Medical School Portrait

Creighton and Medical College of Wisconsin both would like a picture of me. Opinions as to which picture one is better?

So guess what? I CAN cook!

And here's the proof! Tonight I made Honey Chicken Kabobs, and they were tasty! The chicken was marinaded starting this morning and then grilled with red and green peppers, onion, mushrooms, and I was supposed to include pineapple but forgot so we just added it to our rice after everything else. Yum! *does a happy food dance*

More Alaska

Here are some fun facts about Alaska:
There are 7 caribou for every Alaska citizen.
Every Alaskan citizen can use a dipnet (think of a long handled landing net) to harvest 25 salmon every year.
If you would put a map of Alaska on top of a map of the "Lower 48," it would stretch from the East Coast to West Coast.
During the summer solstice in Fairbanks the sun never sets, it just approaches the horizon, gets a little dusky, but not dark, so golfers tee off at midnight, because they can! The nickname "Land of the Midnight Sun" is quite apt.These are harbor seals by the Aialik Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park. So cute! We took a day glacier cruise into the park and saw all kinds of wildlife, along with some incredible glaciers.
On our way to Aialik Glacier, we saw these two humpback whales, a mother with her calf! Boat captains are not allowed to maneuver the boat within 100 yards of whales. We cut the engine and drifted as the whales swam right towards the boat! This was absolutely incredible, and VERY rare. I will never forget hearing them exhale through their blowholes as they surface, witnessing their quiet and majestic swim, and standing with our mouths open as we saw their smooth dive into the waters below.
On our drive across the Kenai Peninsula from Seward to Soldotna, we passed by Tern Lake. It was such a clear, beautiful morning. We stopped by this lake, admiring the almost perfect reflection and the birds flying about and calling to each other. This was one of the most serene and gorgeous sights of the trip.
This "fence" of rods was on our halibut boat out of Homer. The mountains set against the water were beautiful. And the seas were not as rough as we had expected, which was very nice. If you look closely at the roads, you can see the large two pound weights and the oversized hooks baited with hunks of herring. The fishing grounds were 19 miles out, and the waters were 250 feet deep. The simple act of hauling up the line to check the bait was a chore, but luckily most of the time we would have a halibut on the other end! Halibut are probably among the most ugly fish on the earth, but they sure taste good!
Across the peninsula from Homer was this beautiful mountain range, including several volcanoes. We believe that this one is Mt. Redoubt. We loved seeing so many snow-capped peaks every day, especially against dense evergreens and deep blue waters.

Darkness is......dark!

My mom and I flew back to good ol' Minnesota from Anchorage on June 28th. That night, we were amazed how dark darkness was! We had forgotten how black the sky could get. In Alaska, we had gotten somewhat used to going to sleep with the sun still in the sky (think of the sun's intensity in later afternoon, that was what it was like at 10 PM!). Dad and Joyce got back on July 3rd, so now we have all of our pictures from our month-long trek. Here is the beginning of a sampling:

This is a bentwood box, crafted by an apprentice (I think that's pretty good for an apprentice!). The boxes are made from one piece of wood, the corners are made by cutting out a wedge and then steaming and bending the wood. Then the entire box is carved with the desired design which is then painted. The apprentice has spent about one month working on this box and it will go to a dentist for approximately $4,000.
Shortly after our shuttle bus crawled its way through twisty Polychrome Pass, we enjoyed this magnificent view of snow capped mountains. The mix of colors from rock and tundra were incredible! Unfortunately, the clouds were too dense for us to see Denali.
Bald eagles are everywhere in Alaska! This magnificent specimen was soaring around Sitka (the Inside Passage). It was fantastic to see such majestic creatures every day.
Another ubiquitous sight is the lupine. This beautiful blue variety lined nearly every road and cropped up in beautiful clumps in parks.
Grizzly!!! While on our shuttle bus in Denali National Park, we had to make a sudden stop because this young grizzly was in the middle of the road! We got to watch as he walked along the side of our bus, munched on grass by the roadside, and generally wasn't bothered by the pack of overjoyed wildlife paparazzi in our bus. What an awe-inspiring sight!

Wilderness, Gold Rush, and Wildlife

Bears oh my!!! On our drive from Skagway to Carmacks (Canada), we were tooling along when all of a sudden, what is that large brown furry thing in the ditch?!?!? A large brown bear munching on the grass in the ditch without a care in the world. It couldn't have been more than 25 feet away, and it didn't care that were taking a bunch of pictures. Shortly down the road (less than 80 feet) there was a black bear doing the same thing! Wow!
This is Mt. Edgecombe outside of Sitka, Alaska. We got to see this beautiful mountain as we were leaving Sitka on the fast ferry, the Fairweather. The Fairweather is a catamaran style ferry, and for a while, we had a top speed of 37.8 knots which was much faster than any of our other ferries!
Mom, Dad, and I right in front of the gorgeous Mendenhall Glacier! This was a fantastic stop, with beautiful small icebergs in the lake, a graceful waterfall, and a wonderful view of the deep blue glacial ice. Mom and I hiked to the waterfall and carried back a small piece of washed-up ice for Dad and Joyce. The ice has a beautiful dense crystal structure, which is responsible for the pure crystal-like ice and the deep blue color. And yes, it was "cool" here. :P
This is historic downtown Skagway. The building on the left, the Mascot Saloon, was restored by the Park Service, and every business downtown takes it upon themselves to have period storefronts, which gives the town a really neat feel, especially conducive to cruise ship tourists' wealth redistribution.
Outside of Dawson City is Dredge No. 4, the largest wooden hull bucket line dredge in North America. It was used for gold mining for decades, and only 4 people were needed on board to actually operate it. This was a very efficient gold extracting machine, collecting 95% of all the gold in the gravel and bedrock it went through. Believe it or not, this machine actually floated along in its own pond as it worked!

