War and Peace

    I have come to the conclusion that I have been cursed.  My friends' theory is that it is the work of the Silence or Stone Angels (doctor who references) making me disappear starting with my paper trail.  The unfortunate side effect of this curse/alien intervention is that my University has kicked me out.  I know I already mentioned this, but the situation has gotten significantly worse in the last few days.  My awesome mom called the school about the situation and found out that I was officially kicked out and would need to reapply to graduate from my home university.  Not an e-mail that is fun to wake up to!  To give a bit of background, I started planning for studying abroad my freshman year of school.  I read all of the instructions and forms several times.  I even gave presentations on behalf of the international department, so I knew my stuff.  Last year, I saw my academic advisor twice to make sure I had done everything necessary forms to study abroad and graduate on time.  She had told me that I didn't need to fill out ANY forms since I wouldn't be gone more than a year.  I insisted on filling out a medical release form (for Summer and  Fall quarters while I was recovering from surgery) AND a study abroad notification form.  I handed them in personally to the appropriate offices.  Then I get an e-mail in the Bahamas that my account is being deleted because I am no longer a student.  I spent some long distance phone minutes calling about that and after being sent to two different offices, I had someone tell me that it was only my websites I created for a computer class and that I was still a student and not to worry.  So I didn't.

   Then I kept getting e-mails about my account closing and I started to investigate.  I contacted several people and they all assured me it was ok and all I had to do to graduate was to send in my study abroad transcripts once I got home in May.  (This included the assurance that they had already received my transcripts from classes I took at community college.)  

   My mom called for me to follow up since I still was feeling uneasy about it, and it is a good thing she did!  I am not a student anymore!  And worse, the people I am working with, including the person who I handed the form into, were blaming me and saying I should have known better than to study abroad without filling out forms.  So frustrating! I've been e-mailing back and forth with a peer advisor and she is trying to help me out, but I keep getting different answers of what I have to do, and if it is even possible for me to graduate in June.  I was told to send in a few forms from the ship, which I did in addition to the forms I know I need but they didn't ask for.  Everything is so disorganized!  The tone of all the correspondences is still that it is all somehow my fault which REALLY irritates me.  

   In addition to this mess, the peer advisor was completely surprised that I had taken any classes at community college as my transcript never arrived.  (The implication, of course, was that I never sent it.)  I wrote a very angry e-mail, deleted it, and instead sent a hopefully more level-headed one explaining that I did send in the transcripts.  In fact, I have an e-mail confirmation that they were received by the school AND I called the office and double checked before I left for SAS.  I think it is funny because my academic advisor thought I was being paranoid by filling out all these forms and double checking, and now I'm still completely (pardon the language) screwed.    I can't even imagine if I had done the minimum, as I was advised to do.  As of now, I have re-turned in all the forms (plus some) that they asked for and I'm waiting to hear back from the school on Monday.

   Sorry for the vent.  IT's been a rough few days in this area compounded by a bum rib.  Anyone who knows me, knows that I don't handle pain well.  It makes me irritable and grumpy.  haha  Thanks to torodol and a borrowed hot water bottle, it is getting more and more tolerable though.  Yay!  :0)

  Luckily, the rest of my life has been going wonderfully!  The day all this started I was in quite a bad mood until I went to lunch and, yippy, it was TACO DAU!  I don't even usually like tacos, but I was super excited that it wasn't chicken or pork!  There was much rejoicing.

Two nights ago I went to a reflection on Mauritius.  Instead of it being the usual telling funny or exciting stories, this reflection was geared toward addressing the problem of disrespectful durnkedness.  I guess TONS of people managed to get completely smashed in the four hours we were in Mauritius.  There was much trashing of beaches, puking in cabs, and having to be carried onto the boat.  Personally, I found this a bit embarrassing, but also not necessarily my business.  I can't drink, my friends don't drink (much), and I don't contribute to a culture where getting wasted is coo so it doesn't really concern me.  My indifference was not shared by many.  Attending that meeting was like an anthropological study in hatred.  The microphone was passed around and people were absolutely ripping into the people who drank.  Like saying they were all despicable people, how could they live with themselves, and there was almost a blood lust for punishment.  Some of the things said, should never be said to a fellow human being unless they like murdered someone or something like that.  On the other side, I had a lot of people who were "drunk tanked" sitting near me and they were equally as vicious.  After one girl spoke about how disappointed she was in the drunk people, the person sitting near me snorted and said, "well it's revenge of the nerds now isn't it?"  There was just as much hatred in that statement.  I think the person felt attacked and like people looked down on her, but honestly my opinion of her didn't change based on her exploits in Mauritius.  My opinion of her did change when she said that.  I felt like the girl in Mean Girls who stands up and says, "why can't we just all get along!?!"  (Possibly not the exact quote.) haha The goal of the session was to bring our community together, but I feel like it just splintered us more.  Towards the end, there were more even-toned comments from both sides, but I don't think anyone felt good coming out of the reflection.  (Well except me who found it academically fascinating haha.)  It is interesting/scary how much rage people have over topics I hardly care about.  But perhaps people would think I am crazy for things I care deeply about.  It was definitely an interesting experience that represented a huge division at most college campuses.  

