PanamaanyraM

here be embryos

2012-01-11T11:36:00.000-05:00

Exciting things are afoot.

I'm back in Québec, and getting myself resettled at McGill.
I have loads of samples. I have permits to export animals. That means that soon I will have live embryos here to work with (assuming the animals like living in an artificial aquarium). I've almost got my sequencing project off the ground. I'm in a lab with equipment that I can do a lot of exciting things with, and people who are doing exciting projects. I'm living in a great apartment in a funky part of town with excellent neighbours.

It's shaping up to be a good semester.

Happy 2012.

So many things to discover!

2011-12-01T13:49:00.000-05:00

I've just spent my lunch hour browsing my reader to skim some abstracts and see what's new in the world of science. One article that caught my eye in particular was this one in Nature (hopefully it's not behind a paywall).

It's a short news brief, but basically talks about how much we still don't know about the inner workings of the cell. You might have got the impression from your basic biology textbooks that we had pretty much figured out all of the bits that make up the cell, but in reality, we've just hit the big, obvious things. Nucleus, check. Mitochondria, check. Golgi apparatus, check. This article talks about recently discovered (or re-discovered) structures that are likely playing very important roles in cell-cell communication, and in controlling production processes within the cell. Using a combination of old and new technologies (go electron microscopy!) we are learning more and more about how cells work. And as someone who is interested in how development takes a single cell and turns it into a complex, multi-cellular organism, understanding how cells communicate is an important step!

Although the purpose and importance of some of these emerging structures is not yet clear, the research illustrates that the act of simply observing cells and their contents is alive and well. “A key aspect of doing great science is exploration,” says Davis. “I think that there's a tremendous amount that we learn just by watching.”

When it seems like everyone is pushing to publish the next "sexy" finding, it's good to know that there's still a place for exploring, observing and watching. And that while our knowledge of the living world might seem substantial, there are still so many things that we don't know. And that's the most exciting prospect of all!

As a special bonus, here is a great video of what we do know about how a cell works. One of my absolute favourite biology videos.

science!

2011-11-16T23:34:00.000-05:00

Amazing how the ability to generate data is energizing. Today I finally received my long-awaited reagent; a vital dye (which means it won't kill the cells while I am looking at them) that stains the nucleus. I'm using it to look at fertilization in my embryos. I've been waiting for it since August, and by a long series of tedious and semi-tragic events, it took until now - November - for me to actually get the damn stuff.*

So. This evening, despite being tired and drained from battling a cold for the last two days, I stayed late in lab running an experiment to see that this will work. It needs some optimization, but it looks good to me, assuming I can get the quantity of embryos I need. The realization of how much energy the ability to work had given me hit when I got home around 10pm (I should have stayed later, if not for that pesky cold, my unwillingness to walk home alone after dark, and the low chance of catching a cab at night) and had to meet with a neighbour. And at that point I realized how cool this little experiment really is and started rattling on about it. It even prompted this post. And as an added bonus, this could actually tell me something really interesting about my project, and with a little side work, even become a nice little paper.

See - excitement!
Just the push that I will need to finish up here in a little over three weeks... cripes that's coming up fast.

*On a related note, I am still waiting for many of the other things that were on that list. Sigh.

Welcome to (R)October

2011-10-01T18:33:00.000-04:00

My, but how time flies! Here we are, already October (the first day, but still a shiny new month). And here I am, on my way to somewhere else again.

The opportunity came up to participate in a workshop on comparative genomics at the Smithsonian in Washington. Seeing as this is something I need all the help I can get with, here I am, sitting at Tocumen airport in Panama, sipping on a Balboa and reviewing UNIX commands before my flight boards. Class starts on Monday and runs for the rest of the week. I'm hoping that this will kick my ass into gear with the aspects of my own genomics projects that I'm having difficulty with. Namely all of them. It's been hard to motivate myself to work out nitty-gritty details on my own. There aren't a lot of people working on development here other than myself, and my lab doesn't have a lot of experience with genomics. Which makes it difficult to bounce ideas off of people that I know. And there are a lot of things to think about. My supervisors are doing what they can to motivate me, but at the end of the day I am the one doing the work, and figuring out what needs doing. Hence, getting myself to Washington to learn more about the bioinformatics end of things.

As an extra bonus, I get to spend some time with friends that live in DC. And the best part of all, add on a couple of days in New England to visit my fella on his fall break. And did I mention that it is fall in New England and the leaves should be spectacular? Here's hoping.

