I went back this fall and it was just as amazing as I remembered. Plus we discovered the otter hang out at Morro Bay, the beautiful camping at Montaña de Oro, kayaked in Lake Cachuma, saw monarch butterflies in Pismo, and spent a night in Solvang, a dutch town complete with windmills and lots of bakeries. Even though I've spent most of my life in this state, there is so much to see in California!

Watching a grey whale mother and calf migrate

tide pooling!

sea otters getting ready for the night

2. The Ellen Show. I know. This one is weird. Especially for me. The only two times I've seen the Ellen Show are when I was there for the filming of it. By chance, my roommate had tickets to go be in the audience one Tuesday. I was curious enough, and agreed to go. We saw Maroon 5 and got invited back for her "12 Days". At first we had no idea what it was "I can't come back for the next 12 days! I have work to do!" but slowly caught on that we got to come back for 1 day of her 12 Days of Giveaways right before Christmas. If you haven't seen the Ellen Show, this in insane. Everyone in the audience of those shows wins some sweet prizes- like over $2,000 in sweet prizes. I was incredibly fortunate, but this was totally a once in a lifetime, only in LA kind of experience.
This was me! -> http://www.ellentv.com/2012/12/14/its-day-10-of-12-days-a-trip-to-the-montage/

1. Pocket Mice! I made it through my first field season. I hit some roadblocks, got caught in a crazy downpour/flash flood, spent many many nights sleeping in a truck for a couple hours at a time, learned a whole lot, and got to finally meet the teeny tiny charismatic species I spend so much time thinking and learning about, the Pacific pocket mouse!

2012 was an amazing year, and these pictures and stories only scratch the surface of it. I did a lot, but I still don't know how the time passed so quickly! I hope that 2013 will be just as eventful and awesome, and I intend to document a lot more of it on here. Next up- a trip to the jungles of Nicaragua with a class I am a teaching assistant for! I think we are off to a good start ;)

Another year of adventures

In the 4 years I've had this blog(!), 2012 was clearly my most dismal for keeping up with things. TWO posts?! One about the narwhal?? Pathetic. It isn't for lack of things to write about. But it's been a whirlwind, and I have no idea where all the time is gone. It's been a different sort of year. I've had the same address ALL YEAR. It is also the first time in a long time I've gone a whole year without using my passport. I did get it renewed though- 10 years, 17 countries, and 50 stamps later :) But local adventures abound, and I wanted to share the highlights and hit the ground running for 2013!

12. Zip lining in the Redwoods of Northern California. You don't have to go to an exotic location to have an adventure! I spent the New Years with some of my favorite people in the quirky town of Guerneville on the Russian River and we zipped around the canopy of some of the tallest trees in the world! (At least, Redwoods are. These were still plenty substantial). Though it was cold and foggy most of the day, the sun came out, the setting was spectacular, and our guides from Sonoma Canopy Tours were top notch!

11. Harry Potter Marathon. We thought watching the first 3 movies was impressive in 1 night... but then we watched the final 5 in a non-stop, projected on the wall, home made pasties, butter beer, thai food filled day in my friend's living room. It was epic, and we will pretend that the dvd didn't skip during the final scene of the final movie where Harry finally defeats Voldemort... 

10. Snow tubing. A bunch of friends from UCLA bought a groupon type deal for snow tubing at Mt. Baldy, pretty much the closest snow to LA. It was an awesome day to feel like a kid again, snowball fights and all.

9. Pig-nic. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I agreed to pick up some equipment from my friend and colleague who was going to be at a picnic for her guinea pig fostering group. A pig-nic is more strange and wonderful than anything I had ever imagined.

8. Camera Obscura. My parents came to visit and we took a wander down at Santa Monica beach. I thought I remembered seeing a sign on a building about a camera obscura. This is an old school pinhole type camera on a large scale. The building has a tower with mirrors and a board that the image is projected onto. There is a wheel to turn the "camera" around a 360 degree view. It is an oddity, with the entrance through a senior center, and really felt like a hidden gem in the city.

7. Peddle Boating in San Francisco. It was one of those perfect, spontaneous days of being a tourist in your own city. Lunch at Outerlands (an excellent Outer Sunset "hipster casual" restaurant) was followed by a day in Golden Gate Park (partially inspired by my inept navigation and getting totally turned around in it). We rented a peddle boat on Stowe Lake, stopped to visit the herd of bison, saw the cherry trees in bloom, and fell in love with the city again. 

