My mom always say looking at green things is good for you, so take a break from symposium prepping and look at plants growing in Hawaii. No guarantees about them being native though...
A couple of weeks ago, I went to Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden with my cousins. It was the first time this trip for me to go to the windward side, so I was excited (and bundled up.)
The garden is basically a buffer zone built by the Army Corps of Engineers to provide flood protection for the people downslope of the place. Aww how nice. They also have hikes there, nature talks, a bunch of little kids fishing with twigs. I'm still convinced that volunteers are sticking fish onto their hooks when the kids aren't looking. The lake there is disgusting.
The visitors center had some kind of watercolor gallery that week. My cousin enthusiastically took my camera and meticulously (well, as meticulous a 12 year old can be) took pictures of "his favorite paintings" (in other words....all of them. I ran out of memory before we even got out the visitors center!)
Cousin likes his flowers.
Grandma walking around confused. Behind her is a Florida Thatch Palm. I would never know this in real life.
Hi, I'm a mountain, and I'm really pretty. Look at my clouds. Tee hee. I'll rainshadow you, leeward side!
Here's a shorter palm tree. It's called the Arikury Palm. It looks just like that other palm tree.
I don't know what this is, but it's pretty!
That's a mountain.
This is called Panama-Hat Plant. I'm just going to hazard a guess and say that their leaves are used to make hats...in Panama. The little sign says it's from South Mexico, but eh, same thing. They're right next to each other anyways...right? (How did I get into a Geography program??)
This one I actually know. Sealing wax palm, or lipstick palm. It's an ornamental brought in from Malaysia. It doesn't make lipstick, or wax. Boo.
I think this is the poisonous bulb plant...or something like that. One thing I learned in Tropical Ecology - don't eat anything you didn't see someone else eat first. Plants make some crazy stuff.
...Or maybe it's just guava. Let's just say I should never be a guide in the wild. Or anywhere.
"walk to your doom!!"
Those giant things are Imperial Bromeliads. They're from the mountains of Brazil, and will make a giant stalk when it's 20. And they're AWESOME looking. And probably host hoards of mosquitoes.
This is the fruit of the lipstick plant, which actually makes lipstick. Or the red dye, at least. I don't really know what goes into lipstick. Pig fat?
Pig fat. Wikipedia confirms.
The rubber tree. Fun fact - the ball in that one Disney movie about the Aztecs is made from rubber from that tree. The one movie where those two friends have a ship and are looking for gold...
Here's a cocao tree. MMM. Too bad there are signs everywhere telling us not to pick one (or touch one! My hand's there for...scale.) Not that I'd have any idea how to process it. Apparently the leaves are poisonous, so stay away from that. -___- According to wikipedia, cocao beans were used as currency as late as the 1840's. Love it.
I just love how big the plants are here. Hi giant leaf! My cousin cut out his brother. I lack basic photo cropping skills.
This is the needle flower tree. They say they're looking for the AIDS vaccine in it's bark, but I even tried google scholaring it and couldn't come up with anything. For reference, the scientific name is Posoqueria latifolia. Weird.
Here's a plant. I don't know what this is.
This has got to be my favorite tree: the cannonball tree. When the fruits matures, they falls to the ground, making a super loud noise, and then 'exploding.' Then they sit around smelling bad.
They're EVERYWHERE!
That's it for now. For the people presenting, ROCK IT. It's going to be awesome.
So I'm sure there is a way better translation out there, but this will do for now, since it reminds me of that scene from Mulan.
My fundamental religious views and values are pretty much shaped by Disney.
Last week we went to the Manoa Chinese Cemetery. It's a ridiculously gorgeous site with the ultimate feng shui, according to the giant monument erected to honor all the ancestors (in other words, the one for the lazy people who don't want to pray for every single one, hehe.) I didn't bring my camera though, but it's surrounded by three mountains, North, East, and West, which represents one of those Chinese guardians thing (I know there's a Dragon and a Tiger or something somewhere), and then the South is opened to the ocean. Back in the day when Chinese immigrants first came to Hawaii, they didn't have a site for a cemetery so they hired some feng shui expert to wander around the island for the perfect spot. He declared this place was and all the immigrants pooled their money and bought it. AWww teamwork. Except now I think they're selling away plots since land is scarce and lots of money is to be made.