Other than that, I've been doing a fair bit of field collecting (which you may have noticed if you also follow my flickr stream), and freezing embryos like a mad-woman. Time consuming, but very necessary.

The next two months (yikes!) before I head home for a stretch promise to be jam-packed with lab work. I'll try to add updates, but I have a sneaking suspicion that if I plan to finish everything I have set for myself, I will not have a moment of downtime to spare for things that are not sleep or sustenance*.

So with that in mind, a happy fall to everyone (or spring, for those of you reading from the southern hemisphere). Consider yourselves lucky to be breaking out the sweaters and scarves. For some reason, I really want to be able to break out a chunky sweater and a fancy scarf. And some wool socks. *Sigh*. Autumnal dreams...

*That being said, I do have the goal of making a trip to somewhere in Panama - anywhere - that I haven't been to before. What's the point of being here if I never see anything other than the inside of the lab?

Saturday afternoon in Ancon

2011-08-13T17:32:00.000-04:00

Once more unto the breach dear friends, once more;
or have nothing to study!

Another four months in Panama for me started this week. I must admit, it was a lot more exciting going to Illinois and Massachusetts, but that's probably because Panama isn't new anymore. The same problems and the same joys are still here, and not much has changed. Well, other than me. I have a better idea of what I'm doing, and more confidence with which to do it. That doesn't mean that I'm not as procrastinate-y as ever, but it does mean that I have some definite goals while I'm here.

By the time I finish this stint (I'm here until December) I will have spent over a year here in the tropics. A part of this trip is to have "big things" to show for my time here. Otherwise, why bother being here? It's not like I really enjoy spending long periods of time away from home. And I have been at this degree for two years now. I really ought to have something concrete to show for it soon. Other than an intestinal parasite and a taste for Abuelo. *

Time to go do.

* No, I do not have an intestinal parasite. Yet.
Abuelo, however, is a perfectly acceptable thing to bring home.

MPL at MBL

2011-06-28T01:51:00.001-04:00

The Crepidula Hunter a photo by anyram on Flickr.

Well, my time here may be winding down, but that doesn't mean I don't have another few minutes to wait before my next rinse. Which, coincidentally, coincides with the amount of time it takes to write a blog post.
For all of June I've been learning for money at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) at Woods Hole, MA. Which, if you didn't already know, is where it's at in terms of doing the embryology. While technically, I'm here as a teaching assistant, I have managed to learn far more than I have taught. And that isn't just me saying that we have really great students here. We also have great faculty, course assistants, equipment, facilities and more antibodies and material than you can shake a stick at. Which leaves me to absorb as much as I can, while also trying to complete my own projects while I'm here. I've done pretty well getting them started - less well getting them finished. Suffice it to say that four weeks (minus one for a great conference in Boston) is not nearly enough.
Maybe if I stayed in the lab more, and didn't go off to hunt for my own animals so often...

Next stop: Saskatoon for the weekend to celebrate with family, and then my long-anticipated two weeks at home!

first patio of the season

2011-05-01T20:20:00.001-04:00

first patio of the season a photo by anyram on Flickr.

Just to prove that I actually spent a *whole* weekend at home, and that we had time to inaugurate the patio. It will be very nice come summer, especially once we install a barbecue. I will get to spend two whole days at home in May, and then an astonishing three weeks in July before I will need to be back in Panama.

new month, new institution

2011-04-29T23:40:00.001-04:00

Well, here I am in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Or is it Urbana-Champaign? Who knows these picky local details. Suffice it to say, I am currently a visiting scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where I am busy learning all kinds of techniques (and even showing off a few of my own). I got funding to do a research exchange here through something called EDEN - the Evo-Devo-Eco Network, a National Science Foundation research coordination network. That basically means that I'm here for the next few weeks to try out some new techniques, and learn some new skills.

So far, so good. I arrived on Monday evening, and I've already done loads of stuff. I would go into details, but the techniques that I'm doing aren't that exciting when you start to explain them. Molecular techniques sound really cool and difficult, but appear to boil down to adding minute quantities of things to very small tubes and sometimes transferring them to other tubes. I would wait for the video if I were you. Ah, video. Part of the funding requirements are that I produce video of the protocols that I'm learning here as a resource for the developing Evo-Devo-Eco community. Which will be completely non-entertaining to do, but hopefully useful for someone else.

