fruit

current favorite tropical fruit: mangosteen. i could eat about a dozen of them at once if i weren't afraid it would make me sick from too much sugar or something. they are so delicious!

i haven't tried durian yet. i don't know if i can do it, it will depend on the smell. i don't want to barf. (which reminds me that when i was flying over here i heard someone use the word "up-chuck" and i thought it was funny because i hadn't heard anyone say that in a long time.)

finally, some pictures!

geez, who goes to an exciting tropical country and doesn't post pictures for like 2 weeks? me...

anyway, here are some pictures of the school i'm at and the beach i went to this weekend. there are a lot of beach pictures, beware! actually, at the end are pictures of the summer palace of king rama IV in petchaburi (right now its rama IX, so this place is pretty old). its on top of a big limestone (i think) hill and you take a cable car to get up there. it's mostly pictures of monkeys (i think macaques, but no one yesterday could tell me and none of the biology teachers are in the office this morning) because it was hard to get good views of the buildings, there were too many trees. there are 2 monkey videos, also.

we stayed at a fancy resort hotel this weekend. it was for some sort of annual school meeting, but mostly i didn't have to go to the meetings since they were all in thai. on saturday afternoon we went into hua hin. (our hotel was between hua hin and cha-am.) it was raining so we went to the mall, shopping being the national pastime. then we went to the beach, which was quite nice. but i didn't have a swimsuits so we just waded in a little. i am with my friend kook, who is also a biology teacher. she got to go on this trip with me instead of sit in the meetings because she was my buddy for the weekend, lucky her! then we went to the night market (even though it was only like 4:30) and looked around. they have all sorts of things at these markets. this one was especially rich in fresh and dried seafood. i got some fruit, kook got some shorts, and these teachers visiting from china got a lot of dried seafood. i'm sorry, but it is just gross. especially because the shrimp they leave in the shell.

on sunday morning i spent most of the time walking along the beach. i was by myself so i didn't go swimming, just in case. there are a lot of pictures of the animals i found along the way, and of the fishing boats. the tide was out, so i could see lots of things. meg, there are pictures of echinoderm tests just for you! there were a lot of dead sand dollars washed up, most small, but a few as big as my palm. i also saw some jellyfish washed up, and one trapped in a pool between two sandbars, so maybe i'm glad i didn't go swimming. the washed up on in the picture was about a foot across.

we also had some good seafood dishes. after we went to the palace, we had dinner with some guy who is a vice principal of some school. there was some good seafood! a delicious fish (called 3 flavors) and yummy fresh crab and a very spicy fish dish (i think a green curry) and a stir-fry noodle thing called 8 gods. i am getting really tired of people asking me if i can eat spicy food...i guess its good, so they don't try to feed me something i can't handle, but then i do surprise them with what i can eat sometimes. and some of the thais don't like spicy food, so they will pick out non-spicy dishes that they like so i can try new things that way. but i'm not retarded, i can identify chili peppers and seeds from 5 feet away! i just don't eat them. and i eat small bites of hot things in between non-spicy things, and i do ok.

anyway, i'm going to the library now to see if i can find a wildlife book in english. i'll update this if i find out any of the species names.

gym class

this evening i decided to go to the gym and get some exercise since i haven't done much of anything since i got here. not even much walking because the school compound is pretty small and most of the restaurants and stores are right across the street. i was good for about 15 minutes before i thought i might pass out from the heat, since the building isn't air conditioned. on my way out i saw the head gym teacher. he asked me if i play badminton (thais are somewhat obsessed with badminton). when i told him i didn't really know how, he insisted on giving me a private lesson right then. so we played for about 45 minutes. basically, i can do ok but i can't serve to save my life. he showed me a way to serve that i can do, but i think it must be cheating or something. he was making me run all over and totally wore me out! now i think i will have to practice every time i want to go to the gym or he will give me a hard time. after the gym closed he invited me to the gym office for some water, probably because i was sweating like a pig! there was another gym teacher there and we all did our best to chat. well, it came out that the head gym teacher used to be a professional thai boxer. (someone else used to be a professional badminton player, but that is not so impressive.) and then, he offered to teach me thai boxing!! and tried to show me some right there, but it didn't work out so well in the small office and me being about to fall over. i didn't know they would teach girls thai boxing, but then i don't know anything about it. i told him first i would watch some and see what i thought, since i have never really seen it. but maybe i will take him up on the offer. i think thai boxing skills could get me far....