  I've also been doing lots of Doctor Who watching and chatting with friends.  They started a project (and I joined in) of folding paper cranes which we will string together in groups of 1000 and place on the Hiroshima monument in Japan.  In Japanese culture, these strands of 1000 paper cranes bring luck and peace to the maker and/or the recipient.  They are often given to honor important events such as births and weddings.  I think a symbol of peace is a really nice tribute to honor those who were lost or affected by the bombing.  

I got included in a really well developed system.  My friend Courtney got all of the exams from global studies which she cut up into squares as our paper source.  Hannah and Courtney taught me how to fold one (patient people!) and I'm getting pretty good at it.  We take breaks from folding to string already folded ones in chains of 1000.  We are already on our second string!  Go us!

My first one!

As long as I don't think too much about my rib or my home university debacle, I am having SO much fun!  I totally understand how past voyagers say the shipboard community is worth the trip in itself!

India tomorrow!  

Brazil! (Day 1)

  As far as epicness goes, my first day in Brazil pretty much wins.  It started early with my alarm rudely waking me up at 7:00 followed by a quick breakfast.  I hurried to pack my bag, take my meddies, change into my swimsuit, and put the gel backs in my cooling vest.  By 7:45 I was meeting with my group for the swimming with dolphins field program.  

  As usual the crew was wonderful and carried my chair down for me so I could focus on getting down the 5 flights of stairs leading down from the boat.  I immediately noticed that I may have some trouble with the heat and humidity.  It's the kind of heat here where you almost feel like you can't get your breath because it is so muggy.  I was definitely glad that I had decided to bring my chair that day.  We all loaded up on a small boat that would take us on our day's adventure.   I had awesome help all the way, probably more than I needed in fact.

   The boat ride to the first stop of the day was really relaxing.  I had secured a window seat and enjoyed the refreshing spray of the Rio Negra (the other large river in Manaus) and the scenery.  Right near the port, there was a small hill of houses built on stilts to accommodate to the different river levels at different times of the year.  In 2009 and 2010 the difference between the highest and lowest level of the river was 53 ft!  We also passed under a huge bridge spanning across the whole river.  It was the first of it's kind in the Amazon.  

   We arrived at our first destination by navigating a smaller offshoot of the Rio Negra.  None of us were prepared for the impromptu "nature walk" that was announced once we were off of the boat.  We were not allowed to wear sunscreen or bug spray since we would be interacting with the dolphins later and hardly any of us had long sleeves or pants.  I guess all of those things are pretty much necessities for a track through the rainforest.  Our guide was uneasy with our lack of preparedness but he shrugged and told the people in shorts to stay in the middle in case we encountered any of the venomous snakes.  I got a further shock of my own when it was announced that this little nature walk was actually going to be an hour long hike!  I immediately stepped out of the line we were forming to venture into the forest and resigned myself to spending the time in the boat.  The professor in charge of this field program saw this and offered that he would stick with me and go back with me when I was tired so I wouldn't have to walk through the forest alone.  I felt bad, but agreed because I really wanted to see the forest.

   I started out on the walk huffing and puffing and thinking with each step that I should probably not be doing this.  I kept taking steps though and soon came to the realization that I could quite possibly do this.  Over the next hour this girl who has been in a wheelchair or in bed for the last four years went on a 50 minute hike!  In the rainforest.  With excruciating heat and humidity.  Climbing over logs and ducking through spiderwebs as I went.  

That is one of the guides cutting through the forest with a machette.  How cool is that!?!

   I can't even put into words how amazing I felt when we got back to the boat.  I kept thinking, "did that really just happen?"  I never thought I would be able to do something like that years in the future, let alone just months after my CCSVI surgery!  

