Ushuaia

Ushuaia is a pretty place. Snowcapped mountains surround the city at the edge of the Beagle Channel. Tourists come into this port from cruises with calls on Antarctica and other islands dotting the Austral waters.

That said, I believe there are many other places in the world I would rather live. Don’t get me wrong, I do feel lucky to be here. But a short trip of two days would do. The weather down here is a little less than desirable. In fact, Laura told me the government pays people mounds more money to live on Tierra del Fuego just because of that fact. Ushuaia was originally colonized as a penal colony. Do you think they’d build a prison on the banks of Iguazu falls? I think not. hehe Without fail the wind blows through the city and whips through the valleys in which I work daily. The wind moves the storm clouds which calls for rain every day. Will there be heavy rain just as we start our nest checks? Probably. Will the rain pick back up again just as I am headed from the city center back to CADIC? Probably. Will it give us a break as we have to push the car for the upteenth time because it never starts on it's own? I sure hope so.

My waterproof pants have again failed me. I bought a pair for my work up in Nome, Alaska which were soon destroyed by faulty construction. My new pair was double the price. Double the quality, right??? Well, they are very nice and I wouldn’t trade them in for anything. (I did get a full refund from REI from the first ones, so it was just like buying those again.) But they just can’t hold up to the wind and rain here. After yesterday’s nest checks, my jacket (down jacket that is only water resistant), my longsleeved shirt underneath, “waterproof” pants, and warm pants beneath those were all soaked through. My left foot was nice and dry, but my right foot was a little wet from a small hole in the borrowed rubber boots.

I live in CADIC which resembles a Soviet bomb shelter in its numerous long hallways and little light. At least that’s what I would picture as a bomb shelter, granted this sprawling complex is above ground. I believe the design lends itself to keeping those who live and work there out of the weather, which would be quite important in Ushuaia. I share a room with both Alicia and Amos. It certainly makes things more interesting.

I have to correct that last paragraph. I sometimes live in CADIC. The other time I live over an hour outside of town in Harborton. It is basically a ranch dating back to the 1800’s by an English orphan adopted by a minister. They have since trimmed down their stock of animals due to poor weather and theft. Now they give tours (me too!). One of the buildings on the property houses a museum full of marine mammal bones. You know the smell when you find a skull or some other body part that has mainly decomposed but still needs a little more time? Yeah. The museum covers the bottom floor in a big warehouse looking room. Then there are the bathrooms (two for tourists, one for all of us) and the kitchen. Behind that is the “lab” which houses more bones which aren’t on display. The number of bones is amazing. There are bones from over 2,500 whales, dolphins, seals, etc and even more of marine birds that have washed up on the shores over the years. (Think of ocean currents and the fact that Tierra del Fuego is the only part sticking out into the southern circulation.)

Upstairs are four bedrooms where the girls volunteering at the museum stay. It is carpeted and heated and all together quite quaint. Then if you go through a door, up some more stairs (now above the warehouse type room), and some more stairs you come to a door that is about four and a half feet small. This is our room. It kind of reminds me of slave quarters back in the day. Perhaps the room that Anne Frank stayed in was a bit like this. Who knows. Against one wall are all the paint buckets, sealants, and general toxic smelling things. To each side of the room is a cut out to the eaves of the attic with more general storage. Then there are two beds with a non-functioning computer on a desk separating them. No pillows, no sheets, nada. Oh, no heat up there either. If I hadn’t brought my sleeping bag against recommendations, I would have froze. The whole building lacks electricity. Supposedly a generator is to come on to provide basic light from about 9-12pm. It’s broken.

So that’s Ushuaia for you! I miss you all!!! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Back to reality

Yesterday marked the return to the field after my oh so pleasant vacation. Today settled in the fact that vacation is definitely over. Too bad. I was told to be ready for work at 6:15am. Then after I finished getting ready, eating breakfast, etc, I was told that we would wait for the storms which hadn't yet arrived to come and then go again before we leave. (I was told yesterday by the same person that it was to thunderstorm today. And this is a surprise now?) So it is past 9am and we still haven't left for work. So many good sleeping hours wasted.

I've been quite productive though. I've been organizing my paperwork to send off to the Peace Corps. I have my last medical appointment tonight to get the final sign-off on all the labs and stuff. Oh wait, after working with the laboratory for over a month and a half, they still didn't do the required tests and just redid the old ones. So much for being done!

I also mopped up my room that flooded once again this morning. Water tight windows, who needs those? Uncovered ducts leading directly outside, what's the point in covering them? The resulting puddle would have provided hours of entertainment to any rubber boot clad, raincoat wearing, umbrella toting kid. I stuffed the big squeegy in the hole in the wall and closed rolldown shutters. I don't know if that helped stop the inundation or perhaps just the passing of the set of storm clouds. We'll see if it holds up to the next set.

Hmmm, what next, Golondrinas paperwork? I've got a whole day of fun to look forward to before we finallllly head out into the field. hehe

Profesora? I think not...

My last day of taxidermy class was successful. I can now preserve a duck from start to finish. hehe. All we had left to do was stuff the neck with cotton, sew up the throat, stuff the rest of the body, and sew that up. Ohhh, before we finished with the stuffing, we were each given a length of wire. (12 gauge? I'm making that up cause I really have no idea how the classification of wire thickness works, but it was pretty thick.) We were then instructed to poke it through the head. I placed mine right at the junction of cut skull and clear skin. Nope. I had to redo it and actually stab it through the remaining part of the skull. That required sharpening the point, so all said and done, it looked ready to throw on a rotiseri. Remember the part about the meat still in the wings and tail? Well that little problem was addressed with none other than a couple squirts of formaldehyde. When I poked the needle into the wing, I was told not to use too much. Why? If I did, then when I pull out the needle, the extra could shoot into my eye. Oh, okay then. And why aren't we using gloves, or glasses, or any kind of protection with a chemical that is currently under consideration to be banned from all of Europe for it's toxicity? We took a few pictures (yes, still having trouble with the uploader here) and said our goodbyes. Good class.

The night before I decided to escape the apartment and headed over to the "mall." There's a Walmart over there, a huge food court, only a couple stores, and a movie theater. I didn't say anything to Ben before I left, because whenever the word Walmart comes out of my mouth, he gives me crap about it. Come on now... I can understand people's dislike about the supercenter, but then why do you eat and praise the food and produce that I get there that you can't find anywhere else in town? Plus, I wasn't even going to Walmart, just the movie. Anyhow, I had a very pleasant time and watched, "Al Otro Lado del Mundo." In English it's the "Painted Veil" or something like that with Naomi Campbell and Edward Norton who are English in the 1920's, marry and go to China during a cholera outbreak. Very good movie. :) I took the bus back and made it in bed by 1:30am. Since I drank mate before I left and coffee while waiting for the movie to start, I didn't fall asleep until about 3am. I was up for class by 7am. Reminds me of college...

Yesterday Martin met Ben and I at the bus station at noon to head over to Parana for us to give a lecture to an evolution class at the university. That's after I woke up early to head out into the field... only Ben had decided with Martin the night before that we'd be skipping the field. Nice to let me know too... Argh. On the bus Martin told us that the class was actually meeting for a symposium, so there would be about 40 more people there including anyone doing biological research at the uni. Thanks for letting us know. At least Ben was in the dark about that too. Martin also told us that we would give the lectures in Spanish instead of him translating for us as he originally informed us. Thanks again. If he didn't feel like it was important enough to fill me in on what I should be doing, I wasn't going care how it was going to turn out.