the other thing that happened today is i found out i am getting a paid school trip to a beach resort this weekend. there is some sort of meeting with teachers and alumni and parents and the school board, i don't really know what about, but they invited me and i think don't expect me to do much since i don't know thai and all. i'm all about beach resorts!

new experiences in the last 5 days:



1. seeing buddhist monks close up (but not too close since i'm a woman)

2. eating food so hot i thought i would get a hole in my tongue (really not exaggerating)

3. eating a salad so hot my mouth burned and my nose ran

4. eating spaghetti with a spoon. i had a fork, but in thailand you don't put the fork in your mouth, you just move food around with it.

5. corn-flavored yogurt. i didn't actually try this, but i'm sure that the picture on the container was of corn! maybe next time i'll feel more adventerous.

6. some new tropical fruits-sala and longan. they are tasty, if some work for a little bit of flesh.

7. being woken up 5 times in the night by some sort of dog turf war. i'm pretty sure the alpha male of the winning pack was wearing a collar, but not the others.

8. about 12 different kinds of banana snacks, including bbq flavored banana chips. most didn't actually taste like banana.

9. about 500 high school students doing aerobics at the same time. and the principal. apparently there was going to be a "marathon" (i think pretty short), but it got canceled because it started pouring.


i still didn't take any pictures, although i will. soon. then you can see. its actually quite similar to central america in terms of climate and lushness. and random dogs all around (i saw 2 cats yesterday). not too many mosquitoes yet, thank god. it rains pretty much every afternoon or early evening. heavy, heavy downpours with lightening and all. yesterday it had that sort of yellowish look you sometimes see in tornado weather but i think it was just because it was clearing up in the west and the sun was setting.



next week is midterms, then a midterm break. a little vacation i guess. maybe i will go for a little trip, i'm not sure if i will have any responsibilities or not (i think not). there are a few other americans here, and i made friends with a korean guy who knows english and thai pretty well. so i won't be by myself! and kim knows where we can go to see the harry potter movie in english! i think it opens here on thursday.



now, i am apparently going to play badminton. or watch. i said i would watch, i hope they don't expect me to play since i have no idea what the rules are or really how to hit the thing. they don't understand this is a game you only play at picnics and don't take seriously.

well, i made it to thailand. today is my third full day. i'm still not adjusted to the time. so far the food is not TOO spicy, not that its totally calm either. instead of all the things being written in danish on the computer, its all in thai. thai is worse because at least i could guess what the danish was. oh well. i need a nap. more later, just wanted to let you know i made it.

pics from denmark

ok, i put some of the pictures we took in denmark here. the files are large, so be warned they might take awhile to load but the thumbnails should be ok for a quick view.

it was a pretty fun place. the weather was not great but it was ok. we saw some castles, with moats and all. we even went to the castle where hamlet is set. not many vikings, unfortunately. we even went to a viking festival, but it was pretty disappointing. i was looking forward to that.

an interesting thing is that people kept speaking to us in danish, and then we would sort of stare at them and say "we don't speak danish" and they would seem genuinely surprised. its not like we were the only tourists around or anything. so i guess we can pass for danish, if that is a good thing i don't know....

things danes like: ice cream (cones, bars whatever), bicycles, sandals with socks, baby strollers (there were about a million kids, all over, and we only witnessed one tantrum), walking.

