the Real World

It's been a couple of years since I've had to update my resume, and even then, it's only been for campus jobs. Can anyone help me with formatting a professional looking one pleaaaaaseeee.

Don't wanna admit I'm lazy, but that's the big reason of why I haven't applied for any jobs yet, other than then whole China thing. I've been scoping out physical therapy aide positions on craigslist and many of them ask for immediate starting dates. I'm afraid that they'll all be filled by the time I"m ready to work in October. As a back up I've also been checking out jobs on shovelbums. I found one that seems pretty decent... 3-10 weeks per job (not too long), $16-19/ hr, travel expenses covered, and hotels to sleep in. Only problem now... getting that resume started!!

booksmania

Today's time trials and fitness test results:
150 m in the 10 man boat with just the steersperson - 1:33 mins
push ups in one min (bent knee style for the ladies)- 75
sit ups in one min- 40
20m shuttles in five mins on wet sand- 40

Sorry to disappoint everyone with my weak sauce time trial. After Weds' practice with SD I knew I was nowhere as strong as I was back in May at the end of the season and with a 3 month hiatus, I did what I could. I am happy that UCLA overall kicked ass, especially with Angela's time trial of 1:25, blowing away all the other girls and close to beating nearly half the guys. I'm not going to be devastated if I don't make the team, but after looking at today's scores, I think I stand a fair chance. The problem is all the stronger girls are righties...

Bae and I went to Borders today to use the 40% off any paperback coupon. We walked around the literature sections browsing through different books that we've read before and it's inspiring to hear Bae tell me about different authors/ titles that have made the "1001 books to read before you die" list. And yes, that is a real book. I just added about 10 more books to my to read list, which I'll have to pick up at the library sometime. Books are just too expensive to purchase unless they're really worth keeping. I was gonna buy another GRE prep book but I figure I can just get that on Amazon for about the same price. I settled on "1000 Places to See Before You Die, A Traveler's Life List"
Travelling around Central America was a much better experience for me than Europe was because the culture and dynamic of the people were so humbling. I want to be able to say that I've done everything and seen everything... I want to see the world!! Oh, that is another reason why I really want to make this China team!

First day of freedom

What have I done today... absolutely nothing. I'm at the Adventure Inn in Cariari, Costa Rica with Eric waiting for my morning flight tomorrow. I really like this place because it's the nicest and cleanest hotel I've stayed at in Central America. Today was the first time in 2 months that I got to take a hot shower, not have to wear bug spray, sleep in a comfy bed with no mosquito net in the way, have clean finger nails, and not eat 3 meals a day when I'm told to... among other things. We arrived yesterday and ate dinner/ breakfast here. Finally left 24 hrs later to eat lunch at a nearby mall and then came back to nap. There really isn't much to do around here. I'm just waiting for 4am to come around when a taxi will pick me up and head to the international airport!! YAY! I am really excited to go home!

So Saturday night turned out to be a semi-lame night only because Mike got pissed at us for leaving El Toro Loco and he didn't hear that we were going to get street meat (YUM!) and then to La Iguana for their 2 for 1 drinks. Right after I ordered some drinks from one lady, the guy bartender gave me a pina colada and the week before he had made me and Amelia some PTYs (YUM!). We had to get Eric and Mike to try it just in case he had slipped some roofies in there, but I guess he's a nice guy. He ended up giving Eric his info and told me to find him on facebook.

Anyway, the night got cut short and we rushed through goodbyes to Scott and Paula to jump onto a pickup cab with 8 of us heading back to Drago. Sarah, Justin and I immediately jumped on the back but had to duck until we were out of the main street because cops were right behind us and it's illegal. It was such a nice ride back with the breeze and the freedom of movement and with the entertainment of Sarah and Justin's conversation about the type of girls they prefer... and then Sarah spending 20 minutes trying to convince Justin that maybe he was gay. hahaha

On the way back from ITEC's lame party with Gwen and Sean I was directing the light straight ahead when I noticed something brown moving. Turns out it was a two toed sloth hanging off the end of a branch, eating!!! Sloths are NEVER moving when we see them so it was really exciting. It was so close that Sean could've walked right into him (and he's around 6 feet). He started moving up the branch as we were shining the light and we tried jumped to touch him.. I think that just pissed him off a bit and he hurried up the branch. Oso and Brownie, our two favorite island dogs walked us back to the house and Brownie even slept in the house with us. <3 He was sad because he knew that half the group was already gone and the rest of us were leaving soon too.

Sunday morning was also sad as we said our goodbyes to Juany, Willy, and Don Bolo at the restaurant and the ITEC gang as well. Drago is the one place I've gone to hoping that I will make it back there someday.