I seem to have arrived at a rather opportune time. Aside from it being well and truly spring here, there is also the EbertFest - Roger Ebert's very own film festival, held in the refurbished and beautiful Virginia Theatre. I went to Metropolis on Wednesday, and it was spectacular. Tomorrow night, more movies!

I'm living in Graduate/Married Student housing, which is quiet and spacious. A little too quiet and spacious. After spending a month in Panama with four housemates, being alone is a bit of a shocker. Especially after having spent Easter weekend at home.

But I'm very busy. And I've decided to start up a running program again. I found a really nice route though - across the park, through the Japanese tea gardens*, across the street to the university large animal veterinary barns. Round barns no less.

Tomorrow is Saturday, so I'll sleep in a bit, but then there's lab work to be done, and assorted other work to catch up on. But I'm planning to head out with my camera, so I'll post some pictures soon. There's also the marathon run this weekend, so bus service will be somewhat sporadic, so a good reason to go out for a walk.

So, while being away from home is less than ideal, I'm having a great time and learning a lot of things. Which I guess is the whole point. That and taking advantage of seeing great movies!

*There is actually a Japanese tea house a stone's throw from my apartment. Tea ceremonies are Thursday afternoons. Yes, I will be skipping out of work early to take part.

pulling me back to shore

2011-03-20T14:46:00.001-04:00

pulling me back to shore a photo by anyram on Flickr.

Ever since the earthquake and ensuing tsunami in Japan, I have been thinking about this place, Matsushima. I took this picture about four years ago, hitch-hiking my way south from Sapporo to Kyoto. It's a little bit north of Sendai, and purported to be one of the three most beautiful places in Japan. We got a ride from a young guy with a souped up car and three cell phones that he seemed to be talking on all at once while he drove us from the highway into this little tourist town.

Although this place is in a protected bay, and was spared much of the damage from the tsunami, nearby towns have been destroyed and lives lost. I'm lucky though. My friends in Japan were not affected by the disaster, but I can't help thinking about this little town, the beautiful coastline, and the people I met there.

itchy itchy, scratchy scratchy

2011-03-20T14:09:00.000-04:00

From shoveling snow to swatting mosquitos. Yup, back in Panama.

I'm caught between being happy to be here and getting to work, feeling guilty and somewhat embarrassed about not having gotten down here sooner, and sad to be away from home. And then there's the constant feeling of being overwhelmed by everything I want/need to accomplish.

I'm taking a weekend of relative ease, mostly to plan my next moves while I'm here. I have about a month before I start moving around for the summer. The plan so far? After Panama, a weekend at home for Easter, then off to Illinois for a research exchange. After that, a month at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. A weekend in the Paris of the Prairies for family and celebrations, and then a week of vacation with my fella' on the Canadian East Coast. That takes me into July. Not bad, knowing where I'll be for at least the next four months.

At any rate, posting will probably continue to be sporadic. Ideally, I'd like to accomplish three months of work in a little over one, so it's safe to say I won't have a lot of spare time. If you've actually kept reading this blog despite my complete lack of posting, then you are indeed a dedicated reader.

bad bad grad

2010-10-08T06:48:00.000-04:00

Well that was an unproductive month*. It's a good thing September is over, because it was a crappy month anyways. August was fun: presentations, coursework, unexpected funding... and then September was all writing and wasted efforts. Though as my roommate pointed out, I did do a lot of reading that should be useful in the long run. Here's hoping October will make things happen.

But instead of buckling down to get things done, I'm running away for a week to recover some sanity. Hopefully the distance from work for at least a few days will give me new impetus to do that buckling down and actually accomplish something. Which would be a good idea, seeing as this semester I have to jump through some scholarly hoops, and prove to my committee that I can stay in school.**

* Why yes, I suppose we are already a week into October. Don't tell me that. I want to live in my little dream world where time pauses because I still have things I need to do. Either way, September still sucked.

** Which I'm sure will be fine if I ever finish writing my proposal. The one for my thesis, not the other one I was writing (that we didn't even submit). Gah. Stupid proposals.

Well that must have been at least 20 minutes of effort. It must be time for a break.

2010-09-17T19:20:00.000-04:00

That's about how my brain is functioning these days. I guess that's the trouble with proposal writing - there's always something else that you would rather be doing.

Clean the cat litter? Super!
Make some more coffee? Why not!
Check the facebook status of everyone you know? Valuable use of time!
Download more references? I'm sure they'll come in handy eventually! Even if you don't read them!
Check the news in three different languages on at least 15 different websites? Can't hurt to know what's going on in the world!
Update your blog? Hey, at least it's writing!