things danes don't like: sunglasses (most of the sunglasses-wearers were tourists, no idea why)

the natives didn't seem to think that a high of 60F was cold, but i did. especially because it was also windy. not natural for late june, if you ask me. especially when its daylight for like 20 hours a day. actually, i'm not sure how many hours of daylight there were, except that if i was awake it was daylight. i didn't manage to stay awake past 10 pm any night, i just lost all control of my eyelids and fell asleep. didn't matter where i was, in the bathtub, a chair, the bed, i was out like a light. the jetlag wasn't awful, but then i/we spent hours every day walking around so it was pretty exhausting.

and now, i have to go pack for thailand. next post will be from the tropics!

email me your address if you want a postcard.

hello from denmark

we are in copenhagen right now, i'm using tim's laptop that is on the copenhagen university ethernet. i guess because of the IP address, everything is showing up in danish. it is weird.

anyway, it is pretty nice here. the weather has been nasty, cold and rainy, but the city seems nice. generally pretty clean. lots of bikes and people walking, etc. still a lot of cars, but not that many given how many people live here. it seems to be a pretty relaxed place, which is nice. there are lots of parks, also. they are strange to walk through because so many of the plants are similar to the eastern US. lots of oaks, linden, birch trees. and then there are plants and animals i'm used to considering "out of place" but that are native here. garlic mustard, starlings, pigeons.

yesterday i went to the botanisk have (botanical garden) and walked around until i was too wet to stay out any longer. they had a section of danish wild plants, a lot of which are ornamentals in the US. they had plants from all over, including one redwood tree and some poison ivy! why deliberately grow poison ivy? what botanical or education purpose does that serve??? it did get three skulls & crossbones on the sign, whereas some plants only got one... they had two pamphlets when you entered the garden (1) where to find the poisonous plants and (2) where to find the "plants of the bible". interesting place.

i am still waiting to see some vikings.

pictures, etc. later.

my big backyard

sorry, been awhile since a post... been busy getting ready for thailand, etc. pretty much ready to go. also, going to denmark tomorrow. it will be a whirlwind of laundry, unpacking and repacking in the 36 hours i'm here before going to thailand....

anyway, seen some interesting things lately. we have a gecko that lives on the back balcony. i've seen a great horned owl, western screech owl, banded gecko and desert tortoise at the evening tours i volunteered at, at the desert botanical garden. also lots of nighthawks and a few cicadas and toads. its pretty nice there in the evening. i recommend it if you're in town.

alright, back to packing... i plan to put up a denmark post before i head to thailand, but no promises!

also, check out this inspirational article in the new york times...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/24/weekinreview/24basics.html?ref=us
i love it! too bad i'm missing fair season (although i think i'll be back in time for the AZ state fair, rodeo and all!)

may i have your attention please...

i have an announcement to make.

i am going to thailand for 3 months. july, august and september. i'll be a biology teacher at a high school for gifted kids.

i'm very excited! a free trip to thailand! it will be an interesting trip no matter what, even though i have to work. i'm totally looking forward to the food and i'm hoping i'll learn some thai cooking skills. figuring out the culture will be interesting, and i can only imagine the scenery (although i'll be in bangkok for school).

i hope i'll still have email access, etc. i'm planning to still post things here, so you can learn all about thailand with me.

vindication is mine!

perhaps you recall an incident i had at the library a few months back involving a woman who apparently thought the library was the receptionist's desk at a doctor's office?

well, this week i noticed some new signs at the library. signs to the effects of "no cell phone talking in the library!" they could have been there for a couple weeks, but they were new to me (my books were not overdue yet, but it was close!)

anyway, what i thought when i saw those signs was, "HA!! take THAT, stupid receptionist woman!" and i smirked to myself.

for a laugh, or perhaps a look of confusion, visit http://icanhascheezburger.com/

cave creek

it was 101 degrees Fahrenheit here in tempe yesterday (at 9pm on sunday, its 87). please note, its still april. that is damn hot. to escape the heat, we went camping in the seven springs area of the tonto national forest. its not far from here, but its a couple thousand feet higher (=cooler!) and a different type of desert (semidesert grassland and montane scrubland) that i haven't visited before.

