Melinda Annie's Blog

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-25T17:35:00.000-08:00

I'm in Colorado with my lovely/senile family and it is delightful! We are feasting like queens and kings and doing a whole bunch of relaxing and exercising.

Yesterday, I rock-climbed and chased dragons (on a stationary bicycle) with my senile father.

Today, we (Gill, Uncle Paul, and senile father) had a failed attempt at Mt. Sherman due to brain damage, and it was pretty chilly (20F not including the 25mph+ windchill, but there's no such thing as windchill if you ask my senile father).

Tonight, we're having a single leg of lamb and some other delicious fixings on the side. Last night, Gill and I composed a masterpiece of salmon soup and cabbage/white bean salad. What appears to be an endless supply of pistachios has been present in the kitchen. I try to eat them all but more keep reappearing each day.

Tonight, we're watching My Fair Lady (because nobody has Gone with the Wind). Tomorrow, we're cross-country skiing and shopping (there's a ski and snowboard swap in town! and multiple yarn places!). I don't doubt I'll impulsively purchase something. 'Tis the season.

Here are a few photos of the day.

The Arkansas River! (or where it begins):

In the world-famous Mining Museum in Leadville!:

The morning start:

Inspiration

2011-04-01T12:07:00.000-07:00

How incredible would it be... Inspiration

Oklahoma

2011-03-18T21:45:00.000-07:00

You can rock-climb here!

Note: I should be wearing a helmet.

Happy February!

2011-02-09T22:52:00.000-08:00

This blog needed a change. What do you think?

Time has flown by and 2010 is already over. This year was the first successful year out of the last three that I didn't get food poisoning in January. I've broken the curse! Or maybe I confused the curse since I celebrated New Year's a day early, being on the 'other' side of the dateline and all.

If I celebrated New Year's a day early (relative to the normal time), and celebrate it normally (a day late, relative to the early), does that mean my year is longer than yours? Am I on the verge of time-traveling?

Anyhoo! Some of the things I plan to do this year:

- Pass the toughest classes I'll ever take.
- Learn to knit.
- Eat more vegetables and fruit.
- Work hard and play hard.
- Get more exercise.
- Get more sunshine.
- Learn yoga.
- Learn pilates.
- Read more fiction.
- Allow more distractions into my life.

I have life updates too. I went to New Zealand and got harassed by storms, keas, cows, and sandflies during my camping attempts. And to think I used to say how relaxing camping in NZ is since there aren't any bears to be worried about...

I've received an incredible opportunity to cruise in the Healy again. This time to the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas with oodles (most definitely more than 24 hours worth) of fieldwork on the sea ice. I've been instructed to purchase hip waders for wading through meltponds. I'm still not convinced I'm actually going, because wading in meltponds seems too good to be true! Of equal excitement, I'll be doing some really neat data collection with some really smart people. This is an understatement; I've read their names millions of times in papers... now I get to spend some quality time with them on a ship. Poor them! Woo-hoo for me!

And now my next missions are to:
- Find a place to live (as my lease is up while I'm on the cruise).
- Find a masters (something about me needing to get a degree? Hm?).

That's it for now since sleep prevails. Here's what New Zealand looks like after a sleepless night of keas harassing you:

Snow Day

2010-11-23T12:27:00.000-08:00

OK! I have made it halfway through my first quarter of grad school. Good work, Melinda. Only three more weeks of maintaining this top-of-the-line stress-induced momentum and I will have a blissful Christmas vacation.

But first, I have a Thanksgiving break which I'm fairly certain is placed precisely in the middle of the academic quarter to curb students' pending insanity. I'll take it.

My quarter began with the utmost enthusiasm, like I could actually conduct noteworthy science, with what, an eager brain and an insatiable appetite for knowledge of all kind. I was training to be a rockstar.

I soon learned that this was very wrong perception, and my learning abilities ebb and flow, but usually just ebb under homework-due-date conditions. Also I make a million mistakes every day, which makes it difficult to be that inspirational perfect young scientist that once impressed professors as an undergraduate.

These million daily mistakes range from simple grammatical errors, to full-on explosions of embarrassment and/or failure. For example, my first-ever committee meeting was deemed to be perfect (by me). Instead, most everything went wrong (broken projector, late start, etc.), especially when I was asked what was probably the first "curve-ball" question of my educational career.

By Genius Committee Member: "What is... The Science in this?"
(I'm pretty sure his voice echoed when he asked this question.)

In my head: "I got this! My research is so blasted important because it's so darn useful!"
Me talking: "My research is relevant on many levels. For one,... etc. yadda yadda important yadda etc."

Committee's Response:

That was probably my most accurate reality check in grad school. That and failing my fluid mechanics exam.

Now after experiencing a multitude of failures and mistakes within a month's time frame, I have learned how to embrace (openly) my incredible ability to not get things right, and to correct my perception of grad school to this:
Graduates

The end (for now).

ps. It's a snow day.
pss. Here's a sea ice photo from my cruise.

Under Construction.

2010-10-17T21:24:00.001-07:00

I need a change.

Savoonga

2010-08-19T11:07:00.000-07:00

The last escapade took place out of bounds of what I had always thought to be "Alaska." Alaska is huge. We reached every end of the US Earth, and potentially some ends of the real Earth too. Because of this, (how many times have people told me not to start a sentence with "because"...? Hogwash) I'm allocating each post to an in-depth description of a 12-hour travel period.

What better way to start than with our arrival into Savoonga...

We flew from Nome, Alaska early morning and set west, south-west. We were already at the ocean-mainland border in Nome, so it was necessary for the senile pilot to mention a few safety reminders about the inflatable raft.

"Don't forget to blow this thing up on the outside, and not the inside, of the plane. Also, you can tie it to the plane once it's outside so it doesn't blow away."

It was hard to believe that anything like that could happen in such a beautiful spot over the ocean. The cloud cover masked everything except for a minor break over St. Lawrence Island. Beneath this opening, the ocean displayed the strangest deep royal blue color that I'd ever seen. Along with the royal blue were darker streaks from strong winds. We had originally aimed for Gambell which, as U.S. territory, is actually closer to Russia than the mainland U.S., but the cloud cover was too low and terrain too high for the senile pilot's liking. We shot for Savoonga, smaller in population and more in the middle of St. Lawrence Island, instead.

An airliner (very small) had landed just before our arrival and gave us the heads up that half of the gravel runway was closed. We heard this at the 500-foot warning while battling a strong cross-wind.

Minus some frazzled nerves, we had landed! Right next to the airstrip was a cemetery so aptly placed. A reoccurring theme in airstrips around northern Alaska were the cemeteries; these communities like to place them side-by-side.

We hadn't even opened the plane door when a handful of people came out to greet us. They were friendly and very surprised to see a group of people visiting with no real reason. Some of them wanted to sell us ivory and we politely declined. We had to get a permit in order to visit the town. If we wanted to go outside of town, we'd have to pay 50 USD per person for a land permit. We decided to stay within town and make the most of what we could in our limited whirlwind tour.

It was very windy here. And dusty. Two in our party accepted a ride on the only car (truck) into town to pay for our town permits, the scruffy kiwi and I opted for bicycles as our mode of transportation on the dirt roads. Everyone got around via four-wheelers. Town was composed of a few streets crisscrossed together and houses lined with silver tubes - it had just received its first sewage system.

After perusing the grocery store (the chauffeur had to track down a man so that we could buy our town permits) and taking mental notes of prices - 6 USD for a small box of cereal, we were let loose! More people tried to sell us ivory, either walrus, whale, or mammoth, and we again, politely declined. This happened everywhere we went through town.

The senile pilot and I decided to go on a very windy, very dusty bike ride to the beach. We weren't allowed to pick up anything and take it off the island, so says land permit, this included any rocks on the beach (unfortunate for me). We passed two windmills along the way - one completely lifeless in the howling wind, the other spinning so furiously out-of-control that it caused the entire structure to shudder. We came back to our bikes (after setting them aside with their kickstands) to find them blown over by the wind.

We found the beach near the cemetery and next to the sewage discharge area. It had bones, pumice, and large, smooth boulders with tiny pieces of pumice eroded away by wave action. It stunk a little, probably carried over from the wind.

The entrance of the cemetery was guarded by two whale bones.

The cemetery itself seemed very bleak as many do. Coffins were strewn about between the crosses; permafrost defies the traditional ground burial here.

Returning back from the beach, we stopped by a type of bone-and-machine yard. Rusty graters and whale bones, both looked very pretty in the sunlight. It was still really windy and our bikes had blown over again.

After more run-ins with the locals trying to sell us ivory and subsequent polite declines, we decided not to buy a land permit and to fly on to another destination. It was windy, dusty, and slightly scary flying out of Savoonga. It seemed like the wind had picked up even more as we were loading the plane. We made our bumpy way off the gravel runway and into the turbulent air.

And that was Savoonga.

------
The senile pilot found a very good article on Savoonga a couple of weeks after our trip. This describes Savoonga better than I ever could: Washington Post's Savoonga

Norway again

2010-07-06T19:16:00.000-07:00

May 31st, 2010.

Day 1 of IGS conference.

What a peculiar day. It started out being wide awake every other hour from midnight until five, progressing with an unanticipated Norway-bound phone call at 5:30, and ending… I guess it still hasn’t ended if I’m still writing now.

