New Year, New Look, New News!

Oh, hey there 2011. How's it going? What's that you say? You're almost over?! And it's been exactly a year since my last post?!  Wow. Crazy how things work out sometimes.

Well then, I better get to it.  Long year short: I've been living it up in Seattle since my previous post (over a year now); I completed my superawesome scientific illustration program (I got certificated and everything...all sorts of pictures and ridiculousness can be found at the dedicated site); I am getting my barista skills on at a fantastic local coffee shop known as Fuel; I'm volunteering in a UW lab doing conservation work in the form of scat analysis (heck yes); oh, and in T minus 117 days, I will be headed to the South Pacific island nation of Indonesia to study orangutan behavior for six months. At a field station. In the jungle. So, things are pretty much business as usual for Jess.

The scariest part of all this to me is how freakishly accurate my timeline in a previous post was: 2010 Life Plan
Art school in 2011? Close enough. Tropical field internship for 2012? In the works. Grad school in 2013? That's the plan. Seeing as I have trouble structuring any given day, this disturbs me. These things are way more concrete than intended... moral of the story = be careful with the colorful flow charts I make in the future, lest they determine more of my life than I bargain for.

Anyways, I'll be soaking up as much of the Pacific Northwest life as I can until February, when I make my pilgrimage back toward Eastern shores for a bit.  Can't predict when my next post will be, but I intend to lay out a new & improved timeline for those who are curious, and there is sure to be a plethora of words and photos once I am immersed in equatorial green hell once more.

Up, Up, & Away

Fall 2010 has been rather busy as I picked up and moved across the country!

Now living in Seattle, I am enrolled in a Natural Science Illustration program at the University of Washington that lasts from October through June. And I'll have a shiny new certificate at the end to show for it! I will also have a portfolio of art work, consisting mostly of ... natural science illustrations. These pieces are attempts at accurate depictions of plants and animals that can be used in textbooks or scientific papers - or even National Geographic! (NatGeo does awesome stuff like this)

In an effort to document my work, I'll be keeping another page dedicated to Science Illustration, consisting mostly of the pieces I create for my classes these next 9 months :D Here is the link to that if you feel so inclined to check it out:

http://professorsweetlovin.blogspot.com/
(UPDATE: new site name for my blog -http://orangutangled.blogspot.com/)

In addition to taking awesome art classes, I am also searching for a job, and getting ready to move into my first ever studio apartment so that I can fully grasp how it feels to be an artiste.

Getting to Know US ... and IT

For purposes of symmetry, after a cross-country trip along latitudinal lines and a jaunt down the West Coast Amtrak-style, I needed to balance out my movements with some north-south train travel on the East Coast as well. I ventured down to Baltimore and Washington D.C. to kick off August in capital fashion, visiting with friends and family (and the free Smithsonian museums filled with awesome knowledge), and quadrupling my collection of silly bands! And then for good measure, I flew across the Atlantic to the Italian countryside with my family -- throwing my symmetrical plans all asunder. But the pasta was good.

Trips to such historic places as Pompeii, Roma, and the ever-dramatic isle of Capri left me feeling inspired by great figures of literature, and I decided to embark on an odyssey to Ithaca, in homage to Homer. But I chose the city in New York, not in the Mediterranean to drop in on once I returned to the States. And so, with trips to several states & multiple continents under my belt by the last day of the eighth month, I considered my summer travels to be a success.

This summer, I traveled. And I learned. These two great ways to love often transpire for me into appreciation of my two greatest loves, Science and Art. As I continue in my ever-elusive quest to unite my disparate passions, I certainly have traveled and learned a lot on the way. But most of all, I have loved every minute.

Flux Aeterna

Flannery, the miniature horse (Indiana) I recently learned that most people fit into one of two groups: Settlers and Travelers. Settlers like staying put, getting to know a location, becoming a ‘regular’ at the coffee shop downtown; Travelers enjoy constant motion, new sights and new experiences, and they are always checking maps. I undoubtedly fall into the Traveler group.