It did turn out good enough though. I wish I had known that it was a symposium, as the talk I gave was on the importance of color (adapted from the program I made at Big Cypress). I could have easily given a talk on the research I did in Costa Rica and the implications of color in that, which would have fit in better with the rest of it. Oh well. Again, I really didn't care. hehe Ben was all proud that he could add it to his resume. I'll be nice and keep it to that. lol

Today I woke up at 8am, the latest I have since I've gotten here I think. It was my first day off that I didn't need to run off to errands or appointments. Ben wasn't around, so I figured he was still sleeping. Then I read in my room for a long while. I still didn't hear any other rustling, so I investigated and saw that Ben's shoes weren't under the table like normal. He wasn't home. Eventually he came back with his field pack. Yep, he went out into the field today. Do I feel bad for not going? Nope! I had a very pleasant morning. It was supposed to be my day off. And he never told me I should have gone to the field. If he was expecting me to come (besides letting me know) he could have woken me up. (He's overslept several times here and I've never had a problem waking him up. hehe) And best news of all is that he said today was his last day in the field for a week, which means that he'll be leaving for BsAs to visit his wife who is coming down. (He said she would be coming at the end of Nov, but never told me when.) So I'll have the whole apartment to myself for a while. I can't wait!!! Party??? hehe

More appointments

To answer some of your questions, think doing the med stuff in Argentina has it's advantages and disadvantages.

Disadvantages:
-Not understanding all the doctor requests of me, and them not understanding what has to be filled out on the forms: aka language probs
-Having to request a receipt for everything, and not really knowing if I will truly get one a week after paying (I've been told that I have to wait until after I receive results, etc to pick up a receipt... )
-Paying in cash for all appointments, aka, running around in block after block this morning in the rain trying to find an ATM. No, I don't want to walk 6 more blocks in that direction to go to Paratonal where there are lots of banks... I just want to know where the closest one is as my shirt, pants, and bra are already soaked through with water.
-Having to make more appointments with specialists since a single doctor can't do everything

Advantages:
-I get to practice my Spanish out of necessity, lol
-MUCH cheaper than in the US (about $10-13 bucks for an appointment here instead of like $120-200 for one in the US)
-Making appointments with doctors, specialists, and dentists is a matter of just waiting a week tops or even walking in and waiting a couple minutes depending on the office
-I can just go to whatever doctor's office I want, instead of being referred to specific specialists, etc. I just go to which ever one catches my eye as I wander the streets or ride the buses.
-It can all be summed up as a character building exercise :)

All in all, I think it's probably easier to do things here than in the States. It is certainly much cheaper. If I understood how health care works here, I'd probably be able to avoid some of my blunders here as well. I've just got my fingers crossed that I can get everything in tip top shape before I send it off so I won't have to repeat everything down in Ushuaia. And I hope I'll be cleared too. hehe

As I was surfing through some PC blogs on the net, I came across one about a current PC volunteer. "Meanwhile, I've been thinking that I'm so slim because of my active lifestyle and great diet! Cout it just be the worms? I mean, I'm down to 163 from 180 since I got to Honduras -- another couple of pounds and I'll look like a super model - a really hungry one. But, worry not - I think I'll be bulking back up without all these extra mouths to feed." LOL, I think it's amazing how eloquent this little goodie is. hehe. Speaking of some creepy crawlies...

Out in the field yesterday I was checking one of the boxes for fledges. Aka, I was looking to see if the chicks had grown up enough to leave the nest. I noticed that not only were they still in there, but that they also had some mites crawling on them. Gross! So then I realized that what looked like mold over the opening of the nest was actually a solid coat of even more mites that were scampering about. All too late, I noticed that I must have brushed up against said hole and had the said buggas crawling all over my hands... I started to shake my hands, trying to fling the mites off and being paranoid, I felt like they were crawling all over my face and head too with that creapy tingling feeling.

Nope, I wasn't paranoid. Sure enough I had loads more making a new home on my... well, me. Man, I'm getting the tingles again just writing this. lol So I do my best to brush off those guys, take my hair out of my pony tail and shake it out as well. Ewwww! I think I got all of them, but through the rest of the nest checks, I grabbed a few more off my forehead as I felt them crawling around. Suffice it to say that I also redid my hair quite a few more times out of what I hoped was now just actual paranoa. Worst thing was is that I didn't get out of the field and into a shower for another 3-4 hours!!! It was the longest day we've had in the worst possible circumstances. Okay, so I suppose it could have been much worse... but all I could think about is all the bugs that Ben must really have crawling around in his hat and head with the amount of chicks he plops in there each day. GROSS!

In other med news: After having my TB test read (negative!) and completing my eye exam today (20/20!), I just have two more appointments next week to pick up the rest of my lab results. (Lol, they know me by name at the main lab place as I've already been there 6 times.) Then I just need to make an appointment with the original doctor to have him sign off on all the results. I think I also need to go back to the dentist (3rd time) to have her fill in a few more parts of the form I think she missed. (She did the tests, but just didn't write down the results.) And then I'll finally be done!!!

So that's a cap of all things medical down here right now! I can't wait to be done with all of it and hopefully be cleared and get my invitation. I've been moved up for a departure in mid-April instead of mid-May, so that means I need to be cleared by mid-Jan now... Cross my fingers!!!

PS. The pic of the chick is happily mite free. I was too busy exterminating the mites off of myself.

Mar Chiquita!

Hola,

I just got back from Mar Chiquita! It was wonderful! (BTW, the dentist appt went well. She really did her homework and knew what more things on the form meant than I did!!! We had some laughs, and 13 x-rays later, I was done! I go back on Tues to retrieve them, but from the initial check, I've got no cavities or any other probs. Yippee!)

Back to the travels... Although I didn't lose any of my insides forthright from the trip, I think they are now fully perforated with ulcers. Oye. I'm currently erasing all memories of how I got there and back from my memory. Suffice it to say, I'm alive and I will never get in a car again with someone, who shall remain nameless, driving. It is currently a very touchy subject. But hint: it wasn't Laura or me.

We were greeted by Alberto, the mayor of Miramar (city on the banks of Mar Chiquita and location of park headquarters). He set us up in a local hotel which was very nice. We got some sleep and then started bright and early the following morning. Well, Laura and I did. Ben insisted we start an hour earlier than they had planned, but he still wasn't up at the time to leave, so I woke him. Thanks for the suggestion. *Purge bad thoughts from head... deep breath...*

Okay, so then we met a park ranger... whose name I can't recall at the moment. He's a great guy who kinda reminded me of a hillbilly Santa Clause: huge smile, white hair, bright red face, round belly, and quite a few missing front teeth. We all piled into their truck and headed out to the lake. It is the largest of Argentina's salt lakes. I don't know how big that is on paper, but there's no you can see across it! And the best part is that its shores are lined with flamingos!!! Mar Chiquita is home to three of the world's five species of flamingo. These guys were way brighter than the birds lining Lake Nakuru's shores in Kenya and their black-tipped wings gave them a sharp look that reminds me of quite a few of my sorority shirts. hehe

Oh, and my second favorite part is that I found some natural swallow nests! It was so cool after measuring so many of our nest box nests to find real ones they made all by themselves! Okay, so our swallows can't make cavities by themselves, but they all nest in cavities. The nests I found (one with chicks 15+ days old, and the other with chicks 10 or 11 days old) were in the tops of tree stumps, not on the side of a trunk as you might expect. Very cool. The older guys were too close to fledging to do anything with (except snap a pic), but the littler guys were the perfect age to band! I reached my arm all the way up to my elbow to pull them out, scraping my forearm against the jagged edges of the petrified wood all the way. I suppose it's just what one does in the name of science... hehe We taught our new counterparts how to band and measure the chicks, which they'll get lots more practice with once the get some nests in their boxes. Speaking of which, we set up about 22 boxes, out of the 31 they made. We didn't have any poles, so all the boxes went on the dead trees or fence posts. (There was huge flood which wiped out many of the trees around the lake.) It was a very successful day. LOL, Laura and I didn't have to do more than carry the boxes around, as there were no holes to dig, no posts to lug around, and our counterparts did all the chopping away with the ax and drilling with the hand drill.

