i hate when i have dreams and i wake up to them and they have a theme that just brings back all the hurt. so i cried for an hour this morning. i hate it. why do i let things bother me. i try to be a stoic but in the confines of my room...

the monkey 10 feet from my face did little to help... i named it addy #2. the baby one behind her is april. just thought that would make you happy if not me.

Current Music: birdies

i miss you guys so much and with 18 days left i'm sad to leave but i'm also happy to be seeing you guys soon.

i have running-into-the-wall headache. it's cuz i had to do all the experiments on all 78 millipedes last night until 11:30pm and this was after taking that killer practical. i didn't do as well on this one as the last one. but i only have 4 more to do :) then i'll be done! w00t. i don't even have to come to the station on thursday if i don't wanna.

sleepy

i told my friend stef about some of the crazy things we did last year and it made me really nostalgic. we better be psycho until we graduate. i told her about the time we danced in the windows for the tanning guy behind ruston, and april pelting paul in the nuts with paintballs, and alla and me driving parallel on the lloyd, and dancing in the car on the way to paintball that one day, and paul going to kroger decked out in camou gear, and just so much more. i think i have the best friends in the world.

nuf with that mush... MILLIPEdeS~

so i was walking down the killer hill one day and i met our other professor allen masters going down while he was going up. he lives on the killer hill. he is the biggest hippie you've ever met. he was barefoot in linen pant things, a bandana on his long hair, and his scruffy beard... the works. well we got to talking and he asked me about how my project was going and i was telling him about how i was having trouble with my data collection. well he was on the atlantic slope of the country and he happened to come across an orgy of millipedes... (the congregate to reproduce)... well so he picked them up for me and dragged them to me from san gerado. HOW NICE CAN YOU GET!!!! i was so happy :)

it turns out that they're a different species but the same genus so i can still use them (thankfully) and so i only have to find 4 more! when i do, i'll be done.

i think i might go ahead and by the harry potter book tonight because i'm killing for reading material. i've read 5 books here and i need another because you can only read Cat's Cradle and Whale Talk so many times before you get sick of them. (btw i recommend those too)

sorry for the babbling. WHA!

Current Music: megans stuff.. dunno

SEVENTY-EIGHT MILLIPEDES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 78 78 78 78 78

tell u how later just excited. i have a practical in 1 1/2 hour and i don't know any butterfly or frog families o.o oops

This is Tyler with the Goliath beetle but i decided to tell u guyz about it :)

Megan's host mom found it in their backyard and stuck it in this itty-bitty box where the dude's pinchers were like hanging out. so i touched it :) but anyways she brings it to the station and they want to pin it to further the future of science and all that jazz but she has to take it home b/c GET THIS, her host brother thing wants to eat it b/c apparently its a delicacy around here. EWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

sorry that i keep posting so much i'm just procrastinating studying for my field practical. ick dont wanna study.

//^=^\\

SPIDER!!!!!!!! //^=^\\ so easily amused! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

yesterday the movie night was a blast. w00t! we taught the girls how to play spoons (CUCHARAS!!!) we had so much fun with it. we were rolling on the floor grabbing things from eachother wrestling. ya it was fun. then my host sister susana stole my backpack and wouldn't give it back (jokingly) so i had to powerwalk to keep up w/ her b/c i can't run with my ankle sprained. it was funny though. then meg got it for me.

we had ice cream coca-cola floats and pizza (yum veggies) and we were just simply merry. we watched The Incredibles (los increibles) stef's little host sister Joriette is just soooo cute. she's like 2-3 years old. she was chasing after this dog going "Wow Wow" which is how they say like "bow wow" here and laughing it was so cute.

my second field practical is tomorrow and i'm not nearly as worried as i should be. i'll probably be studying all day. i want pizza again for dinner. does that sound stupid?

nathaniel found 4 millipedes so he's the day's hero :)

Current Music: Carlos teaching elizabeth something

stef found me two millipedes today. she is my hero

one is black and pretty because it molted just recently. i named it Doshin after Paul's great great grandma.

i have a mosquito bite on my eye and it itches. luckily its really little so it didn't swell up to big. Peter had a huge one and his entire eye closed shut.

me stef and meg are having a movie night with our little host sisters. we're watching either the incredibles or finding nemo. we having ice cream, cola, and pizza. it's going to be a blast. i'm excited.

we have our second field practical tuesday. i have to study all day tomorrow. *nervous* i hope i do well

:( sick again.

thanx for all the millipede names paul. you made me laugh when i thought i couldn't. i miss you.

