Daylog, Wednesday, May 18 2005
I leave on Saturday, bright and early in the morning. So the things that I get to work on now are packing, packing, packing. Sadly this means that I have to do a few other things first:
1. Cleaning
2. Laundry
3. Unpacking
Yep, I have to unpack. Since I first had to move into the new house, I chose to not deal with packing stuff for my trip, and just dumped everything in . . . well . . . wherever. All of the clothes are in only a few bags, luckily, but other things I might end up having to search. I am not looking forward to that!
1. Cleaning
2. Laundry
3. Unpacking
Yep, I have to unpack. Since I first had to move into the new house, I chose to not deal with packing stuff for my trip, and just dumped everything in . . . well . . . wherever. All of the clothes are in only a few bags, luckily, but other things I might end up having to search. I am not looking forward to that!
Wednesday, May 18 2005 16:15 | 0 comments (add)
Daylog, Friday, May 20 2005
After getting some last minute Items and then packing like crazy, here I am, done. It is exciting and yay. I am going to Hawaii tomorrow! I leave at 0610 and get in at 1230. For a twelve-hour trip. Yay. I will have to remember to take pictures and all that Jazz.
Friday, May 20 2005 18:20 | 0 comments (add)
Daylog, Saturday, May 21 2005
So, I'm in Hawai'i now. Don and I were the first to get here, so we got in, had some glorious hotel-flavored confusion (we weren't expecting to have to pay, but they seemed to be expecting us to pay), put our stuff down, and went out for a walk. Poor Don, a good ol' Pittsburgher, was confused at getting rained upon in the sun (yes, sunshowers do exist). We got sort of lost, I got a Jamba Juice smoothie, he got a KFC sandwich. Then we got pseudo-lost, I picked up a kaukau (a random Japanese things-to-do publication), and found that it had a map. From there I managed to decipher our location, and we started walking down to Waikiki Beach until we decided "Enh, we should go back and wait for the new kids." I picked up the Honolulu Weekly (the CP/Weekly Planet equivalent), and found that there are a lot of Japanese shops and restaurants. Including a Daiei. I was amused by the Daiei. Now . . . I am waiting for some of my roommates to get in. More later mayhaps. Perhaps I should time these. It is . . . [1626 Hawai'i, 2226 EDT]
I had a trying afternoon. Carla and Jackie got in and we decided to go wander off to the beach. So we did. It's about a 15 minute walk to the beach! So beachity beach beach, and I went swimming a little bit and then went "Ooo, there's a volleyball game!" and wandered over to that and stared at them until they let me play. They were speaking some language I didn't understand and I don't know exactly what they thought of my play. They were reasonable but lazy-looking. I think they could have played pretty well if they wanted to move their feet. So . . . when I was getting things, I don't know if they were surprised or what. After that, we watched the sunset woo, and then decided that we were hungry. Jackie and I wandered off to a random little Korean restaurant where they looked at us like "Poor little white girls," but the food was yummy. After that we ran into Joe and Stephanie (the other girl) and went "What are we doing tomorrow???!" and he told us that we had to meet at the early early hour of 3:15 in the afternoon. Or noon fifteen if we wanted to get an "Intro to Buddhism." Such a trying life.
I had a trying afternoon. Carla and Jackie got in and we decided to go wander off to the beach. So we did. It's about a 15 minute walk to the beach! So beachity beach beach, and I went swimming a little bit and then went "Ooo, there's a volleyball game!" and wandered over to that and stared at them until they let me play. They were speaking some language I didn't understand and I don't know exactly what they thought of my play. They were reasonable but lazy-looking. I think they could have played pretty well if they wanted to move their feet. So . . . when I was getting things, I don't know if they were surprised or what. After that, we watched the sunset woo, and then decided that we were hungry. Jackie and I wandered off to a random little Korean restaurant where they looked at us like "Poor little white girls," but the food was yummy. After that we ran into Joe and Stephanie (the other girl) and went "What are we doing tomorrow???!" and he told us that we had to meet at the early early hour of 3:15 in the afternoon. Or noon fifteen if we wanted to get an "Intro to Buddhism." Such a trying life.