Annnnnd, I'm going to a party tonight with Laura, so I'm happy! hehe

Mite-y funny

Okay, so scratch that. Turns out I am not very good at looking at my appointment cards and instead just remember what day and time I say I'm available for the appointments. I said I could do anything after 3pm. So I thought my appointment was at 3pm. Oops, I just looked at the card and it says 1700hrs, or 5pm. Sorry Ben and Laura, that means we'll be leaving a little later tonight! At least I got everything else I needed to do today done and didn't have to rush back for my nonexistent appointment at 3pm. hehe

Anyhow, Laura and I were laughing so hard out in the field today. She was working with Ben yesterday and was measuring 12 day old chicks. The chicks in that nest in particular were just infested with mites and fleas. Several of the other birds have mites and stuff, but they aren't super bad. I guess when Laura was handling the birds, she had quite a lot of the little buggas crawling all over her hands. Instinctively she starts squishing them. Ben tells her not to worry because they don't bite, they only eat the feathers on the birds. (He told me the same thing too when I encountered some of them on another bird. I didn't buy it.) Laura most certainly didn't either as each time she squished one, blood squirted out of the delicate exoskeletons. She showed Ben, to which he replied that it is just their pigmentation. Ummmm, I don't know about that. Laura asked her mom about it, to which her mom agreed with her.

Wanna know the best/worse/funniest part of it??? Guess where Ben holds all the chicks as he waits to measure them? In his felt hat he wears all the time!!!! GROSSSSSSSSS! We couldn't stop laughing and guessing at how many creepy crawlies he has roaming around his head. Ewwww, yuck! I will definitely be more aware of any noggin scratching he does. But even if he won't admit that they bite, don't you think they could be chewing on his hair if he thinks they eat the feathers of the birds? I don't know, but I am going to continue putting my birds in the two bird bags each of us have as part of our banding kits. As gross as it is, I can't help but smile just thinking of it!

PS. I just got an email from PC and my estimated departure date has moved up to mid-April!!! Ahhh, I better hope I can finish up all this med stuff down here! But I'm super excited!!!

Learn Something New Every Day

First, I have to catch this up a bit...

On Wednesday, I played tour guide for Ben and Rodrigo out in the field as Martin and I changed the entire numbering system for our nest boxes to incorporate new boxes we will be placing next week. After checking all the nests which took forever since we didn't split up, Ben and I headed off to Santo Tome. I've taken the bus there, but instead of getting off at the terminal where we could easily catch it, we got off our collectivo much earlier. After waiting at one corner, switching to another corner (again having no clue if the bus actually travels on that street), we hailed a cab to jet us over. Then we started making some new boxes with all the wood we ordered last week.

We kicked butt! I drilled all the holes for every screw Martin set in place. The two of us also put traps on every box as well. (Ben drilled the hole for the door in the front piece of wood and cleaned up while waiting for us to finish.) We were like a well oiled machine. I was actually a little afraid that I was going to drill my fingers or Martin's at the rate we were going! By the end of the day, we started and finished 45 new boxes!!! Anyone want a bird house for Christmas? I'm an expert at making them now! hehe

We got back to the apartment at around 8pm, so instead of making dinner, we went out to celebrate. Every day when we take the taxi to our field site, we pass this Arabian restaurant. I've been eyeing it and was quite interested in trying it out. (We've probably gone out to dinner twice a week and have tried all kinds of places. Because real dinner isn't served until after 8:30pm though, most of what we've tried has been sandwiches (and burgers, lomos, etc).) Well, I ordered lamb which was served with onions on top (cebollado). Yum! It was cooked so which is a big difference between the pan fried steak Ben's been dishing up at the apartment. He ordered some kind of ground beef scoop marinaded in a lime juice or something. I liked mine way better! hehe. For desert I had oranges baked and drizzled with a sugary syrup. Mmmmm.


Okay, yesterday I worked with Rodrigo out in the field while Martin and Ben paired up. Each team was tasked with catching some birds and checking the nests on their side of the field. Our first nest to catch the female in was tipped upside-down by a cow and all the eggs were on the ground around the box, broken in half mid-incubation. It was too bad to see that there weren't going to be any chicks from that nest, but as Rodrigo said, it's less work for us. We checked all of the nests in that section (before ducking under the fence) and then processed the next female. We did all of that before the others even caught their first bird. Yes, we rock! Then we checked some more nests, measured some chicks, and tried catching a female that needed to be painted. (I've painted all of mine with a bright blue fat sharpie, but some of them either weren't painted at all, or got a speckling with a fine-point black pen. Yeah, as you might imagine, it is a little tricky to tell the males from the females as they are flying around if they are only a little bit more grey. Mine look like a whole new species!!!) We couldn't catch her again, as this was the same bird that took several days when she was incubating. Now with chicks in the nest, she has no reason to sit there forever. Oh well. We gave up and finished the rest of the nests.

By this point, Martin split up from Ben and finished checking the nests on their side. Ben was still trying to catch his bird. Rodrigo and I were walking to see if they needed any help when I froze... About three feet ahead of me lay a snake with a distinct triangular shaped head. In my book, that means bad news, so I asked Rodrigo to confirm that it was dangerous (peligroso). He replied with "do you want to take some pictures?" and "beni-noso". I'm flipping through my mental Spanish dictionary and it's not ringing any bells. So then I do the next best thing and run through possible English cognates... beni-fit, bene-volent, etc. Ummm, that doesn't make too much sense. Peligroso, si? Muy beninoso. Hmmm... still not helping, answer my question. Ohhhhhhh, light come on. So what you're saying is, this is the most venomous (actually spelled "venenoso" in Spanish) snake in all of South America. With this realization, I take a couple steps back. I think this snake doesn't need quite the intimate photo shoot Rodrigo seemed keyed up for. hehe, oh foreign languages...

