Back in the States, Part III

Here I am, sitting at Best Coffee Shop Ever (hence forth referred to as BCSE), where I should be working on lots of things.... graduate school shit, Environmental Chemistry homework... but instead I'm blogging. Just for you!

Before I finish my blogger trilogy of Panama, I'm going to discuss the awesomeness that occurred last night. As CL already documented, there was some drunkenness going on. The night started with me, CL, Charles Shaw, and Brokeback Mountain. CL and I decided to have our own personal tribute to the dearly departed Heath Ledger this weekend. We rented our high school favorite, 10 Things I Hate About You, (watched on Thursday!) and our new favorite, Brokeback Mountain. I hadn't seen it until last night, but wow. That was a beautiful movie. I think we're going to watch it again today. CL only stuck around for the first half of it anyway, then she and MW went over to Local Pub to watch and band and engage in various shenanigans... leaving me alone with a 1/2 bottle of 2-buck Chuck and Heath Ledger. Ooh la la.

After finishing the bottle, I went over to Local Pub to meet up with the crew. Fortunately, the band playing was really popular, meaning a big crowd at the pub and lots of friends and fun. Incriminating pictures posted on facebook: check!

But back to what you came for: more pictures of Panama!

So, here we go. We arrived at Bocas del Toro, and immediately fell in love with it. It's fucking beautiful!!! We stayed on Isla Colon, in the province (or state? I'm not really sure) of Bocas del Toro, which is on the Caribbean side of Panama. We stayed at the Smithsonian field station there, and they took good care of us. It's on the inland side of the island, so the water was clear and calm and all of the shorelines are covered in mangrove trees. You can kind of see that in this picture, it's taken of the dock at the Smithsonian station:


While at Bocas, we went batting with a professor from Florida. We went to La Gruta, a bat cave and also a grotto to Mary (interesting combination, I know). The story goes that a woman was washing her clothes in the stream that comes out of the cave and saw an image of Mary. I say that it is pretty nasty to be washing clothes in a stream full of bat shit, but whatever. Anyway, the area there is absolutely beautiful, too.


And while we were there we saw some really awesome bugs! Stink bugs? Maybe? If anyone knows, speak up!


On the grounds of the station there's this little pond. In the pond lives a few caymans. Here's one of them! They're so cute. Aww.


Back to Gamboa... here's a shot of the rain forest from the back of our truck. Riding in the trucks through the rain forest felt a little bit too much like Jurassic Park... but it was really cool.


Then we went over to Barro Colorado Island. It's a whole island owned by the Smithsonian and used for research. So... it's pretty cool. We went on a hike through the rain forest there, and it was amazing. Even the ferry ride over was cool. We had to get there at some ungodly hour of the morning, but (bonus!) we got to see the sunrise over the Panama Canal. And that, my friends, is fucking awesome.


I had about a million and a half pictures of things I saw on the hike through Barro Colorado. Here's my favorite. That's a big spider!


So, that's all the awesome biology-licious photos I'm going to post. Then we saw the locks at the Panama Canal. Sure, it was cool, but whatever. Not as cool as huge-ass spiders and monkeys. Seriously. But here she is, in all her glory:


And that wraps up my Panama story. If you want anymore info, go on and e-mail me. Bottom line: it was amazing. Yes, you should go. No, you should not wait. Go on, get up and go! Before even more of the rain forest is cut down (cattle-ranching bastards).

love, allie

$@#!!$@! It's winter!

It snowed today! Really it was just a tiny bit, but it was there. It started to feel like Christmas time to me today, also. I was running across the street to get some food from the sandwich shop when it started snowing. The wreaths were up on the light poles. And when I walked into the store, they were playing "Deck the Halls" on the stereo in that old-fashioned, full orchestra style. It all felt a bit out of place, seeing as how it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but it still gave me that nice, warm, Christmas-y feeling.