I “perfected” my presentation and poster at six a.m. After seeing today’s talks, it drastically needs more perfections.

It was nice to see familiar faces around; otherwise, I would have felt like one of those out-of-place kids, not that I’m not.

We found the correct bus and arrived to the conference in due time, minutes to spare really.

We survived the first full day of the conference in the end, took the right direction to the bus stop with a guru scientist questioning my friend and I’s opposite hand signals. We made it fine, took the stop with an intriguing music concert that ended in a strike, joined the strike since it was going in our direction, saw the closed Polaria and the boat on fake ice enclosed in a glass cage, and lastly arrived to a train bar. It had train seats inside, red with faded gold numbers. I was 42 and 43. The bartender was wearing a light blue train personnel’s suit. We didn’t get the bartender’s train jokes until realizing that we were, indeed, in a train bar. A very friendly drunk Norwegian, well… not as drunk as he was about to be, bought us vodka shots because he “loved” my friend’s accent. The locals are always so friendly! Our new friend left immediately to pick up his electric guitar out of a taxi van. We relaxed and confirmed at how surreal everything was while watching snow fall. They played okie cowboy music on the radio and random electric guitar wails came from the new friend sitting in the back. Locals slowly filled the bar, we thanked our new Norwegian friend with multiple hugs and went out into the rain (it had stopped snowing). I made it to Amalie and it was still daylight.

1:27 p.m. Seattle time. 10:27 p.m. Tromso.

Sign off.

June 7th, 2010. I need to call my brother! It’s his birthday.

Later on in the week, we discovered that the train bar, was considered one of the sketchiest bars in town and that “only fisherman and sailors go there” during their times in port. That explains much of what we encountered early on in the evening.

The conference became a blur in the end but was riddled with fantastic speakers. I managed to survive my presentation although I accidentally kept looking at the hour hand instead of the minute hand to pace myself. I finished right on time.

Cod fishing was Wednesday. They take a wooden device with tough string wrapped around it with a lure/hook attached at the end. No bait was needed; the dumb fish were caught immediately, along with the million other fishing lines from everyone else on the same side of the boat. It was fun, cold, drizzly, but we didn’t get to keep the fish. Beer was free – the lowest rate in town has been ~10 USD. Fish chowder was served and the random internationals grouped around outside to make fun of Sarah Palin. We ended up at the Driv, the student bar, for a last drink. I was knackered.

We went to Sommarøy Thursday evening, an island that would have been spectacular in the sunshine. Aqua-marine waters in depths that a person could wade in. If only there was a kayak available… After filling our bellies with authentic Norwegian food (whale) and listening to the many versions of “cheers” (different languages), we went for a wander around the waterways and over the hill past the children’s obstacle course. Spread before us was a place with glaciated peaks with the “real” ocean breaking waves kilometers away. I’ve got to sail here one day.

Friday night was another odd and awesome night. After failing the last exam of my undergraduate career, we went out to find our friend’s house. He was out sealing off the coast of Greenland, but told us to drop by anyway to meet friendly people and find out fun things to do. So we did. We found ourselves transported to a countryside with horses and potatoes. We knocked on all three doors of the house which we were hoping was his… finally an answer at the last door.

We ended up spending the evening with the local grad students, eating, drinking, and speaking mixed languages. We finished up our meal with a drink of coffee and a splash of their home-made brew; I think it was everclear. We even learned new rude phrases which we shouldn’t use in the south.

We then went to a concert; not being the folk music that we thought it was, it was a bit of a surprise to hear Bach being played by a small orchestra. It was pleasant to mellow out because soon after we made our way back into town where it had become party central up and down the streets. And the kebabs! They come out of the woodwork; cheap tasty food. These trucks are even called “Good Food.” Why aren’t these food options here during the daytime? 75 kroner, each.

We ended our night with a drink at Circa – one of the more popular, relaxed bars of Tromsø.

Saturday, I recovered from the night before, worked on my thesis, and ate a delicious chicken sandwich at Blå Rock. It was raining and snowing again.

The next day, I finished my thesis and went for a proper play in the snow on top of a mountain. It was wonderful!! The sun broke through the clouds in random spurts and highlighted the surrounding hills. We saw a paraglider doing turns at insane speeds and then remaining afloat. It was a nice way to spend a final day, especially with the amount of rain and snow fall throughout the week.

Now I am in the Oslo airport, wondering what the next 24 hours will entail in Bergen.

June 28th

I’m excellent at updating this thing.

Bergen was beautiful weather; I got my first tan of the year. I toured around with the scruffy kiwi, the ultimate assistant expedition leader, and got a fantastic deal of delicious food, absorptive historical information and saw some of the most beautiful parts of the town including a short musician’s house on the coast. Landing into the area was a reality check of absolute beauty (it really does exist!). Glaciated islands eased their way up through the ocean, specked with trees, hidden fishing huts with flowered roofs and dinghies spotting the ocean. The water was a mix of a milky turquoise and dark royal blue – seawater and fresh water. I landed as the sun was basking low on the horizon so the lighting made the scene even more idyllic. Of course, I took no pictures.

I left Bergen and arrived to the bustling city of Oslo. Turns out that I got to stay in one of the flashest hotels I’ve ever been to in Norway, directly across from the Opera House, which, just so you know, has a very high albedo. The hotel had an opera theme and the stairwell that nobody took except for me was decorated accordingly. The view from my room overlooked the city center with 1/5 the Oslo Central Station. Trains in Oslo are cool, fast, and very comfortable.

The IPY conference was a fair contrast with IGS. For one, it was magnitudes larger and the rest of the differences ought not to be mentioned.

Afterward the conference, however, was loads of fun. Other than coming to the fact that I’ve played more video games in Norway than I ever have in my life doesn’t mean much, but Norway is genuinely a very fun country. I began my final* night with a delicious Vietnamese cuisine and drinks. It progressed to a slobbering IPY field school reunion at Mono, a trendy bar in downtown Oslo, and ended into the unknown. None of us remember how it ended. But it was great!

The next day was spent in bed, recovering. Granted, the World Cup was on so it wasn’t entirely wasted on being hungover in bed, plus a healthy shower and a meal at 9 pm helped in the end.

The next-next day was more interesting. That day was my tourist day! We were blinded by the Opera House and then went to the sculpture park to mimic the statues. I think this may be one of my hidden talents – mimicking statues, that is. Along the way I knocked on the door of the Nobel door (after Alfred Nobel, Nobel peace prize, etc.). Then we jumped and I broke my foot.

We left that evening, ~22:30ish via train and traveled on a 8ish hour journey into the night towards Stavanger. In the beginning, I was facing forward on the train. When I woke up 8 hours later, I was facing backwards and panicked that we had missed our stop. I can be a dummy sometimes.

Our lovely Norwegian friend had arranged for us to crash at his family’s place for the entire week – we couldn’t have been luckier. It was a dreamland – placed snugly into the fjord with a view of glaciated hills across the fjord.

We hiked Preikestolen, went fishing again and caught cod, mackerel, and a single mystery fish, saw the oil museum in town, visited Kvitsøy and Storhaugen, had a glorious sailtrip to an island, and partook in the family’s solstice party. There were 12 nationalities attending the soiree.

It was very hard to leave Norway this time again because of friends and the country. The next flight was to London Heathrow where a mad adventure of Scilly sailing was about to occur.

This will certainly take more time to type up...

Where are my hummingbirds??

2010-05-09T11:07:00.000-07:00

It is a stunningly gorgeous day out and chickadees are hopping all over the spruce tree by our balcony.

It's been a frantic few weeks, from utter terror in making heavy life decisions to stressed-induced thesis deadlines.

And now I am happy, relaxed, and recovering from a lovely birthday dinner.

My first news to report: I've discovered my utmost, favorite drink. I hereby claim Le Bourget as my perfect cocktail. It's incredible, and this is coming from someone who isn't keen on mixed drinks. I only wonder if I can recreate the wonderfulness of this at home?

Next to report: I made a last-minute decision to stay at the University of Washington. I was quite surprised on how tore up I was in making a decision. Three weeks later and I'm still second-guessing myself, but that's starting to curb I think?

Did I mention there's a Northern Flickr that keeps banging on the neighbor's roof? It's great, especially since I get to watch the neighbors' antics in trying to get rid of the cheeky thing. People are funny.

Other news: I think I may get to go on the Healy. It's a Coast Guard icebreaker, and the research cruise is based on sea ice (what else?). I need to figure out how to use my camera again so I can bring back some new photos to post.

I have 3 weeks until my next Norwegian adventure. This time, Tromsø for a week, Oslo for half a week, Stavanger into the unknown for a week, England for a week, and some layovers that probably amount to a few days. This should be really, really fun and I haven't quite registered that I'm going somewhere exciting soon. All I can see in front of me is school.

More wonderful things to look forward to involve the rest of this summer. I do NOT have to take any classes AND I get to research. Research is one of the greatest things that I could ever do with my free time and to top it off, I get paid for it! This, in combination with free time outside of it, will make for an incredibly relaxing and happy summer.

Now, time to try another bike ride.

Here's my mum with her brothers, sisters, and mum. She's the one in the middle, laughing hysterically. She's pretty cool. She has nice photos too. See them here. Happy Mother's day.

Grad school paranoia

2010-04-06T20:19:00.000-07:00

Jesus! April 15th is NEXT week!

Panic is setting in.

Here or there?

5 years or 7?