We told Martin who after fixing the broken box joined me in telling the ranchers. Rodrigo left with one of them to go find it again and kill it. I am all about letting wildlife be, but these snakes can give birth to 60 live, venomous babies. Then with each bite, then inject more than double enough venom to kill a person, let alone all the cattle, horses, and little kids the ranchers have running around. Needless to say, the snake is no more. The main rancher (whose name I can't remember for the life of me) told Marin and I an interesting remedy for a snake bite. When his dogs have been bit by snakes, he injects kerosene into them. We asked all kinds of questions like how much and where to gain a better understanding. Evidently it would work for people too, but he said an alternative for treating people is to drink a mixture of milk and garlic. I don't think I want to try it just to see if it works. I'll try my luck at the hospital if I ever need to. But it is definitely neat to know that in a situation far from any medical treatment and without antivenom, you can live from such a bite. I'd love to learn all those little tricks, which makes me even more excited for Peace Corps. hehe

Today Ben and I had our day off. We split up and he paid for our accident insurance. (I am now covered with Argentina accident insurance, Cornell's International SOS health insurance, and my own travel health insurance. Overkill, doncha think?) I walked to the post office (12 blocks) and picked up the certified mail we got a notice about, which turned out to be our accident insurance papers. I also hunted down a stationary store to buy an envelope. That was another little lesson in Spanish, as I couldn't remember the word for envelope. I knew letter was "carta" and I had what I needed to send in my hand. So I told the lady I needed to send a letter, pointing to the paper I had in my hand. She then directed me to some nice, blank pieces of paper. Umm, let's try this again. I need to send this paper, and I need one of these (Pointing to the envelopes I just picked up), but smaller. Yes, success! I then went back to the post office and waited in line again. When I got to the counter, I told the lady I needed to sent "una carta certificado" or a certified letter. She just took the letter, gave me a price which was way less than I expected and slapped a stamp on it. No, I know what the word is this time, and you didn't even listen to my bad Spanish!!! :) (I didn't say that to her, but just repeated what I said the first time.) She looked annoyed, but totally understood that yes, I didn't just want to send the letter internationally, and that I pay a lot to send a little piece of paper in the mail that I had already faxed to it's destination. (That's how I see it at least.) But I'm not paying for it... if I ever get my reimbursement, that is.

Then instead of heading back to the apartment, I set out with my camera. I found llamas, picaries, flamingos, parrots, foxes, tapirs, pumas, and more!!! Yes, I took the bus up to the zoo. (I mapped out the bus system here in Santa Fe and have been exploring the city. Yes Jeff, that means that I have seem more than just Walmart. hehe Oh, speaking of which, I made peanut butter yesterday!!!! I was in a desperate search for a cheap, yet functional blender which I found at Walmart. I'm happy now. lol) At the zoo, there were no maps, no brochures, no gift shop, just animals. It was a different experience with the focus really just on seeing the animals. All the big animals were in similar enclosures which consisted of grass at varying heights and a house for the animal to get out of the sun all surrounded by a fence. The birds had perches to sit on, the monkeys had trees and swings to play on, and the nutria (think huge rat) had water to swim in. It wasn't the best zoo I've been to, but for a small city in a country with a struggling economy, it better than I expected. And for a dollar to get in, I'll have to go back to just watch the animals some more and perhaps sketch a little.

Just as I was leaving the zoo, the same Mormons were coming back down the street that passed up the street as I was going in the zoo. I had been kicking myself for not talking to them. When we passed the first time, they said "hola" and I replied with a "Hi." They each did about ten double takes as they walked further up the road. So we had a chat about where we were from and all that kind of stuff. I learned that they stay in each town for about 6 weeks and are in the country for a total of almost two years. For one of the kids, it was just his first month here while his partner was finishing up his mission. Then at the bus stop an older gentleman (who I stopped earlier looking at a map) asked me what I was doing and the like. He overheard me speaking in English and there you go. hehe. He's just traveling all around Argentina with this trip scheduled to last 5 weeks. (His Spanish is about at the level of a second week Spanish 1 student. I'm definitely more appreciative of my own ability now!) After practically a month here, I'm running into all kinds of Americans! Several stops before my apartment, another pair of Mormons boarded the bus. I would have talked to them too, but I needed to get off too soon. Crazy though.

Tonight I made the best dinner ever. I still have no clue how to control the heat in the oven. It is gas powered and there aren't any labels on the knob to tell you how hot the oven is going to be. We need to get a thermometer before I try baking cake or something. Anyhow, I put some foil down on a pan, drizzled it with oil, and sprinkled some salt, pepper, and seasonings. Then I plopped down some chicken breasts and repeated the same base layer on top with the addition of some chopped onions and tomatoes. (I realized too later that we were out of peppers.) I folded down the foil into a little packet and popped it in the oven (which is supposed to be at 400F but who knows what it was) for 30-45 min. (I think I took it out closer to 45 min after a bit of a disaster cooking the rice too high. Smoke. Bad.) The chicken turned out so well though. It was so tender and would have been even juicier had I cooked it properly. It was still loads better than anything we have eaten here at the house though. hehe Well, I take that back, I now can make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. mmmmm

Yippee!

Gladis finally moved out and we have the apartment to ourselves! Well, almost to ourselves, as the painters who are working on the outside of the whole building have been coming through our apartment to paint our balconies. (We kinda have the penthouse suite per say, as we are the only unit with balconies. I'm going to have to plan a party to utilize it too!!!) Anyhow, it is much better not to worry about being bombarded with rapid fire questions in Spanish when you just wake up and can't understand English let alone a foreign language with an even more foreign accent. hehe

Today we had our first chicks in the field. They are so cute! Consider that the eggs are only a little more than one centimeter by two centimeters (about the size of the first joint of your pinkie finger). These are some really tiny chicks! This picture shows six of the little guys on their second day out of their eggs. I can't wait for even more!!!

The day before yesterday Laura came with me to watch how to band the birds. These guys are much harder to hold in the photographers grip, as their legs are so stubby and they are not very calm birds. Oh well. That won't stop me from taking other pictures of them!!!

Man, while we were waiting for one of the females to fly into her box (which we had boobie trapped), the horses were playing out a soap opera. First, two of the males start fighting, aka charging at each other and being noisy. Then the pinto (I don't know my horses, but that's the painted one in my language) mounts the female and goes at it! By the time my eyes drifted from the nest box and saw what was happening, I missed the picture by just seconds! Too bad. The other male got really angry again and kept charging the pinto every time he came near his girl! I wonder who's babies she'll end up having! :)

Oh, and Kels, we've got tons of Lapwings (Southern Lapwings) which are pretty birds but really noisy. I'll post more of a bird list with more pictures once I take them. And I need to figure out the English names for the birds too. (Btw, this is pretty much the saddest bird I've ever seen. It is the pet of the ranching family at our site, but it looks like a rehabilitation project gone bad... I think it's a Monk Parakeet as we have tons of them nesting in the power towers, but I definitely think it too is failing on the godliness. hehe)

Random thoughts

Some say cleanliness is next to godliness... but as you know, Marin Catholic didn't do much to instill a strong desire in me to reach godliness. Don't get me wrong, I'm still showering almost everyday, but jumping under a weak stream of chilly water doesn't warm me up after a day of strong winds in the field. In fact, I'd be perfectly fine with skipping a day (or two) without a shower... but I haven't crumbled to that point yet. Ben can somehow get hot water in his shower and only ONCE didn't have a steamy shower. I think that may have coincided with my only shower that was warm, and how I did savor it!

Gladis took our clothes to the laundry last week, but there were a few problems with it. One, I didn't get my only towel back until the following day. (I took a shower and dried off with my tanktop... That still counts as cleaning up even if the shirt was dirty, right? It's the thought that counts.) Two, my clothes were mixed up in Savina's (Gladis's daughter, both of whom are STILL living with us). And three, I thought I lost my laundry bag (aka sleeping bag stuff sack) for good as it didn't come back until several days later. Therefore I've resolved not to send my laundry out to get it clean. However, I've also built up a Pavlovian dislike of the shower/tub where I'll need to handwash my clothes.