Back to the good old days. Because their families were still in China and sometimes they would die here, the Chinese decided to form associations, usually encompassing a hometown, where they would prey for each other until their families come to Hawaii (and some usually don't.) The event I went to last week was for the people of Lung Doo, which is where my po po is from. There's a bunch of us here - I think everyone from my great grandfather and down managed to find their way here.
This was a while back, but they had a reunion and we took over an entire banquet restaurant. Insane. Mayors and government officials were all there. Even those beauty queens paid us a visit.
The whole event ended up being a family reunion for me, which is cool. I never realized I had so many second cousins! Apparently one of my mom's cousin is an art professor at UH Hilo (really....we have that and they give me smack about soil science??), and from a lot of difference marriage links we have Senator Akaka. We're everywhere.
The part of the mob willing to wake up super early.
Gorgeous!
Yesterday we prayed for the people in our immediate family, so it was a smaller event, though there were still tons of people I don't really know. I'm going to have to make a family tree diagram to help me navigate future awkward encounters.
I think our great grandpa is here. Physically he's buried in China, but when my family came, they immigrated the little plaque with his name on it to some Buddhist temple. Apparently it's around 8k to put your plaque here. Crazy.
So instead of Picnic Day at Davis, we had a picnic...at a cemetery instead! Great fun. Miss you all. <3
In case people don't know. Haha. I kept trying to make a post about this, but then I would get distracted by way cooler events like tsunamis and receiving new packages.
But yes. After I graduated in December, I decided it was way too cold in California, packed a carry on worth of clothes and books, and bought a one way ticket to Oahu. I was not going to leave until I got into a grad school with an advisor I liked.
Good bye cold world! HAHA.
Luckily for me I got into grad schools, like all of my prospective advisors, and picked one that would let me work in Hawaii (UCSB). It's going to be awesome.
I'm thinking about going back to Davis by graduation. People from semester schools, message me if you're going to graduate! I want to see y'all graduate. I'll (most likely, still need to work it out with my advisor) be taking SSC 205 - the soil science field course, SoCal version. So expect me to be back in Davis in the summer! And I hope people are still there when I'm there..haha.
So what am I doing here in the meantime?
Pretty much...hanging out. Haha. I'm volunteering at the University of Hawaii Manoa. The people there are super nice and I'm learning a lot. Currently I'm working on three different projects. There's a wildlife lab there, and I'm working on making a cat diet database. Lots of reading the literature, which is actually kind of fun. It's nice to have time allotted where I have to sit down and just read. And I pretty much hate felis catus now. There's also a soils lab where I help out on various projects. Hawaiian soils is really different from mainland soil, so it's nice to get a feel of them before starting my PhD project. And then there's a fire ecology project I'm helping a grad student on.
Here's one of the views of the field site:
So pretty! I also try to attend seminars, but I always hear of them after the fact. Boo. Apparently Holly Doremus was here a couple of days ago! Drats!
Look what I found waiting for me when I came home from a weekend of fun and adventure (and a crazy taekwondo tournament!) with my cousin.
Yay, I love boxes.
When I was a kid, that would be my favorite present. I'd hoard them like a crazy mofo. We had a little area underneath our stairs (kind of life Harry Potter's room, but way more badass) behind the TV and that would be where I would store them. I don't think I did anything with them. I just liked collecting them and trying to fit in them.
A box from the Evolution and Ecology department?? What?
And inside the box is a super cute bag. I think it's hilarious how many packages are needed for their graduation gift. And then I think about someone actually going out and getting the little colored tissue paper, scrunching them up all nice, and then putting it in a bag. Then I imagine them meticulously cushioning this bag with tons of those little bubble things (the ones that little kids like to pop and stuff...packaging goodness. I gave it to my cousins, even though you're never too old to stomp on things that makes loud noises).
I've always wondered who would have so much pride that they would go out and buy a Davis license plate cover cause I would see them everywhere! Now I know. (Not that I'm complaining. It's going to be the first thing I do to my future car! HEHE.)
One quibble - I've been getting so many (well, like...1) offers on stoles and medals for graduation, but it's so after the fact that buying one is kind of petty, unless I want a new paperweight, or some shiny fabric to use later on. If you want to wear fancy graduation things, graduate in the Spring. (I did get to take home the Major Leader badge, but that was because I was the only Soils Science major graduating. Shhh.)
