Panama - I walk a lot here

So the nearest internet access to where I am staying in Panama is a 30 minute walk plus a 40 minute bus ride away. This is annoying because I have not been able to watch LOST, but also awesome because I haven´t been concerned with being on the internet. I just concentrate on enjoying the beauty of God creation around me. I think this blog will end up being like the one in Israel where most of the updates will happen 6 months to a year after the trip is over...

Um, So I am here...

Panama is absolutely nothing like what I expected. I don't think I can do it justice in a blog post, but I will do my best.

To get to the research station where we are staying, we walk down a 1/4 mile trail. It is pretty rough, especially since I am out of shape (that particular problem shouldn't last too long...). I freaked out a little when I first got there because the station is built on the side of a mountain, and everything was a little steeper than what I imagined. I was also dehydrated and feeling a little light headed so I was convinced I was going to fall down the side of the mountain and be dead forever. But I survived.

Yesterday we toured El Cope, the town close to where we are staying. We walked, and it was long and hot. The weather is comparable to MO in July except with more rain. After touring El Cope, we went up to the park where most people will be working on their research. It is in a cloud forest so it was cloudy and rainy up there. I saw a sloth! I was super-excited because sloths have been my favorite animal since I was in second grade.

Overall, I think this is simultaneously the best and worst experience of my life. Stay tuned for more, though I don't know how soon because I don't know how often I will have internet.

Mucho Amor!

"And I need a job, so I want to be a paperback writer"

So I have finally hit the point where I am not updating daily. This will continue since it turns out our internet access is a little more limited than we thought. That will be okay though. It will be nice not to rely on technology/communication quite so much.

The past couple of days have been filled with packing and last minute shopping. It is strange trying to decide what I need for the next two months and fitting into one hiking backpack and a carry-on. I may end up taking another bag since I can have two checked bags. I am taking the train to St. Louis Monday night; however, and I am not sure if I want to try to keep track of an extra bag on the train.

The plus side to an extra checked bag is that I could move some of my books out of my carry-on. I have 9 books so far, and there are sooooo many more I want to take. But I don’t have space :(
Here is my book list:
Spanish Verbs
Spanish Grammar
Spanish-English Dictionary
Beak of the Finch
Dune
Ivanhoe
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Bible
And my protection against Marc’s liberal ideas…




I wanted to read St. Augustine’s Confessions, but I wasn’t able to find a used copy in Jefferson City. Just as well. It doesn’t seem like I would have space for it. Que Lastima.

"No, I am not a zombie"

I love LOST.

Falafel is delicious.

I should be working on my bio test instead of watching the food network.

I had a really profound comment about our JINS discussion today, but I forgot it.

There was one time I was practicing facepainting, and I tried to make Saturn, but it turned into a Poké Ball.

More ramblings about Christianity...

So I have been thinking about the Galeano book quite a bit recently (with varying degrees of sobriety), and I have been struck by my reaction to that book and another book I read at the same time The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Open Veins of Latin America, the book by Galeano, describes the oppression and extortion Latin American countries have had to deal with at the hands of Europe and the United States for the past five hundred years. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, have died from overwork on sugar, banana and coffee plantations, or in silver, gold or copper mines to satisfy the demands of foreign investors. Galeano recounts example after example in his book of these atrocities, yet as I was reading it, I was put off by the redundancy of his argument. On the other hand, while reading Guernsey, I was upset by the death of a fictional character.
I am upset that I have developed into a person that can be dismissive of massacres, yet cry over the death of someone who never existed. Is this attitude a product of our society or is it human nature in general? Or both? How do I, as someone who claims to be a Christian, a religion that in its perfect form honors the lives of others above one’s own, end up with this attitude?
One way to understand this phenomenon is from the economic theory of supply and demand. As the world’s population increases, the value of each life is going down. It is hard for a large corporation operating a mine/factory to be persuaded to treat its workers humanely when it really is cheaper to work them to death and hire new ones. I don’t know how to fix this mind set, but it needs to be done.
I was also bothered by my reaction between the two books because it showed me just how inconsistent I am. I loathe inconsistency and to see it so blatant in my life is a huge blow to the ego. I was talking with my friend Nate earlier this weekend about how unequal and unfair the world is. There is always some group that will be trampled on by another group. The pragmatist in me loves the fact that the United States is a world power that dominates everyone else. If someone’s going to be in control, I want it to be me. I want the security of knowing there are resources set aside for me to continue with at least my current standard of living.
That, however, goes completely against the fundamental teaching of my religion/faith (whatever you want to call it). Christianity is based on “Love Jesus; Love others (as Jesus does).” As a Christian, I am called to look outside myself, to be more concerned with the needs of others than I am with my own. If someone’s going to be in control, let it be the other person. I am called to make sure others’ needs are met prior to being concerned about my own. Damn that’s hard. Slash impossible.
I am pretty sure that the majority of the angst in my life is created by the tension between the desire for security, and my desire to live according to the Faith I claim.
But I guess that is what forgiveness is for, eh. Deal with the tension as best you can. Let God take care of the rest.