Atmosphere or Ocean?

Mountains or Coast?

Sea ice or Ice sheets?

Did those other schools forget about my application?

One week to decide... No, I need to send off my decision this weekend. That's ~72 hours to decide. What will happen once I make my decision? Will I make enemies? Friends?

Do these grad school advisers actually care? They must get a kick out of prospective students' stress. I sure would.

But they're not me.

Bugger.

Ice is stressful.

Fruitfly

2010-03-14T21:42:00.001-07:00

Finally.

A moment to type, relax, procrastinate finals week exam studies, and ramble.

It sounds like the university is forcing me to graduate. I'm willing... After all, I can't imagine what it'd be like to study something other than a 101-this or 101-that. I've already been scoffed at for thinking how wonderful grad school will be; don't people know what it's like to do your undergrad in 6 years? How couldn't grad school be wonderful compared to that?

I visited one of the schools I was accepted into and was subsequently schmoozed to death. I loved it. Never in my educational career had I felt like such a rock star. Don't they know who I am? (or who I'm certainly not??) These schools didn't even force modeling* upon me. My gosh.

Though I haven't made any concrete decisions yet, I'm concocting a half-trans-American roadtrip this summer. Now that I have a taste of what to expect, I can plan my hiking and climbing trips accordingly, without the stress of having to secure a new home in a mad dash. The adventure possibilities are endless! What's even more fun is suckering people into tagging along.

In other news:

- It's set in stone that I'm presenting in Norway in June. No pressure.
- Polar Science Weekend is fun, but children are nuts.
- I can make a mean lasagna, via my very own recipe.
- I'm thinking New Zealand is in my future for Christmas, 2010.

In other, other news:
- I'm still employed.
- I followed my dad up a mountain and am alive to tell about it.
- I have a nasty case of Senioritis

Seriously, do my grades really matter anymore?

Love,
Melinda

*Ask me how I feel about modeling in person.

Photo of some day!

Here is me on another "10-minute" hike on North Star Mountain with the senile father leading the way. And yes, I'm warming my hands up on my belly because it was very much below freezing.

Busy as an Apis dorsata laboriosa

2010-01-24T14:14:00.000-08:00

Apis dorsata laboriosa, or the Himalayan honey bee, is the largest honey bee of the honey bee species.

The reason I bring up bees is for three reasons:

#1 There's more daylight outside, some of my plants are starting to grow back, and it just might be getting slightly warmer which means gardening can commence! And with gardens commencing, bees will be back in business. I love honey bees.

#2 I've been very busy.

#3 I'm craving summer.

The New Year has brought a lot of wonderful things already, minus the first few days of food-poisoning (is this a new-found unconscious habit that I'm fueling? see last new year's blog entry).

The last few months have passed at lightning speed.

- I went to my first conference/workshop in Victoria, Canada in November. I gave one of the lousiest presentations of my life. Quite similar to my first Glacier Bay one.

- I completed final exams in retro-style by having the flu during finals week again. I got A's again! I'm beginning to think that there might be some benefits with the flu...

- I climbed like a mad-woman. I took my first lead-climbing and scared the crap out of myself by taking a large fall, on purpose. No injuries.

- I spent Christmas in a blizzard in Kansas with horses, cats, fish, a dog, and family.

- I went to Oklahoma. Kansas. Colorado. New Mexico. Texas. Minnesota. Washington.

- I got my senior thesis approved! Now to write it...

Writing required school papers can be fun, but it also takes a lot out of being able to write freely in a blog. I mean, here, right in this spot, I can write without a single reference and create a run-on sentence about my senile father's driving habits that nearly made me puke on the way back from Colorado through the sand dunes where we climbed to the top where one side was completely frozen and the other was perfectly wind-blown and it was neat.

School has successfully brainwashed me to some extent (Webster, 2010).

My senior thesis also means that I'll present to "a wide-range of audience" in three rather large symposiums.

Hmm... do I sense a déjà vu of my Glacier Bay experience coming on? Nah... Although this project doesn't have just my name on it. There are a couple of very notable researchers involved as well, so there is a bit more reason to avoid presentation blunders this time.

In that case, I guess I won't try saying "phenomenal" for these upcoming audiences...

Graduate school application season is over for U.S. schools, excluding Alaska. Next is Norway's, Australia's and Alaska's applications.

These applications are the potential gateways to new endeavors/significant changes in life. The best way I've found to cope with filling out these powerfully tedious documents is with a glass of wine, ~941,421,214 proofreads, and a hug. There's nothing quite like grad school limbo to keep you on edge...

My next scheme is the potential European tour I'm concocting. Now all I need to do is make it happen, although I'm not sure if convincing chairs of departments to let you take final exams early is always an easy thing to do. BUT, the symposiums ARE a legitimate case. Let's hope they think so too. I'll find out this week, I hope.

What the food-poisoned sand-dune hike felt like:

White Christmas

2009-12-23T21:29:00.001-08:00

It's supposed to snow tomorrow.

And the next day.

I'm headed for the mountains.

Summertime

2009-10-25T16:33:00.000-07:00

I wore my sunglasses yesterday for the first time in two weeks. What does that mean exactly? It means the rainy season has begun in the Pacific Northwest. I think the fly stuck at my desk window is as frustrated as I am at the rather abrupt change in weather. At least I'm keeping you heated, Bug!

But c'est la vie! Why complain about the weather when I know fully-well the routine? Maybe I can pinpoint the frustration to a lack of snow... the elongated time between summer and winter, when all the colorful leaves have dropped and it's just simply wet and dark.

But what's weather matter when you're underground? That's right. In a cave. Last weekend I went on my first "real" lava tubing experience at Mount St. Helens. It was fun and I can now understand the urge to do unintentionally-stupid maneuvers and get stuck in a hole; there were so many nooks and crannies to explore! And being a rather petite person, this was my element. I'm going back in November.

The following days delivered a differential equations exam, which in all honesty, provided some comfort in being tested in a plug-n-chug method. No thought required.

The subsequent days brought about a research cruise through Puget Sound and the abominable GRE. The cruise was more fun. I poked at methane bubbles in a sediment core, watched someone squeeze a peanut worm, and lost my interest in zooplankton yet again.

I did not study for the GRE this time. It was a decision made both due to despair and lack of time. It turns out that combination increases math scores.

I celebrated that night in attendance of a potluck and party. The end-of-the-week cognitive-deprivation was felt the next day at 7 am for an early morning hike. It was crisp and sunny. We saw turkeys and grouse.

And I now feel 50% better about my personal statement for UW.

The end.

Verbs!

2009-09-21T08:08:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning, I left my apartment to participate in a $190 exam that would weigh my future in getting into grad school. After nearly crying after the quantitative part, I continued on with the verbal. I thought I aced it. What's nice about this GRE exam is that you immediately receive your scores.

I rejoiced. I did MUCH better on the math than I thought! And acing the verbal? Maybe I didn't do so hot.

Then I went home brain-dead and packed. In 30 minutes. Then I walked around town for hours.

Then I went to the airport the following day in the drowning rain. Not sure what to do with myself after being accustomed to stress-study-for-your-dear-life mode, I had a beer with a lime that was way too large to squeeze into the bottle. I put up a decent struggle and realized I had an audience. Then I hopped on a plane and slept for 6.5 hours for the first time on a flight. Is this how it's normally done?

I woke up in Heathrow for brunch and it was sunny! Well mostly cloudy with holes.

My Fantastic English friends were already on their way to pick me up - how wonderful it was to bypass the tube, bus, or train with my luggage and to see them immediately. We toured Oxford, where truly remarkable stone structures are called schools, and "Keep Off the Grass" signs are littered everywhere. It was beautiful. How do students manage to stay off the grass?

Approximately two hours later, we shot stuff.

Much to my delight, I am a great shot with my eyes shut. Then we ate a Norwegian Flag of bread before a magnificent feast. So the Fantastic English, much like the majority of the world, know how to use a knife properly during their supper time. Needless to say, I think they were impressed with my cutlery skills, or lack thereof. At least it provided some entertainment for my hosts.

The following day, we said our goodbyes to the Fantastic Englishwoman headed to America-land. Godspeed, though I secretly knew she'd be fine if she lives with that much arsenal.

The remaining Fantastic Englishman and I had oodles of time - a whole day! So what do you do with free time? Head on over to the Safari Park of course!

We found rhinos and marmosets, and promptly sat in the sunshine for a solid 359,124,412 hours in sheer animal bliss, reminiscing the Arctic. Then we saw an extremely violent film for fun. It was a treat.

The next morning we woke up very early, much to the Fantastic Englishman's delight. I was kicked out at Heathrow again so I could make my way north and find Bergen. And I did! I arrived that evening in a daze, found my accommodation on the first try, and even found my Awesome Norwegian Friend who gave me a whirlwind tour of Bergen at night. Simply great! So great, I even wore flipflops.

I went to the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research the following day to meet with contacts that I had hoped would offer good news on a masters program. Luckily for me, Bjerknes was on the opposite side of town so I got to try out my navigation skills and sight-see along the way. I took a shortcut, got lost, asked for help, and sprinted in the hopefully correct direction to make it to my appointment on time. After perhaps 6+ hours, I found out a whole lot of good news and made my way back through the town in a refreshing downpour of precipitation. I was wearing flipflops this day too.