I've also decided that I need to see home, so I splurged and bought a very overpriced flight to Montreal. Just don't tell my supervisor. I'm sure it's a terrible idea, at least considered from the work perspective, but then again, I haven't seen my home since June.

In other news, I have plenty of embryos, but no protocols worked out to preserve them. I'm sure they'll stop producing as soon as I figure out what I want to do with them. Because of course, I am interested in early stages. Fingers crossed that it doesn't become an issue. At least fixing embryos will be contributing to actually getting some data for this thesis, and not just compromising my sanity with never-ending proposal writing.

lazy hazy crazy

2010-08-29T17:49:00.000-04:00

Today was supposed to be all productive and writing, but that hasn't worked out so well. At least updating is writing and that's much closer to what I should be doing today than aimlessly surfing the interwebs.

It's been a busy month. That policy course I was taking, while officially over, now refuses to finish. We are still doing interviews, etc. and the course ended nearly two weeks ago. Uncharacteristically, I am not being very helpful to the group paper we are putting together. But I have bigger fish, er, snails to fry. Preferably in garlic and butter. I am in the process of writing grant proposals, but extra funding for my project has materialized, seemingly out of thin air for me to go in a very interesting direction. And not exactly in a direction that I thought I would be moving into: next generation sequencing and transcriptomics. I don't know what that means either*. I am very excited and overwhelmed by it all -- it's not every day that people are coming to you wanting to give you extra money for research.

So that's all very good.

My next feat will be to move into my office. I have a key, all I'm missing is a desk. That isn't being used by someone else. Long story short, some people may look like grown-ups, but they behave like children. Especially when it comes to sharing.

So, the next few weeks I will be reading and writing, writing and reading. With a short break to go out collecting. And getting a better idea of what exactly I want to do with my new-found research monies.

*Okay, that's not true. Mostly.

it's raining ants

2010-08-16T10:02:00.000-04:00

Two things I forgot (or tried to forget) that I didn't like about living in the tropics:

1) Ants are everywhere. Especially my kitchen. We have a serious issue with some kind of little tiny ants that go everywhere, and get into all of my food. Including this morning's breakfast. I'm not impressed when my cereal has legs. On the plus side, at least I noticed before I started eating.

2) Rain. It rains a lot, and when it does I just want to sleep. And as an added bonus, it makes it hard to catch the elusive taxis.

That is all.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Model UNFCCC

2010-08-07T16:26:00.000-04:00

And back to Panama...
Things here are as hot and humid as ever, though I and my colleagues probably have more warming on the brains than ever before. My first few weeks here are being spent doing a course in Environmental Policy -- mostly in discussion of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), two major pieces of international legislation that include various associated protocols. One you may have heard of called the Kyoto Protocol.

You would think that a course in policy could be taught anywhere in the world, but the professors are working hard to make being in Panama worthwhile, particularly for students that aren't based here for research. This week has been all about getting the nuts and bolts under our belts so that next week we can hand in a short paper, participate in a negotiation simulation (hence the title of this post) and then start working on a term paper that involves interviewing local stakeholders that may be impacted by international policies. The professors have many contacts here, and I can't imagine getting the same things out of a similar course taught in Canada. Sure, we would get the same basic understanding of the policies, but not the same opportunities to meet and talk to people working with government, NGOs and other countries to make these policies happen. I'll admit to not looking forward to the negotiation simulation next week -- I've never been particularly good at those sort of things, and there's a reason that I'm in biology and not a field that requires negotiation! Maybe my taxi haggling skills will come in handy?

Other than being snowed under with reading and work, it's good to be back. Of course, I miss being at home, but for the moment I'm too busy to think about it. Today it was nice to enjoy sleeping in, having a late brunch with my housemates and doing standard things like laundry.

I'm looking forward to getting to my own work, and I'm excited to have already made a few contacts here at the Smithsonian that will help me with new directions in my research, but that will have to wait at least a week or two. Though not too long... grant deadlines are looming.

A homecoming of sorts

2010-07-06T00:00:00.000-04:00

The last few weeks I've been in ecstasy... I'm at Friday Harbor Laboratories (part of the University of Washington) on San Juan Island, not too far from my old stomping grounds in Victoria. I'm taking a course, but the course is basically all about deep and abiding love for all things spineless (sorry boyfriend and family and friends -- you have all taken a back seat to adorable invertebrate babies).

