one day

How to start a good day...
There was a blizzard, but it was impossible to stop!
Tyson, Maria, AkikoMe, Akiko, Maria Jose united

Preparing Lasagna

Merry Xmas and all the rest

Merry Christmas everybody!

I am now in a wonderful warm house in Sunriver, getting ready for a full day of snow boarding in Mt Bachelor in the company of the best friends ever.

The blizzard lasted few more days; this means that I had to cancel my GRE, reschedule it, have it re-cancelled again and… well, I guess my only option now is to take it in Alaska in March…

The good thing, I got to spend a lot of time in a warm house meeting new people!

Maria and Tyson arrived from Spain the 24^th, and together we spent Xmas eve and Xmas day. It was fun watching pictures of us taken at the same house 9 years ago. Akiko made it later in the evening from Japan, after being stuck in San Francisco for ½ day. It is still snowing… it hasn’t really stop in a week… awesome… Can’t wait to be in the snow tomorrow...

Some pictures from the past week...
Hawaii: Happy Birthday Erika!!! and Cheryl also came and meet me! How great!Different perspectives: "oh no! A boat crashed on the reef! What is terrible!"
"yes! I hope they had an insurance!"
"...I was referring to the corals..."
Hilton's petsAs soon as we landed in San Francisco and I felt the cold air I though: "ok, I experienced winter, now I am ready to go back to the island". Then I felt so frisky and energetic!!! Big place!!
I won't put a picture of JB here, but I will put a picture of one of the meal I had with him! He is even better than that! ;-)
Joanna and Paulo Couchsurfing next to Sacramento!!! Making a better world, one couch at the time!

Snow Dave!!! Planning a fun weekend in Nevada desert next year! Yeah!!San Francisco from the bridge... as I was kind of lost...San Francisco from the air


A warm night of songs in Biniam's and Liz's... That is where my furniture ended up when i left! it is like being back home... no, it is home!!



Corvallis....

I rule!!

We just made it through a blizzard and we are now practicing head-stands in a warm house in Portland. It is nice to look at the world from a different point of view once in while. My GRE on Monday, flights??? Depends from snow!
This week passed fast!
Sunday and Monday I had the pleasure to meet Joanna, from Poland, and Paulo, from Portugal. I found them through Couch Surfing and I decided to drive few extra miles to meet them and crash on their couch. Couchsurfing is one of the best ideas ever. It has even recently been recognized as NGO. It helps connecting travelers with travelers, sharing culture and experiences between hosts and guests, making the world a smaller and friendlier place, a couch at the time. I LOVE having guests on the rock of course, but going out and visiting new people once in a while is great. I arrived to their house after a long stressful drive (and after crashing a Japanese barbecue while looking for their flat) and I was immediately welcome in the best European fashion… cheese and wine… felt like home instantaneously!
Through Joanna and Paulo I heard stories of other fellow travelers. This one I loved, especially because it proves that woman are more rationale than men and that they would not give their passport to a rubber the day before their flight. Woman logic is so indescribably straightforward that even the rubber decided it was just better to flee.
I had 2 wonderful priceless evening in full European fashion; very healthy indeed, it slows down my Americanizing process. Like eating cold meat, or filling my plate with first, second, starter and dessert (all on the same plate); this habitat is quite common in the States, but unexpected in Italy.
Joanna was so nice to also wake me up in the morning, prepare a wonderful breakfast, and drive me to work. She also picked me up and took me shopping. I repaid preparing fresh gnocchi with my favorite sage-mushroom-walnut sauce. I am so glad I met them!
I also have to mention that the ESRI “Building a geodatabase” training I attended was G.R.E.A.T and it is highly recommended to any GIS person.
The drive from Sacramento to San Francisco was very nice, a part the fact I missed one turn and I ended up downtown SFO… nice buildings, but it was heard asking for direction (even if you knock on people’s car windows from your car they would ignore you). For dinner, I met with SnowDave, down from Alaska for the AGU meeting. The world can be small indeed. I also loved to be in JB’s arms once before until… well, who knows?
Liz and Tom came to pick me up at the Portland airport and we drove straight south to Corvallis, another couple of hours, since a blizzard was coming… apparently it hasn’t stop ever since!!!
Thursday and Friday I had meeting with different EPA folks for my project…. In 2 days I collected so much information and meet so many people that I feel I have enough work to last for the rest of the year. I really got so much momentum going on, that my project feels to me like an accelerating body in absence on any opposite force…
And finally, the big news: Jane Lubchenco was appointed the head of NOAA! (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008543057_webobamafish.html)
I feel like I have been partying since I found out. She is one of the most amazing wonderful and inspiring women I ever met in my life, and she has all my support and trust. Good hopes for the future!

Before I go

Before I go (leave the class to San Francisco) I wanted to mention something.
I recently finished the class on-line I was taking. Through it, I met very nice people and I hear lots of good words of encouragement. In particular, a quote from a fellow student hit my heart:

"Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes."