I had to return to Bjerknes the next day to meet with one last person whose office proved to be evasive. Of course, I had forgotten his name so I ended up finding every crook and cranny at Bjerknes except the Unknown Last Person's office. It was well past our appointment time when a colleague showed me his office. We met for 25 minutes.

Returning back into the hordes of precipitation, I discovered penguins and lovely little parks along the way. This day I wore proper shoes; they were soaked through and through.

But enough of that day, I had to prepare for tomorrow! I was going on my Awesome Norwegian Friend's Glacier. What should have been a cake walk to get there proved to be madness, but thankfully I made friends with the loveliest bus driver in the world, Tøre. He looked like a jolly wizard.

There was an accident in a mountain tunnel which delayed our trip, making us miss the boat across the fjord, which then decided to wait for us, but then decided to skip Herand (where I needed to go) so I took another bus to Tørvikbygd and caught a ferry just as it was leaving for Herand, where the Awesome Norwegian Friend immediately picked me up and we teared up through the mountains with a firm grip on the "oh sh*t" handles in the vehicle. She was a good, fast driver.

We arrived with tourists geared up. It was pouring rain and windy, but I didn't mind. Glaciers are fantastic any time of the day unless you're lost, hypothermic, hate glaciers, dislike ice, etc. I loved it. It felt so nice to have crampons on.

That night stretched on with Norwegian and American beers and great company. We scampered together around noon the next day to head out into "the islands" for a day of international rock-climbing.

And Jesus! It was sunny!

Clear, blue sky. Some wind. Simply beautiful on smooth, glacial landscapes surrounded by the sea. My final day couldn't have been better, enclosed by stunning surroundings, sticky climbing rocks, and very lovely friends.

As soon as we returned to Bergen, we raced up Mt Fløyen for a pleasant view of sunset. Evening was spent with a lamb kebab and a final stroll around town before an early morning out.

Then it was hard to leave, again.

The Norwegian and English Adventure

2009-09-18T09:05:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful trip.

More to come.

Comfort Zone Syndrome

2009-08-22T10:29:00.000-07:00

Oh the sounds of Norwegian cd lessons in the morning...

I have approximately 15 days until my trip to check out the university in Bergen via London. Along with English (GRE material), I thought it necessary to learn some Norwegian other than pick-up lines and rude slang today.

Ever since I've been back from Norway, I've been on a nonstop roller-coaster in figuring out the next 24 months. It can be slightly or entirely overwhelming to have so many options - how do you make the best decision? Which benefits your brain the most? What about mentally? For instance, I could not see myself living in New York City but I could, however, see myself living (happier) in some hole somewhere in the Arctic, "as long as I was getting a good education" rationality says.

So moving on with grad school and possibly away from Seattle... brings me back to moving to Seattle. I didn't believe I'd actually do it. I had lived in Oklahoma my entire 21 years. The first two weeks seemed like vacation really; I drove with the scruffy kiwi to Colorado where we tried mastering the mountain range from various angles. Then I was off like a poof of wind! Or rather, like a very cautious but excited young girl trying to navigate her way through the western U.S. yet arriving in Seattle on time to catch a flight to another land.

This is how it was. Sunny. It didn't rain on me once. I drove through the windy roads of the western Rockies, slipping out into nothingness with tired semis and vacationing minivans on a hot cement road that would supposedly bring me to arches - and not McDonald's.

I stopped by a riverbed for lunch and ate a sandwich. Everyone there was either with their families or friends. I left shortly after consumption, wondering what I was doing here.

I checked into a typical hotel on the outskirts of Arches National Park. I had driven for 7 hours but there was still time to get out to the park for sunset. I drove, explored, climbed and brought my then new camera for company. I'll never forget driving along the park at sunset with fuchsia boulders rising up on either side of me. I was on my own and it was neat.

The next day I was off again, but this time I had a mission to meet up with my senile mother and her friends in Salt Lake City. This was nice... not just because it cut my driving time down, but because there was familiarity after the first 24+ hours alone on the desert road. And there was beer and stories.

I left Salt Lake City with a bold plan to go slightly off the beaten track to John Day National Monument to see the Painted Hills. It seems that not many people have heard of this area which made it a real treat to see on one's own. The Painted Hills were not the only attraction it turned out - every region of the monument had its specialty. Blue hills, dinosaur fossils, layers of colorful sands and rock everywhere. I had largely underestimated it's size... I ended up driving for the longest stretch of my life. Getting there was simple enough but leaving nearly took me into insanity with steep, windy concentration-needed roads for hours and hours and hours.

I nearly reached my limit but I was unsure of how safe it'd be for a girl to sleep in a car on the side of the road in these not-too-wild hills. I decided not very and drove until fields of wind mills appeared. I didn't think I was at the insanity point of envisioning Don Quixote but they were there - lots of them. Yellow flowers filled the ground below them and stretched on forever. I didn't know where the heck I was but it was pretty special. Just in time for sunset too.

I think I ended up staying in Pendleton or Kennewick. I was exhausted at this point and checked into the motel I had booked the previous night. Usually I'm not too particular about where I sleep, but for the first time in my life, I was extremely aware that I was the only female in the motel area... which turned out to be a stop for semi-trucks on their long-haul across the states. I double-locked my room that night and high-tailed it in the early morning.

My last sight-seeing stop was to be Mt. Rainier National Park that day but not without driving through one of the longest desert roads in the world, I think. I was on top of a hill cradled by two larger hills on either side that stretched beyond the horizon. I stopped the car, stood outside and breathed. I forget how nice it is to do that sometimes. I got back in the car, barely pushing on the accelerator to see how fast I could go with gravity. I loved that moment, minus running over a ground squirrel.

I was soon in the National Forest with random views breaking through the trees of Mt. Rainier. It was stunning. For the first time on the trip one of my plans didn't work - the national park roads had been damaged by floods earlier in the season so I was sent off to the Emerald City sooner than planned. I had no other options - I could have happily turned around and gone back to the deserts which is what I nearly did. I had to find a place to live, I guess. My two-lane road suddenly turned to five. There were more cars than I had ever imagined. And then there was the city in all its gloriously intimidating manner.

Over two years later, here I am, wondering what's next.

Svalbard Spiel

2009-07-10T16:09:00.000-07:00

It's been nearly a week since I've been back from Svalbard. It was a true, once in a blue moon, amazing experience. This is where I hit a block in trying to describe why the trip was so fascinating, how it impacted my brain, and what actually happened.

To get around this conundrum, I actively kept a journal while I was there! I'll just add excerpts that may translate my high latitude attachment... enjoy.

"30+ hours later, here I am, Longyearbyen. What a trip it was to get here, between final exams and getting credit logistics worked out, I finally made it one piece. I'm beginning to think I'll get very little sleep on this trip already..."

"...I'm awake! I woke up amazing refreshed and slightly panicked that maybe I had accidentally slept in. The clock says 3:00 am. Bugger..."

"...Tomorrow is dooms day with rifles, but we get to go swimming in immersion suits too. After the first intro day, I think it's safe to say that the program coordinators selected a pretty dang good group of people with outlandish experiences and backgrounds beyond normal. Let's hope I can keep up..."

"...Today was a beautiful and relatively warm day. I was completely out of it this morning but the lectures were again, amazing, especially the geology and glaciology. The field work today reminded me of a labor camp - we marked 4x4 meter squares and threw all of the contained rocks in a pile to weigh them. All of this occurred on an avalanche slope. It wasn't too terribly entertaining except when a tiny avalanche occurred directly above us..."

"...yay another night of sleep soon. Today was a day of permafrost and avalanches. We took an excursion to Endalen, close to where the Rock Festival was held a few days back. We checked out the permafrost depth and ice wedge research. It was very sunny, cold and the valley stretched for miles with white plateaus at the end and even more impressive mountains and glaciers off in the far distance. Now that is a run-on sentence!..."

"...We started at 8:30 with fog and freezing at the top of Sugarsomething Top. We split into 3 groups - I stuck with the fast group which turned out to be the best thing since we were able to go to so many peaks and finally find the sun along the ridge. My hip's destroyed but it was definitely worth it. There seems to be a fancy dinner awaiting us at the SAS hotel which is perfect after building up a monstrous appetite. We slid a good and fast distance along the snow on the way down, which was probably the best part. And yes, of course there was a snowball fight..."

"....bloody solstice..."

"...A field day! And an improvised one at that. We started off earlier than usual, only to find out a cruise ship was blocking our research ship. But today proved to be really fun in the end. We were late to the biology field work where we found bugs and dug up a lot of dirt. It was also pretty damn cold for a cloudy day. The sun broke out during the oceanography bit and we had a wonderful/stunning ride back in a huge zodiac. The BBQ topped the day off..."

"...We're back from Kapp Linné and it was a pretty fun trip. The boat ride was by far my favorite, and the hiking was fantastic. My hip isn't sore! The geology was amazing - so many millions of ages of rocks and some of the oldest I've ever seen, as well as loads of fossils. We saw the cliff where they found dinosaur tracks too. The hungover boat ride there wasn't nearly as awful as I thought it would be - lots of fun, and lots of photos. I've finally seen an Atlantic Puffin and walruses! Very cool. We had a major hike yesterday. I was carried across a few "raging torrent" rivers but my boots still got soaked. Funny place, we weren't allowed to walk between the buildings alone and without a rifle due to polar bears. We posed in 900 kroner bath robes with a rifle at midnight. We stopped in Barentsburg this afternoon and ate some pretty unique food. The place looked completely run down - once colorful buildings with cracked woods and sooty windows. It's an old Russian mining community. It's hard to imagine living there, I hope they have a choice. The cliffs of Spitsbergen remind me so much of the Aleutians - simply beautiful..."

