nanganganak

Because all we ever talk about now is our independent projects (well not really, but something like that), if you ask about how our project is going, THAT is what it’s doing now.

In English, it means “giving birth.” 

The good thing about our project now is that it’s going quite well (at least the field part. we’ll see how the numbers will “behave” when we get to data entry&analysis). So, we’re getting things done. Which means we have more time for other things, should we choose to do other things.

So tomorrow, we’re doing one more thing. Not that we CHOSE to do it. Well, we did, kinda, but would you ever say no to your PI? :-) Today was supposed to be our last field day but we’re going to to km55 tomorrow. I’ve only been there once, so I cant really remember much about it. Just that it’s far. And oh yeah, there are wasps. THAT, i can remember quite well.

So we’re hoping to finish with that site tomorrow. And also hoping that this project will not give birth to more forest types, or more samples, or more etc, in the coming days…

Update 5

Hello philippines!

First up, im still alive! Just that things have been pretty hectic lately, hence the silence.

I think I’m gonna need more than 1 post for everything I want to say. I have one-liners in my “notebook of random thoughts ” and probably 3 blog entries in my head, but they’ll all remain there for now. I’ll slowly work on these backlogs in the coming days (I wish!).

The thing that has kept me busy in the past days is our independent project. We’re in the second phase of the course now, where there are less lectures, and more time for our own projects.  The professors had this initial list of potential projects that we can choose from. I naturally gravitated towards research topics on plants, and to people who also like working on plants. I got the topic, which is on wood density measurements, but not all of the groupmates. Andes , Navendu and I kinda formed a group, but I ended up with Andes and Jiajia. This may not be exactly how I envisioned things to be, but on hindsight, I realize that it was actually a good call on Kari’s part to group me with the people I’m working with now. We’re a pretty solid team (yahoo!).  And the naturally irritating Navendu has this new goal of annoying me and driving me crazy by opposing everything I say, so Kari, I have you to thank for my sanity

So yeah, we had proposal presentations and that went quite well. I was a bit nervous about it because speaking in front of people always makes me nervous, and because my memories of project presentations are…traumatic. I dont think I’ve done proposal presentation before. We usually just go straight to final presentation. And the problem with this is that you have NO way on knowing if you’re doing the right thing so you could be doing it wrong all along so by the time you present your results and discussion, they kill you with their questions. haha.

But things went fine. There were some suggestions so we made minor revisions.  I wasnt very confident with our written proposal because I thought it was very simplistic, and my English was very elementary, etc (I think too much, I know).  But simple is good.  Here, they call it straight-forward And there were very few comments on those revisions (yey!), so we went ahead with fieldwork.  We started yesterday, and finished with one site by the end of the day, so I’m pretty confident that we can finish this, if all goes well. My groupmates are great. We worked in the pouring rain, and no one complained. Andes collected the wood cores, which is NOT an easy job. And Jiajia collected voucher specimens, which is also not easy. And I did all the writing, and taking GPS readings, and bossing around (not really. of course not!).

So…1 site, ~3 days, and 100 more cores to go, and we’ll be done with fieldwork! There’s still labwork, and plant ID to deal with, and data analysis (which we have yet to figure out), and report writing, and final presentation, and…the end. I think these next days will fly by so fast and before I know it, I’ll be sitting on a plane bound for home. I miss speaking in Bisaya and Tagalog, and eating century tuna, but I’m pretty sure i’ll miss the garden too, and the people.  But I’m not dwelling on that yet. For now, there’s barbecue night to look forward to. I’m hungry!!!!