Saturday, May 21 2005 21:40 | 0 comments (add)
Daylog, Sunday, May 22 2005
Today I woke up early. I sat and read for a little while, then finally gave up at around 8 and went out with JackieKirchhoff to get some breakfast. We got cute little apple juice bottles and a cinnamon roll. We then wandered over to the mall next door but it was still early so most things weren't open yet. We ended up in this store called Shirokiya, where we found a BookOff. I found Alice in Wonderland in Japanese. On the way back we ran into JoeMertz. We sat around for a little bit and then I decided to go to the intro to Buddhism thing. It was a more different kind of Buddhism than I'd seen before, but that was okay. There was a boy singing and some dancing and other stuff. After that we got together, went to the airport, and then went to this guy's place (Richard, I think) for dinner. The dinner was pretty tasty. We also did some meeting things, found out that the Micronesia people are perhaps somewhat confused still, but we will be making out in the end. I am sleepy.
Sunday, May 22 2005 21:15 | 0 comments (add)
Daylog, Monday, May 23 2005
Today we had more real meetings. We learned a lot about Micronesia, although things were sometimes conflicting. Supposedly the islands we're going to (Yap and Pohnpei) are known for their indigenous alcoholic drink. We found out about satellites and PeaceSat, a satellite system that gets connectivity to the Pacific Islands. I found out that uploading pictures in Micronesia will be difficult. There is about a 1 megabit connection for the entirety of the country. It costs these people approximately 500 to 1000 times as much as it costs you for that bandwidth. Yay internet. So, uploading pictures will be a bit difficult unless they are very small.
So, yes. Today was meetings. Meetings are meetingy. They were kind of interesting, though. And after that we went to the Waikiki beach. I found some people playing doubles on the beach, and watched them for a while, and then the other girls came by, and I went with them to dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise. After that, we went home and now I am here. I am sleepy.
So, yes. Today was meetings. Meetings are meetingy. They were kind of interesting, though. And after that we went to the Waikiki beach. I found some people playing doubles on the beach, and watched them for a while, and then the other girls came by, and I went with them to dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise. After that, we went home and now I am here. I am sleepy.
Monday, May 23 2005 22:15 | 0 comments (add)
Daylog, Tuesday, May 24 2005
Meetings! Today we met with the consulate of the FederatedStatesofMicronesia and also of the CookIslands. People in the morning meeting were stealing wireless and checking their email. I was jealous of those people who got to check email. I want to! But I didn't bring my laptop and there isn't much in terms of convenient internet around here. Hopefully, by the time I get to Kosrae or Pohnpei I'll get to check email. Either way, though, it'll be a little bit of time at least. I guess that it's not terrible not to have email, but I'm definitely used to having ready internet.
Otherwise, I picked up a few last-minute things at Wal-Mart, like Advil. Exciting, no? I am boring, okay.
I like clan culture.
Otherwise, I picked up a few last-minute things at Wal-Mart, like Advil. Exciting, no? I am boring, okay.
I like clan culture.
Tuesday, May 24 2005 21:30 | 0 comments (add)
Daylog, Wednesday, May 26 2004
So, I didn't really have a 25th of May. We left at 7am on the 25th, and landed at 9:30am on the 26th, after a 5 hour flight. Pretty good, all in all. Actually, after that we had a couple more stops, because we stopped in Majuro in the Marshall Islands, and Kwajelien in whereveritis. Majuro was pretty scary in the landing, because the runway and the island were about the same width. Also, coming in to Kosrae was pretty exciting. I was minding my own business, deciding that I wanted to go to the restroom, so I stood up and very nearly immediately after the plane decided to drop. So! I grabbed the armrests, crouched down, and waited to see if it would clear up soon, which it didn't, so I sat down, then sat down in a more different seat, and waited out the exciting ride that was the descent. Really, it was because it is raining here in Kosrae. Rain rain rain rain. It is very wet. It'll probably be raining tomorrow, too. And Pohnpei is supposed to be more rainy.
