Ashley

My favorite time has come and gone, and this year it was fabulous! I have written about this before in earlier blogs, but procession of the species is really a two day celebration of the coming of spring, earth day, and celebration of community. It was started about 15ish years ago, again, as a means of bringing community together, and every year it seems to grow and grow. This year, I invited my parents to come see the spectacle. As we sat on a wool blanket, on the sidewalk, we watched hundreds of people walk, roll, dance and skip by dressed as all sorts of animals, plants and various other species of flora and fauna.
The parade itself is an amazing feat, and you can tell by the costumes, music and dancing that preparation for this day took quite some time, and a large community effort. This kind of close interaction with the community is something I really love about Olympia. If we all have to live in this large metropolitan area as strangers, we should all be strangers together!
Here is a link to the Procession website, take a look at pictures from previous years!
http://www.procession.org/

Posted by Ashley at 04:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I love my new program, Invertebrate Zoology and evolution, and generally find it very interesting and exciting. This week however, we are doing a unit on worms, and I am beginning to see how squeamish I have become. The worms we are have been studying this week are marine flat worms, round worms, ribbon worms, segmented worms and the other lovelies such a tapeworms and nematodes.
This week, we ventured to the Evergreen beach to find some worms to dissect. We flipped over rocks and dug in the sand to find our specimens, which we then took back to the lab, humanely killed, and then dissected. It was really interesting to see innards of the worm and learn more about their internal anatomy, however, I felt myself getting slightly nauseous.

Although they made me feel a bit ill, worms are still fabulous critters. We learned today that during their evolution, many of them burrowed, aerating the soil, and composting the soil (as they do today) which released gasses and (the theory states) causing the earth to have an atmospheric component (much like global warming), which then caused the earth to never relapse into another ice age, and making all life here now possible. Amazing!

Posted by Ashley at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week we had an awesome opportunity to go out on a boat, in the Puget Sound to do some invertebrate collecting ourselves. Our boat left from Boston Harbor Marina at about 9am, and trolled the water for a few hours, picking up all kinds of benthic sea life.

This was my first time being out on a boat on the sound (besides kayaking), and I absolutely loved it. Besides actually being able to participate in the collection, we were able to relax for a while, while the nets were collecting, which gave me a good chance to soak in the surroundings. While waiting we saw various species of waterfowl as well as some curious seals, popping their heads out of the water.

When we finally drug up the nets, we found crabs, sea pens, fish, and hundred of jellies. On one particular troll we brought up about 150 sea slugs! It was quite the sight to see them all moving and swimming together in a massive heap. What an experience! I asked our professor if we could keep them all; he laughed and said sorrily, no.

Later that afternoon we returned to the marina and drove back to school to place our new friends in the tanks. The boat was an awesome experience, and that alone, would make any marine program that Evergreen has to offer worthwhile!

Posted by Ashley at 09:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Whoa-
What an insanely busy few weeks it has been! I have definitely taken my time getting re-adjusted to the US and the rainy/sunny/snowy/windy/freezing/warm Pacific Northwest. Currently, I am enrolled in a program called Invertebrate Zoology and Evolution, and it has been great so far.
Here’s the description:

Most of our time is spent in a lab setting, learning about marine invertebrates and learning how to use a Scanning Electron Microscope, and Auto Montage Scope and a Zeiss Scope. Our classroom sits on the 3rd floor of the lab building and has multiple tanks filled with all kinds of critters from the Puget Sound. We have Jellies, Sea Anemones, Crabs, Sea Slugs, and will be collecting more throughout the quarter. I am looking forward to a change in pace. Recently, I have been studying vertebrates, so the inverts are a completely new thing to me, but that’s a good thing!

