Traveling Across the States

After having arrived in Washington, I’ve decided to light my car aflame…as I refuse to drive anywhere ever again.

Actually, I am surprised how fun 3300 miles I spent in the car with Mark was.  He was attractive, funny, and he was always there for me to resent if things got too  stressful…all the things I look for in a boyfriend.

The trip itself was mainly made up of things that wouldn’t make good updates.  We spent most of the trip driving, eating outside of respectable breakfast joints while Atticus, Mark’s dog, tried to attack small children, smuggling that same dog into hotels to avoid pet fees, and listening to audiobooks. I apologize to those hotel goers with allergies about smuggling our dog in there, but to be fair, your allergy is nature’s way of letting you know that you are too weak for this world.

Things of Note:

1. A prostitute in Alabama asked Mark if he wanted some company.  Honestly, I’m not sure how he could have turned that offer down.  Sure she may not have had all of her teeth, but the South is known for its whores. Southern hospitality and all that jazz…

2. The Grand Canyon

It was pretty amazing.

And Atticus got licked by a deer…

3. IBJJF World’s Tourney

4. Traveling up the California coast to Vancouver, Washington. This was tons of fun, and it only added hours and hours of driving…

This is the only time in the trip where the driving finally got to me.  If it weren’t for how attractive Mark is, I might have had to leave him.

In any case, that was the trip.  After we finished, we had a nice relaxing few hours before we had to unpack all of the stuff that we had in the Uhaul pod that we had shipped. Once we finished that, we had another luxurious few hours of rest before we went on the river trip with some of Mark’s friends…

Worlds IBJJF

Spending part of my week surrounded by sweaty men who are predisposed to violence. Living my dreams!

Defensive Smelly Beetle

Back In The States

I’ve been back in the states for about a week now. After living in Costa Rica for around 10 months, what surprises me most is how easy it was for me to slip back into the life style and flow of the states.

The only moment that struck me as odd was on the first night. I was grabbing some cookies from the refrigerator (that is not strange…I did that on a nightly basis), and I headed back to my room. He big difference was that I didn’t have to walk a couple of minutes through the cloud forest to get to my bed.

Anyway, I got to catch up with my family, and now Mark and I are preparing for our cross country drive. From Athens, Ga to a competition in California. Then we go from here to Vancouver, Wa. If we don’t kill one another If I don’t kill mark, this might just be true love.

Moving back to the States

I haven’t been posting in a while, and that is because I’ve been trying to make sure everything is in order for the next researcher to come down and take my place in the project. My 10 month stay in Costa Rica is finally coming to an end, and coming here with Mark was probably one of the best decision of my life.

 

I’ve had so many experiences that I’m not sure that I could summarize it in one post…hence why I’ve been writing this blog the whole damn time…

Instead, I’ll just say that I cannot say enough how great it was to meet everyone that I did.  It is hard to leave when I’ve spent so much time living, working, and partying with these people. I hope they realized that every time I said something bitchy to them, I was really expressing my fondness for them…
Not that I didn’t mean those bitchy things! I’m just fond enough of them to let them know how terrible they are…

After visiting with my friends and family for a few days in the states, I’ll be moving on to my next adventure with Mark.  We’ll be driving from Georgia to California for him to participate in some big jiu jitsu competition, and then we’ll drive to Washington.  It’ll by my first huge road trip with him, and then it will be my first time living with him in the states.  I also hope he knows that I’m fond enough of him to let him know just how terrible he is…

First Race of Santa Elena

Not much going on. I am finishing up some last minute things before heading back to the states and moving in with Mark. I just ran for the first time in Costa Rica. Snatched third place and ten bucks!

Wednesday Spotlight: Perezoso

This gallery contains 5 photos.

Originally posted on UGA Costa Rica Blog:
Some of you who follow us on Instagram (if you don’t already you totally should) may have already seen some awesome pictures of our on-campus Rec Room called “Perezoso”. In Spanish, “Perezoso” can…

Monday Top 5: Costa Rican Creatures

Finally made the UGA WordPress!

…not that I was starting to get bitter or anything…

Granddaddy long-leg Invasion

For those of you that don’t know, these guys can often be found in the hundreds. They clump together and ….wiggle. Some places say that it is an attempt to look like a larger, scarier organism to ward of predators.

More importantly, they have surrounded my casita for the past few weeks, and I wake up to at least ten of them crawling on me at all times of the night.

Sorry for the terrible camera photo.

UGA Costa Rica Research – Water Quality

One of the best things about UGA Costa Rica is getting to meet so many interesting people with such specific interests.  How often does someone get to sit down and talk mothing politics with someone as interesting and as mildly attractive as me?!  Almost never! And after forty-five minutes of hearing my passionate opinions on moths and moth research, those people usually regret it…

I get to meet some pretty decent people too.  Seeing as how the naturalists are often busy entertaining the guests and students, I’ve gotten to know my fellow researcher fairly well.

Kelli, one of my drinking buddies friends here at UGA Costa Rica, is spending her last semester of college working on a research project studying water quality in Costa Rica.  We’ve really hit it off for several reasons.  We are both hilarious, incredibly attractive, and we share a love of booze and snacks — it  also doesn’t hurt that I’m secretly planning on stealing her boyfriend.

From what I understand, her project (or at least part of her project) is looking at the watersheds in the Bellbird Biological Corridor to evaluate water quality and to create indices for water quality in different environments.  They are also looking at are the water laws and regulations of Costa Rica.  I’m sure there is much more to it, but really the only reason I’ve said any of that is so that I can talk about getting to go sample the water with Kelli and the doc heading the study.

The first day that I went with them, we were looking at the sites nearest to the coast.  During the dry season, there were several rivers that just didn’t make it that far because of all the unregulated water usage.  That being said, my main concern was how many land changes and pueblos those rivers had been through be the time they were getting to where we were sampling. I am no delicate flower, but I am a bit hesitant to walk around in shitty, shitty water.  At each of these sites, we took water samples, macro-invertebrate samples, and recorded water flow.  I’m sure there was more, but I was concentrating on my looks.  Looking this good takes work, but looking this good while wading through a river that is possibly contaminated with fecal matter takes much more.

The farm’s irrigation trenches using this river had more flow than the river itself.

Another important detail is that we tried mozote.  This is a refreshing cold drink that had me confused the entire time I drank it.  The consistency is something like…honey or syrup, and it tastes a bit like sweet tea (to me).  Every time you go to drink it, there is this strange moment where you encounter some resistance from how thick it is.  Honestly, that’s about the best description I can give.

Kelli strikes a pose before we get to work.

The second day, we did a few more sites higher in elevation.  The sites were beautiful, and by that time, I was basically an expert at my tasks.  There isn’t much more to say.  Doc and Kelli were a fun pair to travel around Monteverde with, and it was nice to get away from the moth boards and into the river.