We met Sepehr, who seems like a pretty awesome guy, and had fish burgers for lunch (really tasty, made out of tuna and onions), and then went to see the hospital. It is small and dingy but there, and the people seemed pretty nice, but I won't be staying anyway. Then, internet! I sent emails and made a livejournal post, and excitement! Sadly, we cannot connect in our room because the phone is dead. Ah well. Dinner was also tasty, even (especially?) though the boys didn't come. We talked about the Queen, and the Pope, and Michael Jackson.
Now I am sleepy! I have been up for a while.
We met Sepehr, who seems like a pretty awesome guy, and had fish burgers for lunch (really tasty, made out of tuna and onions), and then went to see the hospital. It is small and dingy but there, and the people seemed pretty nice, but I won't be staying anyway. Then, internet! I sent emails and made a livejournal post, and excitement! Sadly, we cannot connect in our room because the phone is dead. Ah well. Dinner was also tasty, even (especially?) though the boys didn't come. We talked about the Queen, and the Pope, and Michael Jackson.
Now I am sleepy! I have been up for a while.
Wednesday, May 26 2004 21:40 | 0 comments (add)
Daylog, Friday, May 27 2005
Today was another boring day. Sepehr is still pretty awesome. He has a really dry sense of humor, and makes these crazy comments about just about everthing. We enjoy it, and Jackie Kirchhoff and I will probably be quite amused during our time in Pohnpei, which is where he also lives. We stepped out sometime around 9:30 or 10 this morning, went around places and failed to find people in, and then went to the hospital to look at things a bit. It was unexciting, but perhaps more pertinent for the boys. Then we wandered around the Kosrae Village Resort and saw the beach, which was full of coral. The rain finally started to let up, and we went to lunch at the resort. It took forever and they didn't have the ingredients for half of their menu, but we persevered, and the food was pretty good. Then, we went to more meetings that were boring for the girls, and then finally made it back and Jackie and I tried to read a little but really just ended up falling asleep. Three hours later I finally stumbled out of the room, checked my email (woo!), and then we bumbled off to dinner.
Dinner was at the Nautilus again--they have tasty fishburgers. We talked about yinzer accents, among other exciting things. And stars! That was exciting.
Dinner was at the Nautilus again--they have tasty fishburgers. We talked about yinzer accents, among other exciting things. And stars! That was exciting.
Friday, May 27 2005 22:30 | 0 comments (add)
Daylog, Saturday, May 28 2005
Today, we woke up and it was pouring again. Yay rain. Not really. Actually, it was really nice when we woke up, and then it started to pour. But we managed to pack up and stick things in the car during a lull in the rain, and got to the airport to check in to go to Pohnpei. We watched it pour some more, there.
The Kosrae airport has a metal detector and two of the wand things, but nothing more. So to do security, they have to search everything by hand. They open up your bags, sift through them, ask you to turn everything on, and it all takes a while. Luckily, no more than about 20 people board any flight that comes through. Then they move you around in and out of the secure area and it's all just great.
When we finally got in to Pohnpei, we drove around some, looking for apartment/house-type things, and settled on a studio apartment thing somewhere or other. Eventually I'll learn where it is, ne? Pohnpei has a movie theater and a library and real grocery store-type things. Compared to Kosrae, it's downright cosmopolitan. Sepehr gave us the tour, telling us of course about all the most boring places. We went into a grocery store and just stared, mostly because we were mostly sleepy. After that, we got crab and chicken curry and other tasty foods for dinner.
But mostly we were sleepy. Sepehr has children and more children and Anis, who is the child of a relative and only three. He is . . . energetic. I am glad that I don't have to deal with him too much.
The Kosrae airport has a metal detector and two of the wand things, but nothing more. So to do security, they have to search everything by hand. They open up your bags, sift through them, ask you to turn everything on, and it all takes a while. Luckily, no more than about 20 people board any flight that comes through. Then they move you around in and out of the secure area and it's all just great.
When we finally got in to Pohnpei, we drove around some, looking for apartment/house-type things, and settled on a studio apartment thing somewhere or other. Eventually I'll learn where it is, ne? Pohnpei has a movie theater and a library and real grocery store-type things. Compared to Kosrae, it's downright cosmopolitan. Sepehr gave us the tour, telling us of course about all the most boring places. We went into a grocery store and just stared, mostly because we were mostly sleepy. After that, we got crab and chicken curry and other tasty foods for dinner.
