hey a new post

Wow. So it’s been a while since my last upload and I do, indeed, have an explanation for that.
See, my laptop exploded.
Alright, not that dramatically. Remember that last post, the one where I was being all neurotic and emotional about what my project was going to be on? I had just written that post and then decided to go to the fancy lab here to see if they had any more Malaise traps. They did, and five minutes later, I returned to continue working on my project proposal. Except that my computer was grey screened. And stayed that way. And upon restart, I could hear the hard drive clicking and that ever-so-deadly flashing folder was up.
My hard drive had crashed.
Now, if this had happened in the states, I’d stomp off to the Fix-that-Mac store on center street and have them fix it fairly easily and cheaply. Yeah, I would have lost any data I didn’t have backed up, but there wasn’t much of that to begin with besides music and some recent photos.
But here that isn’t an option. There are no computer stores on Moorea and I couldn’t fix have anything delivered to me because of slow shipping times and ridiculous import fees. So I was without a laptop, and in a setting where you’re doing literature reviews almost constantly and it’s your only method of communication with the outside world, that is not a good thing. Actually, it was kind of devastating. Combined with the stress about my project, my building anxiety and homesickness, it was the proverbial last straw. I went into the bathroom and bawled for a good five minutes and then had to toughen up and cook dinner for twenty-two other people. After that, a ball of pent up frustration and freaking-out-ness, I attempted to call a good friend, just to have someone to rant at, but even the internet was awful on everyone else’s laptop. It was a shitty night.
The next day, we set up the P.C. in the library. I now have something to work on, but skyping is basically out of the question unless I can find a USB microphone at the closest crappy electronics store. It’s okay using the PC. It’s been pretty public in the library since this week has all of us working on our proposals, but it’ll calm down. I can’t carry the PC around with me and it can get a little isolated in here (almost conflicting with my desire for privacy, I know). Strangely enough, there’s a spare macbook here meant for use during the elementary school outreach program (which isn’t going on right now), but no one knows the administrator password. The GSI’s have sent messages out to the suspected people back in Berkeley, but the one most likely candidate hasn’t replied yet.
So a shitty couple of days. But then I got my project proposal together, something that the professor’s actually approved of. For you science nerds out there, I’ll be looking at how high vs. low elevation affects insect population structure (what are the predators/pollinators/parasitoids/herbivores in each site? Are they different? How?). My sites will be paired mostly native/mostly non-native places, so hopefully I’ll get some interesting results on that part too. Most students here don’t aim to publish in a real journal, but at this point, I feel I should. This blog will feature results as time progresses.

Alright, this entry is pretty long as is but I did tons of stuff after my computer exploded, so it’s photo essay time!

One crossing of the stream that runs through the Three Coconuts hiking pass. There's a really awesome set of pools and a tiny waterfall at the head of it. I spent a half hour or so just chilling my feet in it.

Completely random bamboo forest that grows in the middle of the Three Coconuts pass. It's kind of eerie hearing the noises that the trees make as the wind blows and they knock against each other.
View from the look-out near one of my field sites. Occasionally you find French tourist families eating lunch up here.

A malaise trap!

View from the Agriculture School, I think.

Mural at MariMari Kellum's place, in her awesome open-air under house living room/patio thing. MariMari's family has been in since the 1950's, when her grand-parents bought a huge chunk of land (both seaside and valley) as a wedding gift to her parents. What I saw of the house was absolutely fantastic, and hopefully I'll see more of it while I do work there.

More of her place, there's a friggin' built in koi pond.

She's also a retired archaeologist. Probably still an active consultant on local stuff, here's some of her collection.

And this, dear readers, is the Club Bali Hai. Or part of it. The Club was started as one of the ventures by the Bali Hai Boys. One of them, Muk, still comes out to happy hour every night at 5 (excepting the nights where they do Polynesian dances, which was why we were there).

More awesomeness of the Club Bali High


The actual bar portion, which was immensely disappointing. You could either get a Hinano beer or a "Mai Tai" which was really just crappy juice/rum drink from this carton called "Tahiti Drink" that you can get from the grocery store. However, the food was quite good. Guess it's more of a grill. Awesome sunk in bar though.
The view from our table.

Dance times! They dragged us all up and made us dance with them. There are embarrassing pictures of this somewhere, I'm sure.

So every year, they throw a Polynesian feast for us. A station staff member organizes her entire family into making this thing for us, and we help with some of the minor prep once the food comes to our house. That's a good portion of the starchy stuff there- steamed orange bananas, purple sweet potato, this awesome dense banana/coconut bread, several types of tapioca/fruit pudding. It was EPIC.


All the food! There were several different types of BBQ pork and chicken. That's a big bowl of breadfruit in the front. Station members brought their families, and it was a pretty great party.

Alright folks, there you go, pictures.