The course is officially called "Comparative Invertebrate Embryology", but deep down, it's just about raising as many cute invertebrate babies as you can, and drawing pictures of them. Sometimes taking photographs. This involves starting with the basic ingredients of eggs + sperm. Which are obtained by a variety of entertaining and somewhat icky methods. Sometimes it's easy: turn animal upside down and warm slightly. Spawning! Yes, I am scaring animals into thinking that they are going to die, and that it is their last chance to reproduce. Sometimes it's more difficult: inject substances into the animal that tell them to spawn. Usually a hormone or something that changes their neural chemistry enough to trick them into spawning. Sometimes it involves vivisection and smooshing gonads through a seive. Less pretty, but often effective. Sometimes nothing works. The tricky part after that is to keep your babies alive long enough for them to grow into sickeningly cute juveniles. That can be difficult, and more so now that we have about a billion species in lab to look at.

Today I spawned not one, but two different species of mollusc, and as a result watched not one, but two different kinds of cleavage*. It was fantastic. I have pictures, but I'm too lazy to put them here. Eventually I will get some of them onto my flickr site, so if you're interested in cleavage(s), keep an eye out.

Oh yeah, I also went to the best wedding ever thanks to my best friend ever. So it's pretty much been an amazing time out here.

In a couple of short weeks I will say goodbye to the west coast (but I'll be back... I just don't know when), and hello rodeo. A week in AB visiting family and friends, followed by a cross country check up before I get on a plane to Panama again. I haven't thought too much about that part of the summer. It's only a few weeks, but it feels very far away.

* Yes, cleavage. I play with sperm and then watch cleavage all day long. Welcome to invertebrate embryology.

Arizona: A Centre for Ants

2010-05-25T01:27:00.000-04:00

Ants?
Ants you say?
But you thought I was studying snails?

Well, I am still studying snails. I just happen to be in Arizona this week with another member of the lab looking for ants. Apparently, AZ is THE PLACE for cool ants.

It's not quite a random as it sounds. A couple of months ago, I got an offer to go along on a collecting trip with another student in the lab, as she couldn't go alone, and nobody else was going to be around. Not being one to turn down an all expenses paid trip, I signed up.

So far, we've been pretty successful. We're looking for one particular species of ant, Monomorium. They're very small, black ants that make their nests under small-ish rocks. We're interested in them, because it seems that for this species, colonies that live higher up in the mountains have queens that are able to fly, while the colonies at lower elevations produce queens that don't have wings, and so can't fly. This makes a difference to how much mixing there is between populations, and the potential to make new species, and also makes for some interesting developmental differences. How do the different types (with or without wings) actually come to be at the developmental level? And if they are all one species (and so have the same genetic machinery telling them how to make a queen), how do they decide to make wings or not to make wings?

We're here looking for high elevation colonies, so we've been spending a lot of time driving up into the mountains. When we get there, we turn over lots of rocks to collect whole colonies. The queens are especially important, as they are the only ones who reproduce in the colony (that's a whole other interesting story). We're also looking for larvae and embryos of the future reproductive ants -- future queens and males. Those are the ones that have wings, so my colleague is particularly interested in collecting those ones.

I've been having a lot of fun collecting ants. I think it's probably more fun to help with someone else's project, as you don't have to worry so much about what happens after you do the collecting. And as an added bonus, I'm learning some of the species names that everyone throws around the lab.

Oh, and eating lots of yummy Mexican food. Which is the *real* reason I wanted to come along.

semaine de relâche

2010-02-26T11:11:00.000-05:00

I've been thoroughly enjoying the past week -- perhaps little too much. I'm at home in Trois-Rivières, and supposed to be working for reading week. I have been working and reading, but not nearly enough writing as I was supposed to. Or perhaps I just thought I would accomplish more. Ah, the standard lament of a student in reading week.

I have a list of things to do about as long as my arm, and I think I've been able to cross of maybe one item. Closer to half an item. So here it is, Friday, and I still have all of those other things to finish. And seeing as it's Friday, I really don't want to do them. I won't even go into what I'm working on, because one of the major problems I'm having is that I'm very much forcing myself to be interested in them. Not so surprisingly, the things that I didn't enjoy as an undergraduate I find I still am not enjoying as a doctoral student. Funny how that works.