But mostly we were sleepy. Sepehr has children and more children and Anis, who is the child of a relative and only three. He is . . . energetic. I am glad that I don't have to deal with him too much.
Saturday, May 28 2005 22:50 | 0 comments (add)
Daylog, Sunday, May 29 2005
Today was also boring. We woke up, after being told last night to be ready by 10. We were then called at 10 and said "Around 11 I'll pick you up." 'Round comes noon and we hear honking outside the window. Guess what, it's for us. We then go to lunch at the Village Resort, which is up the hill and very pretty. Of course, Anis and Mo (the two smallest children residing at Sepehr's house) come along. Mo is a very nice well-behaved girl. Anis is a terror.
After that there was more driving and random tour-guiding by Sepehr. He tells us obvious things and really obscure things like "This is the son of the radio station guy." Like we will remember for more than a second. After the driving around, we got left to sleep or whatever. I putzed around, played solitaire, did stuff, whatever. I managed to not fall asleep, which I'm pretty proud of. Eventually we got picked up to go to dinner. We had pizza and salad and a funny banana and tea. It was pretty good. We talked with some girl from Emory who is doing nutrition studies with some people on the island. We also talked about childbirth and other such excitement.
Now I am back and ready for sleep!
After that there was more driving and random tour-guiding by Sepehr. He tells us obvious things and really obscure things like "This is the son of the radio station guy." Like we will remember for more than a second. After the driving around, we got left to sleep or whatever. I putzed around, played solitaire, did stuff, whatever. I managed to not fall asleep, which I'm pretty proud of. Eventually we got picked up to go to dinner. We had pizza and salad and a funny banana and tea. It was pretty good. We talked with some girl from Emory who is doing nutrition studies with some people on the island. We also talked about childbirth and other such excitement.
Now I am back and ready for sleep!
Sunday, May 29 2005 23:14 | 0 comments (add)
Daylog, Sunday, May 30 2004
I didn't do much today. We woke up early, went into Sepehr's office (The bioterrorism office), then sat around putzing with the internet until our 9:30 meeting with the secretary of Health. That was a half-hour, and then we went back, putzed more with internet, had lunch at the Joy hotel, then more putzing and a pseudo-meeting where Sepehr and Joe were kind of not listening to each other and just saying things that had something to do with the other.
After that, we sat around, the internet had issues a little bit, and then we went to get food and things for the apartment. We picked up a towel for a bathmat, some pots'n'pans and food. Yay food.
Then we had a short break, and then dinner at Sepehr's again, with the exciting gaggle of children and some friends-of-the-family. There was more Indian food of types that I don't remember the name of. Roti! We talked some, Sepehr made fun of me (I don't know if this is all in good fun or what), looked at pictures of Iran, and then came back and time for sleeping!
After that, we sat around, the internet had issues a little bit, and then we went to get food and things for the apartment. We picked up a towel for a bathmat, some pots'n'pans and food. Yay food.
Then we had a short break, and then dinner at Sepehr's again, with the exciting gaggle of children and some friends-of-the-family. There was more Indian food of types that I don't remember the name of. Roti! We talked some, Sepehr made fun of me (I don't know if this is all in good fun or what), looked at pictures of Iran, and then came back and time for sleeping!
Sunday, May 30 2004 22:42 | 0 comments (add)
Daylog, Tuesday, May 31 2005
OMGWTF today was so exciting!!!1! Actually no. We went in to the bioterrorism office (where Sepehr works), and sat about a bit until the meeting with the hospital director. We met him, talked a little bit about stuff and things, what technology should be doing, what he wants to do, that sort of stuff. After that, we had the glorious excitement of Sepehr having left his lights on, and dead battery. We got a ride back while he putzed with the car with some of his infinite friends on the island. I think he has infinite friends because he does approximately all of the IT stuff on the entire island, possibly an amount on the rest of the islands as well.