Friends, sometimes I wish we would live all together, and I could see you much more often. But the precious treat I get back from you by being so scattered around the world, is that my world has no boundaries and no place without a welcoming friend (at least so far!). May you be an old friend meet many years ago, or a new one that just opened his/her door to me. I am so grateful to you all for giving my chance to see the world. And maybe the reason why I live in a tropical island it is because you always wanted to go there! Thanks for the ones that come to visit, and waiting for the ones planning on it! Thanks for the ones flying miles to meet me somewhere else, and thanks for the ones opening the doors of their home to me after I fly for miles (not to menction the airport pick-up that always rocks!) I think I can never say it too much: my heart is filled with gratitude for you all for giving me such an exciting and warm life! I love you all!!!

And just in these days…
Joanna and Paulo: thank you so much for welcoming such a random traveler like me in your home; I had such a blast with you guys!
SnowDave thanks for coming to have dinner with me in San Francisco!

JB, thanks for the sunshine... ;-)
Akiko, you are awesome flying all the way from Japan to come and see us in Oregon!
Maria Jose and Tyson, bring some good food from Spain for this Xmas in Oregon, I miss you guys so much!

Liz, Biniam, Elly... what can I say? Rob, I could not be without you neither! ;-)
Samudra, being your bride maid on your traditional wedding in Sri Lanka was just something unbelievable; I cannot wait for you to arrive in Oregon too!
Dug, how could I ever miss Karin’s Iditarod!?! Looking forward to meet all the Clan again, you guys are so special and made my staying in Alaska memorable!

ok... I won't have time to menction you all... but you know me... LOVE!!!

Off Island!!!! Life!!!

It happened! Now I know, again: there is still a world out there, passed miles of blue ocean. This time the flight was not too bad. Usually i feel like cattle boarded on the plane and kept as quite as possible through semi-hibernation. This time I wore my warmest snowboarding hat and i embrace the big warm guy sitting next to me. Who said spill over is not nice? I missed him and froze my side when he left for the restroom...
Hawaii was cold, but still much warmer than Sacramento where I am now. My past few days have been wonderful:
Friday in Honolulu: shopping, friends and James Bond
Saturday in San Francisco: great food and more James Bond
Sunday to Sacramento: exciting driving and couchsurfing with Europeans!
Monday- Tuesday to Sacramento: all about geodatabases (and more couchsurfing)


Friday in Honolulu
One day lay over to a bigger island was a real pleasure. It is not too cold there, people still wear Hawaiian t-shirts and flip flops, and life is more... vibrant. There are shops, tons of shops, restaurant, safe dogless walks, fresh vegetable and fruits... all the commodities of a western world, still in a island setting. No wonder Hawaii is so dam expensive.
After 6 months of shopping deprivation I wondered and gasped in front of shops window, try any sort of fresh samples, I even had a woman flattening my horns (they are always there, right on the forehead) and hardly restrain from the need to buy anything (mostly everything) that is not readily available on island.
The only hot buy was chocolate and a pair of semi-close shoes I may need in the continent. I hang out with John and Erika all morning, and went to Erika's surprise birthday party to the Marianna, one of the last Hawaiian bar (which also has some ornaments from the bar where Magnum P.I. was filmed -I though my brother would have loved it).
Still exhausted from all the shopping and the red eye flight from Samoa, I decided to head to the Hilton and enjoy one of their couches for a nap.
James Bond was on a mission on another Pacific island and happened to be passing to Hawaii at the same time as me... what a treat... He arrived shortly after. His boss with him. My not-relationship with JB is so well known at this point that, on my side, I could say something like "I have a boyfriend but he does not know it" ;-)

Saturday flying
Saturday we all flow to San Francisco, which took most of the day anyway… JB keeps on leaving me speechless. The cold air in SFO made me frisky! I rented a car so that I could move more easily and faster around California these days and mainly because if I get too comfortable with island life and driving, in this case, I will seriously need some rehabilitation program once I decide to leave. I offered a ride to JB’s boss, but he elegantly declined. I can imagine the calculations in his mind: “Italian + woman + did not drive faster than 25m/h for the past 6 month + did not pass or was passed by a car for the past 6 month + did not see a traffic light for the past 6 month…. = danger danger… taxi is safer….”. Even JB, which lives a quite adventurous life, seemed slightly worried. For me, it was a good kick of adrenaline, getting out of that zone of comfort that is so healthy once in a while; it was life paragliding for the first time.
And finally… a road full of restaurants. Full! Mostly closed, a part from the ONE: the Italians are open for a compatriota! Pizza, Tiramisu’ JB and Italians! I got it all!