awesome concert last night. MalPais. they were amazing. i'll let you guyz listen to it when i get home. they rocked my sox.

coatis and millipedes.

i scared a coati away. it was like 2 ft away from me and it was rummaging through Gina's backpack and standing on her digital camera so i had to run at it to go away. but it knocked Mary's lunch off the balcony and ran away with her host family's tupperware so she had to chase after it down the hill but it went into the forest and she couldn't get it :( it was funny and i was proud of my bravery

i let the first set of millipedes go :) yay but they all felt that they had to poop on my hands before they went. o well. i guess it was their way of saying goodbye. i put a bit of red nail polish on their "butts" so i don't collect the same ones again

sooo... naming millipedes...need names!

so far
1. Paul (he escaped!!!)
2. Mauricio
3. Sofia
4. Billy
5. Jocko (Paul)

i need more... i'll take anything you've got. in my chart i'll even put who gave them to me.

i want it to rain so the millipedes will come out an play. i only have 6 right now.

*brrrrr* cold. shouldn't sit by the window on the continental divide. it's cold.

:) hello

millipede project is going slowly but well. i have to make like 10 terrariums today.

1 thing good about costa rica or at least monteverde is that the altitude kept my pop carbonated for like 4 days. it's still good :) that makes me happy b/c i don't really like that much at once.

my host family babysits for a bunch of little kids and when i came home yesterday the littlest one thought that i was his mom at the gate so when i walked in he walked up to me crying and put his head against my leg and was crying and said "mamita no viene" which means "mama doesn't come" awwww

today i'm going to megan's host sister's birthday party and afterwards we're going to a concert by a famous Tico band (tico = costa rican) i'm excited. i hope i don't fall asleep there. i woke up at 5 am this morning. well i'm going to go search for millipedes now.

steffie found me millipedes two and therefore the day has been saved!

hurricane emily is making the clouds blow backwards around here which is really strange and when we blow air out it all cloudy... (like in winter) but here it's because we're in a cloud forest. so now i have officially become part of the cloud systems of the world A LITTLE BIT OF SHEIPHALI IN EVERY CLOUD! yay

it's raining buckets down here (a cantaros!) so i'm definitely loving it at usual but unfortunately it makes the prospect of a resprain that much more likely. ah the trade-offs of life.

SO FRUSTRATED :(

2 1/2 hours + walking around forest = NO MILLIPEDES

so frustrated

*sweaty*

yesterday went to a coffee place with "esteffie" (stephanie) and had a milkshake yum yum chocolate mint! then went to megans and hung out with her for like 1 1/2 hour then had dinner at my house then went to steffie's with megan until about ten then came home.

i overslept this morning (and by that i mean 9 am) i usually get up at like 5 am here. who knows? i might do that at school too. it's really nice i kinda like it. well anyway my family babysits for all these little kids and there were 4 little boys in my house and it was awesome :) well mary needs the computer. ADIOS CHICOS!

the bipolarity of sheiphali *shakes head* SUCH A GOOD MOOD!!!!

well maybe it's because i stretched my tendons out this morning but the ankle no me duele (doesn't hurt) and i am running on a rush of up the hill endorphins topped off by one of the clearest days on the pacific coast where i can see it from the station. also i walked up the hill without stopping once! without stopping! one of the most satisfying sweats to ever grace my body. :) i haven't walked up the hill (no a hill... more mountain) since before i sprained my ankle and i was always like "i'm dying" and trust me i wasn't the only one but TODAY...!
40 minutes uphill and i'm not on the ground. addy we HAVE to go to audubon for like a whole day!

went to the heladeria (ice cream shop) and go the best sundae ever for less than 2 bucks we took pictures. yum yum 2 scoops of homemade hand-milked freshly made ice cream in costa rica with hot fudge on top and oreo sprinkles and whipped cream and a pirouette! coldstone creamery can go jump in a hole for all i care. the endless pit of DOOM wua ha ha!

omfg i need to calm down

btw speaking spanish rocks my face off. you guyz need to learn it so we can tell secrets in spanish...ok ok i'm just kidding but i was surprised how much i missed it because i hadn't done it for long periods of time since mexico.

