Particulates

Much like the rainwater I boil to drink, my mind has little bits and occasional bugs floating around in it that aren’t substantial enough to merit their own blog post.  However, my personal filter is dilapidated enough that I’ve decided to collect them here.

Entiendes? 

I’m working on my literature review for my thesis.  This is a direct quote from one of the articles:

“They also commonly exhibit umbric epipedons and argillic horizons.”

I know the author is talking about soil, but that’s as far as my understanding goes.

Despite the inscrutability of some of the things I read, I could almost be a biologist just for the vocab.  Words like anhydrobiosis (of water bears), ganglion, mycorhizzae, nodule, and rough endoplasmic reticulum are awesome to say and to approximately know what they mean. 

Hile

In Peru, it’s popular to name your kids after someone famous.  This is regardless of whether or not you really know why the name you picked is famous.  The closest American analogy I can make is getting a tattoo of Chinese symbols when you aren’t really sure what it means.  It’s something like strength or destiny, but who’s going to know the difference? 

The only good thing about the tattoo is that you’re only doing it to yourself.  Unfortunately, bad naming is inflicted on kids.  In my time, I’ve meet two teenagers named Stalin and Itler. 

Stasia: “Your friend is named Itler??  Do you know who Hitler was?”

Kid: “Yeah, wasn’t he a president of the United States?”

Sadly, nobody here knows the difference either.  At least Peruvians aren’t very good at growing mustaches.  

Dumb

It was straight foolishness to title a post "Golden Showers."  We all know what the internet is for:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKNnwLL991c

To each their own, but my blog has to be disappointing to many a Google searcher.


Filthy Stinking Volunteerses

I went to see The Hobbit when I was in Lima and enjoyed it more than I expected.  They could've billed it as a 3 hour movie on the marvels of dwarven facial hair, and I would've been in.  
I re-read the book a few months ago and really related to Bilbo as the reluctant adventurer.  I didn´t run out of my house without my hat or pocket-handkerchiefs, but I sometimes wonder what I´ve gotten myself into and what on earth is going on around me.

I figure the movie was filmed in New Zealand, but a lot of it looks just like Peru!  The mountains are like the Cordillera Blanca.  Rivendell with its trees and waterfalls is Amazonas.  Unfortunately, the part that looks like where I live is when everyone is being chased by wolf riding goblins, which I suppose is appropriate enough. If you´ve seen the movie, it´s like you´ve visited!

Sheep: Winning at Evolution

Most sierra volunteers get tired of sheep.  They are ubiquitous, sometimes noisy and smelly, not as cute as alpacas, cause traffic jams, stir up mud, and their poops are just the right size to stick in the treads of boots for later deposit on bedroom floors.  But, the biggest complaint is that they’re plain old dumb.

I’ve found another way of looking at it.  Sheep have made their way off the natural selection treadmill and are living the good life.  If a sheep could tell off a more glamorous and independent species, here would be its argument:

“I’m a sheep, and I am beyond being smart. Your big brain?  That just burns a lot of calories.  I have this human who does all that work for me.  I don’t have to look for food, evade predators, or write a master’s thesis.  To be a successful sheep, all I have to do is grow hair and hang out with my friends.”

Non-sheep, you just got burned.