I'm doing fieldwork so I wear my waterproof pants every day. Those I can probably just rinse off in the shower once the caked mud starts to bother me. (It hasn't yet.) My tops could now probably use a wash as I think I've worn them all at least twice. Mind you, I didn't bring much down here! But really, I work in a pasture covered in cow patties and dead creatures of every make and model. I still smell better than all of that, so does it really matter if my clothes are clean? I think not.


On another note, I must mention a bit about the driving here. Have you ever seen a couple of kids find a new board game without the directions? They can figure out that they need to roll the dice, but they just don't know any of the rules that make the game more interesting. Well, interesting basically describes the driving here, so maybe that's not the best analogy. It just seems as though the automobile made it down to this part of South America without the DMV to make sure cars are used properly. There are plenty of cars on the roads here, yet in every intersection in Santa Fe, there are no stoplights. (Only once you get towards the "freeway-ish" road are there lights.) Okay, so there are towns in the States that don't have stoplights, but this is a city of half a million people! ANNNND to make matters even more interesting, there aren't even any stopsigns!!! Yes, that's right, I keep my eyes closed at every intersection just hoping that there isn't another car coming the other direction.

But then again, Ben and I noticed that there weren't any cars that had dents and dings as you might imagine from the inevitable crashes. We asked Martin about this one day on our way to the field. He assured us that people here certainly do get in accidents, its just that when they do, the cars are totaled. When they crash, they realllly crash. Oh that makes me feel better. So why aren't there any seatbelts in any of the taxi's??? I'll just keep my eyes closed some more.


As far as birding goes, we have about 20 nests with complete clutches (aka the swallow is done laying her eggs), then we have about another 20 that are either making nests or almost done laying their eggs. We've also found a nest made by an oven bird that looks like a swallow (though not our species) might be using. I think I'll try climbing up into the try and peak inside with my fiber optic spy camera. (Okay, so there's no camera attached to it, but it is still pretty cool.) I'm thinking I'll need to wait for a warmer day again before I can be limber enough to make the climb.

Today I caught two more females and banded them. It is so much more satisfying to catch birds here than with mist nets. With a mist net, you simply set it up and hope that a bird will fly into it. Don't get me wrong, it is very effective. But it just isn't very hands-on or active. Here we have several ways to trap swallows. The easiest is to sneak up on one of the boxes, cover the hole and then hope that the bird is inside. This doesn't always work because other birds around give alarm calls as you approach, and the bird might not be in the box to begin with. In that case, we have plug traps. These are basically a piece of cardboard cut bigger than the hole with a piece of fishing line tied in the middle. This is hidden inside the box with the line hanging out of the hole and attached to a fishing reel with the rest of the line. You back up away from the box and wait... Then when (and if) the bird returns to the nest, you reel in the line so that the cardboard inside the box covers the hole and traps the bird inside. You keep reeling in the line as you approach the box, reach in and you've got yourself a bird! It's very fun when it works and you feel like you actually had a part in the trapping. We have one bird that I've been trying to catch for two days that doesn't seem to like the little bit of fishing line coming out of her box. We're going to try an automatic trap soon...

We're only trapping the females that have been incubating their eggs for a few days already. Once we have them, I put a band on, take flattened, bent wing chord (aka length of their wing), then the length from the back of their head to the tip of their beak, and then their weight. Then I paint them with a sharpie. Ben's idea of painting the birds was with a fine tip black sharpie. Ummm, that doesn't quite fly. As even he couldn't tell which birds he caught, I showed him my method that Kels taught me. Basically, I make a whole new species of swallow. I only brought really bright colors of thick sharpies with me, so that's what I use. I've been using my bright sky-blue sharpie to color their chests, and formerly white rumps. (The species we are studying is the White-rumped Swallow.) For good measure I also sometimes color the underside of their tail. When they fly away they look like jellybeans. :) I love it and you can definitely tell which ones we've caught. (We need to know which is the male and which is the female later on when we need to trap the guy. Also, Rodrigo is studying them to see if the male helps in incubation. I've never seen the male even go in the boxes yet... but that's what science and observations are all about. Ben thinks it's a waste of time, but I think any data is good data. We can still get our work done, so it can't hurt to find out.)

Hmmm, so that's pretty much what's happening right now. I need to go find some clean socks to warm up my purple toes. ;) ttyl!

As you can tell from the picture, the weather hasn't been nice and sunny. That's find by me though, as I was still sweating under all my field clothes. I don't know what kind of bird is in the first picture. It definitely got in some kind of fight though, as it's missing a good chunk of it's feathers on it's head and possibly elsewhere. The second picture shows one of our swallows sitting atop her nest box with some nest material in her mouth. Okay, I'll take more pictures during better lighting so you can see more clearly. I just felt like posting these for now! ttyl

Dinner

Last night I had the best dinner ever. Sorry Mom, but this stuff was just cooked so deliciously. :) Martin picked Ben and I up at, gasp, 10pm for dinner. It was early for he and his wife to eat, and ummmm a little late for us. So it was pretty much a compromise for the two parties. We went to a resturant by the river that had all kinds of pictures and memorabilia up on the walls with the owner posing with all kinds of famous people. That's Argentinian famous, as I couldn't tell who was important in each picture. It made for a great atmosphere though. And there were also some beastly dogs roaming around in the restaurant, which Martin assured us is NOT a cultural difference and not accepted here as well.

As far as I could tell, it was a kind of all you can eat, family style restaurant. I really don't know what exchanges took place between Martin and the waiters, as all I could pick up was him requesting what I wanted to drink. Beer, yum. Did I mention that there is a cerveceria in Santa Fe? Yep, that's a HUGE beer making factory that produces about four different kinds of beer for my consumption. Okay, it probably makes some for other parts of the country too if you want to get down to specifics. Anyhow, the restaurant was perched on the side of the river and specialized in seafood. I think specialized is too vague a term, as all we ate was one platter of fish after another. First we were treated to fish empanatas. (Think of the type of bread that makes up a chicken pot pie and cross that with a hot pocket shaped in a semicircle and fill it with fish!) It was the best empanata that I've had so far. Mmmmmm. Then came little fishy meatballs in a red sauce. They were good, but they fall low on my list from all the other yummy things we had. Then we had a huge fish that looked as if it had just been plucked from the ocean and immediately roasted in the oven with garlic and probably some buttery goodness. It was delicious!!! We each just dug our forks into the fish (which come to think of it probably looked a lot like all those dead ones that line our field site...) and ate the meat from it. Most of us grabbed a chunk, brought it to our plates, and got the bones out of it before bringing it to our mouths. However, this didn't seem to phase Ben who I imagine got at least one bone in every bite which he had to fish out of his mouth before taking in the next bite. Once Ben cleaned off the last bit of meat from this fish, we were brought another, smaller fish that was cut into steaks and fried. Yum again. I was stuffed by that point, but they then ordered another one of the big flat fish. I didn't touch any more of it, but I definitely want to return to that restaurant!

Once we were done, Martin dropped us off at our apartment. By now it was 1am. Mind you, all we did was go to a restaurant and eat dinner. And this is early for Argentina dinner???? I slept well, though woke up every so often to the howling wind which has accompanied us for the past two days. The weather has warmed up quite a lot since arriving. Evidently, it had been raining for two solid weeks before we got here. Add that to the fact that it was one of the coldest winters they've had in a long time, and I don't feel that bad about feeling so cold those first few days. I no longer need my down jacket as much, but it is certainly very comfy in inclimate weather!

