I woke up at 6am as always this morning, only I had no intention of going to work. For the past two weeks, I have been hoping everything will work out, with no real confirmation of my plans. I just had to hope for the best.
I dressed in jeans, instead of my typical uniform of black waterproof pants which despite washing about every week are starting to reak of bird poop. Perhaps they smell of cow dung, or maybe just bacteria filled water. Who knows, they stink! I was glad not to wear them. I don't think Ben remembered at all that I wasn't going to work this morning, or tomorrow, or the next day. (There's a class we both saw a flyer for about two weeks ago. We both were excited about it. Ben took down the email address of the guy... and then after a week of proding, he passed it on to me. I emailed the dude and never heard back. I also emailed Martin, getting the go ahead to attend the class as it is from 8-1pm T,W,Th. Then last night I found out that Laura was going to take the class as well. She was already enrolled though. Ben still hadn't said anything about the class, and I didn't feel the need to mommy him and prod. I figure if I am already cleaning up after him around the apartment with his dirty dishes, clutter, etc, I didn't have to check up on him in other ways.) Oh well. He caught on when I handed him the master notebook and trapping supplies. He said goodbye, and we parted our ways outside of the apartment.
I then took a bus up about 15 blocks to my doctor's office. As I got off, I struck out to find an ATM. I had enough money for all of my lab tests, but I wanted to make sure I could cover any extra fees they might come up with. After walking about 10 blocks this way and that, I still didn't come across one. I asked a gentleman if he could point me in the right direction. He replied that all banks are closed today due to it being National Banking Day.
-Okay, but I just need to find an ATM to get some money out.
--The banks are closed.
-Yes, but where is one?
--What do you need the money for?
-To pay a doctor.
--You could use Western Union. (I'm not even gonna get into that one...)
-That's okay, but if I wanted to go to the bank tomorrow, where is one?
--The banks are closed.
Yeah that helped, so I just said thanks and goodbye. I eventually ran into one just two more blocks. I got my money out and then realized I had just spent about a half hour wandering around trying to find a bank that I probably didn't even need. Argh.
My schedule was tight. I had to wait until 7:30am until I could go to the lab (fourth times a charm!) to drop of my pee sample and get all the other tests done. It was 7:39 already. I ran down the couple blocks to the office building. The enterance to the lab was locked. No! I refused to believe that it too could be closed, so I went around the block to the other enterance. The door gave way to my push and I was directed back down the long hall to the lab. Yes, getting somewhere.
I go into the office for the umpteenth time and finally can pay for the labs as they are open! I waited in line and handed over my cash. I asked for a reciept, but was told I'd get one once I was done with the tests. Okay. I hope so.
So then instead of just having my blood taken then, I was directed to go back out of the office and wait to be called. Argh, by now it is about 7:50am. I keep going in and out of the office, wanting to ask how much longer the wait is going to be. However, the secretary is going in and out (much more out than in) as much as me. When she is in the office, she is simply picking up papers from the now much longer line inside and shuttling them to the bench space in the back. I debate in my head whether it is worth the wait to just get the tests done this morning and probably miss my chance at attending the class which I was still not enrolled in, or leaving and trying to get into the class (if that didn't work, I'd could still return in time to get the tests done today). I say screw it and jetted out of the office and back into the street.
I now have about 3 minutes to get about 10 blocks down the city (3300 block down to about 26/2700). I start running now. After a couple of blocks, a street sign catches my eye so I could gauge my progress. It reads 3500-3600. NOOOOOOOO! I totally went the wrong direction. I give up and wait for a bus which comes at a snail pace compared to my racing heart. I board, pay my fee (just a mere $0.30 each way), and wait. Not all corners have signs, so I strained to catch them when I could. In my concentration, I realize that I won't pass the big plaza I was hoping to use to mark my point of debarkation. Shoot, I am one block over for that. Then the sign for 2700 comes. I get off. I run down the sidestreet and start running up. Perhaps it is closer to 2800, there are some big trees that way...