it was really pretty neat, more rolling hills than the rugged mountains you generally see around here. and, there was a permanent stream! water! trees, trees with real leaves!!

and there were tons of wildflowers blooming, which were nice to see.

tim's favorite part was the ants. there were ants everywhere. lots of different kinds. he spent a lot of time like this, looking at the ants.

it was a good trip, even though it started out not so well. with a 10% chance of rain, we decided not to take the rain fly for the tent. then as we're leaving, they sky looked really black and stormy. then we took the wrong exit and got a little confused where we were (why are there 2 exits for the same road, separated by 5 miles?). then there was a huge dust storm and it was extremely windy and it sprinkled a little. we stopped by the ranger station and the ranger told us there was some big weather system coming up from mexico and it was probably going to be really windy all night, and it might rain. a lot. and if it rained a lot, the campsites might flood because there was a fire a couple years ago. (umm, why did this not show up on weather.com a few hours before? but you can see some burned trees on the far hill in the top picture) but then we visited some indian ruins a few miles down the road and it cleared up and the wind died down some, and the huge black clouds weren't coming any nearer, so we all decided to stay.

then when we got to the campground, there were no open sites. so we picked a site that was maybe a site, maybe not, right on the parking lot of the trailhead. worked for us, but it was right by the road. which you would think, not so much traffic 12 miles down a gravel road in the middle of the night, but apparently people like that road at night. no more troubles after that. no wind. no rain. lots of moonlight. and, there were a bunch of toads hopping around, trying to get to the creek. fun for all!

its supposed to be 98 tomorrow, don't you want to come visit?

wild kingdom

today i saw a roadrunner kill an inca dove. it was awesome, but a little sad too because inca doves are pretty cute.

first i saw a mourning dove kind of freaking out on the ground, then i saw there was a roadrunner checking it out. the roadrunner charged and the mourning dove flew off. then the roadrunner was super quick and snatched the inca dove out of a creosote bush! just grabbed it in its beak and whacked it on the ground a bunch of times. then it started pecking at it and eating it. it saw me watching and dragged it under another creosote bush, then i couldn't see much so i left. it was pretty cool, i didn't know roadrunners ate birds but i guess they eat pretty much anything.

other than that, i'm still waiting to hear about a really interesting job i applied for. its now been 8 weeks since the application deadline. never mind they originally said they expected to hire someone in 30-45 days. every 2 or 3 weeks i've checked in with them, and they just keep telling me, "maybe another couple weeks." argh!!

i also made a scrumptious strawberry pie this weekend.

spring eye candy

some springtime cheer for those of you who are in the cold. plants (mostly cacti) from the desert botanical garden. i don't know all their names, any help from out there? (ma arntz?)


no idea on this one.


mammallaria


prickly pear


some kind of wildflower


baja fairy duster



cholla flower


a desert scene



hummingbird (probably anna's or costa's) on ocotillo blossoms



hedgehog cactus.

easter vacation

for our easter vacation, we went down to picacho peak state park. its about 70 miles south of phoenix, right off I-10. its some kind of volcano flow mixed with sedimentary rocks.... who knows. the campground was pretty nice, even though you can see it from the highway. it was super windy, i thought that our tent was going to blow away. with us in it! so it was a little hard to sleep, but otherwise nice. i was on a quest to see an elf owl, but i was again disappointed! but the bird book says they're here in the summer so maybe its too early. we did hear a great horned owl.

some views from up the peak.

some scenery
we also saw some birds, ants and lizards. and i saw the eye shine of what may have been a ringtail or a kit fox. some medium-sized, agile mammal.

we took the scenic route home today, and it really was more scenic. part of the drive was through the gila river indian reservation, which was much nicer to look at than the fields of who knows what (wheat? we couldn't tell) that shouldn't be growing there. at some point, i thought if you ignored the mountains in the distance and the sorry appearance of the soil (it does not look like what i would call "fertile"), you could pretend you were in the midwest. the road was straight and flat, and there were fields on both sides of the road.

