A Procrastinating Grad Student Does It Again

Since I just figured out which microbes produce enzymes that let them metabolize uric acid in poultry manure -- these guys are probably the culprit in producing the toxic ammonia gas around which my research centers -- it's obviously time to take a break and write about life. Then it's back to the grind.


Life in Blacksburg has been great so far. Devin and I both got into grad school at sister departments here and even get paid to go to school. It turns out that we are still poor, but at least we have enough to go camping and treat each other to dinner out at least once a week. Hey, it's better than temping in DC. My commute here is about 15 minutes to anywhere - and somehow I manage to complain - but it's so much better than 1 hour each way on the metro.

I love living in the mountains, too -- it's just prettier here. Our professors and advisors have some pretty amazing digs - 100 acre plots by a national forest complete w/a stocked pond, to name one. Country activities are much more encouraged, which is fun - and funny. I learned to fish and we go out fairly often to see what we can catch; but people on campus also walk around w/their hunting gear like they're heading off just after class lets out. Pig roasts are common and corn hole (like bean bag toss) is the highlight of many a weekend, aside from the obvious -- drinking.

Work/school also keeps us super busy. Every Monday I have a meeting with my advisor where I suddenly realize I'm behind on the goals I set for myself the week before. The next three days are taken up by homework, researching and struggling through journal articles, dragging my self and up to two computers all over campus in hot pursuit of answers, and some lab experiments too. Then Friday comes and we are usually shopping online or planning a weekend camping trip. It's the simple joys -- I discovered down jackets and sleeping bags around the same time as I got some amazing $130 shoes, so our modest salaries aren't going too terribly far yet. Then there's laundry and grocery shopping - and Sunday night arrives and it's time to do it all again.

The other 12 hours a week (where do I find the time??) I'm a Teaching Assistant for an experimental lab class that involves lots of electric circuits and misbehaving MATLAB programs. It's truly a black hole -- there's no limit to the energy I could put into it; in fact the more I do, the more I get frustrated and feel obligated to put MORE time in so the experiments will go more smoothly. But that's a pointless viscious cycle. I'm not solely responsible for the class, so when things go poorly, it really isn't my fault -- so why should I get frustrated like it is? The other fun part of my TA-ship is grading lab reports on a borrowed dinosaur-ific tablet computer. Somehow some students manage to write 20 pages of C minus-worthy blather. I am investigating the staircase distribution method of grading, however. I love being a hard-ass when grading, but if the undergrads continue to ignore my sagely advice, then f--- it.



Hobbies: I got super excited and dug my knitting needles and a pretty purple ball of manos de uruguay yarn out of my craft bag when a friend introduced me to ravelry.com and their bonanza of knitting patterns and projects. The purple yarn is on its way to becoming a cabled cap - for me - and after that, Devin wants a hat so I'm going to do a fancy one with fleece lining so his ears will be warm and itch-free. I will probably work my way up to a sweater at some point, but I'm not quite ready to invest in a giant pile of $$$ yarn. We also came into a bunch of reading and fishing equipment recently, so there are plenty of activities to take up our extremely rare free time.

Thanksgiving is coming up and we're going to go spend a week in sunny CA. Neither town there will be particularly warm -- San Luis Obispo, where Devin is from, nor Chico, where the fam holds the holiday meal and celebration. But it'll be pretty and a happy visit back to the loving and politically active folks that raised Devin, as well as a return to solar power, Jack in the Box, year round farmers markets, and agricultural fields as far as the eye can see.

The other excitement on my horizon is chickens - helping with a friend's experiment by counting/weighing them; as well as designing my own experiments on chicken manure. That brings me back to the microbes and ammonia I mentioned up top - so maybe it's time to get back to work.

Catch you all next time!