Last night with the gang

It´s my last night in Panama!! I´m really sad my BFF here, Amelia, left on a flight to Panama City an hour ago. Lucky her, she gets to be escorted from the regional airport to her hotel by Tomas, one of the two heartthrob archaeologists that work in Panama. I was going to stay in hotel in town tonight since I´m flying out tomorrow, but everybody is going back to Drago after dinner for ITEC´s last hurrah. Might as well go back to hang out with them since they came to ours last night.

Two nights ago, Amelia forgot her antibiotic pills at Tom´s (professor´s house), so Aleks and I volunteered to walk down to get it for her, also so we could avoid all the verbal arguments going on. First thing Tom asked us when we walked in was if we wanted rum and coke or rum and tonic. Coolest professor ever? I spent the next 2 hours sipping on that watching Snow White with his four year old daughter, Summer, wearing her tiara made out of construction paper and munching on cheetos. Those are my favorite drunken munchies. Mike had to listen to us singing ¨I want candy! budadadadada¨the entire way home.

We spent the last 2 days shoveling sand and dirt with shovels into buckets and a wheelbarrows to fill all the holes that we had dug. Backfilling is a bitch, especially in the rain! Nonetheless, got it done and had our farewell party last night at Tom´s. Amelia forgot her syringe at our house so Jamie and I volunteered to walk back to get it for her. Meanwhile, Tom decided to start the fireworks without us!!! Garrr...

We finally blended the tattoo fruit with water and people were playing around with it, getting inked by Sarah. Justin asked her to draw something ¨bad ass, like a bone¨on his back. She just wrote the words ¨bad ass¨ on his shoulder and Aleks drew a big penis across his back. Haha.. it´s pretty ridiculous. This stuff stays on for 10-14 days. After that, we went back into the field to our water tank to mark our words of wisdom and left our names imprinted.. in sharpie. Not sure how long that´s gonna stay on with the rain.

Of course, to properly end the course, we had to take a midnight dip in the ocean, where Mike decided to unclothe himself to his students, but technically, it was after midnight and he wasn´t our TA anymore. Skinny dipping is quite nice in the Caribbean Sea with the full moon.

Oh yea-- I have a swollen eye a mosquito bit me and my stupid allergic reactions decided to kick in. That is also why I have a blister (not zit!) on my face and why my legs are scarred.

Last update from Panama

Hello!

This is my last email from Panama.. I´m leaving next Sunday for Costa Rica and I´ll be back next Tuesday! I spent the first part of the week being sick in bed and the last few days back in the field. We got the day off yesterday to hike through the muddy forest and followed a river that partly runs underground and through caves. On the way to the river there were 2 fallen trees, one of which we had to crawl through with bats flying around and eventually dead ends because it gets too narrow so then we have to pull ourselves out of a hole, belly down. We stopped to swim whenever we reached a cave but some of them were super dark so we couldn´t see the coral/rocks on the bottom. My friend tripped on one of them and gashed a small part of her shin and had to get stitches. It´s not as bad as it sounds though and she was in and out of the hospital within 30 minutes.

This last week should be eventful, we´re having 3 parties this week to celebrate one student´s birthday, our last get-together, and last gt together part 2 since some of us are staying here saturday night as well. Our professor´s parents are here to visit for a week and it´s exciting cause they´re world-famous biologists who used to teach at Cal. I´m spending my last weekend here on the internet... searching for jobs on craigslist and yahoo. It´s really dismal, but it´s not like there´s much else to do anyway. It ALWAYS rains on Sunday.

Thanks for keeping up with my emails (if you have been) so that I don´t have to keep telling the same stories over and over again when I get back!

Being sick makes me homesick

Hi friends!

So most of us made it through the halfway point without getting sick but half the group´s been dropping like flies, one by one. Two people got nausea, two were too hungover one day to work, one stepped on a bee and had allergic reactions, one had an eye irritation from contacts, and I got Bocas butt yesterday (aka traveller´s diarrhea). It´s no fun watching everyone else go swimming and having to stay in, but we made the most of it by turning it into movie day. We got the afternoon off yesterday to "prepare" for our prof´s birthday fiesta for his 46th. He even bought fireworks ahead of time to blow up by the beach. Our TA almost got his foot blown off because the prof dropped a lit one and it rolled right over Mike´s foot. Close call.

I got to experience a change of scenery this week cause the group from Cal who are here studying the relationships between the Afro-Carribean and Chinese in historic times needed some help. There´s a large community of Chinese immigrants here from Canton, first wave came in the 1800s to work on the Panama Canal and there´s a 2nd wave who´s come recently to start businesses. All the supermarkets in town are owned by Chinese people and the two generations don´t get along. I tried buying a cell phone the other day and ended up having a conversation with the storeowners in Chinese. Very interesting. We had to dig in the sand which is freaking hard when you have to keep the walls of a 1x1 meter unit from collapsing. Some kids walking by asked if we were building a sand castle. All this digging really takes a toll on the body and at the end of each day I really wish I brought a foam roller.

Hope all is well at home!

Besos,
Lisa