Posted by Ashley at 09:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello from Xi’an!
Again, still shocked that I am actually in China! We are now in the city of Xi’an, a smaller city than Bejing—about 10 million less, but still huge none the less. The air pollution here is much worse than Beijing’s: but they don’t have the Olympics to prepare for! Nevertheless our group seems to be enjoying the sites and sounds of the city. We are staying at a Normal University here, in the international dorm building. It’s a very nice building, and the rooms look just like a hotel, except the bed…it’s HARD. Really really hard—it’s been difficult to get used to.
While we have been here we have done a myriad of things; going to night clubs, museums and the Terra Cotta Warriors! But my favorite thing was our visit out into the country side. Rural China is something to behold. We went about an hour out of the city, to a small town at the base of the mountains. Upon arriving, people gathered around us while we were taking a tour of the temple; staring and taking pictures of us. I gather they haven’t seen many westerners before.
The countryside is a beautiful place. Dirt roads, old houses, flowers, crops, children playing, and chicken and goats roaming free. The people there were all friendly (as most people in China seem to be), and were very kind to us.
During our time there, we walked to another temple—a Christian pagoda, converted Buddhist temple, and on the way some people rode horses. The Pagoda was stunning, and kept by a monk who sat and chatted with us for a while about his life, keeping the temple and informing people about his religion. It was a very peaceful experience.
Soon after that, we left again for the city, and found ourselves that evening in a night club called 1+1…an interesting experience as well, and an stark contrast from our countryside visit earlier that day.
Terracotta Warrior

Pagoda at Temple outside of Xi'an

Country Home

Monk who talked to us in countryside

Posted by Ashley at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello from Beijing!
I can't believe we are in China! It is sooo crazy here...not really culture shocked quite yet, just alot of surprises. Just to name a few: squatting toilets, chicken foot in our food, everybody smokes, crazzzy crazy drivers (they won't stop for you, so you must RUN across the street), and I am also very surprised at how at home I feel in China.
Yesterday we visited the forbidden city, Tie an men Square and a Confucius temple. I was astounded at the size of Forbidden city! It is huge! My favorite part was the gardens at the North gate (I will show pictures later). The Confucius temple was so peaceful, it is said to be one of the only places in the city where you can hear birds sing; and we did. I have been seeing so many birds that I know the family name of, but I am not quite sure of the species name, so I am hoping to find a birding guide book tomorrow.
Today we went to temple of Heaven. The temple itself was very beautiful, but the people around it we even more beautiful. The park around the temple was filled with retirees playing games, dancing, playing music, singing, painting...it was excellent. I even got to hold someone’s bird (I think it is a cross bill!), and had someone teach me one of the dancing games.
After lunch we went to the Great Wall of China! Although it was really quite smoky/smogy, the views from the first tower were incredible. I decided to stop at the first tower with my new friend/roomate Janice, but a few people went ahead; they made it quite far. The steps are what killed me...there are hundreds and hundreds of steps, and they are all about a foot tall. Good work out!
After the great wall we ventured to the children’s orphanage where we watched a performance by the children. The orphanage is not a school itself, but it does teach the children performing arts because many of them are from the country side and will not have the educational skills to continue later in life, so performing arts will be their back up. I will explain this more later. It was good to visit with the kids, they are all happy, healthy children and the enjoyed having us there, showing us their rooms, the kitchen, their friends, and sharing a meal.
Next we were on to Xi’an.
Man sitting outside a shop in Beijing

The Great Wall

Kids at the Orphanage performing for our group

Posted by Ashley at 11:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Future Greeners: Do not be afraid to talk to professors!

For next quarter I was looking into taking Invertebrate Evolution and noted that the syllabus for the program said “Students must show up on time to the first class period on March 30th or they will be dropped from the program”. Oh crap! I thought, I get back from my trip Tuesday the 11th.…so I would miss the first day all together.

I was at first admittedly afraid, and didn’t know what to do. I had my eye on this program, and was ready to try something new (which would definitely be invertebrate zoology), but the future did not look good. So, I thought I would just try e-mailing the professor; this was a good idea! After explaining my situation, my new found love for invertebrates, and the intention to bring my jet-lagged butt to class the next morning. He wrote back almost immediately, and said he would be able to accommodate me and said although I will need to catch up from the first day, I can attend class the next afternoon and then wished me to have a good time in China!

This was not the response I was expecting given his syllabus, but I am really happy I e-mailed him to find out for sure. This is an excellent example of why you should not be afraid to contact your Profs, so do it to it Greeners!

Posted by Ashley at 02:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)