LAX Flyaway

Taking the bus from LA's Union Station and we instantly jam up in the freeway traffic. Why, at 7:30pm on a Wednesday, is there traffic? There just is. So our driver takes us on a detour - through the city, rolling down mainstreet, and I'm shocked to find that the place is empty - EMPTY! We saw a handful of cars parked, dudes walking down the sidewalk, but literally all the traffic, every single LA denizen or passerby, was trying to avert the city. What a sprawling, backwards place. America, this is what your city of cars has become.



















I look out when we we reach a bit of a vantage height and see thousands of sparkling lights - the city sprawl. Imagining myself living here, I quickly become discouraged. How is anyone supposed to walk anywhere here? So impersonal, to drive everywhere. Angry at you for cutting me off, pleased with myself for making that light. Talk about 2-dimensional.

This is what I like better about Southern California: Elfin Forest, near Morro Bay

West Coasting

Three weeks is an impossible period of time to summarize - maybe moreso when I don't have any real distance from it. But since coming to California three weeks ago, there are many memorable sights, smells, and sounds that I want to remember. I'm happy I came to stay with Devin's family-- giving him the chance to prove that California is the best place on earth.


Starfish on pilings beneath the pier at Avila beach

Seals barking and playing and splashing at the harbor

Sea water, coastal sage, and anise smells

Tasting tours of the family garden, laden with trees and beds full of yummy food waiting to ripen

First time trying new fruits: persimmon, pineapple guava, buddha's hand, freshly cooked artichoke,

Hippie-friendly items like lavender oil, laughter yoga, 3 farmers markets per week, hot springs for hot tubbing sessions

A family outing to see 'Fair Game' at the local indie theatre, which chronicled Valerie Plame's family turmoil over her husband's outing the Bush administration and their lying ways in the run up to the Iraq war

Weekly Farmer's Market night where the main drag downtown gets blocked off for foot traffic only. The eats: fresh kettle corn, korean bbq, pad thai, falafel, locally made goat cheese, etc.

University of California - arboretums, lots of green space, bike tech shacks, nice temperatures

Jamba Juice

Rallying at the family Tennis club with on-court water fountains, ad-hoc volleying lessons, and tons of racquets for me to borrow

Thanksgiving in Chico: Driving through the fertile San Joaquin valley seeing almonds, walnuts, oranges, apricots, cherries, blackberries, avocado, cauliflower, lettuce, onions, garlic... the salad bowl indeed!

Chopping oodles of organic veggies at Shawn and Rob's house to be used in pies, salad, etc.

The sound of the river running over stones in the canyon behind the house and stories of bears crossing nearby

Watching Avatar in HD on their 7-foot TV

Devin's Grandma R. who was full of compliments and good hospitality (and who still hits a mean tennis ball at 72)

Kelp biology lesson on Carmel beach

Seafood pasta, sand dabs, chocolate cake, and a playful night at Carmel

Naphenthe and Essalen, hippie hideouts on the Big Sur Coast

Driving up the long ramble to the San Simeon house where Devin spent four formative, nature-loving years

Amazing Route 1 views without the worry of veering off a cliff

Strengthening my thumbs on Devin's constantly sore shoulder with daily massages

Drying clothes in the sun


I sure learned a lot about Devin's upbringing, background, and the setting for his many stories. And it was warm, pretty, and delicious too!

Into the Bush

My last night here in Maryland, I came to understand what it is to pack up your life into two impossibly small, unbelievably heavy suitcases in order to take a chance on an unknown place where a new space awaits.

Come Monday, when most people are returning to their regularly scheduled schoolwork, jobs, or otherwise, I will be a shiny new teaching intern in the mountains of Malawi: Dedza, the site of the Malawian College of Forestry. My job in the Peace Corps will necessarily involve teaching, but I will be there to first help improve secondary schools at the grassroots, community level (read: they are not a government priority, yet). I will train in a village-based "cluster," so it will be less like sitting through classes and more like taking the jalopy out for a spin with my brand new PC buds. I can picture it now: "Does anyone know what that road sign back there meant?"

