New Zealand

I made it to New Zealand! We left hot, humid Cairns still feeling uncertain about the outcome of the US Presidential Election and landed in beautiful, cool (it's raining!) Auckland with Obama as our 44th President! A very exciting way to land in a new country that will be our home for the next year or so. We arrived at our hostel a little after midnight and spent the next 15 minutes negotiating the unpredictable elevators and then crashed on the most comfortable bed I've slept on since high school. That may explain why I slept in until almost noon. I met a nice woman named Fiona from Scotland who is also in NZ on a working holiday visa. She's looking to get to the South Island as well so we may join forces for a road trip down. I bought a phone but I haven't figured out what the number is yet (?) so I'll post more on that later. Now we're relaxing at BUNAC headquarters with a group of other working-holidayers and enjoying free internet.

Fisherwoman

Yesterday one of the people that we are doing environmental work with, Jason, took Michaela and I out fishing. We went out on the Endeavor River on his small boat with his 2 year old daughter Indy. Indy stands for India, not Indiana Jones, I asked. We went out around 7:30 in the morning hoping to catch a glimpse of some crocodiles sunning on the banks but we were disappointed. Then we realized that many of the crocs in this river have been caught and transported to Cairns for x-ray because this is the same river where Arthur Booker was taken by a croc a few weeks ago (see my entry on that), meaning there aren't many crocs to be seen at the moment.

So we settled down for a couple hours of fishing on a shady part of the river. We weren't expecting to catch anything, we just wanted to have some fun, but instead we caught four fish of three different species! I pulled in the first fish of the day, it was an Estuary Cod (I believe we call them Grouper?) and then Jason pulled in three more. Two were Mangrove Jack and I didn't catch the name of the last one. I have now caught my first Australian fish! Jason took them all home to cook up but promised next time we would gut and cut them up on the boat so Michaela and I can try some as well. I wasn't real keen on gutting and de-scaling the fish here at Christina's house as I've never done it on my own before. All in all a very fun morning!

And if you were wondering what Indy was doing while we were fishing, wonder no longer. She was running around the boat popping the eyes in the fish we used as bait. It was a little disconcerting to see an adorable little girl poking the eyes out of fish but we soon warmed to it. The eyes make a satisfying squish when popped and squirt out black goo. It's kinda fun.

The Final Seven

While it would have been more dramatic to say “the final five”, I couldn’t actually bring myself to narrow it down that much. So here it is, my final seven choices for law school. And by final I don’t actually mean final. It really all depends on what my lsat score is. But this is as final as I can be at this moment in time. I’m happy with my selection. I think there’s a little something for everyone. We’ve got East and West. North and South. Rain and Sun. Urban and Rural. And they’re all damn good schools and I’ll be happy to join any one of them. So without further ado:

Washington U. St Louis

U Washington Seattle

U Colorado Boulder

Cornell

American U

Georgetown

U Texas Austin

Let me know what you think...

Aussie Books

I am now officially the proud owner of a Cooktown library member card! This card allows me access to the finest literature on offer here in Cooktown. I spent a happy twenty minutes browsing the shelves (it's a small library). About two minutes in, I realized that at some point in time, a generous donor must have bestowed upon the library his entire collection of Aussie western novels. Everywhere I turned there was a book titled "The Outback Odyssey of Wild Will" or "Cassidy's Killer Crocodiles".
There was also a (relatively) extensive section on local Cooktown history that I'll be sure to hit up at some point. Surprisingly, there isn't all that much on Captain Cook. I say surprisingly because in this town of 2,000 people and one main road there are no less than four monuments to Mr. Cook himself. And every year there is a full-on "Captain Cook meets the natives" re-enactment down at the, where else, Captain Cook memorial park.
In any event, I'm happy to have another connection to this little town. Here's to many good Aussie westerns in my future!

Cooktown Croc Attack

A man was taken by a crocodile last week at the Endeavor River just outside Cooktown where I'm living. It happened the day before Michaela and I left for Brisbane. I was caught up with studying so I didn't pay much attention at the time but it's been all over the news and it's all anyone is talking about up here. The following is an excerpt from an article about the tragic attack.