As I am running I realize that the plaza isn't a super long walk from our apartment. That would place it at the 2300 block instead of 2600. Yep, I'm going in the wrong direction again. I cross the street and start back the other way. I finally make it there. I know I am late. I have never been inside the musuem before even through I have tried the door on multiple occasions within the posted open times. It opened this time though! I listed for voices as there were no signs directing me to any sort of instructional area. I heard people downstairs, so I cautiously decended the steps adorned with signs mentioning a restricted area.
With chairs spread out in front of a projector, I felt good about the situation. I asked the two girls sitting if this was the bird class. Yes! Confirmed. Okay, so by this point it was about 8:16am. I wasn't sure if I had missed something. There were more bags than there were people seated. The instructors weren't in the front, though I could hear more voices in the other side of the basement. Perhaps there was something I was supposed to be doing over there too, but I decided to sit tight. After a couple of minutes Laura showed up. Geesh, I guess I could have waited the 20 mintutes or so more to do my labs.
What is this class might you ask? For those of you who know me, I've been looking into taxidermy classes for about the past year. It is just one of those things that I really want to learn how to do. I guess it isn't as random as my passion to someday be a stunt car driver for all those coreographed driving scenes in comercials and movies... I have an even stronger desire to learn how to preserve specimens with my approaching Peace Corps tour. How cool would it be to set up a little minimuseum as a secondary project??? So yes, this is a taxidermy class, focused on birds! I figure birds with all their feathers are probably one of the hardest kind of animals to taxidermy. I tried my hand at butchering small roadside animals in Florida to collect furs, but I had no clue how to deal with the birds. So they just stayed in their exposed graves covered in a fine coat of dirt, gravel, and any remnants of the rubber that marked their demise.
The first instructor was great. His slides were filled with tons of words (my typical pet peeve for lectures in college), but boy were they helpful to reinforce what he was saying at a pleasantly slow pace. We then took a break after his introduction to musuem collections in general when I officially paid for the class (less than $7!) and enrolled. Evidently everyone was supposed to have a dead bird to work on. Luckily another girl in the class had a couple of extra ducks for Laura and I. (I'll be working on the species in the center of the photo.) Where did these people come up with some many dead birds? It was obvious that one guy just killed his rooster for the project, but still. Kinda weird to think about...
The next instructor discussed the problems that museums face with their collections, focusing on insect invaders. While most of the kids looked a little bored with this topic, I took it as a challenge that I'd need to think about if I were to set up my own rural colleciton. We then took an upclose look at some of the bugs with a microscope. Then we labeled the birds we'd be working on for the following two days by tucking little pieces with our names on them under their wings. After a bit more mate we returned to the seats.
The third instructor spoke as fast as a sports announcer when he interjected into the other's presentations so I braced myself for his own presentation. He didn't disappoint either! He discussed the diversity of birds in general and went through the different families found in Argentina and Santa Fe. His presentation had exactly two words on every slide, the name of the order and the name of the family. While I would definitely approve of this type of slide design, it did make things a little more challenging. Luckily I was familiar enough with the different birds to understand what he was talking about, even if I didn't catch everything. (There are still a lot of birds that I didn't know, but I can look those up later.) With that, our first day was over.
Between our breaks I chatted with some of the other students in the class. They are all biology students at the university. Due to the difference in school systems here, most are still probably a year or two older than me. One of them works at the museum with butterflies, which she took me up to see afterwards when I told her I worked with some in Costa Rica. I don't know how much she is doing with them besides pinning them, but we can talk about that in the days to come. It was cool to see the differences in musuems in different parts of the world though. (I'll give more of a comparison of musuems when I take a better look at their public collections.)
I felt pretty good with myself after the class. Not only did I understand most of what was going on during the lectures, I could also interact with the other kids when they weren't adjusting their Castellano for me. Okay, so I definitely did better with the lectures than the kids. I've got about three months left here, so I'll have it down by then!
I'm off to go help Laura with her English again tonight. I love English, as it is something I actually know. hehe. Oh and our buddy from Mar Chiquita is coming to stay with us tonight. I should be back in time for his arrival... but I really have no clue when that might be 7pm, 8pm, 9pm, perhaps 1am like the time we arrived there??? We'll see. Plus I won't be in the field with him tomorrow, so I guess I should be as good of a host while I can. :) ttyl!