Even though I took a nice nap after work today, I think I need a bit more shut-eye before more work tomorrow. Oh, and just to give you something to do... try to estimate the amount of feathers both inside and then outside the nest cup using this picture. That's pretty much all I can see when I have to do the same. Yeah... I don't imagine the stats on this count are going to be too reliable.

Tengo miedo

Okay, so I figure I'll get all the scary things out in one post. Though our site is pretty... there are TONS of dead animals around. You can't walk around without stepping on dead fish (supposedly died from deoxygenated water). There are some pretty cool ones though that have some gnarly teeth. I was thinking of entering Courty's Aquafresh Challenge by making a video of using the toothpaste to clean their teeth. Then I read that siblings aren't eligible to win. Oh well...

We've also got a couple dead cows and even more skeletons of them everywhere. Too bad I can't bring any of the skulls back, as they would make some neat mantel decorations. Martin said that the smelliest one probably died of a snake bite from a viper. Oh that makes me feel better! What chance would I have against a snake that can kill a 1000lb cow??? At least we wear rubber boots all the time since we are stepping in yuck and water all through the site.

There's a dead sheep, dead waterfowl and even a dead parrot. Interesting... I have a hard time believe that they all died of different things. In April of this year, there was an outbreak of leptospirosis specifically in Santa Fe. (Yep, that's where I am.) As it affects areas with farm animals (check), and bodies of water (check). I think I'll do my best to stay dry! I guess I won't be eating lunch in the field without a good scrub down as in SC with Kels!

Yesterday when we were out in the field, we checked one of the boxes that was just COVERED in wasps. We'll have to set a fire to that one to smoke them out soon. But, on the tree right by the box, there was a HUGE snake about as thick as a Nalgene bottle. I think it was just a colubrid, aka nonvenomous snake. We've also got another one of these guys at the far end of the site, but that one is, you guessed it, dead.

Now you've got a little bit of a better idea of where I work. Aren't you jealous? hehe. At least there are lots of birds and animals that are still alive!!!

Accent

What is the difference between an accent and a speech impediment? People in Argentina definitely pronounce their words differntly than I am used to. Okay, I'm not really at the point that I am used to any of it yet, but they speak differently than I was taught in school ages ago. I learned that "ll" makes the "y" sound. Sounds good, right? Well, here I suppose they go by the same rule... but then they also change both of those letters to sound like the "j" or "jch" sound. Then it seems like most people (though not all, thank goodness) speak with a lisp as well. These may just seem like minor changes that you can easily deal with. I second guess myself with the words to begin with so adding on these complications makes understanding someone speaking really fast almost impossible. I have to literally picture the words in my head how they are spelled, how I would pronounce it, and then make all the changes necessary to adapt the words to how I hear and have to say them here. Oye! Give me time and I'll have it down... I hope!

Yesterday I was working with Laura in the field. We work really well together. In fact everyone is great to work with. (The OCD is a little difficult to tolerate at times because he gets frustrated over little things... but he's loads better than Alaska!) Anyhow, I was explaining that we'll put more nest boxes on one side of the site instead of the other because there's more room over there. For the life of me I couldn't remember how to say "instead" in Spanish. I was having a major brain fart. Then I couldn't figure out how to explain it in English (translating it back into Spanish) so she could tell me what the word was. I did my best to explain, and she kept throwing out words for me: "but not," "later," "and," etc. Finally we made it back to the trees where my Spanish-English dictionary was waiting. "En vez de" of course I remembered it as soon as I saw it. And all the other ways to explain the word "instead" rolled through my mind. Oh well. My vocabulary is slowly coming back.

I just got back from getting some groceries. Even if I know what I need and how do say it, it doesn't always work. Because I get reimbursed for food, I had to ask the guy at the little produce market for a reciept. In Argentina, there is a word for a detailed reciept "boleta". So he writes down "manzanas" which is what I bought. Yes! But then he goes on to write "apples" below it. He tries telling me that manzanas means apples. Okay, yes, I know that. But I need a reciept for my job. The other guy behind the counter was laughing and told the other guy that I knew what apples were and just needed the reciept. Then the guy wrote down the price. Yes, getting further... So I asked him for his signature as well, which he provided. Yay! After all that I had a little scrap of paper ripped out of a notebook with "manzanas, $4,50" and his firma. Sucess!!! (By the way, instead of using a period between whole numbers and the decimal, a comma is used. Ben and I figured this out as we were reading off measurements for Laura and Rodrigo to copy down. Minor hurdle.)

Today we finished putting up all the nest boxes we made, about 38 in all I think. Added to the 50 or so nests that were at the site already, we have about another 20 to build and put up. We don't have wood yet, so I don't know when we'll be making more. I've had fun with all the power tools though. :) I'd say we have about 10 nests with eggs in them already and another 10-15 that are complete. The swallows build their nests with grasses and a TON of feathers here. Once the nest cup is deep and fully lined with feathers, we know that the momma will be laying eggs any day.

Tomorrow we'll be starting later (at 8:30am instead of 6:30am) which is a welcome change. I'm not opposed to early field work, but typically the entire schedule is shifted earlier. Foe example in South Carolina, we started before sunrise, but then we ate dinner around 3pm and were to bed by 7. Here, you can't get dinner until around 8:30pm as everyone eats at 9 or 10. It sure makes for some long days, as we haven't been taking the siestas that everyone else is accustomed to. Today we got back at around 1pm. I definitely rested my eyes as I tried catching some sun outside. Speaking of which, I better get some more shut eye!

Un Dia de Espanol

Today our two Argentinian counterparts were in Martin's car when he picked us up. Rodrigo has been working with swallows for three years. Laura is in her last year of undergrad, and this is her first season with swallows. So basically, Rodrigo is like a Ben, and I am like a Laura... if that makes sense. Together we form the Golondrinas quartet. I'd tell you more about them, but basically since they don't speak English, I can't tell you a whole lot about them except that they are very patient with us. :) They are taking a basic English class, but they did not practice at all with us yet. I'm sure they'll take us up on it as their oral exams approach.

Martin is a great guy. He slows down his Spanish when speaking to us and what more could you ask for? Really though, he's very nice and just what you'd hope a host would be. He explains the cultural differences to us and guided us around the city the past couple days. He's working on his doctorate, so he's got a lot on his plate right now in addition to this project.

That being said, today was the first day that we really had to speak in Spanish without the possibility of switching back to English if we weren't understood. Perhaps that's why it took so long to do everything! hehe. Ben likes to tell jokes in Spanish, but it is usually lost in translation. It's great that he tries though. Today he was trying to explain something while we were in the woodshop and finally quit, saying in Spanish that he couldn't find the words he was looking for. Then Rodrigo guessed at what he meant and Ben replied that yep, those were the words!

We bought some more wood and nails, attached traps onto all the nest boxes we made yesterday, and painted the posts today. Then Martin dropped us off in the field where we checked the eight nests that had eggs in them yesterday. Swallows lay one egg every day, so we had some new eggs to measure. When we check the nests, we are quantifying the "completeness" of the nest (on a scale of 0-4), how many eggs are in it, the temperature of the eggs (on a scale of 1-4), and then the length, width, and weight of each egg.