Anyway, we had lunch at the Joy Restaurant again (I had the Joy lunch which is sashimi and rice and salad and soup and fried fish and tasty and $6.50). Food here on the whole actually doesn't seem that pricy, but maybe we're just being given good guidance. After lunch, we worked on making a survey for the staff of the hospital and HESA. Then Sepehr took over and did revisions multiple times. It was okay, he took things out and put them back in. The concept of people wanting to do things on the computer that they didn't know that they could do was a point I had to work to put across. But that's okay. Perhaps I'll learn how to do some things this summer.
After that we got back home, and went "Hrm, we have nothing to do!" There are supposed to be $2.50 movies at the movie theater (there's only one) on Tuesday nights, but we seemed to fail at the taxi-getting task. We will ask about getting taxis tomorrow, I think. Regardless of the disappointment of not getting a taxi, the whole procedure (finding movie times, getting a phone book, calling random questionable taxi companies) served as our excitement for the evening.
I made miso soup with tofu and seaweed and we had that with bread (haha) for dinner. Now I have spent the rest of my evening by putting music on my PSP and trying to figure out how to do video on it. I failed at that, so I'll just have to try some other day, or look it up on the internet.
Also, yesterday we very nearly ran into the president of the FSM. By this, I mean we passed by him leaving the grocery store. Being president here is not nearly what it is in the US. Actually, the president is Sepehr's next-door neighbor. He proposes as a problem the question of how to greet the president if you pass by him on the street, or if he comes over to chat with your family.
Anyway, we had lunch at the Joy Restaurant again (I had the Joy lunch which is sashimi and rice and salad and soup and fried fish and tasty and $6.50). Food here on the whole actually doesn't seem that pricy, but maybe we're just being given good guidance. After lunch, we worked on making a survey for the staff of the hospital and HESA. Then Sepehr took over and did revisions multiple times. It was okay, he took things out and put them back in. The concept of people wanting to do things on the computer that they didn't know that they could do was a point I had to work to put across. But that's okay. Perhaps I'll learn how to do some things this summer.
After that we got back home, and went "Hrm, we have nothing to do!" There are supposed to be $2.50 movies at the movie theater (there's only one) on Tuesday nights, but we seemed to fail at the taxi-getting task. We will ask about getting taxis tomorrow, I think. Regardless of the disappointment of not getting a taxi, the whole procedure (finding movie times, getting a phone book, calling random questionable taxi companies) served as our excitement for the evening.
I made miso soup with tofu and seaweed and we had that with bread (haha) for dinner. Now I have spent the rest of my evening by putting music on my PSP and trying to figure out how to do video on it. I failed at that, so I'll just have to try some other day, or look it up on the internet.
Also, yesterday we very nearly ran into the president of the FSM. By this, I mean we passed by him leaving the grocery store. Being president here is not nearly what it is in the US. Actually, the president is Sepehr's next-door neighbor. He proposes as a problem the question of how to greet the president if you pass by him on the street, or if he comes over to chat with your family.
Tuesday, May 31 2005 22:12 | 0 comments (add)
Daylog, Wednesday, June 1 2005
We futzed with this little Cobalt Qube (I hate these dumb^Wcute little misspellings in products) today. It has a mail server, dns server, dhcp, everything that you might like in a network. It's also cute and blue. And cube-shaped. Maybe around 8" on a side, maybe even smaller. We were doing things with crossover cables, which I didn't much trust, but we were having troubles more or less. I'd bring in my ethernet cable (yes, I am a huge dork and brought ethernet cable and my own xover cable to Micronesia), but I'd be afraid of losing it forever to the Micronesian government void. We also handed out the survey. Most people want to know how to use Access. Luckily, neither Jackie or I know how! This will make for fun training sessions, no? Yay crash course time.
We got lunch from the food counter at PalmTerrace, rice and fried chicken and a drink and a cinnamon roll for dessert. It was $3.45, which I thought pretty good. Sepehr asked us if the price was okay. We mostly blinked and went "Yesss."
For dinner, Jovienne (one of Sepehr's relatives, there's some interesting twisty relation tree/vine-thing going on here) took us out to Angie's for "fast food." It wasn't particularly fast, but it was a good fish sandwich. If only they used tuna steaks in the US for fried fish. Ha ha. After that, we went driving around a bit, and talked about all sorts of random things. Jovienne is 19 and going to the College of Micronesia, so she's the nearest to our age that we know of, I think. She's a pretty neat person. And also thinks that Sepehr sometimes goes a bit far with his sarcasm and teasing.