"...The last evening was the absolute best. My abs are sore from laughing. It's such a shame that the field school was so short. There are quite a few people that I'll never forget from this experience. Bloody hell, it's only 9:00 and my flight's at 1:00. I'm in desperate need of a shower; probably not the best time for wearing long underwear in record high weather at the Olso airport. One of the best memories of the night was getting a great view of Longyearbyen as the sun came out, pretty special. The entire IPY crew had such good energy, it was really difficult to say goodbye. There's a lot to carry on for future experiences I guess. Man, am I out of it. And stink. This journal is ridiculous."

Holy moon.

2009-05-27T21:52:00.000-07:00

My gosh. Tonight is the first time in my life that I've seen the moon in 3D without a telescope. My brain's been registering it in 2D this entire time.

What a treat.

I successfully made Gazpacho for dinner. It was a balmy 81.5 degrees out today which means my apartment will momentarily turn into a furnace.

Friday was an excellent walking day. I walked for a few miles for errands and to shake off the intentional failed exam yesterday morning. We can drop the lowest out of three, that was mine.

Ah yes, pre-final exam week. It's like the calm before the storm. My body is wearing itself out before it's getting its workout. I've paced around the apartment, did my homework, did lots of reading, played some music, cleaned, cooked, cleaned, did more reading, and thought a whole lot.

...and I went on the most wondrous bike ride too. It was my first ride in possibly 8 months. My body rejoiced. I sweated! I got the better half of a runner's high on my uphill way home. I absolutely can't wait to do it again.

But that's a bit of the problem for bursitis so I've contained myself from physical exercise for the next few days to be polite to my hip. It can be frustrating sometimes. We've had three solid weeks of beautiful weather and rolling around on the floor doing physical therapy exercises doesn't seem to be quite as fulfilling.

Departure to Svalbard is approaching. I've scoured the internet and discovered these fantastic links:

Longyearbyen

Svalbard

Longyearbyen

Yay!!! It snowed there over the weekend. I find packing most difficult when the weather is 180 of what it is at my current location. I am, however, definitely packing a swimsuit.

The last time I was there, I can't even remember if I knew we were going there beforehand. I went with my senile parental units and the Bigottos, whose father is actually as senile as my father. My father was the only one who went swimming that day. My warmest clothes were cotton socks, tennis shoes, and a cotton hoodie purchased during a summer trip to South Carolina. We didn't see any polar bears. Half of us crossed a "raging torrent" of a river via a very friendly Norwegian's back and discovered a multitude of large fossils. Then we had a cup of tea. I think Longyearbyen was the place where I ordered Arctic Char and received a menacing-looking fish with sharp, pointy teeth on a plate. I've wanted to go back ever since.

I think I'll bring a frisbee this time and ditch the cotton.

Here's a link to our trip from ages ago. We went via Greenland, Iceland, Lofotens to Svalbard. Don't worry, it's all photos.

North of Northern Europe

Where to?

2009-05-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

I'm still not adequately studying. I did, however, open the powerpoint lecture notes and give them a quick lookover, meaning I looked at the pretty pictures and ignored the words.

After a holiday on Monday my brain has become permanently on vacation. I'm already carrying out plans for summer extravaganzas. All of the gallivanting begins immediately after the biology final where I'll vacate the country to Denmark, I think?

Yes, I'll fly away to Denmark, then Norway, and then Norway. I'll end up in Svalbard at 11:30 pm which will be okay in terms being scared of the dark and polar bears since the midnight sun will be out. In fact, I'll experience solstice above the arctic circle for the very first time. This really excites me.

Svalbard is a very beautiful part of the world and it even feels like another world. It's normal to carry a rifle outside of the city for safety. It has a huge coal mining economy. It has less than 2,000 people living there. It got bombed during WWII. It has glaciers and flowers. It has loads of fossils of tropical plants larger than my hands.

I'm tempted to change my ticket to stop in the Lofoten Islands. It's probably the most beautiful place I've ever been lucky enough to travel to.

Last weekend my parental units stopped by and kidnapped the kiwi and I. We ended up in Friday Harbor and watched Star Trek. It was a really nice.

In thrilling news, our potted plants are growing! And fast, too. I'm expecting a jungle when I return.

And lastly, I'm still employed!

Photo of some years ago:

babble of a brainless numbskull.

2009-04-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

It was 20:46 on a cold and drizzly night... curled up at the desk with a glass of wine and a physics book with world pop blasting on a crackling clock radio. That clock said 20:56. Apparently there's a wormhole between that and my desk again.

I've been reading for too many hours. It's my turn to write something!!!

I'm starting to succumb to Mid-Quarter Crisis. It's sort of like this.

but enormously worse.

I'm trying to think real hard about how truly exciting the summer extravaganzas will be. Three bloody weeks. Am I a whiner or what...

I'm also thinking how much of a pain it will be to chat with my TA tomorrow. He speaks english but it's still foreign language and unfortunately, our course book is too.

Also there's physics lab tomorrow. This usually sets fairly low on my happiness scale. I wake up with the mindset that I'm going into battle, yet I'm only equipped with a spoon; the enemies have the lab answer keys and maximized egos.

One of the most brilliant things I have to look forward to is no more lower-division labs or courses after this quarter. I am OFFICIALLY where I ought to have been approximately 3,552 year ago. I think this may be worth celebrating.

Of other slight concern, I think I'm still hired?

Last week was a brilliant birthday week. I am very, very happy to have the friends and family that I do. Thanks.

Photo of two weeks ago:

Cheesus, I need to study now.

Darn it, dilemma

2009-04-12T13:46:00.001-07:00

Somebody's hijacked some of my photos without my permission. Normally I wouldn't mind except they're using them for profit which is a big no-no on my terms.

I did the right thing and wrote the company an email in both Spanish and English and twice.

I received a quick reply, and an apology which made me feel a whole lot better.

Though now, the photos are still on their site...

This gives me three options:
1) Be passive! They're probably very busy. Don't be a jerk.
2) Send a friendly reminder, but maybe in three languages this time. Nice or mean okay.
3) Let loose the hackers. There's no way they can be traced back to you.

... I guess I'll give them a couple weeks. And in the meantime, my website might be having a few major malfunctions as I update everything with those incredibly annoying watermarks. Jerks.

Other news: I'm hired!

But more details later until some brilliant unfolding decisions occur...

Picture of yesterday:

ooooooh dear.

2009-04-04T14:45:00.000-07:00

It's begun.

I saw a small glimpse of sunshine during a 45+ temperature streak this week that's made me begin outlining my summer plans. Should I... go find/lose myself? Do something productive? constructive? destructive?

All sound equally good and fun which makes this outline quite challenging. Good thing I've been given a dumpster-full of incentives to aid me in the decision-making.

I, Melinda Annie Webster, have chosen... to get a job.

There are clear distinctions in this approach than previous choices - I will not be a vagrant. I will be gainfully employed and possibly constructive. I will be static.

What an exciting endeavour. Now all I need to do is get hired.

Other news.

I survived another quarter of physics! Finals week was simply amazing. I had a bad case of man flu and feverishly took my finals, brilliantly getting below average marks yet passing the courses with flying colours! Just, wow.

Then I flew to Oklahoma and slept, bicycled, and took a picture of the Pryor Creek Bridge on the Nature Trail.

2009

2009-02-03T16:34:00.000-08:00

I have a math exam this morning.

What better time to update a blog with the unprecedented inspiration to write.

Actually I woke up much earlier today so that I could study. Getting up this early entails slow-movements and partial cynicism that I’m not yet in reality and possibly in my last dream of the morning. Brilliant for crappy writing.

It’s February but that’s no reason not to talk about January. It’s been a reeling year already – lots of people having lots of babies, New new year’s resolutions, a new quarter, and hey! New calendars (although we’re currently still using 2008; I changed it to February).

I started off my year in New Zealand and grumpily came back to school. I snapped out of grumpiness once I realized we’d been circling in the air for an hour or so well past our ETA. Snow? Are my shoes accessible in my check-in luggage?

Luggage took a while – my luggage caused four luggage trucks to jack-knife into a snowbank. At this stage I was laughing, half to the situation, half to jetlag. There were so many grumpy people around who really ought to practice scowling.

Anyhoo, I got home and went to class. I came up with a new year’s resolution to cook more often. That plan of action came about the next day.

That plan of action backfired on Saturday when I got a healthy bout of food-poisoning. I lived off of crackers and Gatorade for the rest of the week. The next week I ate out ~85% of the time and did not cook.

My next new year’s resolution was to stretch and eat more meat (since vegetables tried to kill me the prior week).

So far I’m alive. This one’s a keeper for now.

February is internship application season. Madness, I say.

The end.

Oh! Slacker!

2008-11-21T08:59:00.000-08:00

Here's what happened with that sailing trip:

The N. Pacific Voyage of the Minnow

Everythingsago!

2008-05-17T10:06:00.001-07:00

Background Information:

What are we doing: Sailing from Honolulu to the Aleutian Islands via Midway. Specifically Honolulu, to Midway (it's questionable whether or not we can stop on any islands along the way), hopefully Attu Island and Adak Islands, inevitably Unalaska for customs, and along the American/Canadian coast.