APRIL, ADRIANE, and KELLY!!!! tell me what i need to bring. i don't care what it is because we have extras of random things in our house... don't ask, bu† anyways YA tell me so i can tell my mom just so she knows. i'm bringing a rice cooker cuz i got one for my graduation and because i'm asian and it's just a given. i have a george foreman ALSO i have a table top skillet that we can use for pancakes and grilled cheese
other ideas
-coffee maker
-water quick boiler thing (for ramen)

there's a sloth in my backyard. he's furry and curled in a ball. i can't see his face... AWWW

me and meg went exploring behind the lower lab and we found a waterfall. so pretty. i'm gonna climb the fig tree by it later... not today though. i don't have time today.

yep

fell asleep at 7:30 last night... by accident. we went out to eat as a group last night and it was really funny b/c it turned out that Nathaniel our TA had a blind date there that night. he was like, "hey guyz" *tug collar* (like raj?) well anyway he ate around the corner from us... poor guy. but we had fun. my spanish teacher came to dinner with us and she's awesome (her name is awesome too, Isaura) so i got to talk in spanish all through dinner *happy*

ok... so as you guyz know. i'm really lazy and sometimes don't write what's going on over here. well my friend megan (prefers meg) has a livejournal (OF COURSE because all cool people do!!!) her name is:

canopy_dancer it's public and you guyz are welcome to add her... (do b/c i like when all my friends are friends w/ each other)

ick

hola... horrid mood. absolutely horrid. ankle hurts. other foot hurts taking stress off ankle. stomach hurts. diarrhea 7 times yesterday. midterm today (30% of grade). homesick b/c i talked to megan forever and it made me miss talking to my other good friends (btw... megan r0x0rs)...i need a hug x.x

so sorry for the venting...i can be like that.

ok... so april does the quote thing... as will i

from one of the best books ever... Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. It's frickin brilliant. borrowed it from Tyler.

"The Chinese discovered gunpowder by accident while trying to invent a potion that would alchemically lengthen life.

It is unclear what the Chinese were trying to invent when they discovered spaghetti. Perhaps the spaghetti noodle, too, was a byproduct of longevity research, of an effort to live a won, won ton; a futile attempt to avoid facing the question, 'Who's going to chop your suey when I'm gone?'

No matter. It may be prudent, however, for would-be immortals to bear in mind the Chinese experience. Seeking prolonged existence, they ended up with gunpowder, the elixir of death, not life; the propellant of history's innumerable tragic bullets, including the ones that felled Gandhi, John Lennon, and Bambi's mother-and the one that left Bingo Panama facedown on Royal Street."

Current Music: talking to Colin

Some things

3 hours of CATCHPHRASE and i'm soo totally pumped. michael's right. that game IS like crack.

not going to post for a bit... just giving the head's up for all who care... : )

I SPRAINED MY ANKLE!!!!

on the way to penas blancas i fell on a slippery rock climbing down to a freshwater pool and i sprained it. i thought it was broken at the time but obviously i was mistaken. well so they take me to the close refuge on a horse and i stayed the night there with nathaniel (one of the TA's) in this little shack thing. we dragged the mattressed out to the porch and we slept outside which was nice. he made this spaghetti with pepper and onions and tomato sauce and considering the conditions it was amazing. he was really sweet about it. i felt so bad b/c i was definitely not good company. many of you know how depressed-sheiphali is... she's just not there whatsoever. well so i cried a bit out of pain but by that point just out of being lonely and depressed b/c i couldn't go on the rest of the trip.

they took me out on horse :\ i liked the horse he was a sweetie this was on monday btw.

at the doctor i found out that indeed it wasn't broken but that it was gonna be fine. (today's the first day i can walk) and so i went to my host family really early. at my host family i'm pretty sure that they don't think i can speak spanish well at all just b/c i was so fricken depressed that i didn't feel like talking at all. i'll tell u bout them in a bit.

so i found out how much these people here have affected me. i can't imagine how it's gonna be like when i leave. i've make some of the most interesting and ground-breaking friendships ever here and i wouldn't change it for ANYTHING. my friends here are nothing like i've ever had. i'll tell more about it later but seriously it's really something new. i truly missed them.

they're so sweet. they were like WE MISSED YOU... even though i highly doubt they did much. i mean i'm just one person but they really made sure that i felt plenty loved which is always a great feeling.

well so i stayed w/ my host family and they're really nice... i'll post more bout that later i promise but i cried a lot there too... just from being lonely and stuck in bed b/c i couldn't walk. but today i'm in a great mood cuz i'm w/ everyone again so i'm gonna go play catchphrase cuz kent came in to ask if i want to play

ADIOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(o my foot is finally better today!)

Going Away

I'm going to be gone until friday because we're going on a 6 hour hike to penas blancas then staying there for a couple of days. it's really really isolated. the only way to get there is on foot or horse. they're bringing all of our food by horse so this is going to be interesting. i have my bug-net packed

hasta luego

o btw. moths kick ass!