At any rate, it's been very nice to be at home, to sleep in my own bed and to be distracted during the day by my own cats. And not to feel like I'm intruding on someone else's turf. Even if I think Francis has gotten used to having the apartment to himself...

The rest of the semester I'm sure will fly by, and promises to have lots of exciting things coming up. I'm going to a development conference in April (in Mt. Tremblant, on the lab's dime), and have an offer to go ant collecting in Arizona in May (all expenses paid!). There's still the possibility that I'll be doing an embryology course on the west coast (not covered by the lab), which would bring me back to the west before heading back down to Panama. At some point I suppose I might actually have to do some work on my own research, assuming I ever find the time.

¡Hola! Hello! Âllo!

2010-02-05T00:26:00.000-05:00

We're not in Bocas* anymore.

We are in fact back in the cold bosom of winter. Being tickled by the icy fingers of Jack Frost. Having out pant legs soaked by the salty puddles of slush in Montréal. Winter, happily, is not as bad I had remembered it being. I was actually starting to miss changing seasons while I was in Panama. Give me a few weeks, I'm sure I'll be sick of it soon. February has a way of doing that to you.

Since last I updated, a long, long time ago in a country far, far away, things have been busy. I know, it's shocking. I had a really great couple of weeks at home in TR, a very good Christmas and super-fun New Year's, and then an amazing week in Seattle where I presented the work that I had been doing in Panama. I met loads of people, made some good contacts, and hopefully didn't sound like a dolt while I presented my poster.

The conference was going on while classes were already in session, so I caught the red-eye back to Montreal, had a shower at the new apartment, went to my class on "Gene Activity in Development", had a Spanish placement test and then caught the bus to TR for a weekend of packing before moving more or less to Montreal. I say more or less, because I'm still heading back on alternate weekends.

I've been pretty much consumed by catching up with the first week of classes that I missed, and getting used to life in the big city. Classes are going alright - I'm facing a steep learning curve in the above mentioned biology course, and double-time Spanish acquisition in the intensive Spanish course I succeeded in getting into. So just getting into the rhythm of not one but two mega intense courses has been rough. And I know, two classes doesn't sound like much, but I am supposed have time to do a thorough literature review and design at least some preliminary projects. Oh, and those boring things like eat and sleep as well. And maybe even get out once in a while.

I am really enjoying the lab, even if I have no idea what people are talking about half the time. And not just because they are ant people and I'm a snail person. I feel light years behind in a lot of ways because I come from such an old-school embryological background (morphology, histology, organismal) whereas the lab is full on molecular (they are also organismal though, so I'm happy: they want to know what the molecules are doing at a the whole animal level and beyond, which is more complicated, but that's the way life works). But I'll catch up.

My Spanish is also improving. I can now talk about yesterday, which may not be as zen as only being able to talk in the present (tense, that is), but is much more useful in real life situations. And yes, it is ironic. I study Spanish at McGill - an English-speaking university in a French-speaking city. Though I must say, I probably hear more Spanish than French on the streets some days.

I'm working on connecting with people I know here, and trying to get involved in something that doesn't involve reading or sitting and thinking. I'd better hurry up about it though, because sooner than I think, I'll be off again...

*Bocas del Toro - a supposedly beautiful part of Panama I have never actually visited, but there's a marine station there so it's on my list of places to work next time I head down.

Independence from everything

2009-11-03T23:44:00.000-05:00

This week is the beginning of holiday season in Panama. No, not Thanksgiving (though I'm thinking that being surrounded by Americans is an excellent opportunity to make a turkey, if only I can figure out a way to not have an oven on for hours on end -- it may be the rainy season and cold*, but that's only by Panamanian standards) but a series of days to celebrate independence. Today is independence from Colombia; Thursday is the same thing, but in Colon (it took a couple of days for independence to make it across the isthmus I guess); the 10th is the first call for independence from Spain; the 28th is actual independence from Spain, and the beginning of December marks Mother's Day, which is also considered a national holiday. And then there's the more or less standard Christmas and New Years holidays. I've been told that nothing of an official nature is accomplished here from now until the new year, which is easy to believe.

Not that any of this applies to lowly graduate students. Although I do enjoy holidays, because there are fewer people around the lab to distract me (or to have to share equipment with). I'm thinking more about December 3, which marks my own personal independence from Panama return date. Coming up both far too quickly and not soon enough.