We got lunch from the food counter at PalmTerrace, rice and fried chicken and a drink and a cinnamon roll for dessert. It was $3.45, which I thought pretty good. Sepehr asked us if the price was okay. We mostly blinked and went "Yesss."
For dinner, Jovienne (one of Sepehr's relatives, there's some interesting twisty relation tree/vine-thing going on here) took us out to Angie's for "fast food." It wasn't particularly fast, but it was a good fish sandwich. If only they used tuna steaks in the US for fried fish. Ha ha. After that, we went driving around a bit, and talked about all sorts of random things. Jovienne is 19 and going to the College of Micronesia, so she's the nearest to our age that we know of, I think. She's a pretty neat person. And also thinks that Sepehr sometimes goes a bit far with his sarcasm and teasing.
Wednesday, June 1 2005 22:01 | 0 comments (add)
Daylog, Thursday, June 2 2005
Today we installed the Qube in the [HESA] Department at Palikir. We also did a little discussing of training sessions. We will probably do training in basic Office program functions and tips and tricks etc.
At dinner, we found out that one of our burners will not actually boil water. This was sad. But eventually we triumphed and had your old standard pasta with sauce. Otherwise today . . . it has been raining. Rainy rain rain. This is not unusual, just rainy. Today was particularly dull.
Oh, I finished Gone with the Wind. It is a pretty good book, but now I want to read Scarlett but finding it here might be tricky.
Yes, things here go pretty slowly.
At dinner, we found out that one of our burners will not actually boil water. This was sad. But eventually we triumphed and had your old standard pasta with sauce. Otherwise today . . . it has been raining. Rainy rain rain. This is not unusual, just rainy. Today was particularly dull.
Oh, I finished Gone with the Wind. It is a pretty good book, but now I want to read Scarlett but finding it here might be tricky.
Yes, things here go pretty slowly.
Thursday, June 2 2005 22:54 | 0 comments (add)
Daylog, Sunday, June 5 2005
Supposedly I didn't save what I wrote for Saturday, and I didn't write anything for Friday, so . . . Pfleh. That is irritating. So! Capsule reviews of Friday and Saturday!
Friday was really boring. We sat around, I wrote a whitelist policy-type thing, and ate lunch and dinner. Dinner was at Sepehr's again. Oh, we also went to see Madagascar, which was pretty good.
Saturday we sat around (in the apartment instead), did laundry, stared at the rain, bought Pohnpeian skirts (one each), ate dinner at Sepehr's again, this time a "going away" party for some friends (they're only going for two months). Lots of food though, and tasty. I was hungry. We also discovered why they like rain here--otherwise it's absurdly hot and humid. The rain goes a long way in cooling things down.
Today we had a dull morning. I made hard-boiled eggs with our sad sad burner. Eventually Sepehr came and dragged us to work (woo work on a Sunday), where we went over what sort of training we'll be trying to do over the next week. Then we went out with Jovian to eat at the Joy Hotel Restaurant, and then went out to Nett point, which is nice and quiet and you can see a lot of stars. We had a little bit of an adventure, too!
Friday was really boring. We sat around, I wrote a whitelist policy-type thing, and ate lunch and dinner. Dinner was at Sepehr's again. Oh, we also went to see Madagascar, which was pretty good.
Saturday we sat around (in the apartment instead), did laundry, stared at the rain, bought Pohnpeian skirts (one each), ate dinner at Sepehr's again, this time a "going away" party for some friends (they're only going for two months). Lots of food though, and tasty. I was hungry. We also discovered why they like rain here--otherwise it's absurdly hot and humid. The rain goes a long way in cooling things down.
Today we had a dull morning. I made hard-boiled eggs with our sad sad burner. Eventually Sepehr came and dragged us to work (woo work on a Sunday), where we went over what sort of training we'll be trying to do over the next week. Then we went out with Jovian to eat at the Joy Hotel Restaurant, and then went out to Nett point, which is nice and quiet and you can see a lot of stars. We had a little bit of an adventure, too!
Sunday, June 5 2005 21:31 | 0 comments (add)