The mouse invasion has begun. At work, we have caught 9 mice in our mousetraps so far this summer, and 8 baby mice have fallen from the ceiling. Fratricide is suspected.
My Goretex coat fell victim to one mouse's nest-making schemes: it chewed its way down the front of my collar and button-flap, then deposited the fabric, along with bits and pieces of my fleece coat, into a coworker's shoe. (This was after I found mouse turds in my own shoes). All of these articles of clothing, by the way, were in our "mouse-proof" cabinets in the staff area, but, as our boss pointed out, it's only mouse-proof as long as you shut the doors. Since many of us use the cabinets, the doors tend to stay open during the day. No longer. We've always found mouse turds in lovely places like on top of our staff microwave, or on the computer keyboards, but this is the first time that the mice have appeared with such abandon. Out of all the hazards at work (including being charged by black bears and mama moose), I'm probably most worried about the mice--deer mice are, after all, the main carriers of Hanta virus.
We suspect that there's at least one mouse nest in the ceiling, specifically in our "soundscape" room, where visitors can enjoy a compilation of many of the Preserve's natural sounds, recorded over several seasons and played back in surround-sound. We've been finding baby mice, dead, injured, or stunned, on the soundscape room floor for the past several days, underneath a beam where they apparently like to frolic. This morning, when I did a check at 9am, there were no signs of falling mice, and by 10:30 or so, visitors had discovered 3. A woman I spoke with yesterday said that there had been no mice when she walked into the room, and when she came out ten minutes later, a slightly-flattened mouse was right in the doorway. Take-home message: watch your head?
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
home
I'm home!
*end of post.*
Seriously, that's all I have to say.
I'm at home with my family (well, my mom and dad; my brother decided, rather spur-of-the-moment-y, to climb Mount Rainier, so he won't be home for another couple days). It's been nice and sunny here in Montana for the past couple days, so we've been going on bike rides (11 miles yesterday; 7 or 8 miles today), gardening (4 tomato plants and 4 cucumber plants in today, lots of flowers and herbs planned for tomorrow), unpacking (ha-ha. so far, this involves upending my suitcase and staring distraught at the resulting chaos), relaxing, reading, making & slowly enjoying coffee, sharing stories... it's been a wonderful few days.
Oh, and I'm also working on my jetlag. The only round-trip ticket I could find under $1000 for Bozeman-Palma-Bozeman included 5 layovers on the return trip, including two 7-hour ones in Philadelphia and Kansas City. When the tornado(es?) wiped out all or part of the Kansas City airport (I didn't follow much US news while abroad), they re-routed me and gave me one fewer layover, but with the new schedule I had to spend the night in Denver. Since I knew I wasn't going to sleep well anyway, I didn't go to a hotel, and instead camped out until I could check in to my flight at 4am. I finally got home at about 11am on Friday, June 3rd, after about 36 hours of travel. It's good to be back!
I start my job in Grand Teton National Park in June 13th, and I plan to blog throughout the summer, albeit more sporadically. Thanks for following me through my Spanish adventures. ¡Os mando abrazos de oso a todos!
*end of post.*
Seriously, that's all I have to say.
I'm at home with my family (well, my mom and dad; my brother decided, rather spur-of-the-moment-y, to climb Mount Rainier, so he won't be home for another couple days). It's been nice and sunny here in Montana for the past couple days, so we've been going on bike rides (11 miles yesterday; 7 or 8 miles today), gardening (4 tomato plants and 4 cucumber plants in today, lots of flowers and herbs planned for tomorrow), unpacking (ha-ha. so far, this involves upending my suitcase and staring distraught at the resulting chaos), relaxing, reading, making & slowly enjoying coffee, sharing stories... it's been a wonderful few days.
Oh, and I'm also working on my jetlag. The only round-trip ticket I could find under $1000 for Bozeman-Palma-Bozeman included 5 layovers on the return trip, including two 7-hour ones in Philadelphia and Kansas City. When the tornado(es?) wiped out all or part of the Kansas City airport (I didn't follow much US news while abroad), they re-routed me and gave me one fewer layover, but with the new schedule I had to spend the night in Denver. Since I knew I wasn't going to sleep well anyway, I didn't go to a hotel, and instead camped out until I could check in to my flight at 4am. I finally got home at about 11am on Friday, June 3rd, after about 36 hours of travel. It's good to be back!
I start my job in Grand Teton National Park in June 13th, and I plan to blog throughout the summer, albeit more sporadically. Thanks for following me through my Spanish adventures. ¡Os mando abrazos de oso a todos!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
adéu, mallorca. mos veiem algun dia.
I'm leaving tomorrow morning at 6am to start my 34+ hour journey back home. I have mixed feelings: I'm super SUPER psyched to be at home, but I am going to miss Mallorca.
First, though, a quick list of things that I'm not going to miss at all:
- the yappy, horny dogs across the street who bark and howl ALL NIGHT LONG.
- lots of shouting and little discipline in the classroom.
- uhm.... that might be it. A nice, short list, right?