I will be living in a "homestay" for the three months of teacher training, so I'll get an intimate glimpse into - and a chance to be a part of - the Malawian family. Imagine intensive language classes until noon, working in the classroom until dinner, and then coming home to a "mom" or "sister" speaking to you rapidly in a language you're just beginning to grasp. Talk about a brain workout! Throw in pit latrines and bathing under the stars, and you might harken back to summer camp with the soundtrack on mute.

It won't be so bad. I'm actually very excited for the new language - but the intensive immersion training is a new thing for me, so all sorts of scenarios (like the previous one, for example) are playing out in my head. I am not sure what language I'll be learning, even though I have done some work with Chichewa; I could be in a Chitimbuka-dominant area too.

Most everyone wants to know how I'm going to eat vegan in Africa. Well, if I wanted to do that, I'm sure I'd use my resources to find a way. That's not part of the plan, however; I feel that the protest of the Ag industry's careless practices is going to be really irrelevant in a place where a chicken is slaughtered in honor of a guest by the host family, right before being cooked -- and in a place where food production for export is much more important than importing fun things like tangelos from new zealand and bananas from guatemala. I have seeds to plant a garden, but you better believe I'm going to eat what is available for my own health as well as to show respect for my new home culture. Integration is about changing your ways - not demanding others cater to peculiar American preferences.

But you'll hear about all that when it comes to pass! This week of preparations has been wonderful for absorbing so much love from many friends who have taken the time to "see me off." Most of my relatives have given me their blessing, which means a lot; I don't come from a very adventuresome, service-oriented family, so the idea of it still seems a bit left-field to them. But they have come to understand my passion and commitment, and are supporting me as best they can -- and that's all I could have wanted. I feel strongly now that the life I have had here has been very full of good people, and I am sad that I'm leaving it at such a time -- even though my departing caused so many great visits! I choose to interpret these events to mean that there is much to come back to, and that I have many examples of good people to enrich my life in the US.

It's time to switch over to the travel blog, and I'll write there as much as I can. I encourage any and all of you to drop me a letter in the mail, because it only costs 94 cents, and because I'd love to hear from you about the familiar and comforting details of home! Especially election drama.

Photo essay: Spring trips

There's a huge lapse in my posts this spring, but I've been pretty busy (having fun!) so I thought I'd share some of what I've been up to.

First, pictures from my trip to see long time friend Emily in Colorado, where she's working in the education outreach program of the Southwest Conservation Corps.



























Next, pictures of a 210-mile bicycle odyssey I went on with my Dad on Mothers' Day weekend. It was following the Scioto river valley in Ohio over 2 days, with over 2500 bikers making it the largest touring weekend in the U.S.

Fall Trips, Foiled!

I've been out of commission lately after an impetuous tussle with a bike trail got a little too heated and resulted in 12 stitches in my knee, among other gashes. That was the second of two really excellent fall trips I had planned.

The first was a jaunt up to Pittsburgh for a memorial service for a professor of mine who died this summer. Even though the leaves weren't turning yet, I had a lovely drive out. It was kind of strange to be back at CMU whilst not enrolled as a student, but I welcome relations with my former professors that are on a more "real person" kind of level. Look Ma, I'm a real person now! I stayed for free [in exchange for manual labor and a list of favorite dinner suggestions] and checked out a Feist concert while in PA, too. Good times.

After that, I headed out on a 4-day biking and camping trip with a friend. We planned to bike along the C&O Canal from Washington in the direction of the Cumberland Gap (where a different trail picks up those on their way to Pittsburgh), where our only real goal was to reach Harpers Ferry. As fate would have it, we wouldn't even reach that modest distance! Although that probably had something to do with our road bikes' relative sensitivity to dusty, gravelly trails; the bikes with us and all our stuff strapped to them were just too unstable. Rubbernecking was the fatal step that sentenced me to a day in the hospital and at least a week of hobbling. I can't be thankful enough for the plentiful, gracious runners that shuttled us to the hospital and helped us take care of our bikes. Now, I'm pretty sure the best way to show my appreciation is to pass on the good karma.