I dressed in jeans, instead of my typical uniform of black waterproof pants which despite washing about every week are starting to reak of bird poop. Perhaps they smell of cow dung, or maybe just bacteria filled water. Who knows, they stink! I was glad not to wear them. I don't think Ben remembered at all that I wasn't going to work this morning, or tomorrow, or the next day. (There's a class we both saw a flyer for about two weeks ago. We both were excited about it. Ben took down the email address of the guy... and then after a week of proding, he passed it on to me. I emailed the dude and never heard back. I also emailed Martin, getting the go ahead to attend the class as it is from 8-1pm T,W,Th. Then last night I found out that Laura was going to take the class as well. She was already enrolled though. Ben still hadn't said anything about the class, and I didn't feel the need to mommy him and prod. I figure if I am already cleaning up after him around the apartment with his dirty dishes, clutter, etc, I didn't have to check up on him in other ways.) Oh well. He caught on when I handed him the master notebook and trapping supplies. He said goodbye, and we parted our ways outside of the apartment.
I then took a bus up about 15 blocks to my doctor's office. As I got off, I struck out to find an ATM. I had enough money for all of my lab tests, but I wanted to make sure I could cover any extra fees they might come up with. After walking about 10 blocks this way and that, I still didn't come across one. I asked a gentleman if he could point me in the right direction. He replied that all banks are closed today due to it being National Banking Day.
-Okay, but I just need to find an ATM to get some money out.
--The banks are closed.
-Yes, but where is one?
--What do you need the money for?
-To pay a doctor.
--You could use Western Union. (I'm not even gonna get into that one...)
-That's okay, but if I wanted to go to the bank tomorrow, where is one?
--The banks are closed.
Yeah that helped, so I just said thanks and goodbye. I eventually ran into one just two more blocks. I got my money out and then realized I had just spent about a half hour wandering around trying to find a bank that I probably didn't even need. Argh.
My schedule was tight. I had to wait until 7:30am until I could go to the lab (fourth times a charm!) to drop of my pee sample and get all the other tests done. It was 7:39 already. I ran down the couple blocks to the office building. The enterance to the lab was locked. No! I refused to believe that it too could be closed, so I went around the block to the other enterance. The door gave way to my push and I was directed back down the long hall to the lab. Yes, getting somewhere.
I go into the office for the umpteenth time and finally can pay for the labs as they are open! I waited in line and handed over my cash. I asked for a reciept, but was told I'd get one once I was done with the tests. Okay. I hope so.
So then instead of just having my blood taken then, I was directed to go back out of the office and wait to be called. Argh, by now it is about 7:50am. I keep going in and out of the office, wanting to ask how much longer the wait is going to be. However, the secretary is going in and out (much more out than in) as much as me. When she is in the office, she is simply picking up papers from the now much longer line inside and shuttling them to the bench space in the back. I debate in my head whether it is worth the wait to just get the tests done this morning and probably miss my chance at attending the class which I was still not enrolled in, or leaving and trying to get into the class (if that didn't work, I'd could still return in time to get the tests done today). I say screw it and jetted out of the office and back into the street.
I now have about 3 minutes to get about 10 blocks down the city (3300 block down to about 26/2700). I start running now. After a couple of blocks, a street sign catches my eye so I could gauge my progress. It reads 3500-3600. NOOOOOOOO! I totally went the wrong direction. I give up and wait for a bus which comes at a snail pace compared to my racing heart. I board, pay my fee (just a mere $0.30 each way), and wait. Not all corners have signs, so I strained to catch them when I could. In my concentration, I realize that I won't pass the big plaza I was hoping to use to mark my point of debarkation. Shoot, I am one block over for that. Then the sign for 2700 comes. I get off. I run down the sidestreet and start running up. Perhaps it is closer to 2800, there are some big trees that way...
As I am running I realize that the plaza isn't a super long walk from our apartment. That would place it at the 2300 block instead of 2600. Yep, I'm going in the wrong direction again. I cross the street and start back the other way. I finally make it there. I know I am late. I have never been inside the musuem before even through I have tried the door on multiple occasions within the posted open times. It opened this time though! I listed for voices as there were no signs directing me to any sort of instructional area. I heard people downstairs, so I cautiously decended the steps adorned with signs mentioning a restricted area.
