Just some pics of crazy sevens costumes

Men in orange halter tops, jesters and Romans watching smurfs jump into the harbor (not pictured).

Another view of the crowd watching the swimming smurfs. The red guys are priests, behind them are some oompa loompas, etc.
Daisies!
Fruits and veggies, and a calendar tile?

For more pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/hannah.kim.frank/EarlyWellington?authkey=Gv1sRgCPPSyoXQnbztjQE#

Getting my bearings

Whew! It has been a long couple days in Wellington. Mostly my calves are killing me from walking up and down all the hills. This is what I get for never exercising, well, ever. Most of the walking has been a part of flat hunting. This is a perplexing and somewhat daunting endeavor. I have spent many hours scouring a number of flatmate listing websites and I've sent dozens of emails. (Yes, I know, I'm not a Kiwi. I'm saying "flat" not apartment because that's what everyone here calls it.) There seems to be some pressure to decide very quickly whether one likes the flat or not. I liked a flat today and found out 6 hours after I left that they'd given it to someone else. I'm seeing two more flats tomorrow and hopefully the one I liked yesterday will still be available. Fulbright won't let me be homeless, right?

Other than the mad flat search, I've been doing a fair amount of meeting people and exploring. I met with Anne, one of my advisers, yesterday. (I didn't know she'd be my adviser until yesterday but she seems lovely.) She's an immunologist. It seems like whatever I work on with Nicky, my original adviser, will be tied to the work of a graduate student working on salmonella infections in tuatara. (She invited me to collect samples on Monday but I'm in stupid Fulbright orientation.) The project seems like it could be very cool ... as soon as I/we figure out what it will be exactly. I need to do a ton of reading about tuatara but right now my brain is so fried from exhaustion and flat hunting, it's amazing I'm typing complete sentences. (Assuming I am.) Perhaps more exciting than meeting Anne, I saw my very first live tuatara!!! It was in an exhibit in one of the university buildings, but I was pretty excited. (pic at the top)

I'm also getting a crash course in Kiwi vocabulary and slang. After being perplexed for a day I finally figured out that "sweet as" is the complete phrase and I stopped waiting for the noun to follow "as." (It means something to the effect of "it's all good" or "no worries.") I also found out that "capsicum" is a bell pepper, "aubergine" an eggplant, a "paper" is a university course and that I just graduated from "uni" and not "college" which they use to mean high school. Although I'm beginning to master these phrases, I am still completely baffled by the Maori words that are frequently used in newspaper and magazine articles, usually without definition. I think we learn a bit of Maori at the Fulbright orientation; maybe that will help.

Perhaps the biggest event going on right now in Wellington is the 7s tournament. This is a tournament for the Rugby Sevens in which 7 member rugby teams play 14 minute long games. (Don't ask me anything else about the game. I know nothing.) Teams are here from all over the world (including the USA). Why is this relevant to a girl who knows nothing about rugby or sports in general? Because the entirety of Wellington has been overrun by drunken people in costumes. (Apparently it's a huge tradition to dress up in costumes for the 7s, especially in groups.) In my flat hunting and various other runnings about town I have passed: 20 men in black hotpants, tights, orange tank tops and orange wigs; all of the power rangers; Thomas the tank engine and friends; assorted fruits and vegetables -- inexplicably accompanied by a calendar; daisies; assorted men in drag; 4 people dressed in MC Hammer toting a boombox which played "Can't touch this"; a number of native Americans; priests; nuns (men and women) and my personal favorite: 5 grown men dressed as the spice girls. I still feel bad for the guy who had to be Ginger Spice (... though he really did rock the Union Jack dress). I was spared an event of last year: a picture in the paper of a man in a Borat mankini after 12 hours of partying. Other famous costumes include the 101 dalmations (there actually are 101 people moving in a pack all dressed as numbered dalmations) and the Marilyns (a herd of men dressed as Marilyn Monroe who attend every year or pass down their costume when they cannot attend). I was also escorted to a flat viewing by 3 drunk guys (one soldier and two martial artists) who discovered I was American. It's been fun. (Also, to my roommates or anyone who saw our costume Halloween 2008, I saw 4 guys dressed as the ninja turtles wearing nothing but painted tighty whiteys and body paint. I think we've been beaten.)