Nick working on the farm (Pennsylvania) I first became aware of this dichotomy during my final weeks of college, while discussing the dreaded question of post-graduation plans with my friends. I was perplexed when some would tell me, “I just can’t wait to settle down and be in one place for a while.” I realized that others’ zeal for moving about was not as strong as mine, but I didn’t register that stillness was preferred to movement until it was fully explained to me. There’s this desire to keep one’s house neat and tidy, to develop a daily routine, and to really get to know an area so that you recognize when something changes. There is certainly a lot of merit in being a Settler, in part because it all seems so comfortable. But what I’ve been discovering is that being comfortable makes me rather uncomfortable! I like living with a dash of the unknown, or a hint of danger, or even a sprig of chaos.

Rainbows in the Plains (Iowa) I find it an interesting coincidence that one phrase that’s been popping into my mind as of late has been, “Never settle.” I intend it to mean, “Don’t get complacent” or “Always seek excellence,” but I suppose it can also apply to my case of wanderlust: “Don’t stop moving” or just simply “Always seek.” Whatever the cause of my need for endless change, the side effects include a post-grad summer filled with new environments, fascinating people, and lots of all-American adventure.

James, Lola, & Amy in Badlands National Park (South Dakota) Speaking of that whole non-elation post-graduation situation, I’ve been asked by pretty much anyone I come in contact with, “What are your plans for next year?” As anybody who has tried to set up social engagements with me knows, I don’t perceive time as rigidly as most (that’s not to say I don’t try to be on time, I just miscalculate a lot). Based on my travels thus far, you could blame my lack of punctuality on Tico Time or the Kenyan Clock or even on the Belize Syndrome. But if you think I am going to tie my plans to anything resembling a standard amount of time as measurable as a year, you are very mistaken. Contrary to the belief of many, I DO have a plan – it just does not adhere to a strict timetable. Rather it exists in a place where time does not. (For a mind-bending hoot, discuss the existence of time, or lack thereof, with your neighborhood theoretical physicist!)

The Mighty Yellowstone River (Wyoming)

And now, without further ado, my "plan":

(Just to add, I do not know if I have been accepted to the art program yet... that would change some things, or at least my location)

Climbing through Beartooth Pass (Montana) The funny thing is, it seems like my plan is more solid than those of many other college graduates I know. Perhaps I just need to adjust my thinking, and start saying that I have built flexibility into my plan, on purpose, to ensure that it runs smoothly and stays on track. Just like shock absorbers are built into mountain bikes!

A Sound View in Seattle (Washington) Next up, more photos and an update on my summer adventures thus far!

Waking Up from Hibernation

Well, it has certainly been a long time since I wrote anything here! Around 11 months to be exact.

I had had plans to write of my adventures after I left Costa Rica, but quite frankly, nothing seemed exciting enough to be able to compare. At least, not exciting enough to get me to sit down and focus long enough to reflect on it and write about it. (To put it in the terms & context I was looking at: going from snake & spider infested jungle to sedate college campus seemed a little boring) There was also that whole 'withdrawal from leaving an amazing experience' going on. But I'm past all that nonsense! Plus, now I'm considered an "adult" -- complete with a college degree and everything! To me, being an adult means making decisions for yourself, and my decision is to take up writing this blog once more!

I write this post as a recap, to help fill in the gaps between July of 2009 and July of 2010:

• I returned from my semester abroad in Costa Rica with a greater awareness of the world around me and a renewed passion for what I was studying at Cornell. It was hard to be back in the States, after coming off the high from such a powerful life experience as studying abroad (I recommend living in another culture for an extended period to anyone who is fortunate enough to be able to find the time). Within a week of re-entering the United States, I celebrated my 21st birthday, thus beginning my transformation into an adult!
• Summer 2009 was spent working at the Arnot Forest just outside of Ithaca, NY. I lived in cabins with four other interns, and spent most of my time out in the woods pounding wooden stakes into the ground, looking for salamanders, and sorting through leaf litter. All for a project on biofuels (summary of data = if you take away all the sticks and logs from the forest floor, you remove the habitat for many organisms and change some ecosystem dynamics). For the two and a half months that I lived at the Arnot, I collected a lot of data, played a lot of frisbee, and did a lot of hanging out in the nature-y places around Ithaca.
• Fall 2009 brought another intense semester at Cornell, with me throwing some art in among my science classes, and spending a lot of time playing Ultimate (frisbee) with the Cornell team. Previously, I had played a little frisbee on the side when I wasn't climbing , but this semester found me trying to balance between weekends spent in on lead in the Gunks and on the field at frisbee tournaments. While it was great to be back in the familiar surroundings of Cornell's beautiful campus, I had a difficult time readjusting to life in the northeast. I started bringing into question a lot of the aspects of my lifestyle that were out of line with my post-Abroad views of the world. This effect was compounded by the fact that I was taking Ethics as one of my classes this semester. I spent the fall of my senior year questioning the type of person I was, who I should be, and who I could be.
• Once the temperatures dropped and the snow started falling in Ithaca, I thought, "Screw that!" & made a plan to go back to Costa Rica over winter break. When I had left the country the previous spring, I had left feeling unfulfilled in some ways, and knew of just a few more things I wanted to do and see in the entrancingly beautiful little Central American republica. This adventure was challenging, exhausting, and exhilarating. I visited beaches and jungles in the southern reaches of the country, seeing Manuel Antionio and Corcovado National Parks with my Cornell friends Jeff, Joe, and Alex. Corcovado was very high on my list of places to see in the world, and it was a most fulfilling adventure to hike in along the beach, spend a couple days in the jungle, then trek back out - seeing breathtaking views and awesome wildlife the whole way, and I got to see two of my favorite Ticos, David and Andres (fellow students during my semester in Costa Rica). We also visited a pretty cool volcano called Poas just outside of the capital city of San Jose, and played lots and lots of card games ... I like Rummy! We tried to spend as little money as possible, which proved to be quite tiring when you are moving from place to place via public transportation (in a foreign language) with only a backpack and a pair of ratty old sneakers. But when I left Costa Rica this time, I felt entirely fulfilled - no more loose ends to tie up, no more what-ifs. My mind had found time to settle down and accept that now was the time to move on. I'll probably visit Costa Rica again some day, but without the desperate desire to see everything and be everywhere all at once.
• As Spring semester 2010 dawned on me, I began to accept my fate of 'graduating senior.' Aside from the occasional panic attack, I was looking forward to a post-grad life unlike the one I had known for the previous 20 years. As a perpetual student, all I have ever known is school - nine months on, three months off, furthering your education every step of the way and always doing something to be better prepared for that next step. I decided that I needed to stop. Just for a brief time, to contemplate what I actually wanted to be doing with my life instead of continuing to ride the current of my education. I had been following the path of least resistance, but I decided that it was time to add a little resistance and see which way that pushed me. Amidst the continuing cycles of endless questioning of "What do I want to do with my life?", I was determined to enjoy my time right out of college. I've had plenty of stress for the past four years and my final semester at Cornell was certainly no exception. I've done my time in school, worked hard, and now I get to decided what I am going to do with my life. Now that I am all done growing up, my life is my responsibility and my choice. Time to start living!

When I first began to write this log of my adventures back in 2008, it was fueled by a large contingent of friends and family asking, "So, where exactly are you going?" Since no one is ever really certain of what I am up to, I figured I would put it all in one place, so people could figure out where I was, even if they couldn't find me in person. As I leave college behind, I find the same question is being posed once more. And I plan to provide an answer once again ... in my next post!

La Vida Loco

Life has been hectic.

As you may have noticed, my last post was in March – approximately five months ago. Just to cover my bases, I made it out of the jungles of Costa Rica mid-May and returned to the US just in time for my birthday. Summer 2009 will have a separate post dedicated to its adventures; for now, I must take a step back to post a quick synopsis of my final weeks in the beautiful country of Costa Rica.

[Written May 11, 2009]

I am currently sitting in the same hotel where I wrote my first Costa Rica entry upon my arrival in January. Funny that it was written about nostalgia because I am in a place that used to feel unfamiliar and new, yet now holds many memories and is comforting to have returned to. I feel nostalgic about this hotel as I sit here now. So it seems I have come full circle. I write this last entry from my time abroad on my final night in Costa Rica, for tomorrow I am headed to the airport for a flight to the United States.

