Parents' visit, Dec 20 - 30, 2010

It's time to catch up on this blog! Lots of things have happened since my last post, but nothing crazy or exciting, just things I would like to remember.

My parents and aunt came to visit Dec 20 - 30. The plan was to do some day trips in CR then take a 14 hr bus ride to Panama City to see the Panama Canal! This was something my dad has been wanting to see; he's never really been picky about vacations in general but when he said, "Yeah, let's go see the Canal," I knew I should make it happen. The day trips consisted of "taste" of CR (beach: Manual Antonio, volcano: Irazu, small village & churches: Orosi & Cartago, rainforest: La Paz Waterfall Garden). We had hired a car & driver, which ended up being cheaper than renting a car for 4 days + the headaches of driving/getting lost.

At one point, my brain almost exploded from thinking in English, Marathi and Spanish. But its quite a fun exercise when not stressful.

To get to Panama City, Panama, we took TicaBus, which is a bus line that goes straight from San Jose to Panama City. We took the executive class, which included (non vegetarian) meals, pillow and blanket + the standard movies, comfy seats and bathroom on board. The border crossing was relatively painless (although they did ask for the $500 cash insurance, but I was able to talk my way out of it saying I had a credit card ). In Panama City, we did a Partial Transit of the Canal, which was very cool. Basically, we were in a small boat (full of upscale tourists who could afford the transit in the first place), that went through 2 sets of locks on the Pacific Side of the Canal. You definitely do not need to do a transit to get an appreciation for the awesomeness of the Canal and the role it has played/plays in commerce and trade. The Miraflores tourist center provides a museum and great vantage point to see ships transiting through. We saw a cruise ship go through as well as a PanaMax ship (a ship that has the maximum dimensions for going through the Canal.) There is construction going on to develop a parallel set of locks to provide space for ships larger than the current PanaMax standard.

The rest of the time we visited some historical sites and ruins. Panama Viejo was the first site the Spanish settled at (there was already an indigenous population at the site), and then moved to Casco Viejo, which was later abandoned for the current site of Panama City. Casco Viejo is full of abandoned, dilapidated buildings with forests growing inside of them, the buildings are mostly hollow shells. Currently, some of the buildings are being restored/renovated, and that will definitely bring in more tourism into the area but hopefully not at the cost of the people who currently live there.

Finding good vegetarian food was challenging, as well understanding the Spanish. It seems that Costa Rica is the only country in the vicinity that pronounces "s" in words (IME, the "s" sound is very subtle or non existent in Panama City and Nicaragua), so add this to my mental confusion of English/Marathi/Spanish = total brain frustration and breakdown at some points (especially when you are also responsible for the comfort/hunger/overall happiness of 3 other people besides yourself).

Montezuma, Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Nina was here a few weeks ago and for the weekend she was here we went to Montezuma, a beach town on the southern end of the Nicoya Peninsula. The most convenient way to get there from San Jose is to take a bus to Punterenas, ferry across the gulf of Nicoya, then bus from the ferry stop to the city of Montezuma (about 5.5 - 6 hrs total). We stayed at a hostel that had howler monkeys right outside, and the sound is terrifying! I did not sleep well there at all. We had an amazing buffet lunch at a vegan, gluten free restaurant called Organico . . sooooo delicious!!! I also had mint choc chip vegan ice cream from there, also delicious. Unfortunately they were only open for bfast and lunch, not dinner. We tried to walk to waterfalls but didn't realize you have to actually walk in the river to get to the falls, and were not prepared for that. Then for dinner we went to a fancy restaurant on the beach! The ambience was great, but since it was dark you couldn't see the water, but could hear the waves. The next day we did an organized tour to Isla Tortuga! Which is very reminiscent of Bocas Del Toro, but the island was a bit crowded but had a lot of activities to do besides just sun bathe and swim. The organized tour took us to two snorkeling points (I had to hold Nina's hand while doing this, I don't know why snorkeling freaks me out, some form of agoraphobia maybe?), then a good lunch on Isla Tortuga. I had the most amazing pina colada there, made with crema de coco and fresh pineapple . . . mmmmm.