Why are we doing this: I have no idea.

Who's involved: Bob, Mike, Josh, and I from Honolulu to Alaska (after that a few of us will probably jump ship). Cathy until from Honolulu to Midway because she's smart.

When are we doing this: June 12/13th to indefinitely.

What are we going in: The Minnow, a Catana 522 Ocean Class, hull number 11.

Who's captain: Generally the youngest person on board (me) but when we get into trouble, I blame anyone.

Is there safety equipment on board: Yes, we have two kayaks and a baritone.

Will there be emailing: Yes, we will email via satellite phone and set up a semi-daily blog. We will also have a site where people can text us on the sat phone via the internet. It's free<-- hint.

What kind of food will be on board: Probably 1,429,148,903,492 bananas since Mike and Bob are doing the majority of the grocery shopping.

What will we do when we're bored: learn a different language, read, watch movies, cook, bake, play music, sand coconuts, whip lines, sail, clean, draw pictures, play scrabble, uno, chess, and poker, edit, take photographs and video, be annoying, exercise, do laps, break stuff, fix stuff.

What will we do when someone's being annoying: learn a different language, read, watch movies, cook, bake, play music, sand coconuts, whip lines, sail, clean, draw pictures, play scrabble, uno, chess, and poker, edit, take photographs and video, be annoying, exercise, do laps, break stuff, fix stuff. See also: keelhaul.

Do all of us get along: Don't know yet.

Do we have sailing experience: Some; depends on how you define experience. Here's Mike and Bob's experience.

How cold will it be: Pretty darn cold, especially if it's windy.

Is hypothermia a possibility: Always.

Are we scared: Yes.

What will we do in the case of a storm: Keep calm. Remember that the boat is very stable when inverted.

How warm will it be on board: As warm as it can be from the oven. We have lots of blankets and cold weather gear.

How warm will it be in general: As warm as the Midway islands get.

How long will we be in Midway: 5-10 days, depending on our visa. We may be the only tourist visa for Midway this year.

What's on Midway: Birds, people, an airport from WWII, a naval base, and garbage.

How long will it take to get to Alaska from Midway: Possibly one to two months or longer, weather dependent.

What is Attu and Adak like: Great places for migratory birds. Foggy, windy, rainy. All the development from WWII era has been abandoned. I think there's a (abandoned) McDonald's on Adak where we can get a quarter pounder with cheese.

What are we packing in our suitcase: Gloves, hat, swimsuit, waterproof pants, wetsuit, goggles, rubber boots, waterproof coat, lots of fleece, socks, underwear, and long underwear, sunscreen, sunglasses, toothpaste. No wool.

LINKS

About the Minnow:

http://viaboat.com/

The Minnow Blog:

http://hmsminnow.blogspot.com/

Our hypothetical track:

Another hypothetical track:

Mexico

2008-04-12T09:47:00.000-07:00

It was extremely sunny, warm, pleasant, and everything else good.

Photos

More details soon.

Muvees

2008-02-03T16:18:00.000-08:00

I saw a disturbing film last night called "There will be Blood."

I thought, "Well hey, if it's been nominated for eight academy awards, there must be some entertaining substance in it."

...Did I gripe.

It consisted of a continuous sickening, high-strung plot lasting nearly three hours. I was actually slightly upset over this, which has never happened before. I simply could not believe the maliciousness and morbid violence of the film. I felt angry, I was angry, I was grumpy. Grumble grumble grumble.

I slept on it.

The next day I woke up thinking how odd it was that I was so tore up over a twisted plot of some film. Gave it some thought, and realized there must be something to it more than just a bad film.

The fact that I was so pissed off at the film, at its sickening plot, characters, and end, is actually a bit impressive. I actually hate the main character of the film, but not for bad acting. How often do stories intentionally accomplish this? Granted, the film is gifted with better technology, but wasn't that what Shakespeare was supposedly pushing for similar emotions? It simply wouldn't have been right for such a film to end on a note of remorse; I would've just thrown it into the mediocre drama category. But no, the producers chose to piss me off and it's disgruntling impressive that the film emphasized such dark psychological intent.

So in the end, I absolutely hate "There will be Blood," but that's just because the acting is damn great.

My brain and education.

2007-11-30T19:50:00.001-08:00

School? Good. Health? Improving. I'm at my wit's end with commuting. The breaking news is a snow forecast tomorrow. We tried climbing Mt. Pugh and Mt. Dickerman which were both wonderful climbs.

Oklahoma and Hawaii are in the near future.

I'm schleepy.

Sensitive salmon

2007-09-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

I have a job interview at 2 tomorrow. hip hip...

I talked myself into a bike ride on the Burke Gilman Trail this morning. I did 20 miles, to the end of Lake Washington and back. It was peaceful, uneventful, and pleasant.

I'm one for two with my cooking now. I bought so many nice, fresh ingredients for my salmon risotto tonight. Everything was going well until I added the salmon back into the main course at the very end. Then the kitchen had a crash and burn. I put what remained in three small plastic bags and placed it in the outside garbage. I hate, hate, hate wasting food. This was worst than regurgitation.

Smoke filled my apartment and I expected alarms to sound any minute. Then yellow jackets started flying into my living room, being attracted to scorched salmon. I don't know why they like salmon. I left the door open until night fall but they're still crawling around on the windows and I'm pretty sure I can hear them wheezing. I'd help them but they sting.

One last jerk thing that I did today was squash three spiders.

Maybe job interviews are a lot easier in person than over the phone.

Stay awake.

2007-08-08T18:47:00.000-07:00

England and France were fabulous.

The Kiwi and I arrived jetlagged as ever at the London Heathrow Airport. We hopped on the underground with our ridiculously bulky packs and attemped to stay awake for the ride. Many people spoke English so it was relatively easy to figure things out, but the lack of sleep is killer. It's as bad as a nasty hangover.

The first two days were spent sleeping and then staying up all night. The alarms were useless at our state. While we blissfully slumbered all day, it started raining which is not all that odd around England.

And then it kept raining, and when we woke up, we heard that England was flooding (How come this always happens wherever we go?). Floods wouldn't ruin our plans! Kiwi's brother took us to a Hangi in the English countryside. A Hangi is a much more exciting version of a barbeque and kiwis seem to have them a lot. You dig a pit, make a fire in it, place stones in it, place food over the hot stones, then cover it when earth. The food is usually extremely delicious.

The Hangi was really cool. Fire pits and soggy grounds in the oh so beautiful English countryside. We camped in a bog that night and awoke to an awfully bright, sunny day.

We were heading to Ipswich the next day. I've never heard of Ipswich; in fact, I had no idea where we were going exactly. That's normal. We got off the train and a very tall, smiling gentleman was waiting for us. Scruffy Kiwi's grandpa. I must look like a midget walking along any of his family.

The Ipswich encounter turned out to be a great history lesson. Did you know the majority of Jamestowners came from that area? Neato. I understand why they left, but it's such a peaceful countryside. I even saw my first windmill (a real one, like the ones Don Quijote fought).

Then like a flash of lightning, we were suddenly off to Paris! I was surprised at how amazingly fast the train was from London to Paris (it goes under the ocean!). Being under the ocean was a really interesting concept in itself... what if an earthquake happened? I slept on it.

Paris was simply amazing. I had been there twice before but something about riding through the foreign city on a little bike with great company made it such a nice time. We saw all sorts of historically important things - even a sculpture of an elephant balancing on his nose.

We came upon the ultimate melinda-fitting dress oddly enough. If you have seen me, you'd know that it's difficult for me to find anything that fits that isn't from the 12 year old section. So, out of a bit of peer pressure and perfect fit, I spent money on something that I will treasure the rest of my life possibly. As long as I don't gain 50 lbs that is.

We continued with the city tour, seeing elegant buildings with more history than I've ever learned in school, drinking a lot of coffee in teeny tiny cups, and eating stinky cheese of course.

The Scruffy Kiwi's sister was the ultimate guide to Paris. She took us to a magical little book store. It had prints and maps from as early as the 16th century from all sorts of books pertaining anything from squid to Alaska. I bought some 18th and 19th century fish for my apartment. Kiwi bought a sweet 18th century print of European contact with the Polynesians. What I really liked about these prints was the fact that the artist created some of them without ever seeing the subject in his or her life. There was an elephant print that had paws and claws on its feet. It was expensive.

We were soon running out of time and we headed to the south of France for our final week. Let me tell you, I don't think I've ever seen a place that was so similar to a fairy tale... possibly Northern Iceland during summer but this region still has it beat. There were castles scattered across the countryside, farmlands overflowing with vegetables, flowers everywhere and stone houses galor. Not a bad place to spend a week certainly. I think there could have been fairies too.

I experienced something in my life there that I will never, ever be able to describe properly. Cheese. I can confidently state that I ate the best cheese of my life here. Le Cabécou de Rocamadour... its taste and texture are heavenly. Creamy richness yet light enough to eat it all day long. Breaking away from this cheese may have been one of the most difficult things I've ever had to cope with.

The south of France has plenty of other tasty things to offer too. We toured the local distillery where everything from booze-filled chocolates to flavored liquors are hand-made. I bought all of the above. The chocolate is painfully good.