No plans for tonight yet. A couple people said we should go out, but nothing for sure. Surprisingly, the bf wants to go to the jazz concert at school tonight. I know it's because one of his roommates is playing, but I'll take what I can get. After that, I might go out to the bars with the girls. Should be a good time.

Short post today, I should make my Friday afternoon a productive one.

love, allie

Sexy Time!

Plans for tonight: watching Y Tu Mamá También with the girls and getting drunk off of sangria! Updates to follow.

+

= Friday night fun with the girls!

love, allie

Happy Halloween!

So... that's just about all the Halloween spirit I have. CL and I are invited to a party tonight, I'm not sure yet if we're going or not. It's at CK's apartment. I love CK, but I'm not such a big fan of her roommate and her roommate's boyfriend, and I think they're the main ones throwing this party. I guess I'll see if CL is going to go. If she is, then I'll go with her. Otherwise I think I'll just stay home and watch scary movies. It looks like there's some good stuff lined up on PBS for anyone that's interested. Here's the schedule tonight:

• 8 pm Masterpiece Theatre: Dracula
• 9:28 pm: Carrie

Yes, they're actually showing Carrie on PBS... that's why I love them. Speaking of PBS, CL and I watched a pretty awesome documentary on Charles Schultz last night. It made us cry. It was that good. And yes, I realize I'm a huge nerd. It's ok.

Well, I have some serious stuff to get done this afternoon before Chem. lab. Here's to productivity!

love, allie

friday night i crashed your party...

hmm, friday night, 8pm, what to do? finally it's the weekend. this week's been a long one. but now that it's the weekend i have to find something to do with myself. it's too early to go out still, but too late to do anything like go to the store. oh well, waiting for a couple people to call back and the night is still young.

bonus: CL made us an awesome dinner tonight of chicken and mashed potatoes! i love it when my roommate gets all homemaker-y. i was too tired after i got home from work to do anything but sit on my ass and watch stupid game shows anyway. this weekend my goal is to be productive. and i must accomplish it... or face a nasty week ahead. two test monday, one friday and a thesis paper due in between. who do these people think i am - a girl with nothing to do but study, well, i guess so.

in other news, the new season of the office is coming up in a couple weeks. and that means that we can all be graced with the view of jim halpert, also known as john krasinski, also known as the love of my life (sorry bf!). yeah, CL and i are in love with this guy, but i'm still hoping he and pam end up together. they have to, as i figure, because in t.v. world things like this are always bound to happen. i've watched all of seasons 1 & 2 on d.v.d., but i'm still a little rusty on season 3. i'll have to catch up before september 27th!

my other favorite show, scrubs, is very mean and won't be premiering until october 25th. i'll just have to be happy with the office and scrubs on d.v.d. until then.

ok, must go. must find out what the hell i'm doing tonight. i'm on a mission now. updates later. until then, i love you jim halpert!

love, allie

a little time...

right now i have a little break between my classes and work. but not work work, i'm the botany t.a. this semester, which means that i go along on labs and help out, and this week we're going to frolic in the woods. no really.

anyway, i promised myself that i'd get one thing done on my overly-optimistic to-do list i made yesterday before 3:00 comes and i have to go run around in the forest. but first, i'm going to post on my brand new baby blog and give it a little more volume.

at the same time, i'm listening to "this american life" on podcast. yes, it's good. yes, you should listen to it. yes, i might be a huge dork for listening to it every week, but you have to understand my undying love for all things public broadcasting.

it's true. one day public broadcasting and i will probably run away to mexico together, but until then i'll just have to listen faithfully to their podcasts.

i still need to come up with something good to do this weekend. i need something to look forward to, you know? last week CL and i went to the wine bar across the bridge. and it was really good - but pretty expensive. i'm looking back at my credit card statement in disbelief because i spend $19 on just two glasses of wine. oh well, i considerate that money well spent towards mental health. everyone needs a little mental health worked into their budget.

ok, time to be productive. here goes some work.

love, allie