*If you thought I was a cold wimp after living on the west coast, you ain't seen nothing yet.

and on the seventh day, she rested

2009-11-01T14:18:00.000-05:00

Busy, busy, busy.
A little too busy, actually. I'm in the midst of collecting data for a conference in January, reading like mad for this mini-project and you know, that doctorate thing I'm supposed to be working on, and staying in the lab far too much for my own good.

So today, I decided to take a day off. Precipitated by spending all of Saturday in the lab, and getting overly frustrated with the relatively simple tasks I was attempting to accomplish. So today, I did fun house things. CBC Radio (thank God for streaming online radio), laundry (you know you are in the lab too much when laundry becomes a fun task), hanging curtains in the kitchen, reorganizing the living room, and I think I might yet prime my bedroom. My roommate has led me into a painting binge. We did most of the living room -- from baby puke yellow, to a rich red against a warm, nearly mauve-pink neutral. It looks good. Really. The red still needs a few more coats before it's finished, but I'm waiting for her to get back before I do that. And I'd really like to get rid of the dingy, industrial look of my bedroom. Washing the walls and changing the curtains made a huge difference, but now that the painting urge has been released, I feel like taking the next step and putting at least primer on the walls. We'll see.

I shouldn't really be taking the day off based on the amount of work I have to do, but there is, I suppose, a limit. I have been feeling far too stressed for my own good, and I've decided that it is due to me trying to do everything at once. Yes, there are lots of things that I need to and want to do, but trying to do everything at the same time tends to lead to nothing getting accomplished.

And it feels good, so I'm going to run with it.

Hill Top Living

2009-10-03T14:18:00.000-04:00

So, I moved again this week. Let me say, it's much easier to move when everything you own fits into one suitcase and a few small bags. And even though I hardly brought any books here with me, I have a disproportionate number of them already.

Instead of living well on the other side of town in the middle of a traffic nightmare, I now live on a forested hill, reasonably close to work, in a former American canal house. It's lovely. A big room, window, back patio overlooking jungle, and apparently the occasional visiting monkey (I hear they like to visit - I have yet to see them here). And I only share with one other person, as opposed to six. Much better.

Housekeeping

2009-09-26T13:36:00.000-04:00

Happy Saturday all. I'm enjoying a relaxed morning at home with a pot of coffee and streaming CBC radio. Lovely. Next up is studying Spanish. Fun.

Anyways, I thought I would point out that I have activated comments on this blog, as on all of my other blogs. I hear reports that people have had issues with being able to post comments though, so here's a primer. At the bottom of this post is a link to add a comment. Click on that link and you'll reach a comment box. That's where you write your comment. Once you've done that, you choose how you would like to be identified -- I believe it's a little drop down menu. If you aren't a registered user, you can still comment either giving your name, or as anonymous. In any case, you will also have to verify that you are human and not a spamming robot and type in a code. Nothing difficult. If you're still having trouble, you can always just email me. That's cool too. I love to hear feedback in any form.

***

In other housekeeping news, housekeeping, or the lack thereof, is becoming a problem.

At the moment, I'm sharing a house with a number of other people. A Panamanian couple, a Colombian, a French couple and another French girl. People are generally nice, but the kitchen (and most other public parts of the house) are a mess. Conveniently, we have a maid coming in to clean twice a week. But that doesn't change the fact that dishes don't do themselves, and that insects and other less than welcome guests are attracted to piles of rotting garbage. It's not quite that bad, but as I write, the sink is still full of dishes from two days ago, and the table is only clean because I cleared up after somebody else's breakfast.

Unfortunately, it makes living in this beautiful house much less pleasant. Nothing say unwelcoming like a big pile of stinky dishcloths and other peoples unwashed dishes when you come home after a long day of work. It's not everyone who causes problems, but it is definitely an issue.

Luckily for me, I have decided to move. Not only has living with so many dirty people been less than fun, but the house is REALLY far from where I work. And because I value my time I've been taking taxis to work. Which is getting REALLY expensive. Individual rides aren't so bad, but it's adding up. I've also had a really hard time doing any work here. Not only do the housemates leave messes in the kitchen, they leave their crap on all of the other horizontal surfaces. Which makes it difficult if I or anyone else wants to make use of said surfaces. So, I've got a place lined up with another person from my lab. It's quiet, it's nearer to work, the house is amazing, and I think it will work really well.

So next weekends project is moving. Again. It's too bad, as my current house is really convenient for everything except work (and living with so many other languages was a really good way to force me into speaking more Spanish).