anyway, then we stopped at the casa grande ruins national monument. there are ruins of a huge house and smaller houses and a ball court, etc., from the hohokam tribe. you actually can't even go see most of the smaller structures, it looked like they were doing some new excavation. this is the casa grande, protected by that big roof (which a sign said was built in the 1930s i think).


it is impressive they built this huge community in the middle of the dessert. the walls are basically primitive concrete made out of busted up rocks they dug out of the ground.

the two holes in the wall below are for a celestial calender sort of thing, one lines up with the setting sun on the equinox (or maybe solstice? i forgot) and the other with the moon on certain days.


the doors in the smaller buildings are smaller.


these little guys (round-tailed ground squirrels) were all over.

and, we drove through a small town called coolidge. i kid you not, there were people there selling "baby easter turtles". what turtles have to do with easter, i don't know. but i guess baby things are always good for easter since its springtime.

if i were you, i'd totally date me

sometimes i wish i could date myself because i have so many great skills. well, mostly i wish this when i bake something really tasty. then i could eat the tasty thing but just sit around while other-liz made it. but i would probably get fat.

anyway, yesterday would have been a great day to be dating me because i made chocolate croissants (en francais, pain au chocolate). oh, they are good. because tim doesn't each chocolate much, i froze half of them for my later enjoyment. that still leaves six for now! mmmmm, thinking of them makes me drool.

i've never made croissants before, and it was somewhat time consuming but not that much work overall. it was like mix, wait, roll and fold, wait, roll and fold, wait, etc. then i got a little impatient when it came to the rising, so they could be higher but i'm not complaining. here is a picture.


are you impressed? how about this one, can you see the flaky layers?


if you lived here, i'd give you one. too bad for you.

mormons and big tobacco

after my time in utah, i have decided the mormons must be in cahoots with big tobacco. they certainly aren't nice to the alcohol industry. beer must be less than 3.2% alcohol, unless you buy it at the state liquor store. in a regular bar, you can only get beer. at a restaurant with a liquor license you can get beer or wine or mixed drinks. but to go to a "bar" that serves liquor, you have to go to a private club and pay a membership fee. and even then, you can only get a single ounce of liquor at a time. no doubles. you have to finish the first drink before you order the next. it was a long 9 days in utah. drinking that beer just made my stomach hurt.

as for tobacco, you can smoke inside bars and restaurants. i don't really remember the last time i had to request the non-smoking section in a restaurant. after having dinner one night, i had to go for a hike the next day to de-smokify my pants. and at the airport, they had smoking lounges in every concourse (lucky for me, i had the time to check out all the concourses). these smoking lounges didn't even have doors, they were just rooms off the main hallway like any of the other shop. it was strange, since i knew i couldn't even get drunk if i went to the airport bar.

mormons are strange.

must read

in utah this week, theoretically solving problems with a ttx assay for the other brodie lab. we'll find out tomorrow if it works. until then, feast your eyes on this:
http://longevity.about.com/od/longevity101/tp/fun_ways.htm

ostrich non-fest

yesterday we went to the 19th annual ostrich festival in chandler, az. i had heard interesting things about the ostrich races. yet again, my low expectations were too high. whoever rated it one of the top ten "unique festivals" was on drugs.

first of all, there was only one booth that we found selling ostrich-related items: ostrich burgers. we ate some, but they weren't worth $6. kind of dry. we could buy fake tattoos and all kinds of other crap, but no ostrich eggs, no feathers, nothing. how can you have an ostrich festival without ostrich stuff???

then we went down to the race track to see the ostrich races. that was, of course, the highlight of the whole thing. but i am confused. this festival is supposed to celebrate the ostrich-farming history of the area. the only ostriches in attendance were the ones for the ostrich races. these ostriches came from KANSAS. there are no ostriches in arizona any more? or maybe just no one willing to make them run around with humans strapped on them? anyway, it was funny to watch. first there was the bareback riding. that ostrich cowboy below is from indianapolis!