The family of a man who is believed to have been taken by a crocodile in far north Queensland say they are devastated but hoping for a miracle.

Arthur Booker, 62, from Logan, south of Brisbane, has not been seen since he went to check a crab pot at the Endeavour River Escape campsite near Cooktown, north of Cairns, about 8.30am (AEST) Tuesday.

...

Cairns Police District Inspector Ian Swan told AAP Wednesday's search found a second sandal belonging to Mr Booker 400 metres upstream.

Mr Booker's wristwatch was also found earlier.

The only other clues to his disappearance were a camera on the bank, the track marks of a crocodile and a snapped crab pot line.

"There are 15 people searching and the searching is in boats," Insp Swan said.

The Endeavour River Escape campsite's Terry Rayner identified a six-metre crocodile named Charlie as the key suspect.

"He lives there. That's his territory. He's the alpha male there," Mr Rayner said.

But Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service regional manager James Newman told ABC Radio two other large crocodiles were spotted in the area and search crews were exercising caution.

The University of Queensland's crocodile expert Professor Craig Franklin said crocodiles were ambush predators on the lookout for repeated patterns of activity from potential prey.

"They don't target humans. They're opportunistic feeders," Prof Franklin told AAP.

The owner of Cooktown's The Lure Shop, Russell Bowman, said Mr Booker had made the fatal mistake of returning to the same location twice, having set his crab pot and returning to retrieve it.

"It's one of the basic rules you apply, don't form habits," Mr Bowman said.

Here is a link to the entire story: http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/5050723/hopes-fade-suspected-croc-victim/

At the end of this article there is a reference to a croc attack in 2005 where a man was pulled out of his canoe. This happened on a part of the river where we camped in Lakefield national park. And while it is obviously tragic when someone is taken by a croc the man was also not being very smart. He and his wife were in canoes on the river (a very, very bad idea) where they were hoping to film some crocodiles. The story goes that in order to lure the crocodiles out so they could be filmed the couple was throwing chum into the water around their canoes. This, according to the locals, is unspeakably idiotic. It's just a step above tying rotting meat around your waist and going for a swim. In order to placate the family, park rangers were required to kill the crocodile that ate the man. Only they got the wrong crocodile. You want to know how they know this? A few days later a different crocodile pooped out his wrist watch.

In any case I have learned that crocodiles do not mess around and are not to be messed around with. It's safe to say I'll be staying out of the water.

First Impressions

It is wonderful! But very hot। I don't do well with the sun and on our first camping adventure I managed to burn myself in a zigzag zebra strip pattern all over my feet. It actually looks pretty cool. So we've been out to the aborginal camp and up to Lakefield national park (where Steve Irwin worked). We were testing water quality in the national park and had to be very cautious because there are HUGE, as in 18-20 feet long with wide jaws that will swallow you whole, crocodiles all over the park. We weren't allowed to stand near the waters edge for more than a few minutes and we always had someone on the lookout for floating "logs" or eyes peeping out of the water. At one of the spots we saw some eyes watching us so we rushed through our sampling and high tailed it back to the car where we grabbed some binoculars to check out our first crocodile sighting. It was a little disappointing though when we realized it was a baby crocodile and only two feet long or so at the most.

That morning we ate breakfast with an inquisitive wallaby that rummaged through our fire pit until he found the burnt remains of a veggie burger from the night before. Can't imagine it tasted all that good. He hung out with us for a while and got close enough that we could see where something had taken a bite out of his left ear.

As we were driving out to our camp site through the park we passed large stretches of land that had been burnt down by controlled fires. They tend to regulate the land like we do in California by using controlled blazes to prevent wildfires from spreading through unmanageable distances but these fires were too early in the season to have been started by rangers. They start burning at the beginning of the wet season when there is some moisture in the air. Right now we are in the dry season and everything is brittle and very flammable. We asked some rangers about it and they said the fires may have been started by pig hunters who illegally hunt the feral pigs in the park and use the illegal fires to flush them out. Or they could have been started by the traditional owners of the park, the indigenous people. Just last year ownership of the park was handed over to the aborigines and now a power-struggle has begun between the mostly white rangers who have the resources and experience of running the park and the traditional owners who have a connection to the land but don't have the resources to manage it or the memory of how it used to be used by their elders. It's a really interesting political situation and one that we can learn from in the states.