Other than that, I've met the other Fulbrighters in Wellington now. They all seem very nice and interesting. It's also nice to have someone to talk to/ not have to sit at a restaurant by yourself. More about them later. Wellington continues to be exceedingly beautiful. I wandered around the botanical gardens today and stumbled upon a small hillside completely covered by hydrangeas of all colors in full bloom. It was gorgeous.

Summary:
- My calves are about to revolt any second now. Hopefully I'll have an apartment to show for it.
- After 18 months of talking about them, I have finally seen my first real live tuatara!!!! (It didn't move and it was behind glass, but I'm taking it!) And I also have provided photographic evidence that they are really cute!
- Wellington is overrun with drunk people. Turns out it has something to do with this rugby tournament. And here I was thinking that people usually wear extensive body paint, dress up as characters from avatar, Alices in Wonderland, crayons and lollipops. At least I know that Secret Santa is not a fluke; men everywhere love drag.
- Oh yeah, it's still really pretty. And summer.

Kia ora!

That means roughly "hi" in Maori.

I'm in New Zealand! It's kind of hard to believe, but I made it! The flight from LAX to Auckland was actually quite painless. Air New Zealand is an amazing airline -- lots of great movies, tv and music to entertain you (and the free wine doesn't hurt either -- until you realize air travel is already dehydrating). I was incredibly grateful that the baby sitting 2 rows ahead of me was quiet the entire flight.

A note about New Zealand security -- they care deeply about whether you've declared the trail mix in your bag and how clean your boots are, not so much about liquids, what's in your shoes or how much access you've had to your bags. I was delayed for 15 minutes as the "biosafety" department cleaned my hiking boots. This made me late enough that I had to take my checked baggage the 900m to the domestic terminal myself with 40 minutes until my flight took off. I made it in time but I was glowing when I got there.

Ok, you guys aren't hear to read about my adventures on my uneventful flights. The good stuff: Wellington is GORGEOUS. There are trees everywhere so it kind of looks like someone sprinkled houses along the hills surrounding the harbor. The harbor itself is spectacular. Today was an absolutely beautiful day -- a slight breeze but nothing like the wind that gives the city its nickname as the "windy city." (Unlike Chicago, this has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with the Southerlies from Antarctica which can knock you sideways. ) There's a walkway that runs along the harbor connecting the national museum, Te Papa, the civic square (which has a museum whose front has been covered in polka dots for a current exhibit), rock climbing gyms and tons of public art.

I arrived in Wellington at 8am and was met by a lovely woman from Fulbright. We took my bags to the hotel I'm staying at and then she gave me a walking tour of the city as we went to the Fulbright office. I got to use their internet and had morning tea with all the people in the office. Must be that famous Kiwi friendliness.

The city center is very small and very walkable. After my computer battery died, I walked the city for a couple of hours waiting until check in time. There are tons of cafes here everywhere and they're all adorable. Also, it turns out strangers really are friendlier here: I was looking at a map and a girl walked right up to me to give me directions.

Of course, the day was not without its minor hiccups: I managed to make my converter emit smoke, which I'm pretty sure means it's dead. Turns out you shouldn't use a converter for your computer, just an adaptor. (Which I got at a nearby store -- yay walkable cities.) I also managed to, in my sleep deprivation, fall prey to an internet scam which necessitated my canceling one of my two credit cards. Oy vey. At least all my bags made it. Everything is better with clean underwear.

Now the task of the day is finding an apartment. I've spent the better part of 4 hours on the functional equivalent of craigslist emailing people about flats. I suspect this will get easier once I have a phone. (Side note: Skype is a brilliant brilliant invention and if any of you would like to talk to me on said brilliant invention, I'd love to hear from you.)

For now it's off to bed. At 9:38pm it is finally dark. At 8pm I would've sworn it was late afternoon. It's summer here and we're pretty far south (41 degrees S), but it was still a shock. I hope all of you are well. I'll post a pic tomorrow.

Summary:
- I'm in New Zealand!
- It's absolutely gorgeous here: trees, lots of water, friendly people.
- Still there is much to do (apartment hunting, sleep).
- I cannot be trusted with things that plug in or connect to the internet. This does not bode well for my future.
- At least I have clean underwear.