***
And now for all of the things that I wish I could bring back with me to the US:
- greeting all friends with kisses.
I went to my last day of work yesterday, and when I said goodbye to all of the 1st graders, they all lined up to give me a big kiss on the cheek. They are SO DURN CUTE! (The 5th and 6th graders gave me a big bear hug, and I teared up a little.)
- my kids!
- my kids!
I´ve got a gazillion pictures of them all being adorable, but privacy laws = no pics on the internet, so you'll just have to believe me. After 8 months of working with the kids, I have built up a great relationship with (almost) all of them. I've loved working with all of them (even the tough cases), and I'm going to miss all the kids (even the 4th graders, who are tougher cases than most).
- everyone I've met here.
Outside of school, I have about two friends, a hiking buddy, a squash (raquetball) buddy, a wonderful roommate, and several great colleagues who I'm definitely going to keep in touch with. I'll miss them all!
- cheap, amazing wine.
A great bottle of wine costs €6 or 7, and a bottle that knocks your socks off is €15. If I'm feeling poor at the end of the month, it is perfectly respectable to go for the €.50 bottles.
 |
| Cheese with that whine? |
- walking down to the local market twice a week to get fresh veggies, delicious cheese and sausage, and fresh pastries. Oh, and where €7, or about $10, gets you 2 pounds of fresh shiitakes:
- the honey-colored stone. All of the side streets in my town look like this:
- friends who bring 50-gallon garbage bags full of lemons to your doorstep:
 |
| When life gives you lemons, give them to the kitty. |
- awesome street festivals:
 |
| One of the plazas of Santanyí during the festival of Sant Antoni in January. Along with the bonfires, there was music, dancing, and public barbecues, and the city hall handed out free wine and meat to grill. |
- amazingly cheap flights to all of these places: €6 to Madrid, anybody?
- friends and family who wanted to come visit me here!
 |
| Joy, astounded at the empty beach on a cool day in early May. Or perhaps she was agog at the handy boardwalk going all the way down to the water (who wants sandy feet, anyways)? I don't remember... |
 |
| ...wait a second, I guess that's just her normal face. SLAM. (Actually, it was pretty crazy when we found the beach full of jellyfish after a stormy night. I was making this face, too.) |
- having the Mediterranean at my doorstep:
- riding my bike everywhere I want to go:
 |
| my trusty steed |
- my daily commute looking like this:
- the view from my kitchen window:
Adéu, Mallorca! Que vagi bé! Mos veiem algun dia.
a few last mallorquín phrases...
Before I say adéu (goodbye), I want to leave you with a few last Spanish and Mallorquín phrases that tickle my fancy:
ya te digo cosas : (Spanish) literally, "I am already telling you things" or "I already tell you things". In America, we'd probably translate this to, "We'll have a meeting soon," or "We'll talk about it later."
"Ya" in Spanish can mean "already", as in something that happened IN THE PAST already, but it can also mean "presently" or "soon" (IN THE FUTURE). In that case, ya is kind-of like the word ahora, which means "now" or else "within the next few hours." Both time phrases are flexible.
"Te digo cosas" or "Te diré cosas" is what my supervisors always tell me when they say they'll tell me what we're going to do the next day. For example, I ask, "What are we going to do tomorrow in class? Do you want me to prepare a special lesson?" "Hmm, I don't know. Well, we'll talk about it later. (Te diré cosas)."
estar hecho polvo : (Spanish) literally, "to be made dust" or "to be made into dust". This can be used for people: "Estoy hecho polvo!" means "I'm super tired!" And also for things: "El libro está hecho polvo," means "That book is dog-eared and ratty," And countries: "Después del tsunami, Japón ya está hecho polvo," "After the tsunami, Japan is now in ruins," And news: "La noticia nos hizo polvo," "The news shattered/devastated us." This term is not to be confused with echar un polvo, which is a very vulgar term meaning, "to screw (someone)."
llueve sobre mojado : (Spanish) literally, "It's raining on top of wet" or "It's raining on ground that's already wet", meaning "it's going from bad to worse," or "that's the icing on the cake". It can also mean "it's already affected me so much, it doesn't matter," or "like water off a duck's back."
ya éramos muchos, y (encima) parió la abuela : (Spanish) "There were already a lot of us, and (on top of that), Grandma had a baby," meaning "the problems are piling up" or "that was the straw that broke the camel's back".
escaquear / escaqueón: (Spanish), meaning "to slack off" / "slacker". This is the opposite of empollón, "a brown-nosing nerd."
And now for a bit of Mallorquín grammar:
Remember, Mallorquín is a dialect of Catalan. On Mallorca, everyone writes in Catalan, but the spoken language is completely different.