   As excited as I was over this achievement, it was only the beginning of the day's adventures.  A short boat ride across the river allowed us to get somewhat cooled off before we once again clamored ashore.  This time it was to a small village where we would be having lunch.   The food was fantastic.  I usually am not too crazy about fish, but the fish on the menu was done fantastically!  I helped myself to a few other delicious things that I am still not really sure what they were.  As we were eating, the professor leading the field program told us about the river dolphins that we would be getting to swim with at the next stop.  The dolphins were the source of scandalous folklore where historically they were believed to disguise themselves as distinguished and sexy young men who would then seduce young women who ventured out on their own.  Any mysterious pregnancies were blamed on the seductive, shapeshifting dolphins.  The professor added with a chuckle that he wouldn't be surprised that this myth was started by the missionaries to explain the emergence of pink skinned babies.   In terms of the dolphins biology, an interesting fact is that they change their skin pigment and mellon (the bump on their head) shape as a means of communicating emotions.

  With full stomachs and brains, we boarded the boat to our final and most anticipated destination.  We were entertained a long the way by one of the kids in our group and a daughter of the boat driver playing games that didn't need any common language.  

  We were greeted at the floating dolphin place by the family who ran the place and some very cute dogs who were only too happy to have us ogle over them.  I could tell that many of us were missing our pets at home.  After a brief introduction, it was time to jump in the water.  Swimming with the dolphins was quite an experience!  They are wild, so this isn't anything like my previous dolphin experience where the dolphin was trained to do tricks and sit calmly as we pet it.   Basically we would be floating in the murky water and all of the sudden our foot would touch something or we would get a gentle head but from a dolphin.  There were many yelps of excitement and surprise as the dolphins would brush against us or suddenly appear bobbing in the water next to us.  The people running the place enticed the dolphins to come to the surface so we could get a better look (and touch them) with fish.  These dolphins were certainly not flipper.  They were almost frightening looking with their slightly angular proportions and very sharp teeth.  They were very friendly though and seemed to be as curious about us as we were about them.  The place we were at didn't' get many tourists, so this was somewhat of a novelty to the dolphins as well.  

  Too soon it was time to get out of the water and shower to get rid of the slime that coated us from the river.  We were each given a necklace from the family with a scale form a fish that lived in the river.  After we got dried off, we were able to see this fish firsthand as the family showed us how to fish for them.  It actually wasn't' true fishing with a hook.  We used a fish tied into a string as bait which caused the fish to latch onto the string just long enough for it to be pulled out of the water for a quick glimpse of the full size of the thing.   Just as the huge scale suggested these fish were huge!  It was a little scary that we were just swimming in the same water as them!  I got to try my hand at fishing and managed to "hook" quite a few.

   Then it was back on the boat for a relaxing journey back to our boat.  

Normally this would have been more than enough for me for one day, but I still had another field program to go!  I hurriedly took a shower to get off the last bits of slime and got dressed in my evening gear.  This consisted of lots of bug spray, long pants and long sleeves.  I ate a quick dinner on the boat, rested for a few minutes back in my room and then was off to meet my group.  I was excited that two of my new good friends were doing the field program as well!  As we were talking, one of them mentioned that she had had brian surgery when she was younger and started describing it.  It started to sound extremely familiar so I asked, "Was it for chiari malformation?"  Her eyes got huge and she replied, "Yes!  How did you know about it?  No one knows about it!"  I told her that many people with Ehlers Danlos have chiari so I have tons of friends who have had the same surgery.  I was even tested for it several times before I found out my real problem was CCSVI.  As if we weren't already good friends for both loving biology and Doctor Who, that pretty much cemented it! 

We soon were back on another boat that would take us to our caiman spotting adventure.  This boat was pretty big and I wondered how we were going to see any wildlife until I realized that we would be transferring into smaller boats later.  The ride was pleasant as all boat trips seem to be.  We were all very tired, but didn't' sleep because we didn't want to miss the view of the city at night.  

I somehow managed to get prime seating in the front spot when we transferred into the canoes.  Our fearless guide hoped onto the boat and we were off.  It was very exciting cruising around at night!   The guide scanned the shoreline  with a flashlight hoping to spot the reflection of caiman eyes.  (Caiman are an alligator like reptile.)  After some meandering I thought I spotted an eye glowing from the water grass and sure enough we made a beeline to it.  The guide got down on his stomach and expertly scooped up the caiman out of the water.  We all cheered and then got the surprise that we could hold it ourselves!  The little caiman was very calm throughout the whole experience, letting us pose of pictures and inspect it's scales and feet.  It felt different than I expected.  It looks really rough, but it feels more like a snake with smooth scales.  I was particularly fascinated by the feet which were fragile looking yet very strong.  The guide let the caiman go after a belly rub that is seemed to enjoy.  We cruised around for a while after that spotting many more caiman and successfully catching another tiny one.  This one was a bit feisty and I confess I squealed a little when it began to thrash about while I was holding it.

I was completely exhausted by the time we got back, but it was completely worth it!  Holding a caiman was the perfect way to end such an awesome day!