...

yesterday i went to a bar and there were TWO bar fights. needless to say i don't think that we will be going there anytime in the near future. the talent show was yesterday and i danced. eh. it was exciting?

sorry not really in the posting mood. i'll try again later today.

YAY!

finished my proposal

now to frolick in the forest

Special Present

there's howler monkey poop right outside my door and i almost stepped in it

dancing

went to a club today. danced with my first boy O.o lol. i had fun. it was tyler tho so it's cool. he has a girl in england that he loves so he's safe ;) this tico boy (costa rican) was like dance with me and i shook my head and walked away. nope. don't dance with the randoms. not my style. it was gina's birthday so we went out to celebrate. i had a great time but as you all know all i need is some good beat and i'm in my zone. i think i've danced better tonite than i have in my entire life. its the anonymity of it that i love. parin we have to go clubbing when i get back. i want to soo bad. i didn't realize how great it would be.

Current Music: "ah ni kuria"

Bats and things

BATS!!!!!!!

they are the coolest things ever! i held like 10 of them. they are so soft. there was one that was so sweet. i held him in my palm (that small) and had my thumb just kinda cradling him and he just looked up at me. i wanted to like stick him my pocket or something. awwwwwwww.

i killed my millipede x.x i dunno why ernie died. sad sad sad.

FINALLY!!!

Sierpe, Costa Rica...on the way to the mangroves
i think that this is up there in the top 3 pics from the trip and I took it :::beam:::

Sigh

today is intense... tired -.-

also i'm concerned about someone here but i don't know what to do..................

talent show on friday and i'm scared shitless b/c megan and steffie want me to indian dance. this'll be the first time in my entire life that i would be dancing solo. i was listening to the song in my head last night and i trembled so much that i had to get up 3 times to go to the bathroom in only 1/2 hour

mist netting tonite. we're gonna see ourselves some bats.

Random things that I don't want to forget

today's schedule--

8:00-12:00 lecture
1:00-3:00 lecture
3:30-5:30 spanish
7:00-9:00 mist netting bats
after-- 4 page essay

-.- tired... went to sleep late last night too

"sticks and stones may break my bones, but mean words will never penetrate my bug net"--kent

"un ojo por un ojo y el mundo sera ciego"
"sea el cambio que desea ver en el mundo"
--gandhi

"hey bignoniaceae, uh hey fagaceae"--me and peter... me of course calling him a fagaceae (which is the taxonomic family of oak trees btw)

"kiss my aceae"--who knows

"oooh flash and dazzle technique"--maggie

Current Music: "dola re dola" practicing in my head

two w00t-worthy things

it was really windy today and since we're so high up we can see the clouds flying over us. it's awesome. i was trying to cram some last minute things into my head and i kept looking at the sky instead. it was great.

two w00t-worthy things
1. i finished the field practical and i think i got an A. they posted an answer key
2. i got my first millipede b/c they caught one for the practical and they gave it to me, so i made it a cozy terarium home with lots of dead things and places to hide under. it's a boy and he's cute

"ouch, hit in the donnell-smithii"--Peter

Current Music: birdies

Definitely not today

everyone went out to a bar today with one of the profs and i was like..."eh" i'm definitely not in the mood for dealing with drunk people today. too tired and stressed out. usually i'm fine with it. it doesn't bother me too much but when i have things on my mind i just don't want to deal with it.

woooooooooooo

this morning after breakfast, it was actually sunny. so a bunch of us just sat in the sun with our eyes closed and just listened to the wonder of the world. and to be honest we just were.

"i am a transparent eyeball" ernest hemingway.

prior to that though...
Gina so should we dress up for tonite? (we're going to a club) i don't really have anything other than field pants
Maria I'm sure Nathaniel would have a couple cotton numbers that you could borrow...
Gina (laughing) like a dress?
Nathaniel (one of the TA's) I think i would make a good girl.
Maria (the other TA) well you don't really have the hips... or the even the boobs.
Nathaniel Well i have a sweet-ass ass, ass.
Colin ooooo.... triple assed....

ya, it's dumb but it made me laugh and i just felt like sharing the beginnings of a great day.

last night at dinner...
Nathaniel I love eating babies
Colin mmmmmmmm.....
Nathaniel I like eating the soft parts
Colin the subcutaneous layer......
Nathaniel mmmmm bone marrow...
Maria stem cells...mmmm, undifferentiated cells
Nathaniel o stem cells, how i love thee. let me count the ways...one... well i guess that's it...

we're such bio dorks. the lot of us. that's what makes it great. can you tell that this dinner time conversation made me feel right at home??? baby eating... well it made me happy. we're all becoming good friends and i'm glad that the group is small so that no major cliques formed in the end. w00t.