Alaska!!!

Hello!
I haven't posted anything here in quite some time, but since we're in Alaska, I'd like to share some of our pictures!


We made a quick stop in the Pike Street Market in Seattle. This specimen is a real beauty isn't it? Just after I took this picture and stood up, one of the fishermen yanked on a rope tied to this fish's tail and completely startled me! If I had been taking the picture when he did that I would have had a heart attack! After this we went to Everett, Washington to take a tour of the Boeing factor. The next day, we got onto the ferry.

A couple hours after we got onto the ferry (about 7:30 PM Alaska time) we saw three orcas right off the bow of our ship! If you look closely at this picture, you can see the dorsal fin of one. This was a fantastic way to start our trip on the Alaska Marine Highway.

We've spent some days just travelling on the ferry. So, we entertain ourselves by playing cards, studying for the MCAT (oh joy), knitting, or gazing at the gorgeous scenery that we pass by. We've chugged past many snow covered mountains, picturesque waterfalls, and even a glacier!

This picture is a bit out of order, but this is from Bellingham where we got onto the ferry. I'm so glad I have hats and gloves, because it's been cool, very cloudy, and misty or straight out raining. But we've been having a great time!

A Few Pictures From The Tropics

Our dear ranchero, the "bus" that brought us down Via Auca to the Shiripuno. Observe if you will, the many large rocks upon this road. There were also many potholes, all of which we felt acutely since the ranchero lacked any noticeable suspension. But no matter, to the rainforest!

Via Auca, the road we used to reach the Shiripuno River, was built for and by the oil companies. This pumping station, with its plethora of pipes, was another reminder of the presence of oil and of those who wish to extract it in the Ecuadorian rainforest.

A typical colonist's home along Via Auca, on stilts, made of wood and concrete block, surrounded by chickens, dogs, maybe some cows, and small fields where these people attempt to make a living off the nutrient poor soil.

The Shiripuno River Lodge: Our home during our rainforest stay. Thatched palm fronds for a roof, planks for walls and floors, and even indoor plumbing for each triple room! Except when the pump broke and we didn't have running water for three or four days, but no matter, we all smelled anyway from sweat and the mud and a little more mud and sweat didn't make much of a difference.

The rainforest, what a beautifully complex place. Canopy, lianas (woody vines), understory, ferns, palms, all sorts of life!

Rubber boots: man's best friend in the muddy Ecuadorian rainforest.

Have blowgun will hunt, or at least attempt to do so. They are surprisingly heavy and long, easily eight feet. And to think the Huaorani men run, not walk, run, for hours with these blowguns in pursuit of various animals over the course of several days.

Just because I'm close to the equator doesn't guarantee that it's warm. On top of this mountain, I was higher than any point in the Rockies, wow. And it was cool up there, literally and figuratively. As soon as we reached the top, the clouds started to part and we got to see this amazing view of the rugged peaks of the Andes Mountains, stretching before us in all directions.

This forest was unreal. The vegetation, short, gnarled, laden with other plants like ferns and moss, boggled my mind. Complete with a stream cascading from the heights of the nearby Andes, incredible.

Lions and tigers and marine iguanas oh my! Okay, cut the part about the lions and tigers and replace it with lava lizards and frigate birds. So much wildlife and they don't move! They are not scared of people at all, amazing!


Oh the famous blue-footed booby. Yes, that is an actual name for an actual bird. And they were everywhere, including on our trail doing their mating dance, perfect for us observing biologists!

Awww, aren't these guys cute? Wherever we went there were sea lions! So many of them, we had to watch where we stepped so we wouldn't accidentally squash one of the pups (like these) or one of the mothers. They may seem lazy as they nap on the rocks, but when they're in the water, snorkellers watch out for these mammalian torpedoes!

It was fascinating watching these huge male tortoises eat, so slowly, so deliberately. It comes with a slow metabolism and a lifespan of over 150 years!

The vegetation on the Galapagos never ceased to perplex. Prickly pear cactus, okay, I've seen that before, but growing like a tree? Wow. What an adaptation. The other sticks here are living trees, known as palo santo or holy stick, awaiting rain. They flower in the Christmas season, thus earning them their name.

Yee-haw! The largest active caldera in the world! And the second largest in world period! Welcome to Sierra Negra on Isabela, the last eruption here was in October 2005 and believe it or not cacti are thriving just tens of feet from the newest lava flow, amazing.

This boat belongs in a lake, not in the ocean serving as a speedboat to transport tourists across miles of bumpy seas from Isabela to Santa Cruz, but it gets you there in one piece.

Mitad del Mundo: Middle of the Earth, also known as the Equator! However, this monument and this line are actually 240 meters off. Whoops! But a fun representation nonetheless.

On one of our hikes along a ridge in Mindo, we were treated with this stunning view of the valley and the town of Mindo far off. The altitudes of the innumerable hills and mountains never cease to amaze me.

This was our cabin in Mindo, a pretty classy place for the cloud forest!


On left, is me, modelling one of the alpaca sweaters I brought home. Second from the left is Jaimie Didier, one of my housemates and a senior. Third from the left is Pilar, our host mom (a very kind and generous woman, and a great cook). Third from the right is Maria Isabela, Pilar's daughter. Second from the right is Sarah Stevens, my other housemate and also a senior. And on the right is Juan Pablo, Maria Isabela's husband, who had actually lived in St. Cloud for a few years!