Other than eating and drinking food fit for the gods, we lounged, sunbathed, swam, played table tennis, played Pétanque (it took me forever to find this name in the dictionary), played badmitten, played darts, played foozeball, played pool, went canoeing, went to a deep cave, and slept. Not a bad week at all, and the company was even better.

Soon our week was up and we hopped back on the train to Paris for one night. We saw hundreds of skeletons that day. After a museum of African and Polynesian history, we went to the catacombs. Just plain creepy. We were pretty much braindead after a full day of history so we retired to pack for London.

We got to go under the ocean again the next day - fortunately there were no earthquakes. We arrived slightly scatterbrained, trying to see as many museums as possible without getting overly saturated on history. We lasted the majority of the day and we went back to eat an extremely tasty last supper in London.

Now I have chocolate to eat.

http://melindawebster.com/europe07/

Are you my new home?

2007-07-10T16:45:00.000-07:00

I'm moved in, aka I'm sleeping on the floor of the new apartment in Seattle. Fun, but it is oh so nice to have a washer and dryer. And to sit on the balcony and drink a beer! My balcony, my beer! I have yet to buy a houseplant too.

It's warm, no... it's too hot, according to the locals. I think it feels almost perfect; these are the longest summer days without the slightest bit of rain, which won't be sticking around when I'm back I presume.

Today's adventures consisted of buying a mattress and a futon. They come on Friday. The rest of this week's adventures consist of purchasing bedding, a bike, internet, and picking up a person or two from the airport.

I bought a mug and a bowl from the market across the street... I should be fine for a couple of weeks. Then I leave on yet another trip but this time it's East (I rarely travel East). I'll be going to London and Paris, probably making a fool out of myself in front of scruffy kiwi's family so it should be loads of fun. We'll see.

Tonight: turkey sandwhich, yogurt, banana, beer, balcony and movie. Not bad for living out of a car for the past month. I'm happy. Come visit.

Love,
Melinda

Driving northwest and not stopping...

2007-06-28T16:32:00.000-07:00

I made it!!

I'm in Seattle. I just signed a lease to an apartment a couple of days ago, so it's time for me to leave on another trip again.

I'm thinking Alaska. My flight leaves at 12:40 p.m. tomorrow, just in time for the toga party.

It was close to a nightmare trying to find a place in Seattle. First of all, I might be overly optimistic sometimes. Second of all, finding a decent house in a safe neighborhood with a rent that won't give you a heart attack might be unrealistic. I saw a very small, 1-2 bedroom home for sale for $750,000 on a busy intersection corner well away from the city center. Then again, I don't know how the city works yet so I may have been looking in all the wrong places.

But, I actually found an apartment in a lovely neighborhood in the end. I'm extremely excited about moving. This means I can finally own a houseplant... or 10.

Moving into a place also means I have a location to do laundry, dump junk, cook, sleep, relax, and well... live. I haven't lived in a place for more than five months in quite a while. It will be very nice (I hope). However, until then, I'm going to bounce around the world until classes begin. Maybe burning out on traveling will make staying in one spot even better?

Time to pack, again.

Love,
Melinda

The Update

2007-06-04T17:39:00.000-07:00

I'm in Colorado at the moment, compulsively checking craigslist for a house/apartment and laying on the floor. The kiwi is doing "work" while I do these two things over and over and over. Today was a bonus, I made a delicious pizza with so many vegetables and cheese that it reminded me of an edible mountain in Willy Wonka. Then I checked the internet again.

The last uh... month? two months? have been captivating and exciting. I helped my senile father go from Mexico to the west coast of Panama via Grand Cayman, Providencia (Colombia), Colon and San Blas Islands (Panama), and through the Panama Canal (Panama). I left the Minnow shortly thereafter. It may have had something to do with the senile father being lactose-intolerant and drinking milk.

Mexico was neat. I took the senile father tequila shopping even though he doesn't drink (...it was close to my birthday). As a sign of gratitude I think, he had me help him keep the Minnow afloat with 70 Mexican children aboard. I'm sure it must have been a hoot to watch. I've never spoken Spanish so much/so quick in my life. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun, especially with the sousaphones and piano. At the end, we gave away all of the toy airplanes that I had smuggled into my carry-on (the airport security guards thought their scanners were broken).

Grand Cayman was fun. We kayaked, dove, saw some water spouts, fueled up, and left.

Providencia was kind of neat. We saw most of the Island in less than 24 hours and then left. The people had an interesting concoction of an accent: spanish, jamaican, and british, but maybe that was just the people I spoke to. I bought some coconut water and limes. Dad bought melted chocolate.

Panama was very interesting. We took a 10-minute walk and saw/heard all sorts of wild things: leaf-cutter ants, spider monkeys, howler monkeys, birds, birds, birds, mammal thing, and some weird-looking spiders. The tortilla soup at the marina was excellent. AND they even had wireless internet.

We had a weekish wait for the canal so we motored (and sailed a tiny bit) to the San Blas Islands. There are a bunch of pictures from there on this site:

The Minnow Pics

It has photos from the Canal on there too.

The San Blas were idealistically tropical and beautiful, although the water seemed to have a decent amount of garbage in it. This may have been from a strange weather system going through, changing the typical wind and current patterns. Who knows.

We went diving, snorkeling, and kayaking again. We later found out that you're not allowed to go diving. Some of the Kunas tried out the kayaks. Everyone should have a kayak. I think they'd agree on that too. We also watched Star Wars (to their request) and printed out photos for their families.

In between my current compulsive internet house hunt, I've managed to upload some photos from the past 6 months. Here they are:

SEA

- Sailing Education Association

New Zealand

- New Zealand

Love,
Melinda

I'm sorry.

2007-06-03T19:08:00.000-07:00

I forgot I had a blog.

I'm still traveling. New pictures are on

fotos

I'll try writing a big blurb soon.

Love,
Melinda

nueva zelanda

2007-03-28T17:59:00.000-07:00

hi!

i successfully sailed from papeete, tahiti to honolulu, hawaii in the past 7 weeks. now i'm on the north island of new zealand and it is extremely rainy and beautiful. the kiwi is giving the grand tour which means this is going to be another strange adventure despite the weather. the sailing report will be given soon enough, but it's time to run for now.

ciao!
love,
melinda

Patagoony

2006-12-30T15:24:00.000-08:00

Arriving in Chile started out as a minor culture shock. The finale to the S. Pacific trip was an overnight in the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Santiago. Far more flash and ritzy than anything I can handle. Women wearing cocktail dresses like in the movies where they’re at classy parties sipping martinis and smoking those super long cigarette holder thingies. Men in slick suits, combed-back hair, holding a glass of $5000 liquor. I stayed in the room and watched rugby and ate sushi in my pajamas. Classy?

The next day’s mission was to buy bus tickets to Puerto Montt and catch a ferry which we’d bought tickets for. Done. Now we could relax.

We came to the bus station the following day, loaded our bags into the bus, and proceeded to get on. The conductor looked at our tickets and was SO close to letting us on board but shook his head. Our tickets were for the following day…. well. Hm. That couldn’t be possible because we bought them for today, and well, we had to catch the ferry the next day at 4 pm. So we pleaded and asked for help, but nada. Simply, we were screwed and pretty grumpy about it (I was anyway).

But a man, from no where, suddenly appeared and asked what had happened. We explained out situation and he quickly replied, follow me! So we did (why not??). We zig-zagged throughout the bus station, my side starting to ache, and thinking there was no hope after hearing so many no’s and lo siento’s (I’m sorry’s). Then he gets it. Tickets to a bus leaving in two minutes for some town that has another bus going to Puerto Montt. We were saved! Along with the money we’d spent on ferry tickets! Who was this guy and why did he waste so much of his own time to help two strangers? We couldn’t figure it out and I secretly wondered if he was going to pull some sort of scam on us (go American mentality). But he didn’t. We asked if we should pay him somehow and he laughed saying he doesn’t expect it, but doesn’t mind it either. We gave him a $20 and he was gone before we could even wave goodbye to the fairy godfather of bus tickets.

We made it to the ferry eventually and barely. Once there, we slept a lot. We had a great time for those four days… fun along the lines of Chilean fjordlands, bad weather, loud speaker, chess, beer, chess, photos, bad food, cheese, chess, costumes, walrus, wine, wine, wine, dance, wine, hungover ahhh and we arrived to Puerto Natales! The gateway town into Torres del Paine National Park.

The town had an interesting character about it, which I liked. It was cold, sunny, windy, colorful houses, ocean, yep. However, the conditions of the houses were surprising. They were nothing but plywood put together. It was strange not to see more sound structures in a place with especially extreme weather.

One problem that I’ve found to be reoccurring in every S. American coastline I’ve been through is garbage. It's everywhere, which I’m sure people become accustomed to, but it’s such a drag to see it in beautiful places like the coastlines of Punta Arenas. This is not to say that it originates from here (check out Midway Island). To fix this problem, I think we should send bored Oklahoma students on field trips to clean up trash in exotic locations.

Torres del Paine. It’s a dramatic landscape, absolutely. It’s hard to believe that places like that actually exist. We camped for 8 days through the park, making a slow W since the circuit was closed. The first day we stayed on the east side of the park where the towers are close to. Hiking through the ridge was a bit tricky for a lightweight like me, even wearing a pack. People had to link arms to get through the wind or they’d literally be blown off the ridge. Once you came up to this place, the wind blasted rock and sand in your face and most importantly, in your eyeballs. There was no way of seeing anything, but people had to hug the side of the ridge and keep moving forward. The kiwi held onto my pack so I didn’t fly away as I plowed through the wind in a crawl. I wanted to stop but after doing so, realized that the wind wasn’t going to let up anytime soon so I made a successful sprint down the backside with no injuries. Sprint in this windy condition translates to snail velocity.

