Lovely views intertwined with disappointment and excitement

This is the view from my apartment building looking down the road of Mattingley. I walk this most mornings to my friends house to catch a ride to class. Her apartment is about where you can no longer see the road. Its a lovely walk most days, this day was no exception.

Last weekend was Trivia Night, put on by an upper semester as a fund raiser. It was fun, but took WAAAAAY too long. Don't worry, we didn't drink all those beers. But we DID come in 2nd place! Go team!

Volleyball Tournament time again. Sadly, there was much disappointment as we, the defending champions, did not even place in the tourney. Sigh.... there is always next term! Notice the sporting of mowhawks by the boys!

This is a few weeks old now, but here is one of the few pictures from our friend Brian's going away dinner. Molly is leaving us so soon too! (Congrats to Molly though!!!)

And finally... MY HAIR IN A PONYTAIL!!! For the first time since... well probably freshman year of college. Crazy, right?

To cut or not to cut... that is the question!

P.S. Matt got a job teaching Judo to the prep school kids 2 days a week starting in September!!!

Zoe up and left Oregon...

for India.


She has been there for a few days now. I miss her. Oddly. Even though we've been living in different countries now for a while, and still are in different countries, it is just different.

So Zoe is doing this awesome 6 month trip, living in rural India volunteering her time for a non-profit organization helping out at an orphanage (where she is living), teaching music and helping out the nurses at a local hospital. Pretty crazy, right?

You all should go check out her blog and read about her adventures thus far. She is pretty amazing for having such initiative, dedication, and just plain guts to do such a thing. Go check her out!

Zoe's Grand Adventure

Go, read, be amazed.

Growing up and letting go in the dark

The birdies have flown the coup. They grew up, learned to fly, and have left our little balcony. Sigh....

Don't worry, they left me a wonderful present. Lots and lots and lots of bird poo on my porch. Not exactly the parting gift I had hoped for, but they are birds after all.

We have been having some crazy thunder and lightning storms this past week. Monday night it was so crazy and stormy the entire island lost power at about 10:30pm and did not regain it until the following evening. I have never been through a storm like that (to my recollection at least) and it was quite something. Our apartment doesn't have any rooms without windows, so there was no avoiding the lightning. I think we stayed up well past midnight watching the lightning trying to count how many lightning bolts we saw touch ground. Or, touch the sky? Do lightning bolts start from the ground and reach the sky? I can't remember from high school science classes. So.... that was fun. And by fun, I mean not very enjoyable. We had to throw quite a bit of stuff from our fridge away as it had spoiled, but luckily it wasn't a ton since we hadn't been grocery shopping recently. I did have fun cleaning up the carton of ice cream that melted all down the side of the freezer and pooled under the fridge.

Classes are still chugging along... I have about 2.5 weeks of class left, then finals. Eeeeek! Getting to go home soon keeps me motivated a bit though, so that is good.

How 'bout those baby birdies, eh?

7/16 They have funny looking stubs of feathers

7/16 Much more aware of their surroundings, they were able to track me as I moved.

7/18 FEATHERS!!! Real ones! At this point they were walking around the nest a little.

7/19 No pictures, but they started flapping their wings a lot while walking around the nest. HUGE thunder storm that night.

7/20 In the morning I startled the birds, and all three (parent and both babies) flew off together, never to come back. Sigh.... no pictures either.

30 days until I fly home!

Birds of a feather...

grow up together?

My prof made me laugh the other day by saying "It's easy! It's a cup of cake! Errr..."
The whole class had a good laugh.

Now for the birdies!

 First day their eyes opened! 7/12

7/12 Stubs of feathers are showing

7/14 Feathers are growing!!!

They grow so fast....

Friday, July 9th

Today, July 11th

What could be better than one baby bird on my porch??

TWO baby birdies!!!!

The second egg hatched today. Momma and Daddy seem to be doing well tending to them. I looked back at my calendar, looks like it took about 14-16 days for the eggs to hatch after all... my previous estimate was a little short. Also, Matt thinks that the Dad bird is here during the day, and Mom at night, based on their coloring/markings. Either way, they seem to be doing a great job. Now, on to the pictures!!!

