Sunshine Weekend

What a weekend. My friend Lizzy came to visit me, and it was amazing getting to have a piece of my St. Olaf life spooning with me in my twin bed, making African peanut stew just like we did nights at the WB house. There are really no words to describe what an incredible woman Lizzy is. She moved to Portland after graduating and has carved her own nook in the city. Hearing about her friends, her adventures, and her new experiences gave me a load of inspiration. And it was just nice to have a hug. How have I survived almost a month without a warm, cozy, meaningful hug?

Lizzy and I stopping for shade during a bike in the 90 degree heat.

On top of that, we had an action packed weekend. We biked somewhere around 25 miles on Friday to a little town called Troy, cooked our favorite meal together that night, woke up Saturday to the Farmer's Market, went swimming in the Spring Valley Reservoir, and then were treated to an AMAZING dinner cooked by Oscar, one of my teammates. And last night we got to do some dancing- both Salsa at Oscar and Hector's house, and less organized dancing at John's Alley where they had live music.

One big difference between cooking at my place and in Lincoln Manor: utensil availability. Opening a can is always a challenge.

Biking along the golden hills of Northern Idaho.

I also feel a big change in my heart now that the Hudson Bay Bound ladies made it to the Bay and are on their way back to Minnesota. It is a strange feeling- part relief that they are safe and they reached their goal, and part sadness that they are back in MN soon and I'll be way out here. Life keeps moving on no matter where you are, and sometimes it is a drag to remember that.

First Day of School

Well, all fifty minutes of my Monday classes are over and I've been slaving over a presentation for a few hours in the student union (about 70% of that time was spent procrastinating....like blogging and Facecreeping). Working on this presentation made me think I should write a little about what I'm doing here in Idaho. Also, then I can look back in four years and say wow, I was so naive.

Campus! That is the library on the right.

So, this year I will be going to classes at the University of Idaho and then will be moving to Costa Rica to do research in the summer. I'll get to CR as soon as I can and take a Spanish immersion course because my Espanol is a biiiit rusty. Then, after one more year of classes in Idaho, I will relocate to CR for two full years of research!

My Costa Rica campus!

The program is called IGERT- Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship. I am working with four other teammates to produce a study with both disciplinary and interdisciplinary aspects. We are an economist, a landscape ecologist, a hydrologist, a social scientist, and an entomologist. The region we are working in is called Hojancha, and its in the Nicoya Peninsula (south CR, on the West Coast.) The community there is incredible and they have been working for 35 years to improve farming methods, reforest land, and enhance livelihoods. We are going in to learn more about how the different economic incentives have made a difference in the region. My part will be related to studying biodiversity, using insects as an indicator species between different land use/land management types.

Four of the team plus my adviser.

Now I am off to go for a jog and get a bunch of my stuff from the guys' house. I have already started leaving all of my junk at their place, isn't that awesome!? Bffs.

Se va a volver loca

the mascots from the annual lentil festival in Pullman. they also had a beer garden, but people dressed as lentils were what made it worth a 20+ mile bike ride

bilingual bananagrams....hector can only use english words and i can only use spanish words. not fair because there are a bunch of letters hardly ever used in spanish.

we made an awesome dinner! look at hector, he is pumped. 

 

These pictures represent some of the things I've been doing before classes start tomorrow. I have also gone to the awesome Moscow farmer's market and last night I played pool with some rowdy Puerto Ricans. Tomorrow I have class from 1230-220, so it should be a pretty easy day. That means that I can have as much fun as I want tonight at the Pot Luck!

Starting Out

In Steamboat Springs at Fish Creek Falls

The view from the Visitor's center at Monte Alto in Costa Rica

I'm going to keep a blog. My life is changing so quickly and I really want to remember it all exactly how it happened. In the last few months, I have spent time in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Washington, Idaho and Costa Rica. I have floated in responsibility-free bliss, then plunged into the pressure of being a 22-year-old Ph.D. student in a new place, with a lease and a credit card bill and an immediate need to be a bilingual insect expert.

At our cabin in Tomahawk, WI. Lay on your left side to view.

Something tells me that in a few months, I'll be nestled in the comfort of a new community, with friends around a dinner table like those heavenly nights at the Wendell Berry House. Until then, I'm sitting in a cafe (because I don't have internet at my apartment yet), living on oatmeal and lentils until my first paycheck, and starting to meet some new people when the opportunity arises.