There have been so many new sights and sounds and experiences that I'm still sorting through them all and will post more soon. Right now I'm really enjoying one Aussie custom of having a "cuppa." Before starting your day you have a cuppa. If you go to a friend's house you have a cuppa. If you're feeling peckish or bored have a cuppa. If you're off-roading miles from civilization and stuck on a sand dune and must haul your car out of the sand you stop and have a cuppa first. Which leads me to my favorite Aussie experience so far: Off-roading. Flying around in the back is good fun but next time I want to drive!

Blogging Bug

It's been a while but the blogging bug has bitten again. It really only bites when I'm going off somewhere new. Otherwise, I see all you people regularly and my stories are really much better in person. Sunday the 14th I'll be heading off to OZ/NZ with my friend Michaela for a year of adventure in anticipation of the ego-crushing experience I hear is the norm at law school. I'll be adding pictures and updates to chronicle our adventure. In the meantime here's a sample of what we'll be doing in OZ sent to me by Christina, the amazing woman we'll be working with in Cooktown!

Hey girls.. Just thought i would give you an idea of what you are in for when you arrive in Oz.. The day after you get here we are hopping on a boat to get dropped off on an isolated beach about an hour north of here (the road goes along the beach and I don't want to ruin my car).. We are getting dropped off at an aboriginal camping group where I will be training aboriginal youth (12 - 20) in scientific surveys of the coastal country.. You guys will be camp assistants and can come along with me and learn what I am doing since you will have to do some of it while i am gone.. There will also be people doing kayaking and sailing training and if the weather is good we will get to sail out to local islands. there will also be video training exercises.. How cool dies this sound? WE'll be camping there for 2 or 3 nights and then trekking back to Cooktown on Friday. the following Monday we will be driving to a remote National Park and testing the water quality in different parts of a massive river system for 2 days. Then we get back and head straight out into the sea grass meadows for 2 days of monitoring and sampling seagrass.. Then on Friday the 26th it's off to the Wallaby Creek Music Festival where we will camp in the rainforest with my bellydancing group the Typsy Gypsys... 2 days later I leave and you guys become babysitters for Sundi.


Happy dance! Happy dance!

Thank God I'm Already a Citizen

I love teaching ESL. I love teaching citizenship. And most of all, I love teaching my students. But teaching middle-age Chinese speakers about US citizenship in English is no easy task. English is hard!

Forget for the moment my embarrassment at trying to explain to my students (who are all a good twenty to thirty years older than me) what a prostitute is, what it means to solicit a prostitute, and the definition of a habitual drunkard. Let's focus instead on the funny things my students say when trying to learn English. Here are three of my favorites:

Q: What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution?
A: The Bill of Rice

Q: What are the two main political parties in the US?
A: The republican party and the demonic party

Q: What form of government does the US have?
A: A reproblem

I was lucky to have some of the best students around; Mr. Hahn, who wore awesome gold-rimmed glasses; Ms. Ho, who would giggle into her hand after answering a question and always tried to help the other students with hand signals; Ms. Chen, who answered every question half in Chinese and half in English; and Ms. Yeung, who passed her test and is now a US Citizen!

Success!

(Boy am I glad I don't have to learn English or be tested on the Constitution cause I might not pass!)

Sex on the beach...

...Sorta.

For Mother's Day weekend my mom and I decided to hike down to Stinson from Mt Tam and stay at a little B&B by the ocean. We left after school on Friday and made the 2 mile hike in good time. There was a little hiccup when we got to Stinson and couldn't find the B&B but after an hour of wandering the streets (and I use that term loosely) of Stinson we found it. And I'd just like to say that we wouldn't have wandered nearly so long if Stinson had proper street signs! You know, ones that actually mark a continuous street.