We are also supposed to estimate how many feathers are in the nest cup and how many are outside of it. Now, remember when you were a kid and had to estimate the amount of jellybeans in the jar? Imagine that you can't see the top of it (ie the nest cup) and you can't see three of the sides. Estimation just got a WHOLE lot harder!!! These swallows use feathers in their nests, and it is thought that they are used for insulation. As this site is full of all kinds of birds, there is certainly not a paucity of feathers. I'd say the nest have at least 50 feathers in them. Nests in the US might have 5-20 feathers making their job at estimation MUCH easier. We'll see how it goes though!

We finally finished and got back to the apartment at about 4pm. Mind you, I hadn't had breakfast this morning, and we didn't stop for lunch. You can bet I finished off my lone sandwich bag of trail mix I brought from the states! For dinner Ben and I had beer and cookies. It filled us up and certainly made up for missing lunch. :)

Brrrrrrrrr

Okay, so it is very cold here. I'll just get it out now, so I don't have to dwell on it throughout my time here. Granted, it is warmer here than in Nome. However, I was simply expecting it to be much warmer here and because I feel it should be warmer, I'm being stubborn. Because it does get so hot during the summer, which isn't for quite a while, buildings aren't heated. So, as I sit here in my polarfleece, shivering, I hope you realize that I haven't avoided the winter chill that will be arriving shortly in your locales. My feet are numb, approaching the color of my dark wash denim jeans. And for once, I am actually wearing socks all the time and am considering buying a hair dryer to stay warm. That's a whole other story...

My first shower here was delightfully warm. In fact, I think I created a new microclimate for the apartment when I opened the bathroom door and all the steam flooded the hallway. However, my shower this morning and then upon my return from the field were as cold as the glacial spring in Nome, Alaska. I have a feeling Ben jumped in the shower right after I turned mine on, accounting for both the drop in water pressure and drop in temperature. However, a "drop" simply does not conote the total lack of water above freezing. There was not a drop of warm water mixed in with the rest of the flow. I jump under the spout, wet my hair, lather up, then jump back under to rinse off. I could care less if my hair doesn't look as nice without conditioner, but I am not going to spend the extra time freezing wet that would take to add that step! Brrrrrr!

Okay, so that being said, we finally made it into the field today. Now, it's not like I've been here forever, it's just we didn't go yesterday as planned. Our site is amazing. On first glance it might be a little disappointing. It's on land owned by the University yet rented by a rancher. There are lots of cows and horses roaming around, and even quite a few sheep. There are a bunch of lagoons everywhere (aka mosquito breeding grounds when it finally does warm up). And due to low oxgen levels in the water a while ago, there are tons of dead fish everywhere. Luckily, they've been out of the water long enough that they don't smell quite so ripe.

The site has TONS of birds though. In addition to all of our swallows, there are just about any kind of bird you can think of. We've got burrowing owls (I finally got to see some after all my time in SW Florida wanting to catch a glance at some), parrots, wading birds, shore birds, birds from families that aren't even in the States. Lots and lots of birds! The only problem is, that I've never seen so many of them. That is a great thing... but compound learning a new species by the fact that it is named in a different language, and then a scientific name might thrown out, and after asking I'll get the English common name. That's a whole lot of info at once! I'm still just absorbing things right now, so in time I'll actually learn all the species. It's awesome though!

Oh and I can't forget that we also saw capybara today. These are the largest rodents in existance. Think of a guinea pig on some serious steroids, and you'll have a good idea of what I am talking about. Don't worry, I'll have pictures soon as I don't think they'll be going anywhere.

Our site will be flooding as the season wears on. I'm not talking about some puddles we'll need to walk though. The water already reached over my rubber boots and soaked my socks and pants today as we crossed a wet spot in the path. It will get to the point where we'll need a boat to reach our nest boxes. Last year, the water rose about 6 feet as we could see on all the trees, nest boxes, etc. (At least I think it was last year... I know there was a huge flood in Santa Fe in 2003, but I think there was another one at least in this part last year as well. As you might imagine, details such as this are lost to me in translation.) I don't know what we are going to do when the water is deep, but not quite deep enough for a boat. How I do miss my waders!

After checking the boxes that were already up (about 50) for nests and eggs, we went to the institute to build some more nest boxes. I must say that I am quite good with my power tools as blasted through the nests. Martin and I had quite a system going while Ben was in the other room. Upon his return, he took over for Martin and we finished up the rest of the boxes. It worked pretty well, but combine OCD with a project that doesn't require being exact (aka screws perfectly flush with the wood, etc) and I had to chuckle a bit.

When we got back to the apartment, the owner and her family were there. She explained that the metal covers for our windows needed fixing and asked which I wanted fixed first. I said my smaller one by the desk instead of the slider one, as it needed to be kept closed. I really had no clue what was going on, but just kinda guessed, and sure enough, the workers came in and my window above the desk it apart right now with the metal cover (think of a garage door with multiple slats rolling down to cover the window) blocking any view or light. I think they are coming back tomorrow with the parts to finish it up and then they'll do the other side. I could be wrong, again trying to figure things like that out in a different language kinda flies right over my head.

She made Ben and I dinner with an assortment of foods, a plethora would be more appropriate. We had two types of pizza, two types of empanadas (a stuffed pastry filled in these cases with ham and cheese and the other with ground beef), and a type of grilled ham and cheese sandwich that also probably has a special name. Then she brought out dessert and cut each of us a slice of ice cream cake covered in a hard chocolate and nut shell. It was divine, as it was chocolate ice cream on the bottom and toffee ice cream on top, with a liquid nugget of dulce de leche in the middle. After we finished, she insisted we couldn't be done yet, and cut us each another piece of the ice cream that was probably double the first. Though my stomach was already bursting at the seams, we both looked at each other and figured we couldn't offend our host. You can be sure though that I much rather would have liked to save it for later and savor it over the next couple of days. Oh well, it sure tasted great and I bet I'd be able to find it in the store if I crave it over the next couple of months.

I forgot to mention that yesterday Ben and I went out to dinner. Mind you, people here don't eat until 9:30 or 10pm!!! So not only was it very special for our host to make dinner just for the two of us and all of them to join us at the table to talk, you can imagine that finding dinner by ourselves at a normal US time wasn't possible. We left the apartment a little past 7pm and received strange looks from the waiters in the restaurant we tried. We ended up walking around town for the next hour or so. We are very close to the city center, which is great as we don't have a car. We ambled down the pedestrian street filled with stores of all kinds which I'll definitely be taking a look at later. After eventually making our way back to the restaurant we tried earlier, we were served. Before our dinner came, we received a basket of bread and crackers. With that came a brown looking spread which I tried. It tasted remotely like chicken, in a strange kind of way. Yep, you guessed it, it was chicken pate, basically, spreadable chicken liver if you aren't familiar with it, as I certainly wasn't. It didn't taste all that bad, but upon learning this, I couldn't bring myself to eating any more of it.

Hmmm, I think that is about it for now. I'll unpack my camera and hopefully start taking some pictures soon!