The following days were filled with day hikes to the towers and around to the valley of silence. The Towers are the sight to see in Torres. Many people hike up for a day to see them and leave the park. We were pretty lucky to even seem them through clouds. It was a good day. The next was spent hiking towards the valley of silence, where we wanted to camp originally be decided not to due to snow and time. You could hardly see the mountains across the valley through the snow. We had our fun hiking about and headed back to camp for a very cold night in the snow. Plus I had a cold and was whiny.

Our longest day was a 7-9 hour hike to Camp Italiano. The hike to there was simply amazing going alongside a glacial lake, in between a monstrous hanging glacier and thrusted rock as the sun set. The days are a lot longer in Southern Chile, with the sun setting at about 9 p.m. and it being light enough to see until 10. Everything around us was glowing in either an orange or pink color. The glacier stood out in a natural blue. Calving echoed through the valley as we kept pushing on. That was probably my favorite part.

We decided to move camp up the valley to British camp the next day. We were surprised to find the whole place to ourselves and only being a 20 minute walk from the Mirador. The Mirador is located in the center part of Torres where you can see part of the Towers along with hanging glaciers, drama-tic ridges, and valley glaciers. That was really neat too, especially with lenticular clouds everywhere.

During the last of our trek, we spent most of our time on the western side of Torres near Glacier Grey and met some super friendly people. We drank tea and whiskey in front of Glacier Grey, which only calved maybe once or twice, and barely even that… I’ve been majorly spoiled after seeing Johns Hopkins Glacier in Alaska.

We recouped in Puerto Natales after our trek and made plans to head southeast into Argentina to see Fitz Roy, a big rock supposedly more dramatic than the Towers themselves. We’d heard of the notorious weather around Fitz Roy and stories of people camping out for five days but still not being able to see it. It sounded like our cup of tea so we hopped on a bus.

We camped out for two snowy, much colder than Torres nights and saw nil. We booked our bus ticket a day early assuming that the weather wouldn’t clear up. Of course it cleared up the day we left, so we sprinted like fools to the look-out, snapped photos, trudged back wondering if we should stay or go, and then hopped on another bus.

After the perils of bus systems and tickets, we spoiledly returned to Santiago by air. After scrambling around to get things done, we flew north and somehow ended up in Oklahoma.

http://melindawebster.com/patagonia

The End.

The South Pacific!

2006-12-30T15:20:00.000-08:00

I’m currently flying over South Park, Colorado and have decided to tell some details about the trip to the South Pacific and Patagonia.

The South Pacific trip began in Papeete, Tahiti where I boarded the National Geographic Endeavour a little jetlagged. I couldn’t tell you if Tahiti was as pretty as old world war II posters or not because I arrived during the night. They gave us lais though, so that stereotypical part of the S. Pacific might be true (but only in the Papeete Airport).

The following days were filled with island bouncing as we visited Bora Bora, Makatea, Fakarava, Ravahere, Raroia, Henderson Island, Pitcairn Island, Easter Island, and other hard to pronounce places. The ultimate places worth mentioning are Ravahere (I think?), Pitcairn Island, and Ducie Island.

Ravahere (I think?)… probably a place I shouldn’t have seen being such an amateur diver; I’ll probably be disappointed 98% of the time I go again. The coral reef was a sharp sloping ledge that gave way into the unknown, which you could see 150+ feet into. A little intimidating to some, but I thought it was super neat. We saw loads and loads of undersea critters, including blue clams, nurse sharks, and triggerfish (bad, they’ll bite your head).

That reminds me, we saw sickle fin lemon sharks as well, but that was at Bora Bora. This was perhaps the first time that I wondered what kind of situation I put myself in. These guys were HUGE. I didn’t panic though. I was told freaking out is bad so I try to avoid that as much as possible, especially underwater. Anyhoo, there were loads of lemon sharks around, mostly because people on shark watching tours were feeding them nearby. Looking back on this, that probably wasn't the bets idea. We eventually lost interest anyhow and the dive group headed elsewhere. While I was swimming along, I kept hearing a low hum. I looked up for a boat but saw nothing. Out of no where and probably one of the most random things I’ve seen, a humming yellow submarine started following us. Huh. People inside the submarine knocked on the sides to get our attention. I promptly swam in a circle and swam away. The lemon sharks were cooler.

Pitcairn Island, ahh now that’s a tricky place to talk about. Most people who’ve heard of Pitcairn Island think of a picture-perfect private tropical island. Well kind of. It is a majorly beautiful island in the fact of its geology and flora. The cliffs are extremely vertical with waves crashing in their tide pools (they looked pretty dangerous but the locals called these tide pools their swimming holes). So yes, it’s beautiful, you could say Fletcher Christian picked a nice island to live on.

Things have changed a bit since Christian’s time, however. There are about 50 people inhabiting the island now and they speak English with a British accent (Pitcairn is part of the U.K.). The island is still beautiful, but the politics are quite scary. The majority of men on the island have been convicted of child abuse, rape, molestation, etc. and frankly, if you’re a girl stuck on that island, that’d be an extremely frightening situation to be in. These guys are being tried in New Zealand, which seems fine but there's a problem. Having only 50 people on the island, who’s going to do their work while they're in jail? Pitcairn now has police patrolling the island (a new thing since the convictions). This seems crazy to me, but much needed obviously. I worked in Glacier Bay National Park over the summer, which is located by Gustavus, a town of 350-400 people. They have no police. This 50-inhabitant island does. So yes, Pitcairn was a little depressing to learn about but I'm glad I did.

Ducie Island, now that was probably my favorite next to diving in Ravahere. The island was phenomenal. Totally uninhabited by humans, but seabirds are a different story. There were birds, chicks, and eggs EVERYWHERE! White (fairy) terns, murphy’s petrel, brown noddies, sooty tern, masked booby, and probably others that I didn’t catch the names of. What made that visit so great was the fact that these birds had no fear of people. They’ve probably never even seen a human before. So walking up and snapping a picture was no problem. They were just as curious of us as we were of them. The chicks didn’t move an inch as you walked by. That was our last stop until Easter Island. It was a great way to end the S. Pacific.

Oh wait, life on the boat. Perhaps I should mention some things about that too. Well I shared a bunk in a room in the back/low part of the ship. It had no port holes so sleeping any time of the day was simple, and slightly problematic adjusting to whatever time zone we were on. The scruffy kiwi actually worked which I had never seen before. Huh! The food was absolutely delicious. The bread, oh sweet Jesus, was so tasty. And the soup! Ahh… fresh fish almost every day. I’ve got to stop. Oh! And the desserts. Man.

So yes, the life on the boat was very fun, everyone managed to stay out of trouble (like always), the food was extremely delicious, and I’m certainly grateful I even got to go.

http://melindawebster.com/southpacific

Well...

2006-12-28T18:47:00.000-08:00

I was going to write an update but I don't remember what I was going to write about.

oklahomaoklahomaoklahomaoklahoma

2006-12-12T14:01:00.000-08:00

I'm in Oklahoma today and will be here for about 2-3 more weeks. After the holiday hubbub, I'll temporarily move to Woods Hole, Mass...a chu...setts to do part of SEA semester shore component where I'll learn how to tie knots and other things.

After I learn a thing or two, I'll fly back to Oklahoma to do laundry and get sailor clothes and then fly to Papeete, Tahiti. At that point, I will be very jet-lagged and grumpy but I'll get a decent night's rest maybe and then board a 135' brigantine.

The gameplan is to end up in/at/near Honolulu in March. If that actually happens is another thing but I think this is going to be really, really funny.

Love,
Melinda

i'm building an army...

2006-12-01T19:05:00.000-08:00

of snowmen and snowwomen. There is a ton of snow in Colorado, where I am at the moment. It's pretty and ridiculously cold.

Love,
Melinda

torres del paine...

2006-11-03T09:38:00.000-08:00

esta mañana! hace mucho sol y viento en puerto natales hoy y ayer pero la ciudad esta tan hermosa. hay 20 mil personas aqui pero el centre de la ciudad es pequeña. mi amigo y yo caminaran en torres mañana por siete o ocho dias. perfecto. necesito mas ropa.

it's a date!

2006-10-10T21:22:00.000-07:00

Tahiti, 6:30 p.m. Friday, be there!

xo,
melinda

I can't handle it anymore.

2006-08-29T10:11:00.000-07:00

I'm going to Ecuador.

Love,
Melinda

puffins, glaciers, and bears

2006-04-26T07:02:00.000-07:00

I'm working in Alaska for 4/5ish months starting May 10th.

http://alaskaw.blogspot.com/

Love,
melinda

Californey.

2006-03-14T12:09:00.000-08:00

It's finally stopped raining in San Luis Obispo. I think we may head North to Monterey, or to be more specific, Ocean Pacific.

2006-01-25T15:48:00.000-08:00

this is me

The Greatest News Ever.

2005-11-21T14:28:00.000-08:00

I found my camera battery charger.

I did it!

2005-11-18T17:26:00.000-08:00

What do you think?