Living in the Lab

2009-09-19T13:15:00.000-04:00

This weekend marks my second week back in the lab. It hasn't actually been terribly eventful, and sadly, I haven't accomplished much. Yet. That should be remedied shortly.

I'm waiting for a sonicator and looking for a plankton wheel. And maybe some Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA). That last one isn't super necessary though, as long as I get my sonicator.

So what, exactly, will I be doing?
Well, the basic idea of the experiment is to see if larvae are able to eat little tiny spheres of plastic, even if they aren't larvae that are supposed to be able to eat. Different larvae have different ways of developing. Some of them are small, and feed on unicellular algae in the plankton to get bigger before they metamorphose to their juvenile form. Others are bigger, and have enough yolk reserves from mom that they don't feed in the plankton, but they still swim around. Still others have given up that plankton step altogether and finish their development in their capsules -- sometimes even still having the same or similar structures for swimming and feeding in the plankton even though they don't seem to use them. I'll be feeding different types of larvae various sized microspheres, to see if these structures are still functional, even if they aren't being used in the same way.

It's not quite what I want to be doing for my dissertation, but it's an excellent and simple project to get me back into the rhythms of the lab and to play with the animals. That is the goal of my time here for the moment. That, and to figure out exactly what I want to work on. I guess it's as good a place to start as any.

Taxis

2009-09-16T20:01:00.001-04:00

My most frequent interaction with people in Panama takes place in taxis.

When I first arrived, I hated taxis. For one thing, at orientations we had been warned not to catch a taxi on the street, not to take a taxi if there was another person besides the driver inside, not to stay in a taxi if the driver picked up another passenger, not to go through certain neighborhoods... not to do a lot of things. Good advice, all of it, but not terribly practical.

For one thing, standard taxi operating procedure is to pick up as many passengers as possible to maximize the fares, and calling a taxi is just silly. In some places my requests to call a taxi have met with the advice that it is easier just to catch one on the street, or that a called taxi will never come (and personal experience has taught me that calling a taxi only gives them an excuse to demand more money, because they had to drive to come and get you).

On top of that was/is my continuing lack of Spanish skills, and of course the joys of elevated gringo (aka rich white tourists) pricing.

But the longer I am here, the more I enjoy taking taxis.

For one, there are the thrills of riding. Driving in Panama is an extreme sport -- not for the faint of heart. And taxi drivers are the elite champions of driving.

For example, my cab this morning was gunning for the Panamanian speed record in crossing the city. He didn't talk the whole time, didn't charge me too much, and never once came to a complete stop. Slower traffic was warned with a honk and overtaken by whatever means necessary. This guy was serious about getting me to work.

Other cab rides have been in questionable vehicles -- engine warning lights on, speedometers broken, no door handles, dents, no suspension to speak of. These cabs are going for records in car quality. Some of the cabs I've taken, you hope that you make it to your destination without having to get out and push. So far, I've only had to leave one taxi for mechanical problems, and they started before we got moving.

Cab drivers can be interesting. Lately, I've been running into more and more who speak English -- a very recent event, probably springing from my catching cabs along the Causeway, a highly touristed area of the city. Today I had a cab driver that spoke excellent English, and didn't stop talking the whole time. He was also looking for a wife, and a job with the Smithsonian, so I think he had decided I was the perfect opportunity. I was busy planning an exit strategy, and deflecting requests for my phone number. Other cab drivers are openly hostile to people that are from outside Panama. A friend of mine got involved in a lengthy discussion with the driver about tourism and taxis. As a taxi driver, much of his income relies on tourists, but he refused to believe it (this discussion came about because he was blatantly ripping us off, and being a jerk about it). According to him, his income came from the canal and those big cruise ships that pass through. Those big cruise ships full of... tourists. It was a very entertaining discussion.

Now that I'm not taking cabs with my Spanish speaking friends, the conversation is by necessity much simpler. Usually revolving on basic conversation. So far I haven't run into too many jerks. And haven't been involved in an accident.

So lets keep it that way. On both counts.

Bienvenidos

2009-09-16T19:56:00.000-04:00

Well, it finally got the better of me.
I haven't had time lately to write anything terribly interesting, and as the blog of an acquaintance once put it, real life has a way of cutting down on blogging. Not that everyday interesting anecdotes don't happen, but that they become less interesting to write to yourself about.

But today I had the urge, so I decided to start a blog. And I thought the title was funny.

So bienvenidos to my new blog.
I make no promises to update regularly, but I'll probably be here once in a while.