Anyhow, our B&B was great and the proprietor was awesome. He had a story for everything and everyone and would often says things along the lines of "Oh, no way, I knew a guy who looks just like you, he was arrested for embezzling 60 million from the bank he worked at and then ran off with his attorney who left her husband and they lived together on a boat in the amazon and had fourteen wild children and there was a monkey..."

On Saturday we grossly overestimated our hiking abilities. After a revolting breakfast of some sort of meat product and eggs we decided to hike to Audubon to see the birds. Now on the map Audubon is not that far from Stinson, at least by car. Even by foot it is only about 8 miles away.
But the first 2.2 miles are straight uphill and the last 2 miles are straight downhill. So on our hike, which we fondly dubbed the Hike from Hell, we vetoed the idea of walking to Audubon and decided instead to hike about a mile and a half on the Coastal Trail and then head back down to the beach via a fire road. So after walking straight up a cliff for about 2 hours we walked in the baking sun for another hour and found ourselves on a fire road that in places was not wide enough to walk side by side.

And that brings me to the title of this post, "Sex on the beach" or rather, sex in the forest. It was mid-afternoon, our knees hurt, we were hungry for something other than trail mix and apples, and our calves screamed from the effort of not slipping on the gravel and flying down the "fire road" on our behinds. My mom started doing something funny. She kept saying "look to your left, look, Kate over there, look on the left!" My mind was split between focusing on the trail and fantasizing about a swim in the ocean and I didn't see anything. When I asked her "what?" she didn't reply so I kept looking to my left, down the hill but I didn't see anything and she still wasn't answering me. I didn't know what was going on and in frustration said quite loudly, "Mom! What am I looking at?" And at that moment I saw them. Stretched out beneath a tree going at it like squirrels, or some other woodland creature. I tried not to laugh but honestly, as my mom said, "they weren't fifty feet off the trail!" Hmmm, not something you usually see or want to see on a hike with your mother...Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Jamaica Bay

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Center is in Queens near JFK airport so I thought it would be a nice break from the city but it was a little disappointing. It's a very small circuit around a small lake surrounded by the bay on three sides and a highway! on the other. Wherever you are on the track you can see the city and you can hear airplanes going past. But there were all kinds of birds out and I saw a few frogs so that was fun.

Nyack Hike

Here are some pictures from a hike I took with my friend Lisa in Nyack around February or March. These photos don't do justice to the beauty of Nyack or show how exciting it was to walk through the bare trees and spot a patch of fresh white snow on the ground!

I'm Baaack!

I made it back to beautiful San Anselmo in one piece! My flight arrived at noon yesterday and I spent the rest of the afternoon helping my mom teach her first graders about tidepools. We made all kinds of seaweed from construction paper, balloons and toilet paper rolls. After an hour with the kids I realized I do NOT have the energy to be a first grade teacher. I don't know how mom does it! Just the prep time alone is enough to wipe me out. Then again, I had just come off a 5.5 hour flight from NY with zero sleep...
I was so exhausted last night that I went to bed at 8:30pm. Kind of sad. But I woke up at 5:30 this morning to go running and this afternoon mom and I are heading out to west marin to go hiking for the weekend. Then I have five days until Laura's wedding. The next day is a family party and a couple days later I head to Europe! It’s so great to be back!

Books on Record

The Road- Cormac McCarthy 2/08
A Moveable Feast- Ernest Hemingway 2/08 Loved it!
Love Over Scotland- Alexander McCall Smith 2/08
In Defense of Food- Michael Pollan 2/08
The Last Season- Eric Blehm
Looking for Alaska- Peter Jenkins
A Walk Across America- Peter Jenkins
I'm A Stranger Here Myslef- Bill Bryson
In A Sunburned Country- Bill Bryson
Delaying the Real World: A Twenty-Somethings Guide to Seeking Adventure

Poems! Songs!

The best part about having a blog is that I can post whatever I want on it, no matter how random. It's also a good place to store little tidbits I don't want to forget about. So in the spirit of randomness and tidbitiness here we go:

When Irish eyes are smiling

When Irish eyes are smiling
Sure it's like a morning spring.
In the lilt of Irish laughter,
You can hear the angels sing.
When Irish hearts are happy,
All the world seems bright and gay.
And when Irish eyes are smiling,
Sure, they steal your heart away.


Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

-Maya Angelou

Possibly the best Maya Angelou poem ever. As for the Irish Eyes song, I just think it's cute. Especially when someone like Harry Connick Jr is singing it.

The End of the World

This is the funniest flash movie I've ever seen! It came out a few years ago and I just found it again thanks to Max. Still just as funny. Take a look-see.

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/end

"Fire ze missiles!"

The Crazy World of Mana

I had another odd customer experience at Mana today so I decided to catalogue as many of these encounters as I can remember. I'll start with today.

A couple came in around three and after talking at me for a good chunk of time about low blood sugar the woman asked me if I was from Wisconsin. Alone I don't think this would qualify as an odd experience but this was not an isolated incident. Usually customers ask if I'm from Minnesota not Wisconsin but it's the same general idea. When I asked a man why he thought I was from Minnesota he said it's because I'm pale and have red hair. While I don't find that a very convincing argument it's better than some other reasons I've heard.
Another man said it was because I smile a lot. One man said too much. And an older woman said it was because I'm friendly. The consensus is I'm definitely not from New York. When I tell people I'm from California that opens a whole other can of worms.

On Halloween I had several customers ask me if Californians celebrate Halloween. Multiple people have launched into war stories about surviving earthquakes. And one typical New Yorker woman, she snaps her fingers at me and says things like "give me the beans" when ordering, ranted at length about the Southern California wildfires and how all those people deserved to have their homes destroyed. She never did say why exactly.

Then there's my favorite: Laura, the pink lady. She is about a million years old, dresses head to toe in bright pink, carries around a pink granny cart, eats one meal a day and is shocked that I wear earrings. One evening I was explaining to her that my friend Samantha is called Sam. She started to get very flustered and upset and finally burst out with, "Well, that's the problem with California!" I'm still not sure how to take that.

A few other memorable customers include the woman who once told me in hushed, reverent tones that she could smell dairy. Like it's her superpower. Then there is a man who goes by the name William Shakespeare and always calls me Dr Kate. That was kind of neat at first but now it's just creepy. There's also Philip who begins almost every conversation by asking if I'm still 22.
And last but not least, Penny. Penny calls in for food when she's about two blocks away from the restaurant because she's so pressed for time she can't wait the extra twenty seconds. She is also the most indecisive woman I've ever met. It often takes her ten to fifteen minutes to make up her mind about what to order. She always asks if what she ordered is low fat. It's a health food restaurant for crying out loud! Anyhow, I just order whatever I think she might like so she doesn't have to make the decision anymore.

I'm sure there's many more weird experiences but I've just blocked them out.

Kelsang Goes to India

One of my favorite people at work is leaving us to go to India for a few months and I don't want him to go! He was the one who trained me when I first started waitressing and could barely manage to carry two bowls of soup at the same time. I'm going to miss his singing along to our instrumental music, the way he just blankly stares at rude customers and how he describes all dishes as being "you know, vegetables and some tofu."

We always work together Sunday mornings when Lee cooks vegan pancakes and waffles which are surprisingly good. Especially when topped with soy margerine and tofu cream.

Wedding Photos!

I'm finally posting evidence that I went to Jeanine and Pete's wedding in Santa Fe. I forgot to re-charge the batteries in my camera and therefore didn't take any of my own photos. Thanks to Sean for sending me these!

The Bride and Groom celebrating their wedding on New Year's Eve...by dancing in silly hats.

Michaela and I ringing in the New Year with her old step-brother Colin and her new step-brother Sean.

Here is a link to the official wedding photo site, but be warned...you'll have to sort through hundreds of only slightly differentiated pictures of people sitting in a church or sitting at a table before you get to the pictures of people crazy dancing.

www.pictage.com/304928.

Urge for Going

I heard about the song Urge for Going by Joni Mitchell from one of my customers at work and I'm completely addicted! I love this song. Check it out if you get a chance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3EofN3Flag

My favorite line is "See the geese in chevron flight flapping and racing on before the snow/They've got the urge for going, they've got the wings to go"