And... we're back!

I have been terribly negligent with my blogging. It isn't that I haven't been adventuring. But most of it has been close to home (or my new home, Los Angeles) and has been interspersed with crazy amounts of classwork and fellowship applications and field work and other general craziness. There is lots to catch up on, some of which will inevitably be missed, but going forward I plan to be back here more regularly once again.

What has been occupying my time most recently? Taking pictures of my new toy, finger puppet Narwhal, with various interesting objects and events. As a quick re-introduction, this is (more or less) what I've been up to...

Narwhal goes to the library

Narwhal listens to a talk by Richard Dawkins at UCLA

Narwhal visits the Camera Obscura in Santa Monica

Narwhal swims in the Venice (CA) canals

Narwhal finds his favorite type of tree- bonsai pomegranate! - in the Huntington Gardens

Narwhal eats ice cream by the Russian River

The origin of Narwhal, from the box of many finger narwhals! Guerneville, CA

The Getty

Welcome, twenty-twelve! It is a new year, a fresh start, and even though it doesn't feel like winter in Los Angeles I made the most of my last few days of Winter Break before diving head first into an intense quarter of classes and research.  My lovely sister made the drive from the Bay back down to LA with me, which was the perfect excuse to do some exploring in this city I am beginning to call home. Give me another 5 years and I should be all settled in ;) We started with a landmark not far from my apartment, but it may as well have been a world away.

The Getty Center houses the art collection of oil mogul J. Paul Getty.  More than just a museum, it is a 110 acre museum/research center/garden complex on top of a hill overlooking Los Angeles, from the skyscrapers to the mountains to the ocean.  Even with smog in the air, the views were spectacular.

The feeling of the whole place may have been more impressive than the art collection.  The buildings and grounds were peaceful and sparkling, white marble and fountains everywhere and tables and chairs nestled into shady corners.  It certainly didn't hurt that it was a perfect 70 degrees and sunny outside, too!  I'm sure it wasn't the busiest day of the year, but there seemed to be plenty of visitors and it didn't feel crowded or hectic.  People were playing (or napping) on the lawns in the beautiful gardens, and seemed to be dispersed throughout the different museum buildings without the claustrophobia inducing crowds that are common at many attractions.

It is no accident this place is so awe inspiring.  It took 13 years to build, and cost about $1.3 billion (only about $1 billion over the original estimated budget!). Most of the buildings are made out of Travertine stone, imported from a quarry near Rome.  This is the same quarry that provided stone for the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, and Saint Peter's Basilica!  Somewhere between 8,000 and 80,000 years old, there are many fossils visible in the rough faces of the stones that cover the Getty.

All of this is pretty cool, but what's the best thing about this oasis on a hill?  Admission is free.  Thank you, multi-billion dollar Getty Trust.  I'm looking forward to my next visit.

Pocket Mice!

Contrary to popular belief, life as a graduate student can actually get quite hectic.  While many popular coping mechanisms involve watching hours of YouTube, searching funny animal photos, and of course, Facebook, I have actually done something both fun AND productive!  I've started blogging on the San Diego Zoo website (check out my first post here!) about my research with the Pacific pocket mice.  My co-advisor is a researcher at the Institute for Conservation Research at the SD Zoo, and I am working on a conservation project they are getting started up over there.  I'll be contributing regularly with updates on my PPM work and what it is like to be a graduate student and working towards a career in conservation research!

Eel Attack!

Being a graduate student is (surprise!) a lot like being a student again. I'm taking a few classes my first quarter here and am actually enjoying them.  But then again, I was always the kid who liked school (much to the astonishment of many of my classmates, I'm sure).  I'm having fun mentally challenging myself, and there are so many mini discoveries every day that I'm constantly on my toes and excited about something.  Granted, when I am talking about animals and conservation and biology, it doesn't take much to make me happy.  Today, for example, I was reading an article for class about evolved morphological traits in the parrotfish, one of them being a pharyngeal jaw. I couldn't quite picture what that meant so I Googled it (also- thank goodness for the internets! I can't imagine being a grad student without it!!).  I found a picture of how they work in Moray eels, another awesome creature.  Basically, it is a second jaw that comes forward and helps drag food down your throat if you are an eel and can't swallow.  It seems like something straight out of a sci-fi movie.  Nature is the coolest!