June 7
A very good day. I was in a much better mood then I had been in the day before. Our first stop was Acco, a port city on the coast of the Mediterranean. Several famous people are associated with this town. Paul stayed here for a day, the knight’s templar ran a hospital, Marco Polo, saint Francis of Assisi and Napoleon were also associated with the city.
We got there and started walking towards the city. Some kid was walking past us and hit me on the leg with a tennis ball… I was in the lead because not very many of the people in our group walk as fast as I do. So I was out in front of everyone for a while. We stopped by this scenic outlook area that was pretty cool. There were ramparts. I ran up the part that was for the horses. THEN I SAW THE MEDITERRANEAN! It was beautiful. We walked up on the wall where we weren’t supposed to be. (Dr. Appold is pretty cool about letting us do what we want at places like this. Pretty sure he got up on the wall too. He didn’t cross over into Lebanon though).




After climbing on those walls and looking over the city and the Sea we moved closer to the sea and ran around/climbing on the rocks and this large whale (Jonah’s whale). It was fun, and I touched the Mediterranean. It was quite exciting. We relaxed over there for a while before heading to walk through the Knight’s Templar Tunnel. After that we walked through the town for a while until we got to another look out point where we had a short worship service. We wanted to leave shortly after that, but Nick had wondered off so we had to go look for him… As we were leaving, Nate led us down some very good interesting streets. I wanted to stop and look at the markets, but we couldn’t because we were in a hurry.



After that we drove to Zefat – interesting driving habits in the Middle East. They tend to make a third lane whenever they need to pass someone. It is fun to watch as long as I don’t have to drive.
Anyway, we got to Zefat where we got our first chance to walk around on our own. Laura Beth, Heidi and I walked around a bit before sitting down at a little falafel café for drinks and ice cream. Justin joined us and then a few others meandered in and out. A different group met this artist from Russia which was apparently pretty interesting.
After we left Zefat we went to Hatzor – It was a city-state during Joshua’s time. It was pretty cool. There was a dog that followed us around. The views were spectacular. I climbed a tree, then Laura Beth and Heidi joined us and I joked about defeating the people under the other tree. Justin was the first person to come over to where we were, which made my joke slightly funnier. He used to be in the army, and there is no way I could have taken him out…

Hmmm, so I haven't updated for the past couple of days. They haven't been very productive.

I realized exactly how nerdy this group of people going to Panama is Thursday night. I went out to the bars with a couple of my friends and ran into Dan, Stacy and Joey at Wrongdaddy's. There we were, in a bar, dancing in a crowd of drunk, white people and what was our topic of conversation? Oh, yes. That's right. Eduardo Galeano's book that we read for class. Marc, I hope you appreciate how dedicated we are to your class.

Going out Thursday night resulted in an extremely unproductive Friday. I did get my application for History Departmental Honors turned in, went to a Bio Seminary as a requirement for Bio 100 (I only understood about 10% of what the guy was saying...) and practiced packing, but I didn't get started on any of my reading/writing homework. Packing is difficult because I am trying to fit everything into one bag, and it is just not quite fitting. I need to find out how far we have to carry our things because I may have to give up and take another bag.

Destiny, Destiny, No escaping that for me.

So being my normal, overachieving self, I decided I needed another blog post today to make up for not writing one yesterday. I wasn’t really feeling up to writing about today earlier because it hasn’t been super-great, but I just got back from eating dinner with the lovely Sarah Bell who helped me realize the funny side of today.

I lived in Campbell last semester, and since I am a history major, most of my classes were in McClain and Baldwin. Those two buildings are on the other side of campus, for those who are unfamiliar with Truman. Truman is not a large school, but I still allowed about 15 minutes to walk to class and get a good seat. This semester, I have moved to the Lutheran House, which is closer to campus than Campbell Apartments. My classes are now in Magruder and Violette Hall which are only about a 5-6 minute walk away from my house. Since I haven’t gotten used to having a shorter walk, I have continually arrived way too early for my classes this semester. This morning, however, I decided that was not going to happen. I was going to be intentionally late for class. (This is big for me. I used to have nightmares about being late for class.) I waited until 8:55 to leave for Magruder. I walked slowly across the street and along the side walks. I checked my watch as I walked by Violette Hall, and it said 8:59. The overachiever in me started to get very anxious at that point because I knew I wasn’t going to be on time (I was still about 2 minutes away from the classroom and class starts at 9). I was worried that perhaps I had just picked the wrong day to be late; Chad would be in a bad mood for some reason and get mad at me. I walked more quickly as I got into Magruder. I turned to walk down the hall and as I got closer to room 2078, I noticed the lights were off. “Oh my gosh,” I thought, “I am later than I thought, and they started without me.” I came up to the doorway of the classroom, feeling anxious about being late, but also a little proud for finally being the last student to show up to a class. I walked in to find…



Chad standing by the computer in an otherwise empty classroom. I really shouldn’t try to fight destiny. I will always be early.