INDEPENDENT RESEARCH
after playing with the millipede for a long time yesterday, i decided that that was what i wanted to do my independent research on. so i'm going to study the correlation between millipede sex and the reaction rate of their protective responses (being curling in a ball and secrete noxious substances) in addition i'm going to see if millipede size or hardness of exoskeleton have anything to do with it. so i get to poke em and see what they do. i collect them and ideally i want 100 of them and put them in terraniums separated by sex and let them acclimate for a couple of days and then administer a consistent agitation and then time both responses. then the millipede can be released.

fun!

Agouti Booty

i saw one of these again today. i just thought should share the cuteness. they are the costa rican equivalent to rabbits but they have the cutest little rodent butts in the world. no? i wanna take one home! let's buy a rabbit hutch for the apartment! april, kelly, addy...? anyone?

Current Music: moths fluttering

O Mother Earth...

Well after the lightning storm of this afternoon, we finished our projects and gave them at around 7pm. well during the project before mine, the power went out so we had to wait for it to come back on. while peter was speaking in my project we felt something really weird, like my stomach had lost all sort of balance. it was an earthquake! well at least the remnants of the 6.7 Richter scale one in Nicaragua. (in case you haven't heard about it) o we all felt it and could honestly hear the ground move under our feet. plus the after shock while we were studying later on. so pretty much i lived through my second and third earthquakes today.

People are drunk including Megan but it doesn't bother me. It's really sweet because Megan even apologized for it and i thought that it was unnecessary b/c she can do whatever she wants w/o having to worry about me but thoughtful nonetheless.

O! during projects the professors provided cheese, wine, and crackers, hence the drinking of tonite excluding the fact that it's a friday night.

ARGH! moth on the shoulder! scared the craps out of me b/c it flew right by my ear.

continued...

it stopped raining. in the mountains you have to turn the computers off and unplug them as soon as they tell you to prevent a power surge due to a lightning strike. exciting.

so ya last night i actually went to bed at a decent time and didn't study a ton before hand. now i regret it... :( i have soo much shit to do. stress!

well today we're doing another field project. this time we're looking at the distribution of this one dimorphic plant that is pollinated by hummingbirds. so pretty much we wanted to see if the plants were in certain places to encourage pollination by the hummingbirds. we saw one come by and he went in the right order so pretty much it seems that we have found some sort of connection w00t.

it started raining and i had to sprint out of the rainforest. and trust me that is hard. it was definitely a rush though running and jumping over logs and stuff. also the howler monkeys were yelling because of the rain. it was cool. it's weird here. in the US you hear dogs barking, in costa rica you hear the howler monkeys... howling? we saw them today when we were searching for our sample group.

haha. my friend megan is always talking about what animals/plant she would pick for mass genocide and if it were up to her she would pick pigs or strawberries. strawberries being the fact that they look like alien heads and are going to take over the world. and who knows what's up with pigs. well finally today i came to my decision. animal--walruses (they scare the crap out of me) and coriander--because it makes me gag.

i have my field practical on monday and we have 4 hours allotted to it! WAHHH! i'm so concerned about it. it seems as if it is going to be quite hard. there are like 60-70 plant species to learn and 30 animals. but personally animals are a lot easier b/c most of them i knew before i came here. it'll be hard when we start talking about the 6 different species of big cats or the different frogs though.

sonu:tell mom i tried to call twice and nobody picked up. i'll try again though.

P.S.i'm having fun but i hate when i want to be near the people i care about to help them out and i can't reach my arms across mexico to give them a big comforting hug.

woo

i made friends with a millipede today that smelled like cherry-almond. i named him mike. he's cute. i'll take a picture of one like him before i leave and post it online or something. he curled up in a ball in my pocket then pooped there. awww he's so cute.

(i can tell he's a boy b/c on his seventh segment he has only 1 pair of legs instead of two...can you tell i'm learning?)

yesterday we did a project and found epiphytes around the forest. it was easy and a fun way to spend the morning making a poster. then we had spanish and got a ton of homework.

then some of us went to the supermercado in santa elena. i got monte rico cheese (from the monteverde cheese factory), crackers, potato chips (sigh), and milky way bars (double sigh). we had to walk back with all of it and its like 1 1/2 hour uphill. OOOF! (they say that in india AND costa rica, awesome!) that was tough.

post the rest later! lightning storm!