Getting ready to leave!

Six days until my flight takes off for New Zealand! I'm pretty excited and also pretty nervous. It finally hit me last night that I am about to go to the opposite side of the world where I know no one and have no place to live. I'm excited about the prospect of being a real person but after 22 years of living with my parents or in a dorm with an unlimited meal plan things should be interesting. At any rate my first attempts at cooking should be interesting. (I'm predicting a lot of pasta and scrambled eggs.)

Other than the nerves, preparations are going well. I stopped working at the vet's office on Jan 8 and spent the week after that in Baja California with my family. It was gorgeous and warm and I had a great time hanging out (despite my GRE studying). I saw a number of lizards which is always exciting. (Didn't catch any at the request, er, begging, of my family.) Mexico also has some amazing hummingbirds. (These too freak my brother out.)

I have spent the last few days running around collecting pieces of papers from various locations (international driving permit, immunization records, etc.) and notifying credit card companies that I'll be in New Zealand. So much to do. Logically I'd leave it all to the last moment. Anyway, I should start packing. If anyone wants a postcard, email me your mailing address: hannah.kim.frank@gmail.com

Summary:
- New Zealand's coming up soon!
- No more dogs and cats. Bring on the reptiles!
- When moving to a foreign country for the year, start preparing more than a week in advance
- postcards!

Adventures in animal land

Apologies for the lag in posting. It's harder to figure out what to write when I'm not in a jungle constantly seeing cool things. I promise to pick up the pace once I hit New Zealand.

New Zealand preparations are underway. I have my student visa in hand. And I now officially have my plane ticket booked (February 1st!). I arrive just in time for the Sevens rugby tournament. (That made finding a hotel for the first weekend kind of challenging.) I still do not have the slightest clue where I will be living. My plan is to go on the NZ equivalent of Craigslist and spend the first couple weeks I'm there looking for an apartment. Those of you who know me well (or have lived with me) know that I am not a relaxed person. I'm kind of nervous about this whole "moving to the opposite side of the globe to a place where I don't know anyone nor do I have a place to stay." I'm trying not to think about it. But mostly as the time draws near I'm getting excited. If anyone has any "can't miss" NZ destinations, please tell me.

Work at the veterinary hospital has been a lot of fun. The doctors and my fellow technicians are lovely and incredibly willing to teach me new things. I, in turn, have been teaching them new things somewhat unintentionally, mostly esoteric facts about reptiles. (Not unlike the insights I share on this blog.) At the very least, I keep everyone laughing at what a huge nerd I am. Among my new skills include the ability to draw blood from dogs and cats, insert IVs, monitor patients under anesthesia during surgery and do dental cleanings. I also do a fair amount of cleaning up after the patients and things like nail trims and vaccines. It feels a little like a throwback to when barbers were also the surgeons and the dentists. (Don't worry, they don't actually let me do surgery.)

I unfortunately do not have as many funny stories as I thought I would. Certainly there are funny moments -- trying to lift an obese golden retriever onto an x-ray table with a girl who weighted less than the dog, subduing a dog who wouldn't stop urinating, clients who complain that their dog's toenails "just keep growing," animals whose nails have been polished by well-intentioned little kids, and people who name their pets after their breed, for lack of anything better to do (a bichon frise named "Bichoni", a tortoiseshell cat named "Tortie"). I also am now so scratched up that if I didn't know better, I'd think I was cutting myself in my sleep. Still, it's really wonderful when you see a really sick animal get better. And where else do you get paid to play with puppies and kittens?

Things at the zoo are going well. I've gotten faster at fish prep and yesterday I got to go in with the harbor seals and help the keepers. I pretended to give a seal a vaccine (to get it used to being touched when it actually does get a vaccine) and then I got to pet it. It gave me a huge, wet, fishy "kiss". I was so happy all day. (My roommates are reading this and shaking their heads knowingly.)

Happy holidays to all. I'll post again if anything notable comes up.

Summary:
- New Zealand is coming up fast and things are falling into place. Now if I only had a place to live...
- Vet work is fun and dirty. Sometimes people are the funniest part of working with animals.
- If your best idea for a pet name is adding a vowel to the part of the breed name, you shouldn't have a pet. Or at least you should know that the vet techs are laughing at you behind your back.
- I got kissed by a harbor seal!
- Pasadena, CA = less exciting than a Panamanian jungle. Shocking.