then they harnessed chariots to the ostriches, which you can sort of see here.


they move surprisingly fast, so it was hard to get a picture.

after that, they had little kids chase emus and chickens around the racetrack, which was sort of amusing. then they raced camels, which was not as interesting as it sounds. they had the riders dressed up like "arabs" and called them things like "ahab" and i was a little offended. after that, we watched some pig races, where the winning pig got an oreo. oreos are good and all, but i wouldn't run around a track just to get one. then we went home because there wasn't anything else we were interested in.

the best would have been if an ostrich attacked someone.

people can be so rude

I’m writing this sitting in the Tempe Public Library. I have just had such an awful experience I can’t believe it!

I’m sitting here, minding my own business, working on this heinously long job application, and this woman two tables over keeps talking on her cell phone about medical office-related topics. She is clearly a receptionist for a doctor’s office. She’s calling about lab reports and scheduling appointments. Debbie Smith’s phone number is 602-xxx-xxxx and she needs her lab results. Tami Bowles is 48 and needs to schedule a neck and face lift. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING IN A PUBLIC LIBRARY??? I keep asking myself, thinking its sooo obnoxious. Not to mention it seems totally inappropriate to be discussing patient information over the phone in a PUBLIC LIBRARY. I keep exchanging looks with an older lady at the table between me and receptionist. What the hell. Finally I’m too pissed off, I can’t take it, this is just wrong and irresponsible on her part. So I go over there, I say real nice like, “Excuse me but can you please conduct your business elsewhere? It’s annoying and rude.” I figure I won’t start with how wrong it is to be talking about patients in public.

She says, “Oh I’m sorry, I am here all the time, no one has complained before.”

“Well, that’s weird, because its totally wrong of you to do. By the way, can I have the name of your employer?”

“I don’t think that’s appropriate for you to ask.”

“I don’t think its appropriate or considerate of you to discuss Debbie’s phone number and test results or Tami’s face lift in public.”

“It doesn’t matter what I say as long as I don’t say their social security number.”

“Well, I hope I never go to your office, its incredibly disrespectful to patients.”

I went and sat back down, she packed up and finally left. Old lady smiled at me, I felt calmer. Later old lady comes over and says, “That really took some guts on your part. And just so you know, I was here the other day and she was doing the same thing. I didn’t see her before I sat down or I would have gone somewhere else. But I’m going to tell the librarians, because its just not right of her to do that in here. She was using their electricity.” I thanked her for supporting me (although backing me up when I was talking to receptionist would have been better) and told her receptionist was also using the library’s internet.

I still think its wrong that she’s doing doctor office business in the library. In public. Isn’t that what doctor’s offices are for??? Is there not some code of conduct for this? And, librarians out there, is it ok to use a cell phone in the library, for any purpose? I would not do it, I’d go outside. It’s a library for pete’s sake, a quiet zone. And the next time I hear someone answer a cell phone like, “Hello, Dr. X’s office, how may I help you?” I will write down Dr. X’s name, look them up and let them know what their receptionist is doing.

spring is on the way!

i heard that the groundhog said its going to be an early spring. seems like it will be here in the valley! (although i don't know what the definition of "spring" is here, exactly.) but the highs this week are supposed to be 75-80F. it is so nice. i am wearing sandals today! its pretty exciting. i do feel bad for all of you back in the midwest and east, who are at risk of freezing to death. you can always come visit and thaw out.

we have to plant tomatoes and such sometime this month of we want to harvest anything before it becomes deathly hot. we're going to give it a whirl, anyway...growing tomatoes and peppers on the dinky balcony. i think its about time to put up a hummingbird feeder, too, and see how many different kinds we get.

everyone should think good thoughts for tim, who is sick, and jeremiah, who has a job interview this week. and for luna, who has not tried to run away again. ;)