And that was just the beginning. Today was probably the worst day I have had in Biology. It was so hard to stay motivated. First of all, I didn’t have a chance to eat breakfast in my mad dash to be late for class so I was quite hungry during class today. Our lecture topic: food webs.


Also, Kudos to you if you can name the movie my title came from.

Sorry to anyone who might read this everyday. I missed updating yesterday because it was busy. So, this will just have to be a really long post...

Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Wednesday morning was quite productive. I am getting super hyped up about this trip, which has made it difficult for me to sleep recently. So I woke up at 5:45 yesterday. There was a small bright side to this because I was able to finish writing most of my paper by 8:30 that morning.

We didn't do too much in class that day; everyone described how their project was coming along. Blah, blah, blah: the projects are interesting. This post is not. Let me shift gears.

I got my hair cut yesterday! I was able to donate 8 inches to whatever place they send hair off to (I think it was Pantene. Locks of Love only takes 10 inches or longer). I was a little sad to get it cut since I have been growing it out for 3 years, but it will be easier to manage while I am in Panama.



Other fun stuff, my birthday party is this weekend. We're going roller skating at Leisure World. 4:30-6:30. It's $4. You are welcome to come. Tell your friends.

LOST starts Tonight!!!!

I am way excited because LOST, the greatest show ever, starts its final season tonight. I am very sad that I will be out of the country for most of the season. I sincerely hope I will have a good enough internet connection to be able to watch it from Panama. AHHHH! I love Lost.

I started the day with my other love, Heroes. It was the penultimate episode and I am glad I will be in the States for the Finale, which is on my Birthday.

Whenever I take the time to think about it, I think that it is super-funny that I watch so much T.V. in college. I didn't watch anything other than JEOPARDY! and the news every once in a while when I was in high school (though in grade school I watched Wishbone and Where in Time is Carmen San Diego.) I wonder if this is a common phenomenon. I remember talking to my ex-boyfriend's mom about a situation like this. She drinks a lot of soda and she said her habit started because her parents didn't keep soda in the house when she was growing up. When she got to college, the soda was free and limitless in the dining hall so she drank it all the time and continues to. I think it is the same for me because I don't have cable at home and it is available all the time here, and I watch it all the time now. I waste sooo much time...

Did anyone else have something similar happen to them? You should comment even if you didn't because I want to know who is actually reading this...

Anyway, back to the start of our day. In Bio we presented our powerpoint to our audience of one. Chad seemed to like it even though I don't think we actually did the assignment correctly. We talked about communities and the interaction between species. We also got to draw pictures! Of squirrels. on the chalk board.

After Bio, I met with my ENVS group to discuss our Advertising for La MICA project. We met with Dr. Yaquinto who has lots of good ideas. I for one, am a little overwhelmed, but I am sure everything will work out. I'll post updates about that as soon as I can.

I took the day off from History today and was annoyed with myself for feeling guilty because I am not even enrolled in that class... I got there in time for JINS, though, which is good because I am in that class. Courtney and I discussed how Chad is ill-prepared to survive a Zombie-apocalypse since he does not keep food in his house. (not to mention is how isn't Zombie proof. There isn't anything to slow them down since it is all one level and not on a hill. Not that Zombies go that fast anyway...) Chad's response was that he would eat the Zombies. I have never thought of that before. Can you eat Zombies? They're rotting, and I can't imagine they would taste very good. Thoughts? (Has anyone read the Zombie Survival Guide? My dad has it, but I haven't read it yet.)

Lost starts in like two hours! Maybe I will start on my JINS paper to pass the time.

The Fab Five

So this evening I met with my entire Bio 100 class (of 5 people) to put together a powerpoint regarding LTER or something along those lines. It was fun.
Here's a peek at how it turned out...




Working on the presentation with people who knew what they were doing made up for having to deal with OBTUSE, IDIOT MAN at Lens Mart today. Oh my goodness that man is incompetent. I am trying to remind myself that he is a Beloved Child of God, and that I should keep my ranting to a minimum (cue eye-roll).