I think the one at the top is the older one, and the more newly hatched is at the bottom.

Dad is being sure to not wander too far while I'm sneaking my peaks at the babies!

Baby Birdeeeeee!

 I spy.....

Wow, so 3 weeks went by pretty quickly... sorry about that.

I survived midterms!!! Yay! Did pretty well on all exams except for one... stupid virology. Not failing or anything, but no where near my performance in all the other classes. That's ok, I'll get you in the end, virology.

Lots to update y'all on. Yes, I did just say "y'all". Deal.

Mid-semester break was a blast. I slept. And slept. And ate. Lots of eating. Lots of sleeping. A bit of volleyball and a bit of beach. But mainly, food and sleep. Ahhhhhhh.

One of my friends here is leaving this weekend, he got accepted to a US vet school, and they didn't require that he finished this semester to be accepted to their school, so he got half his tuition back and is on his way back to the states! We're all very excited for him, but sad at the same time. We'll miss you B6! Not to mention he is abandoning his volleyball team too... being the captain and all....  So, congrats to my classmates who're moving back to civilization, enjoy!

Lets see, a got to do my first necropsy, it was very interesting and fun. Sad case of a loved pet falling ill, but we got to learn a lot from it. I even presented our report in front of my entire class (about 130 students) and wasn't horribly nervous!

Bacteriology has proven to be *gasp* fun! We're streaking and plating and culturing, sub-culturing and identifying all sorts of bacteria. I swabbed my laptop keyboard and cultured the swab. A week later, a bit terrified of what I might find, I found myself relieved to have only found a small amount of what I believe to be staphylococcus. Whew! Its normal flora on the skin, so it makes sense to find it on my keyboard. Gooooo vet school!

Ok, I've tortured you long enough with my boring school life, would you like to know what the "baby birdeeeee" title is all about??

Welp, there is a baby bird on our little porch! And a nest. And another unhatched egg, and a mommy and daddy bird. They're a cute little bird family. This is their story as I know it...

About 10-12 days ago Momma bird decided to build a nest on the plastic chair sitting on our porch. I happened to be watering plants later that day and decided to remove the nest. I mean, why would a bird think that a porch we go out on daily would be a good place to nest??? Go pick another spot, Momma bird. Well... the next morning Momma bird had already rebuilt the nest and layed an egg. I guess she was desperate. I didn't have the heart to remove it again, not with an egg already layed! Momma started incubating the egg right away, and that evening we noticed a changing of the guards, so Daddy bird took over for the night shift. Two days later, a second egg was layed! Now I got super curious and wondered how long it might take for eggs to hatch if they were fertile, and how well the birds would incubate the eggs.

Since then, the birds have been there without fail, incubating their egg, running off only when we open the door to water plants and sneak peaks at the little white eggs. Via google, we managed to estimate that it'd take somewhere between 10-14 days for them to hatch, if at all. We waited patiently... er... Matt did, I haven't been able to stop checking every time I walk by the window. Then today, when I came home from school, I was sad to see only one egg on the nest. How could it be??? Only one egg?? What happened to the other??

Mom or Dad bird got spooked and flew off when Matt was sweeping so we took that opportunity to go outside and look for the other egg. To our relief and surprise, one of the eggs hatched! And now we have a cute little wet baby birdy on our porch. And one little white egg that hopefully will hatch in a day or two. And Mommy and or Daddy bird have been attending to this little adorable bird. Soooooooooo cute.

Pictures? Why would I bother taking pictures? uhhhh.... you don't believe me? Yeah, I wouldn't believe me either. Here they are!

The first egg layed, about 12ish days ago

Mom or Dad bird, not sure how to tell them apart

BABY BIRDEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! And egg. See how it is still wet?!?! It only hatched within an hour maybe of me taking this picture considering how warm it is here.

Being smothered/kept warm by Mom/Dad post hatching. And egg.

Stay tuned in for more pictures and updates!!!