Injuries aside, the trail is a really beautiful place to ride, walk, or hike! If only it were paved. The canal locks make some mini waterfalls every so often, and the terrain is almost completely level (except the gravelly hills at each lock) so it's not difficult. I can't wait to get back and try again - and maybe this time get some camping in.

The loveliest of clichés

I received a well-traveled p!rated version of Paris, Je T'aime from a dear friend in India today. Note: he's not always in India, but he was when he sent me this postbox surprise. The movie is a lovely collection of vignettes by various directors that eventually come together at the end as you would want, but for me, it's not nearly soon enough. All in all, they are touching, funny, silly, and in love with love in the city thereof -- but the cliché is not even remotely sickening. Thankfully. Take a look at my blog entry on Paris if you want to know what I thought of the place.

I also got word of some new projects at Born magazine today - one is a Gatsby-inspired poem, The Smell of Roses at Night, that's put to the visual enhancement of transmutating roses powered by a finger-spun typewriter. When you read it, you won't regret the whimsical few minutes you spend. We can always use more than a single daily dose of beauty and poetry.

Done with School, Snapshot of China

Every time I think of it, I can't help but marvel at how it is to be finished with the school system after 19 years of going to class, long hours with textbooks, taking notes, dealing with new teachers, and meeting classmates for work and play. After being in such a stiff and well-defined system, I feel a bit floaty out here in this world where there are a huge variety of possible choices one could make. It's great to be free enough to reconnect with friends in the area, though - and soon, I'll be across the country to see the California side of the family for a kiddie birthday party!

After such a preamble, I'm posting an excerpt from one of my PC essays, for entertainment and for show. This is one ingredient in one such possibility for the future. I write about my two weeks in China, which I visited five years ago.

"I learned to bring toilet paper with me, to tolerate trash on the streets and to remain (relatively) calm on chaotic highways teeming with bikes and rickshaws operating independent of any apparent traffic laws. It wasn’t a freewheeling kind of integration that my friend and I eased ourselves into, but more of a cautious one; awareness for my own safety seemed suddenly closely linked to my decisions. At the same time, I felt sympathetic toward the people who lived there—the old huotong neighborhoods seemed a tragic place to live if lung-crippling coal was the most widely-used fuel for cooking and heating available, and the ugly practice of land-reclamation continued to leave its mark on the local mountains, all in the name of low-cost capital development. The smog coloring the sunset gray was the suspect in the case of my own respiratory ailment that developed after only 4 or 5 days. Water was also a huge problem, as every bottle-toting tourist knows, but 300 million residents will never be truly adapted to a water table contaminated by human waste. Chinese behaviors were discouraging, but what I took away was this: there probably weren’t better options readily available, and my ability to recognize such inequities could be a means to help. In China, health risks and environmental deterioration have a real, tangible meaning in a way that’s more often talked about than experienced in the US."

Un poco mejor

I'm feeling much healthier now, and breathing the Barcelona beach air this afternoon was wonderful. Europe, the land where the sun doesn't set until 10 - why can´t it be this way everywhere?
It was nice to have a day to myself. Oddly, I suddenly got the urge to knit after coming back from the beach; it would have been a great activity to do while lazing about in my enjoyment.

Also, I miss biking! That will be one of the first things I do when I get home (though not until it´s the cool time of the day-- July and August in MD are going to be scorchers as usual, I´m sure).

Europe Trip 2: London!

Update on Dublin: random people, czech. Cider, philosophy and religion, cocaine and E, irish jazz, check check. That made for a great last night, though missing trains and mass confusion made the next day a bit of a wash. Also: it's good to have British money when you get to Britain so you can eat.