I also taught another dance class, this time to my own choreography for Desi Girl! It was a blast of course and am debating doing one more workshop in Jan before I leave.

xmas in CR

Well, its officially start of my "summer" vacation! The physics building closed at 11:30am, so no choice but to start vacation today! Although earlier this week there was a wave of cold weather, the sun is finally out burning my skin as it should be. Monday was probably the coldest, and since my apartment is not insulated - the windows don't actually close all the way and there's a 1/2 inch space under my front door - I resorted to drinking soup and hot tea at intervals. I should have done some stretching/dancing to warm up but was too cold to even start that. Eventually the combination of the hot liquids plus turning my stove on every 20 minutes warmed up my apartment a bit.

There's Xmas lights up in our apartment complex which feels very cozy at night. My two favorite vegetarian restaurants are closed for the next 2 weeks, but I did stock up on vegetarian tamales. Oh yeah, tamales are a big deal. Instead of smelling cinnamon and baked goods and gingerbread lattes, the smell of steamed masa represents xmas time here. They wrap their tamales in banana leaves (instead of corn husks like the mexican tradition), apparently this gives the tamale a different flavor but I'm not much of a tamale connoisseur, I just know I like 'em, a lot. Some families get together for tamale making parties, and tamale eating parties. There was even a tamale party in the Physics department on Wednesday afternoon. Campus is shut down for 2 weeks and when I return in Jan, the students will still be on their summer vacation until March or so.

The Tico tradition is to go to the Pacific Coast for Christmas, yes Xmas at the beach! This is their "summer" after all, and this really means its their dry season, and the Central Valley isn't actually hot, but the beaches are. Although summer time is xmas time, there's plenty of decorations that have to do with the usual themes of a north hemisphere xmas: snowmen, reindeer, snow painted in store front windows, xmas trees.

So, my plans for the next few days are to relax, prep for my parents' visit, maybe watch HP7 again. We'll do some sightseeing around here and head to Panama for xmas. For NYE, I'll be heading to Uvita Beach on the southern Pacific coast! A few weeks after that, I'll head to the neighbor to the north and see Nehcaragua . . then it will be time for me to head back to Cali . . crazy. . .

cultural exchange

One of the missions of the Fulbright Program is to foster cultural exchange, in addition to scholarly exchange. There definitely is no lack of American culture here, so I am doing my best to provide some Indian culture. There is a slight exotification of the culture, especially given the beautiful people and plotlines in the telenova “India, una historia de amor,” but I can't complain too much about that. There are also some stereotypes/preconceived notions (which I love breaking down), and those can be frustrating at times. I made some contacts with a dance studio and the university’s folklorico group to arrange free workshops about Indian dance. A few weeks ago I taught a two hour Indian dance workshop (Bollywood, folk) at a small dance studio; there were only 4 girls, and two of them were my friends, and 1 of them the owner of the studio. We had an awesome time and I taught in Spanish! The next workshop is in December and I’ll be making up a routine to Desi Girl to teach. I have been obsessed with that song and haven’t had an opportunity to perform to it or choreograph for it.

I’m also giving a workshop on Indian Folk dance on campus, probably a 1 hour presentation and 1 hour dance class/demonstration. I even bought a few pairs of dandias to teach some Raas (which I found at a local Home Depot type of store). I’ll talk about the differences between folk and classical dance, play some music so they can hear the differences between types of music (ie Bhangra vs. garba), and teach some basic moves. Should be fun!

oops

Wow, I’m really behind on my blogging! November just flew by and I got superbusy with visitors and fun trips and even teaching a dance class! It has already been 4 months exactly since I arrived here, crazy.