With chairs spread out in front of a projector, I felt good about the situation. I asked the two girls sitting if this was the bird class. Yes! Confirmed. Okay, so by this point it was about 8:16am. I wasn't sure if I had missed something. There were more bags than there were people seated. The instructors weren't in the front, though I could hear more voices in the other side of the basement. Perhaps there was something I was supposed to be doing over there too, but I decided to sit tight. After a couple of minutes Laura showed up. Geesh, I guess I could have waited the 20 mintutes or so more to do my labs.
What is this class might you ask? For those of you who know me, I've been looking into taxidermy classes for about the past year. It is just one of those things that I really want to learn how to do. I guess it isn't as random as my passion to someday be a stunt car driver for all those coreographed driving scenes in comercials and movies... I have an even stronger desire to learn how to preserve specimens with my approaching Peace Corps tour. How cool would it be to set up a little minimuseum as a secondary project??? So yes, this is a taxidermy class, focused on birds! I figure birds with all their feathers are probably one of the hardest kind of animals to taxidermy. I tried my hand at butchering small roadside animals in Florida to collect furs, but I had no clue how to deal with the birds. So they just stayed in their exposed graves covered in a fine coat of dirt, gravel, and any remnants of the rubber that marked their demise.
The first instructor was great. His slides were filled with tons of words (my typical pet peeve for lectures in college), but boy were they helpful to reinforce what he was saying at a pleasantly slow pace. We then took a break after his introduction to musuem collections in general when I officially paid for the class (less than $7!) and enrolled. Evidently everyone was supposed to have a dead bird to work on. Luckily another girl in the class had a couple of extra ducks for Laura and I. (I'll be working on the species in the center of the photo.) Where did these people come up with some many dead birds? It was obvious that one guy just killed his rooster for the project, but still. Kinda weird to think about...The next instructor discussed the problems that museums face with their collections, focusing on insect invaders. While most of the kids looked a little bored with this topic, I took it as a challenge that I'd need to think about if I were to set up my own rural colleciton. We then took an upclose look at some of the bugs with a microscope. Then we labeled the birds we'd be working on for the following two days by tucking little pieces with our names on them under their wings. After a bit more mate we returned to the seats.
The third instructor spoke as fast as a sports announcer when he interjected into the other's presentations so I braced myself for his own presentation. He didn't disappoint either! He discussed the diversity of birds in general and went through the different families found in Argentina and Santa Fe. His presentation had exactly two words on every slide, the name of the order and the name of the family. While I would definitely approve of this type of slide design, it did make things a little more challenging. Luckily I was familiar enough with the different birds to understand what he was talking about, even if I didn't catch everything. (There are still a lot of birds that I didn't know, but I can look those up later.) With that, our first day was over.
Between our breaks I chatted with some of the other students in the class. They are all biology students at the university. Due to the difference in school systems here, most are still probably a year or two older than me. One of them works at the museum with butterflies, which she took me up to see afterwards when I told her I worked with some in Costa Rica. I don't know how much she is doing with them besides pinning them, but we can talk about that in the days to come. It was cool to see the differences in musuems in different parts of the world though. (I'll give more of a comparison of musuems when I take a better look at their public collections.)
I felt pretty good with myself after the class. Not only did I understand most of what was going on during the lectures, I could also interact with the other kids when they weren't adjusting their Castellano for me. Okay, so I definitely did better with the lectures than the kids. I've got about three months left here, so I'll have it down by then!
I'm off to go help Laura with her English again tonight. I love English, as it is something I actually know. hehe. Oh and our buddy from Mar Chiquita is coming to stay with us tonight. I should be back in time for his arrival... but I really have no clue when that might be 7pm, 8pm, 9pm, perhaps 1am like the time we arrived there??? We'll see. Plus I won't be in the field with him tomorrow, so I guess I should be as good of a host while I can. :) ttyl!
No comments:
Post a Comment