Life continues

Hi all. I've been told that just because I'm back from Panama does not mean that I should stop blogging. So here goes, again:

For those of you who were following my Panama posts religiously, a note on the return trip. My flight to Miami was uneventful and my bag made the trip nicely. :) But while waiting in Miami for my flight to LA, two separate people had heart attacks while waiting at the gate!! As my cousin who's from Fort Lauderdale pointed out, there are a lot of old people in Miami. Still, kinda weird. Aerobic exercise people. It's a good thing. They announced that the second person was fine. Dunno about the first. Also, the flight was late taking off and then a thunderstorm started to approach. They told us if it got within 5 miles of the airport, we couldn't take off. It was 10 miles away at the time of the announcement. I've never seen people board so quickly and efficiently.

So, back to California. I have recently become obsessed with baking. Most of you know that I have not the slightest clue how to cook, or should I say "had." Despite the fact that verbs such as "cream" and "beat" are still somewhat foreign to me and I'm still learning the difference between "softened" and "melted" butter, I have managed to make several successful batches of banana muffins and blueberry muffins. I recently also branched into chocolate chip cookies. My mom is on doctor's orders to gain weight, so I don't feel so bad about introducing so many calories into my house. Sadly, baking is what passes for exciting in my life currently.

When I'm not baking, I've started preparing food every Saturday for the grey seals, harbor seals, sea lions and river otters at the LA Zoo. (I'm becoming a regular Julia Child. ... If Julia Child restricted herself to preparing cookies, muffins and 80+ lbs of frozen capelin, herring and mackerel.) Suffice it to say, were I not already a vegetarian, going through 5 slabs of fish and half a log of "carnivore diet" (meat balls for the otters) would be enough to make me convert. I'll spare you guys the details. On the upside, my dog is always interested in me when I get home from the zoo. I'm going to start working at a vet clinic soon. I'm pretty excited. That may bring some interesting stories.

Other than that, life goes on in the Kim-Frank household. My mother continues to be wonderfully eccentric. Her newest thing is trying to teach our dachshund to "do the robot" aka lie on this back and move his front legs. My father is currently screaming at the tv as he watches the U of Michigan football game. Because if you scream at the screen, the ref has a tendency to change his call.

Summary:
- Don't go to the Miami airport if you have heart disease
- I've started "cooking" for humans and pinnepeds alike
- My parents are nuts, but wonderfully so.

:) again

A few hours after I wrote my last post something really exciting happened. Anthony came back from night herping with some friends. He brought back an Imantodes (a slug eating specialist snake). They have huge eyes and are totally adorable. I spent a good amount of time holding it. They camoflauge by acting like twigs so at a certain point they just stop moving and chill on your hand. It's awesome. But the most exciting thing is I got to hold a caiman! Ok, admittedly it was a baby caiman, not longer than 3 ft from the tip of its nose to the tip of its tail, but still! It was totally adorable, had beautiful eyes and was very soft. It was also quite calm which was nice, although I was still able to keep a firm grip when it struggled. I even held it without tape on its mouth. (Totally safe though.)

Yesterday was somewhat uneventful. I spent a lot of time up at the tower trying to find lizards with Anthony. No luck. The guides from the resort have started recognizing me, which is funny. I wonder what they'll talk to the tourists about when the sweaty herpetologists leave... It was fun though. As Anthony pointed out, even if you can't find the lizards, you're still in a gorgeous forest. This morning was more of the same. Pretty walk; few lizards. My only worry is that I'll still want to eat as much after I stop walking 7 + miles a day.

This may very well be my last post about Panama. Unless something remarkable happens on the trip home. We leave tomorrow morning. (I fly to Miami w/ Anthony at 7am!) I'll be back in CA by 3:30pm Pacific time. It was a lot of fun, exhausting and at times frustrating for a number of reasons. Still, if any of you ever have the chance to do field work, do it. How often do you get a chance to see motmots and black vultures (like the one running across the backyard right now) as you're eating breakfast?

Summary:

- held a snake and a caiman!

- the lizards are gone

- I'm outta here!