Send Me On My Way

After about 30 hours of traveling, I finally made it to my new home. But before I describe the apartment, I’ll start back in Wilmington. I left with plenty of time from the apartment and only had to run back once for a last minute change of heart about what to bring. I made it to the airport with plenty of time and checked in with the lightest bags I’ve had since… ever! And to give myself a little more credit, my 75lb bags (total) included a fiber optic scope and new laptop that I was bringing down for the project. My car was packed with all of my worldly possessions for both FL and SC, and my bags for AK barely squeaked in under 100lbs. (In fact, I ended up paying the over weight fee for one of my bags on the way there. Give or take, they probably weighed about 115lbs combined then.)

That said, I arrived in Atlanta a little early and had plenty of time for my connection. Due to my online snooping before I left, I spotted Ben who is to be my American counterpart for my time in Santa Fe. (As I understand it, he was supposed to accompany me for the first part of Ushuaia too. He needs to get back to the states early so he won’t be coming at all down there. It’s a bummer for him that he won’t get to see that part of the country, but he’ll be rejoining his wife back at home. I had better hope my Spanish is great by then, as I won’t have an English buddy to talk to.) He is a PhD student in his last year at U Mass in Amherst. He definitely knows his stuff, but not in a cocky way. For example, I asked him what our schedule would be, and he mentioned something to the effect that it will take less than two days for me to have the swallow protocol down. What a huge and welcome difference in expectations than last season!

Our flight down to Buenos Aires was long, though we were given little goodie bags to make it more enjoyable. It included one of those masks to cover your eyes while sleeping (definitely came in handy), ear plugs, tooth brush/ tooth paste, lotion, and headphones. Pretty good for coach! I did see that first class got socks and all sorts of other stuff too, but I was sure happy with what I got. Oh, and we also got one free alcoholic drink with our dinner, an offer I couldn’t refuse.

We arrived in Argentina about 20 minutes early, leaving us enough time to catch an early bus to Santa Fe. We sped through customs, leaving Ben to think that we missed something. I simply enjoyed the hassle-free check. The language barrier kicked in as we had no clue where to go for our bus. (We had no problem buying our tickets. But as the time approached, we went outside to catch the bus, only to be pointed back inside. We had no clue what was going on. I don’t know if it was simply for our benefit, but they had someone met us inside and walked us out to our bus. It worked out well though.)

Within the first five miles, we saw our first dead person. There was some bike race/ride along the freeway. Why? I don’t know. Lots of smashed cars, lots of bloody people, and a very unhappy biker. (Do you still have emotions when you pass? Interesting…) I actually didn’t see the biker, but I saw what was left of one of the bikes, one of the cars, and the bloody guy still in the driver’s seat. It wasn’t quite the welcoming sight you want to see as you first enter a country. I guess it provides a good warning though.

After that, our bus got a flat. That didn’t seem to matter too much as we drove for about another 100km before we stopped to check it out. Then we stopped a couple more times trying to find a place that was open on a Sunday to fix it. No such luck, so we continued on our way. We dropped off a bunch of people, door to door, in Rosario; and then the driver told us to get off at a gas station. Hmmm, okay. It’s amazing how much more you can trust people if you don’t understand what’s happening. The driver got our bags and loaded them into a waiting car. This was not another bus for the final three-hour leg of our trip, not even a taxi, just a regular car with a printed out sheet stating the bus companies name. Our driver didn’t look sketchy, so what the heck. We had more legroom and the temperature in the car allowed my frostbite from the bus to thaw just a little.

On a side note, I read reports that Santa Fe is supposed to get pretty hot during the summer. In fact, that’s all anyone talked about. I checked on a map that it is at about the same latitude as Charleston, SC the day before I left. Yes, the south in the States does get pretty hot during the summer. However, I only realized in my whole body shivers that yesterday marked the last day of winter here. Although it will only get warmer as spring progresses, it is pretty damn cold right now! My down jacket is definitely getting a lot of use already.

We sped by the countryside which is remarkably flat. The landscape was predominated by agriculture consisting of grassy fields upon which the cattle grazed. Fruit stands dotted the freeway selling bags of oranges. Ben tried naming most of the birds we saw yet had some difficulty as we lacked a bird guide for Argentina and we were driving at a good speed. Honestly, I do best when I have the bird in a scope or better yet in my hand to figure out what it is. Perhaps if I know what I am looking for, I’ll improve in that area too.

We finally made it to the bus terminal at Santa Fe and called Martin who wasn’t expecting us for another couple of hours. Luckily he was in town and picked us up in half an hour. The apartment wasn’t ready yet, so he took us along the river where the locals had gathered to drink mate, a traditional drink. We were then shown the apartment. We each have our own room; there are two bathrooms, a kitchen, a family/dining room, and a utility room. The floor plan is quite different from what I am used to, and managed to get lost in trying to find the way out. (Perhaps the mate and a couple beers helped.) It’s not fancy, but it will certainly do for the next three months. My room has windows looking out in both directions, offering a great view of the city as we are perched atop the 12th floor of the building. I also have a slider out to one of the many balconies that surround the floor plan. (More on this later.)

I am freezing!!!! So I am going to try to curl up in a ball and get some shut eye. Ttyl!



PS. Send Me On My Way is my absolute favorite song. It just makes me want to get up and go somewhere, or at least dance. It's by Rusted Root by the way. :)

Getting Excited

Okay, so I am freaking out a little actually. But hey, that's practically the same as being excited. I've been stocking up on what I need and realizing that there is not a whole lot of time to do everything I'm trying to get down before I go. Well, first off the list is cleaning up... it's not like that's anything new.

Emails from Golondrinas are starting to pour into my inbox. There actually haven't been that many, but they are packed with more info. One was in regard to flights: yep, add that to the to do list. One mentioned that we have a trailer to carry all of our stuff into the field: I guess the sites won't be as local as I thought. And another answered a bunch of the questions I asked, but only now I have about a million more! I am so thankful though that this project is so much more organized than the last. I'm really excited to see how everything unfolds and get out into the field!

Today I raided Target and bought enough drugs to set up my own pharmacy. If I have any problems with a stuffy nose, sneezing, headache, fever, bad food, cuts, etc, I'll be set. It's interesting to see how much packaging they use on each drug. I took the meds out of the outer boxes, and reduced the space it all takes up by at least half. Sorry for filling up your recycle Kels!

As I was driving back and sitting in traffic, I reflected on just how impulsive I am. Anything that allows me to make decisions on the fly, I'm all for it. That is why I have fallen in love with Google's version of 411 (1-800-GOOG-411). It is amazing. If I am out and about, all I have to do is call it to find out what used book stores are in Raleigh, ask for details, and get the addresses. I then plug it into a gps and am good to go! How great is that? There's no need to plan out my day before I leave the house and get directions from point A to point B. I do love technology.

Alright, so this is pretty much just rambling. I'll end here and hope that I get some more planning done today!

Employed!

I am soooo excited right now! I just found out that I'll be moving to Argentina in less than two weeks. There are probably a million things that I need to do to get ready, but I really don't care to think about any of that. I'm floating on cloud 9.

The project I'll be working on is amazing. Basically, Golondrinas de las Americas is a network of sites all across the western hemisphere seeking to answer why birds lay more eggs in higher latitudes. Now that probably sounds lame, but throw me a bone here. I'll be addressing the many theories with all sorts of methods. Plus, I'll be improving my Spanish or desperately trying to understand it depending on how you want to think of it.

Yes that's right, I've become a professional intern. But why would I want a real job when I can get all my travel expenses, housing, and food paid for and still have a bit of money to stash away? I'll join the real world at some point, but this is sure working for me right now!