Matt’s visit – Bocas del Toro and La Paz Waterfall Gardens
Matt came to visit at the end of October and we went to Bocas del Toro, Panama for Halloween weekend. We had to take a bus to the CR – Panama border (city of Sixaola on CR side), go through immigration, walk across a bridge, go through immigration again (city of Gaubito on Panam side), take a bus to a small pier on a canal that leads to the Caribbean, then water taxi to Bocas del Toro; left my apartment at 5 am CR time and got to our hotel at about 3 pm Panama time (Panama is EST, 1 hr ahead of CR time). The province is an archipelago, with the city of Bocas del Toro being the main part with hotels and restaurants. There are tons of water activities to do, but we just went to two beaches, Bocas del Drago/Starfish Beach & Red Frog Beach. Red Frog beach is amazing, not crowded, and beautiful, warm, turquoise-blue water with great waves (not great for boogie boarding and probably too big for small kids), and a small bar with relatively cheap drinks and snacks. We spent a good 5 hours there I think. Matt wanted to go snorkeling but I was thoroughly congested with a sinus cold, so we skipped that. There is a very yummy Indian restaurant (Om Café I think it’s called), where we had Papaya Lassi and a great spicy dinner. We stayed at Lula’s B&B, which was really nice, comfortable, peaceful and affordable.

The next big outing we did while Matt was here was to visit La Paz Waterfall Gardens, which is a private reserve/park near Poas Volcano outside of San Jose, Costa Rica. We did a day trip ($65 pp, including transportation from/to San Pedro, admission, English speaking guide, lunch), it’s a beautiful park up in the rainforest with lots of animals that you would not see in the wild unless you camped out for days and were silent. There is also an amazing hotel (Peace Lodge) right inside the park. The waterfalls were OK I thought (just a bunch of water gushing down), my favorite part was probably the hummingbird garden and seeing the jaguars, pumas and toucans.

The nice thing about having visitors is that your friends and family can see where you have been living this whole time and where you have set up a life from scratch in a foreign country; often its hard to describe the vibe, community, challenges and beauty of a place, the closest I get is saying that CR is like India, but in some ways it's the total opposite of India.

Sachin & Family – Playa Hermosa

Later in November, my cousin Netie (Tai), her husband Charu (Jeej) and their 4 yr old son Sachin visited. They stayed in San Pedro for a few nights, then went on a road trip (rented a car) to Arenal, Monteverde and Playa Hermosa. I met up with them at Playa Hermosa where we stayed for two nights. It’s a small beach town in Guanacaste, north of Playas Tamarindo and Coco, both of which are known to be surfer, party type towns. But Playa Hermosa has a different vibe, calm water, and tons of development in the hills (ie high end condos, gated neighborhoods). On the beach there was a mix of Americans and Tico families hanging out. I got Sachin over his fear of beach water, but I think he’s more scared of big waves and especially the loud noise they make rather than the actual water (b/c he loves swimming pools). The sand at this beach is very fine, and under the top layer is this beautiful, sparkly black sand. The change in tide was crazy, it receded a lot while we were out there, which was cool to see, especially as the moon was moving farther away in the same direction.

The major city close to Playa Hermosa is Liberia, which has its own international airport! So technically you could just fly to Liberia and get to the beach in half an hour. Stephanie and I had to take two buses (San Jose to Liberia, Liberia to Playa Hermosa), totaling about 7 hours of travel and about $8.

The weather has been a bit strange, it’s supposed to be transitioning to the dry season, but there’s still plenty of rain to enjoy. Of course the rainforest is always rainy, and the beaches that I’ve been to have been relatively dry and sunny, although there was some warm rain at Playa Hermosa in the afternoons.

Next up, Nina is coming into town tomorrow, and we’re taking a trip to Montezuma, my first time visiting the Nicoya Peninsula! And I’m excited to have her cook for me.

"We do not follow maps to buried treasure and X never, ever marks the spot."

My research project has been in full swing the past month or so, so I wanted to give an update about that. If you want an overview of the Fulbright Scholar Program, my post from June 28, 2010 has some info.