Update 4

yesterday:

Lunch yesterday was pretty interesting. We had 4 different kinds of greens. One sabaw (soup), and then 3 others that were blanched and then sauteed with different things like garlic, tomatoes, etc. And oh, there were breaded flowers (yep, flowers).  They looked like kalachuchi. And then we had fish (which for me, isnt really fake meat, but it’s not “alpha-meat” either). And then there were fishballs (which, like the ones back home, are just mainly flour). They must have sensed that I’ve been eating too much meat already. And I ate the fish with chopsticks. The first time for me to do such.  I think I’m more adept with them now, what with practice 3x a day. I’ve never seen a fork since I got off the plane. Three more weeks to go and I’d be an expert at this

We went frogging last night. Before that, we had a lecture on frog breeding ecology, the one lecture in this entire course that I’ve been dreading about since I read it on the preliminary schedule. Because I don’t really like frogs** (see related story below). But it was ok! Im still alive, I survived it, and it was actually…I never thought I’d say this…fun! We went out in groups to 3 different places (rubber plantation, bamboo garden, then the rainforest). On each site we had to turn off our lights and listen to frog calls for 5 minutes and try to determine how many species there were. And then we did a 10-minute search of the area and looked for as many frogs as we can find. It was not an easy thing to do becayse most of them area really small, and they’re brown, or green, which is pretty much the same colors as everything else. 

I liked listening more than searching because I never found anything. I saw some things, but other people found them first. Listening is also much more exciting because it was so dark, but the night was very much alive! Im used to the typical “kokak” frog call, but when you take the time to listen really closely, some chirp like a bird, and some others grunt (we called them the unhappy, uncomfortable ones).  

**sidebar: I kinda mentioned to Loren over lunch that I’m not exactly a big fan of frogs. That was my way of sugar coating it. I could’ve said I absolutely abhor them but that would not be a good thing to say in front of this company. :-D and he asked why, and i said I just dont like how they look. and he said “so that’s it? you just take offense at their appearance?” and i kinda hesistated and said….”yeah?” but when we went out that night, they were ok. im ok with how they look. and i realized then that i never really have any reason for not liking them. i just dont.

Update 3*

*yeah, im seriously using numbers for entry titles
So i thought yesterday was pretty sedate right?

Well today’s fieldwork was nothing like yesterday. For one thing, the site was a good 20-minute hike uphill! It was something i was unprepared for. I havent exactly done anything remotely close to exercise since I got here. And i’ve been eating quite a lot. Every meal here is a feast! They wont serve food unless there are 10 of you seated, so my antisocial self has been temporarily shelved And they serve around 8 different kinds of dishes per meal! Seriously! So you can imagine how different this is from my tuna-and-rice-twice-a-day routine back home. But i digress….

So yeah, when we finally got to the site, we had to establish the plot. I was one of the first ones to work on the site because i was holding the compass. i only usually look down (because im paranoid about snakes!), so i didnt see this huge clump of wasp hanging just above my head. i may have disturbed it because they stung me 3x on my hand. it has never happened to me before so i kinda panicked. but it was nothing, i found out today that im not allergic to them (thankfully!).  my hand was just swollen, and it had this burning sensation for some time, but it’s ok now. this happened probably around 15minutes after we arrived so it was quite an interesting start to my day. everything went smoothly from there

And just to echo this email that i just read this afternoon on being grateful, i say, im thankful for being stung by wasps today because it meant i was working outdoors, which is one of the things i love about this life

Update 2*

*because im too tired to think of a title for each post.

We did fieldwork today. First time since we got here. Aside from the tour around the garden, and the exercise on plant taxonomy, we pretty much just stayed inside for lectures this past week. 

Upside: it wasnt CRAZY fieldwork. i’ve had more tiring days in the field before. there were a LOT of us working so we finished quite early. and it was my first time in a limestone forest, so the experience was quite new. and it didnt rain!

Downside: Limestone forests (at least the one we went to) arent really that diverse. for a 30mx30m plot, we probably only have 6 species, max. And the trail was really slippery. Merrell was no match for the paved trails here. im not used to paved trails. you walk around the forest and it feels like walking around UP. they even have stairs! and rest areas! (which isnt a downside, really).