For example, the definite articles (in English: "the". In Spanish: el, la, los, las). In classical Catalan, the definite articles are el, la, l' (before nouns beginning with vowels), els, les. In Mallorquín, the definite articles are es, sa, s', es, ses. This would be easy enough to remember: in Catalan, "the chair" is la cadira, so in Mallorquín, it's sa cadira. Other nouns, though, have sounds that change. El cotxe, "the car," turns into es cotxo. Some words are completely different: "the cat" in Catalonia is el gat, but in Mallorca is es moix. Some nouns are only used with la, even on Mallorca: "the sea" in all Catalan speaking areas is la mar. If the noun begins with a vowel, in Catalan the article changes to l', for example, l'amic, "the friend". In Mallorquín, s'amic. However, if it's plural, masculine, and begins with a vowel, in Catalan you say els amics, but in Mallorca, they add a t: ets amics. If it's plural, masculine, and begins with a consonant, you just use es (the singular masculine form): "the books" are es llibres in Mallorquín, and els llibres in Catalan. If you use the word amb "with", then the sound changes to so (singular) and sos (plural), and you don't actually say amb, you say en. So, "I go by car" is literally said "I go with my car," Jo vaig en so cotxo. (Jo vaig amb el cotxe in Catalan). "I'm with friends" is Jo som en sos amics. (Jo sóc amb els amics in Catalan).
There's probably even more to the game, but this is all I've been able to pick up in eight months (about the definite articles; I do know more than just how to say "the"). I can hold mini-conversations in Catalan, and I can follow everybody elses' conversations pretty well. If I ever come back (someday! sometime!) I'll jump right back into figuring out this fascinating language. For now, it's time to say adéu, mos veiem. (bye, see you soon).
ya te digo cosas : (Spanish) literally, "I am already telling you things" or "I already tell you things". In America, we'd probably translate this to, "We'll have a meeting soon," or "We'll talk about it later."
"Ya" in Spanish can mean "already", as in something that happened IN THE PAST already, but it can also mean "presently" or "soon" (IN THE FUTURE). In that case, ya is kind-of like the word ahora, which means "now" or else "within the next few hours." Both time phrases are flexible.
"Te digo cosas" or "Te diré cosas" is what my supervisors always tell me when they say they'll tell me what we're going to do the next day. For example, I ask, "What are we going to do tomorrow in class? Do you want me to prepare a special lesson?" "Hmm, I don't know. Well, we'll talk about it later. (Te diré cosas)."
estar hecho polvo : (Spanish) literally, "to be made dust" or "to be made into dust". This can be used for people: "Estoy hecho polvo!" means "I'm super tired!" And also for things: "El libro está hecho polvo," means "That book is dog-eared and ratty," And countries: "Después del tsunami, Japón ya está hecho polvo," "After the tsunami, Japan is now in ruins," And news: "La noticia nos hizo polvo," "The news shattered/devastated us." This term is not to be confused with echar un polvo, which is a very vulgar term meaning, "to screw (someone)."
llueve sobre mojado : (Spanish) literally, "It's raining on top of wet" or "It's raining on ground that's already wet", meaning "it's going from bad to worse," or "that's the icing on the cake". It can also mean "it's already affected me so much, it doesn't matter," or "like water off a duck's back."
ya éramos muchos, y (encima) parió la abuela : (Spanish) "There were already a lot of us, and (on top of that), Grandma had a baby," meaning "the problems are piling up" or "that was the straw that broke the camel's back".
escaquear / escaqueón: (Spanish), meaning "to slack off" / "slacker". This is the opposite of empollón, "a brown-nosing nerd."
And now for a bit of Mallorquín grammar:
Remember, Mallorquín is a dialect of Catalan. On Mallorca, everyone writes in Catalan, but the spoken language is completely different.
For example, the definite articles (in English: "the". In Spanish: el, la, los, las). In classical Catalan, the definite articles are el, la, l' (before nouns beginning with vowels), els, les. In Mallorquín, the definite articles are es, sa, s', es, ses. This would be easy enough to remember: in Catalan, "the chair" is la cadira, so in Mallorquín, it's sa cadira. Other nouns, though, have sounds that change. El cotxe, "the car," turns into es cotxo. Some words are completely different: "the cat" in Catalonia is el gat, but in Mallorca is es moix. Some nouns are only used with la, even on Mallorca: "the sea" in all Catalan speaking areas is la mar. If the noun begins with a vowel, in Catalan the article changes to l', for example, l'amic, "the friend". In Mallorquín, s'amic. However, if it's plural, masculine, and begins with a vowel, in Catalan you say els amics, but in Mallorca, they add a t: ets amics. If it's plural, masculine, and begins with a consonant, you just use es (the singular masculine form): "the books" are es llibres in Mallorquín, and els llibres in Catalan. If you use the word amb "with", then the sound changes to so (singular) and sos (plural), and you don't actually say amb, you say en. So, "I go by car" is literally said "I go with my car," Jo vaig en so cotxo. (Jo vaig amb el cotxe in Catalan). "I'm with friends" is Jo som en sos amics. (Jo sóc amb els amics in Catalan).
There's probably even more to the game, but this is all I've been able to pick up in eight months (about the definite articles; I do know more than just how to say "the"). I can hold mini-conversations in Catalan, and I can follow everybody elses' conversations pretty well. If I ever come back (someday! sometime!) I'll jump right back into figuring out this fascinating language. For now, it's time to say adéu, mos veiem. (bye, see you soon).
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