In my submitted application that I put together July 2009, I had to include a proposal for a research project and a few course syllabi for the course(s) I would teach at UCR. This was part of the 5 page personal statement that I had to submit. But before I could even write that, I had to make contacts at UCR to 1) get a letter of invitation from the host saying that they would like me to come to their university and 2) figure out what my research project was going to be. Judging by the website of the physics and chemistry departments, I knew that they had some equipment that I know how to use and some equipment that I wanted to learn to use, so that was a good sign. But, it turned out that a friend of a friend in CR happened to be writing a proposal for a new project combining archaeology and materials science characterization techniques! What are the chances of that happening?! I get to be Indiana Jones with a physics background??! (side note: I almost minored in Archaeology at UCLA) So, I was able to write a decent personal statement/proposal that had specific goals, mentioned specific people and projected outcomes. I had no idea what my chances were for receiving the award or how many people applied for the award I applied for. The cool (but also scary) thing is that the Fulbright program does not offer any help with finding a position, contacts, picking a country, housing etc, so it is very independent but also flexible. They simply offer a list of countries and list the openings of awards (what field are they funding awards for in that specific country for that specific year?). There were no Physics awards for any Spanish speaking countries, so I applied under the "all disciplines" award for the only university that wrote back to my 'cold email' tactic asking if they were interested in hosting me at their university.

When I arrived, I was busy preparing for my course (I'll write a different post about that experience), so it was ok that the archaeological samples that we planned to examine were not in our possession (the museum did not release them). However, once we got the samples, my research project took off and I was able to get my hands dirty. Unfortunately, not dirty from digging at an archaeological site (maybe someday?!).

The research project team roughly consists of an archaeologist, 2 chemists, and me. We are basically trying to study the properties of ceramic samples (pieces of pottery) from a few local archaeological sites around Costa Rica. The use of scientific instruments to study archaeological samples is called Archaeometry (archaeological science). These pieces are pretty old, BC times even! What kind of properties are we studying, you ask? The general term is spectroscopy, seeing how light waves of different energy/wavelength interact with matter (ie my samples). Depending on what the sample is made of (molecules, minerals, elements, crystal structure, special bonds etc) the incoming light reacts/scatters differently, and that difference can be measured. The incoming light can be Xray, Infra-red, or visible light (lasers). My challenge is learning as much as I can about this field and applying it to our samples, this has nothing to do with my nanoscience background, but a lot to do with physical chemistry (my PhD specialization was Chemical and Material Physics, not pure Physics or Astrophysics). By learning about the composition of these samples we can trace the history of the specific civilization that made them, what did they use, are the style and materials used similar to other civilizations in the area, what temperature was the pottery fired at, etc. It is adding one more piece of a puzzle that tells a story of a civilization(s) in a certain region.

Because this is so interdisciplinary, it requires an interdisciplinary team.

It has been a great experience so far to add more tools to my scientific tool box and CV, and learn more about Archaeometry as a field. Passing up doing a traditional Post-Doc in a university/national laboratory right out of graduate school was the best decision for me, now just have to figure out what I want to do next . . .

homesick

A few people have asked me if I'm homesick . . I'm not sure what that means exactly but I usually say NO. To me, homesick means that something doesn't feel right, like you're not at home, or something is missing, or you can't get comfortable or just feel out of place. I imagine it being a dull, constant feeling that doesn't go away. I definitely don't feel that way. I feel at home, and have made a life and home for myself, even if it is only for 6 months. Maybe the fact that it is 6 months makes it more bearable, whereas if I was here for an indefinite amount of time it may be more difficult. But I'm sure when it's time for me to leave, I may feel like staying longer! Especially if the work I'm doing is successful.

Although I am not homesick, I do feel what I call "pangs of nostalgia." It's more of a sharp, sudden memory that makes me nostalgic for a certain time/place in my life. Sometimes I miss UCLA, and the smell of vanilla coffee reminds me of free coffee at Kerchoff during finals week and studying . . or the way a salad bar is set up reminds me of the dorm food and 2 hour long meals with friends. It's a sudden, very specific memory brought on by a sight, smell or sound. Seeing a bicycle reminds me of riding my bike around UCI, and getting yelled at by Matt for trying to ride with no hands. I'm sure once I'm far away from San Pedro, the sound of whistles, thunder and pouring rain will make me nostalgic for the moments that will eventually be ingrained in my memory. Even today, it didn't rain for once and something just didn't feel right!