And now... London has been quite exciting, if not loads of fun. Our hostel is out in the boonies but we've been doing as much as we can in the daytime. Met some people yesterday after we figured out the kitchen/movie lounge area was a good place to do that; but a few hours later, there was a stabbing which significantly brought down the levels of fun. No worries - I'm OK, but I'm worried for the mental health of young people (everyone, really) who end up out of their parents' houses and with big problems and no support network. Scary.

BUT, today was my b-day and we saw lots of cool stuff. By midday I had seen remnants of the dead sea scrolls, heard Seamus Heaney read his own poems, and saw the stamps that are a big part of American history: those of the Stamp Act of 1765. By tea-time I had traipsed all over Westminster to get the *real* story behind the uproarious religious herecies in Dan Brown's book, including:
-spotting knight's effigies in the knights' templar church that was consecreted by the patriarch of Jerusalem
-hearing the story of the origin of the Jolly Roger and the 1st traffic lights ever (that also exploded and injured the policeman who changed the color manually)

.. and was then seated for high tea at Kensington Palace. Tonight, I saw Avenue Q in Leicester square, which was great! Yesterday was a great design exhibit on the politics of modern design and the Tower of London.

Europe Trip, Entry 1: Dublin

I'm currently finishing up my 3rd day in Dublin, and it's finally NOT raining! You probably have no idea how huge this is. Dublin is a great, walkable, busy city full of independent shops and many native people with a very matter-of-fact way of being. They have absolutely no bones about writing biting opinions columns in the paper, and I have to say kudos to them for it.

Today I saw two acts of the world championship street performers; both were superb, and both were somewhat secretive about their identities (not unlike the way I've been about my American identity in a crowd; who wants to be that group they make fun of with the Iraq jokes? please). Last night was Int'l night at the Int'l bar (though the only non-Irish was a host from Perth, who was hilarious; will post his website after getting back) in Temple Bar. If you're ever in Dublin.. Temple Bar is a fun place to be. Can't say I've gotten to intimate with the people though, which is a shame -- these ones actually speak my language!

I think traveling with Alberto has a lot to do with *THAT* though. I function a lot better on my own when I don't feel like I need to ask permission to do every little thing. He also has this bit where he doesn't voice his opinion and is perfectly content to do exactly what I'm doing that really bugs me. I start to feel a bit like my ideas are carrying what we're doing and that'd be ok if it were just me, but with two people it begins to feel like a bit of baggage.

Nomatter though-- London is bound to be cool. It's London! Dublin is beginning to feel like a smallish town though, a little like Venice, and maybe my options in my current situation and getting a bit exhausted. It's kind of fun to be able to recognize neighborhoods I've been through a few times, though.

There was a great exhibit at the National Museum of Archeology on bog people - Ireland was once full of bogs! It's a great place to stash a dead body, that's for sure - and while you're at it, you might as well throw in his valuable possessions to hide the evidence. The Irish take on their past is refreshing. There's a bit of nostalgia of course, but why deny a little brutality and pagan practices when they're just facts of life?

Caitlin
Saturday, 19:36

To see the world, in only a month

My friend Alberto and I are starting the summer off right with a (parental graduation-present) trip to Europe. Unfortunately for me, I don't have a private jet-owning Aunt to buy me tickets for a world tour like he does, but I can't say I mind being sent off to Europe for 5/6 weeks. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

We found a neat travel planning website, RealTravel, and have been using it to plan Our Trip. It's still under construction as far as the route, but this is the second or third iteration. It's just about time to buy plane tickets, so odds are the trip will firm up right quick.

Once we're over there, we'll probably try to use RealTravel to blog our trip, too. I'm getting pumped! Now that we're narrowing down the list, it looks like we'll have plenty of time to soak in the local flavor at many an awesome destination (and dare I say attempt to speak the language..?)


For example, we might see castles in Granada...

Or hike in Oslo...


Or check out some popular Saints' festivals in Lisbon...








And there are plenty of people to visit too. May this trip whet my appetite for much, much more!