I have been doing a variety of things and traveling many places since the last time I updated this website:

• learning Spanish in the capital city of San Jose
• surfing on the Nicoya Peninsula
• hiking around the Monteverde cloud forest
• snorkeling in the waters of Cabo Blanco on the Pacific coast
• bushwacking around La Selva Biological Station in true rainforest
• relaxing at Rincon de la Vieja, located at the base of a volcano

All the while I have been learning a great deal about Costa Rican culture, tropical ecology, and myself. Every place was an entirely different experience than the previous, and each time I felt a renewed sense of awe for the biodiversity of Costa Rica and the inexhaustible energy this planet has to offer.

I want to say I am “going home,” but that phrase holds little meaning to me…where is my home if I can feel comfortable any place in the world? A safari tent in Africa or a mosquito-netted bunk bed in the neotropics feels just as relaxing to me as an air-conditioned, queen-size bed in the northeastern United States. The main thing that changes is the people around me when I awake (and the various diseases being carried by the mosquitoes of the region). They say home is where the heart is, but if I have promised my heart to the world - with all its beauty and biodiversity, then aren't I home anywhere I go?

[End of post]

In regards to the above post: I hope to go into detail about the bulleted points (a.k.a. weeks of ridiculoso adventures) in upcoming posts, along with a few other topics that have been brewing in my mind for some time now. The goal of this write-up was to re-establish my semi-regular posting as my adventures of Summer 2009 come to an end and my final year as an undergrad at Cornell begins. I hope to bring this journal up to date and then continue to log my adventures beyond graduation. Yippee!

Patterns of Time Budgeting in Jessica stitt as a Function of Work Load and Environmental Stimuli

Introduction

This update was meant to serve as a brief link to fill in the gaps between the visit to the mangroves and the start of San Jose … but it looks to be just about as long as usual; ¡Pura Vida! Plus – lucky you – I am in a paper-writing mindset, so I have organized this post just as I would a research paper! Needless to say, it has been a whirlwind of a week, and my brain is a little fried. Everything is a little hazy but the underlying structure of the week consisted of two days given to us to study for our midterms, a third day set aside for taking the midterms, then two more days allotted for rewriting our scientific papers. On the morning of the sixth day we packed up and headed to San Jose.

Methods

Now, that all sounds pretty bland and boring. But it turns out that if you give Jess a total of four days to “study” or “rewrite,” she will inevitably procrastinate and find better things to do with her newly-created free time. So while some of my classmates were stressing over learning ecological terms or trying to find more sources to cite in their papers (Stitt 2009), I was out exploring … or napping in the hammock. Below are some examples of how I spent my time:

Crocodile hunting

This activity requires nightfall, marshland, a headlamp, bare feet, crocodiles, and the ability to disregard that voice in your head which tells you not to do stupid things. You slowly wade into the marsh, sweeping your headlamp back and forth, looking for the eyeshine (reflection from the eyes) of a crocodile half-submerged in the water. It is important to keep quiet. This is often hard to do because the marsh is very windy, knocking you off balance, and you sink up to your calves in the mud, which makes loud squelching sounds. When you locate a pair of eyes, you must keep the light trained on them, so as to keep the animal blinded to your whereabouts. If you manage to get close enough without the scaring the croc away, you plunge your hand down around the snout – keeping its mouth closed as you bring your other hand around its belly. Then you bring the animal out of the water and hold it against your belly to keep it from thrashing. When you’ve had your fun, you release the croc back into the marsh, making sure to orient it away from you. It was just as hard as I imagined to willingly thrust my hand towards a mouth full of tiny razor-sharp teeth. Yet even with my adrenaline pumping and my bladder threatening to empty itself, I managed to catch a caiman about 3ft long, from snout to tail, and emerge (nearly) unscathed. I discovered that the teeth really are razor-sharp! Thank goodness they were tiny.

