i am 172 millipedes tall in case you care.

"Sheiphali, you're intro was rockin up until the last 2 sentences, but then I puked in my mouth"--Nathaniel while looking at my paper

"The length and width of the millipede were measured in millipedes by holding the millipede on its ventral side..." --me

first draft of paper turned in for revision and the TA's came out of their office being like "SHEIPHALI we wanna read you something" then they read me my beyond brilliant new unit of measure that will transcend all others to be the best of all. the measurement of the millipede. i mean today we use units of measure based on the length of the foot and thumb of the queen of england (thumb=inch, that's why thumb and inch are the same word). WHY NOT MILLIPEDES??? they are soo much cuter than the smelly, warty feet of some queen in england plus they smell like lotion.

i can't believe i'm still awake. brains should not even be allowed to function at this level of randomness.

Today I worked on my paper FOREVER, but it is better than anyother paper I’ve every written for a science class. I’m very proud of it w00t.

people have taken to calling me sheiphalipop. tyler said i should call the "new" species of millipede Nyssodesmus sheiphalipop if i decide to send the information to InBio (huge research inst. in Costa Rica) prolly won't matter even if i did b/c in order to "discover" a new species you have to give a life history of it and i don't have time for that. if i had the extra 3 weeks.... shit that would be sooo cool.

today
Called paul and addy today and that was exciting. Meg let me use her fone card service thing that’s super cheap. I come home soon. I’m excited for the USI friend fun of last year. went to spanish... was pretty boring but sad b/c it's our last class with Isaura and she's awesome. she wanted us to go to the club tonite (she's only 21) but we had to work on our paper. other than that, it was paper paper paper. watched some spirited away. the program owns a copy. :) how awesome is that?
tomorrow its gonna be sleep sleep sleep cuz i'm almost done. *relief* i plan on hiking somewhere tomorrow. hope it doesn't rain. that's a long shot in the rainforest/cloudforest. i want to walk through a cloud tomorrow. i haven't done it in a while (like 5 days)

Ps. Sorry for the boredom of the last entry. Don’t hate me forever. i love all of you

Current Music: elizabeth giving peter dreads (is that how you spell it?)

the boringest entry EVER!!!! BEAT IT! i DARE you

man do i know how to complain or what... but seriously. i need to talk this through and at 1:14 am in the bio station and the only one up... you're stuck with me.

soooo. worked all day on my paper except for the 8 hours of lecture and 1 hour of spanish hw. lo-ong day. good one though b/c i got a lot done and that's always satisfying. listen to me! i'm such a dork. but

bio majors help! need ideas

USI'S LIBRARY DATABASE WON'T WORK! i need it b/c i don't have enough info on millipede sex differences. they have proven to be quite and obscure topic. those millipedes that my teacher got me may not be the same species. and we don't know which one it is. in addition... it may not have a name. should i run around with my hands in the air yelling, "w00t! i'm the first one!!" or should i sit in my chair and cry because i'm so fricking lost in the topic.

so i got significant data. problem arises because i have no idea why which is what my entire discussion section has to be on. and after than year of intro bio, i am definitely the expert to infer the behavioral patterns of Nyssodesmus python. (sense the sarcasm?)

my data is way too significant for me to be like. "uhhhh they felt like being that way. YAY! uh k bye." nope won't work.

for you all that had palladino or psychology... would you say that fixed action patterns (FAP) would be a good reason for them to curl up regardless of the thickness of their exoskeleton. i have info on that topic in particular but its delving in the murky waters of psychology in a scientific paper. i don't know whether or not i should try it. its kinda a longshot in my opinion b/c most of the examples for it are birds and the stuff, not stupid little buggies that like to crawl off the sides of tables. (omg you don't know how many i've had to rescue)

other idea. females stay curled in teh protective position longer because they have more to lose (i.e. egg sacs and the like). or could it be that they're bigger and move a lot slower and are just too lazy to get their lazy keels out of a ball?

i should be thankful though. some people didn't get any significant data. luckily the way my project works is that if there is no relationship that's worth reporting too, b/c that means that in that way there is no difference between the sexes. i just know how to ask the questions i guess.

ok now that the boringest lj post ever is over with, we should celebrate with... THE YUMMY ORANGE AND WHITE STUFF ADDY"S MOM MAKES!!!!!!! ... or at least some chocolate.

*munch* bye!

o btw. meg is the best comfort ever. she makes me feel better when i'm having stupid paper issues and so este es me grito a mi megan. mi CIEE amiga favorita.

Current Music: tropical crickets

GUESS WHO HAS SIGNIFICANT DATA!!?!!!!??!!!?!?!!!!??!?!!!?!?!!!!!?!!!!!!!

*skips through the forest and falls on face*

sorry for the depression. i've been better, but haven't been up to the station to use the internet. we moved back to the station today and i miss my host family already. i might stop by their house today :)

other than that not too much to report. my brain isn't working today. i'm trying to BS a humans and the tropics paper and its just not working. ick ick

ps... meg rocks XD

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.