But i think tomorrow’s gonna be another story. we’re gonna spend the whole day outside, and work in another kind of forest. a seasonal something something. haha. looking forward to it!

and we were assigned to our project groups just now.  im working with andes from indonesia and liu jia jia from china. and we’re gonna do something about wood density (or is it gonna be about growth rings?) and relate this to disturbance. i dont wanna get into details here, lest you think im a nerd, and this blog post boring. i also cant, even if i wanted to, because this subject is something im not quite familiar with. to be honest, i havent really done this before. which is why im here in the library at 10:30pm sitting in front of the computer. because im supposed to read up on this before we speak with our project adviser tomorrow.  which is why i should not have been writing an  entry tonight. so im gonna end this one right….now.

Update 1

Hey everyone!

I know I said im gonna update this blog every few days or so, but things have been pretty hectic lately.  So many things have happened so fast that I feel like I’ve been here for weeks already!

Anyway, I’ll try to make this as detailed as possible.  I wrote down some random thoughts here and there, just some short notes that I would like to build up on when I do get the time to really sit down and write something substantial.  And that time is now.  So here goes….

IN TRANSIT

Hong Kong (at least the part that I got to see, which is just the airport) is really impressive.  And huge!  As soon as I walked out of the plane, I had this big grin on my face, I couldn’t get over the fact that this is really it!  I’m actually out of the country, and by myself!

SILVERWORKS?!

On the plane to Kunming, I was seated next to this old man who spoke no English.  And there was me, who spoke very little Chinese (emphasis on “very little,” referring to the very few words/lines I remembered from the phrasebook I bought just a few days before).  He asked me to take a picture of the airport when we landed in Kunming because I was on the window-side.  And he borrowed my pen when he had to fill out his health declaration form (I guess this is standard procedure now, since the H1N1 thing).  And these interactions were all made possible just by hand gestures!  I thought then that this would be an indication of how this whole “adventure in Chiner” would be like.  Fortunately, all of the teachers and classmates speak English.  Except for a few words (civil law, not silverwork!), I’ve managed to communicate quite well with everyone (or at least I think so!).  My new role is as interpreter of English (spoken by an Indian) to English (spoken by Chinese).  They should start paying me for this.

KUNMING TO XTBG

We stayed in Kunming for 2 days, and then took a day-long bus ride to Banna, where we will be staying for the next 4 weeks.  Yesterday we had a tour of the garden.  It’s so beautiful that I don’t even have the words for it.  I’ve been living in the big city for so long that I have gotten used to the pollution, noise, horrible traffic, and all these other things that the probinsyana in me absolutely abhors.  It’s quite refreshing then to wake up to bird calls in the morning and sleep to the sound of crickets at night.  Living in the garden is like being transported to another world.

TYPICAL DAY

Our days mostly consist of lectures, lectures, and more lectures.  I’ve been out of school for almost 2 years now so I embrace with enthusiasm (no, not really) these long hours of just sitting down, writing notes, asking questions, and listening to discussions.  Almost everyone is in graduate school.  Many are doing their masters, a few doing their PhDs.  And then there’s me, who’s neither.  The composition of the group is what I’m really excited with.  Different countries, different cultures, different languages, different educational backgrounds, different interests.  My Thai roommate, for example, is working on flycatchers.  Others are studying butterflies, frogs, freshwater mussels, monkeys, dolphins, and pandas! And plants, of course *winkwink*

I’m having such an amazing time here, just seeing new places, meeting new people, learning new things, that I have to remind myself that I’m NOT on a vacation!!! The REAL work will happen in the coming days.  Just a few more lectures, then it’s time to participate in long term research projects, do field and lab exercises, design independent projects and see them through to completion (from lit search, to data gathering and analysis, down to paper presentation).

I still want to write about the food, but I probably wont be able to finish once I get started on that one so I’ll save it for next time.  I still have 20+ pages to read for tomorrow’s discussion groups.

Note:  There was another bombing in Iligan City the day before I left for China and I only found out about it from the newspaper I read on the flight bound for HK.  No one from back home bothered to mention it to me.  I guess I know where I got my “updating skills” (or should I say the lack of it) from J