Bouldering

During our orientation walk at Palo Verde three weeks ago, we passed some lovely boulder fields, and I promised myself I would return to play around on the pretty rocks. As the weeks passed away, I began to get frantic, because I had not found free time in which to go bouldering! Thank goodness for study time. On two separate occasions I found my way into the forest to climb around on the very sharp limestone boulders that were scattered about. The second time I went with two of the guys here, Gabe and Allan, who were also interested! The rocks were a bit chossy, but there were tons of bomber holds and a few nice overhanging roofs, complete with solid huecos … yay climbing jargon! However, the limiting agent was to be the two species of cacti (Family Cactacea) that inhabited these rocks: Stenocereus aragonii and Acanthocereus tetragonus. Days later I was still pulling their mini spines out of my legs and fingers. (Side note: on the trip with Gabe and Allan, we found a really cool carpenter bee that was half black, half yellow; we showed our professor – who is an entomologist – and he had no idea what was up. So it has been put in a jar and taken to Universidad de Costa Rica, where they can hopefully shed some light on the insect’s strange morphology … how bee-zarre!)

Sunrise hike

On one of our last mornings at Palo Verde, a group of us woke up pre-dawn to hike up to a point called La Roca and watch the sun rise. I needed a little help stirring from my sleep, but once I was awake, the three of us (Erin, Gabe, and I) set off on our trek up to La Roca around 4:45am. La Roca is one of the best vantage points in Palo Verde: it is an exposed rockface that overlooks the marsh and the surrounding valley. From time to time, a black vulture would glide by, riding the thermals up past our lookout point. We arrived at La Roca in time to see not only the sun rise but the moon set. It appeared to be a full moon and looked huge as it disappeared behind the mountains. The sunrise was slightly delayed because a cloudbank prevented Mr. Sun from making his way into full view until about 6am. Nevertheless, it was beautiful, as most sunrises are. We also caught another sunrise on our last morning at Palo Verde – but this time we watched it from the tower on the marsh (meaning 5:30am wake up instead of 4:30am). Also beautiful. And both days we were the first students at breakfast. Wepa!

Following monkeys

On one of the days allotted for paper writing, I found myself napping in the hammock one afternoon, after reading Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility for a while. When I woke up around 3pm, I noticed a group of howler monkeys dozing in a nearby tree. Great minds think alike, as they say. I got up from the hammock and went to go get ready for a brief solo hike in the woods. I grabbed my camera and went in search of a trail that supposedly originated near the dining hall. On my way, I saw the same group of howlers! They took had risen from their afternoon naps, and were on the move. When I eventually found the trail I was looking for, I looked up to see the howlers again. We seemed to be heading towards the same area – this trail must have tasty leaves. I watched the troop try to solve the problem of getting from one branch to another, and recognized the same actions as can be seen by a group of people trying to get up a rock climbing route. One would try to get across, get nervous, and step back while another gave it a go. Once one monkey figured out a good way across, the rest would follow the same path. I was able to get some nice pictures of the mantled monkeys moving from tree to tree before our paths diverged and I continued my hike up to a very nice lookout point (complete with some good boulders). On my way down, I came across a group of white-faced capuchins nimbly making their way through the branches. Any day is made better when monkeys are added to it.

Results

By the time we were getting on to the bus on the last day at Palo Verde, I was fully content that I had gotten the most out of the trip that I could. I remembered that I had some regrets as we were leaving Las Cruces (the first site we visited), so I invested the energy at Palo Verde to ensure I did not leave with the same sentiments (there is still a large strangler fig at Las Cruces I am determined to climb at some point in the future, as well as a nice riverside lunch I have yet to have there). Getting the most out of my time at Palo Verde was painful at times – waking up at 4:30am, getting sliced by crocodile teeth – but I am glad to report that I have no regrets.

Discussion

Now this is not to say I did not prepare for my tests or do a good job editing my paper; those activities define the study portion of study abroad, and are essential to my education and the active learning process I love so much. However, I feel it would be a tragic mistake to neglect the abroad portion of study abroad too. Why read over notes in an air-conditioned classroom when there is a perfectly good tree to sit under? From which you can watch scarlet macaws fly by at 3pm, or see a troop of capuchin monkeys swing through at 4pm? I cannot be assured I will ever get free reign over a national park in Costa Rica again to spend unencumbered time walking the trails and snapping photos of anything that moves.

Acknowledgements

Yes, I realize that I am a biology nerd. And that I enjoy the structure of scientific papers just a little too much. Thanks for reading!