Sunday driving
(Osea: American driving –of course I am right and the rest of the country is wrong ;-) )
Lazy rainy Sunday happen in Samoa too, often. But here there is a difference: it is warm inside the house (ok, not so much in JB house, or maybe he just wants to show off his new goose jacket), and it is cold outside. That adds a bit to that nice cozy feeling…
After a tasty Indian lunch I hit the road. Driving is San Francisco was not bad at all, the roads are as smooth as baby’s asses and there isn’t any unexpected crossing. But as soon as you pass the Golden Gate things start going a bit wilder. Now, I would like to remind the reader that this comes from the point of view of somebody that is did not use the 4th gear for a while.
Well, first of all, passing the Golden Gate, having a glimpse of Alcatraz was a magic moment. It is a symbol; I came so far in life. The last time I crossed it, it was 10 years ago with Maria and Tyson (which I am going to meet soon in PDX), I had no job, I knew no JB, no island… (It must mean something a part the fact that I am 10 years older).
Then, the road started becoming bumping, it started raining and it became dark. I remember being astonished by US roads when I first moved there from Italy: they were big, fast and straight. The feeling was different now. What is big and fast now are the other cars, not the roads. I tried to stay on the slow line (supposedly the far right one), but even that is not easy, as this lane shift continuously. Sometimes I had 4 lanes on my left, some other 3 and one on my right, some other times I found myself in an exit only lane. All without changing lane.
There is more about American drivers. Let’s say there is a 4 lanes road: the 4th lane is for the drivers that go 10 m/h faster than the speed limit; the 3rd lane is for the one that follow the speed limit; the 2nd one is also for the one following the speed limit; the 1st lane is for the one that would like to go slower, but it is also for exits, entries, and sometimes it just disappears. Therefore, most of the traffic is on the left hand side of the road, not on the right as it should be. If somebody wants to go faster then 10m/h above speed limit, any line that is not the 4th one is fair game: Americans DO PASS on the RIGHT. This would drive any Italian very very mad. Italians may flash, use the horn, pass on grass… but they NEVER pass on the right. Ok, someone does, but they are only the very bad ones.
And more! There are exits on the left side of the road (that means you need to enter into the very fast lane somehow) that merge with other roads on their left! Not logical at all!
Scanning the radio for some good music, I found Ramazzotti singing in Spanish in a great latin radio station… ohi si… now I am the queen on the road!
Destination? The couch of a couple that I never met before. The couch is in Folsom, pass Sacramento, but it was totally worth to drive all the way there to meet some fellow Europeans (Portugal and Poland). I really love couchsurfing. Everything about it soon…

NOTICE: I am driving today (Tuesday) from Sacramento to San Francisco (butterflies!), beware of a small black cute car on driving in that direction.

Pictures from the week

The Nu'uuli Pala Lagoon
On Wednesday afternoon I went exploring the Pala Lagoon by Kayak with my intern to get some good pictures and data for my on-line class and restoration project. Wonderful peaceful place, if it wasn't for the swimming dog chasing you, just to get a bite... paddle paddle... fast!!!

Cookie Night Sometime middle week, Sara hosted a cookie party! So fun much fun! Thanks! I made the famous chocolate salami, like my grandma used to do, but the hot item was the fa'fafine ginger cockie man... And of course, Vailama bottles make the best rollers (mattarelli) ever!

EPA Christmas Party This is the kind of very useful clothing that the goverment present to us when we have to sing for the governor every Christmas... I could not stop taking my eyes off Aaron...EPA Christmas party! I love having dinner with all the team! This year there was an incredible amount of alcohol involved, so much that everybody had to take some back home to be finished during the weekend. A guy asked me for a dance and I accepted. Of course he asked me if I would sleep with him. I think samoan guys are pretty disrespectful and direct on this matter (or maybe it is because they know I do not have a big brother here ready to protect me...). Of course i said no. Then he said how he is a nice taro plantation, and pigs... "uhm size 2?" I asked laughing. "yes, yes! and then I have bananas and rosemery..." uhmm... the magic word... images of oven potatoes with garlic and rosemery crossed my mind... I would have ever imagine i could suddenly find a guy interesting because he has rosmery... luckily, I can still keep some sanity...

Poker NightSaturday: I hosted a poker night at my place. While i keep on loosing (which, given the circonstances, was very good, as we say, in Italy: "unlucky in the game, lucky in love"... I can't wait for the second part!), Jeremy keep on winning in amazing "gypsy power" ways. He attributed his success to the new colone he just bought containing "water, alcohol, desire cocktail" (as written on the box) which would annoying spray over himself on a regular interval. But i have to admit it worked. In this picture he just got "4 of a kind"...

uhm... not so good...

For the past 2 days I had a very bad bone/joints pain, I felt drowsy and continuously thirsty (any doctor out there reading this? Ideas?)… that made me think about a year ago just before I felt sick with Dengue Fever… well, if this is the case again (there is a Dengue outbreak on the island right now), this is not so good, as I am leaving the island in 2 days for holiday!
So I am trying to take these days easy, resting as much as possible, encouraging my body to fight any possible virus at the starting point!
In search for help, this morning I went to the clinic seeking advise from a “specialist”. Maybe there is come special medicine cocktail I can take, like the one they give us once a year to fight the Filarosis; everybody on island is supposed to take this cocktail (about 8 pills of different shape and color), even if not even the nurses know what they are… “the pills come from off-island” (like if any other medicine, aside from tea leaves for cold and breast milk for pink eye disease, would be produced here), but this statement is good enough for most people to think “ahh, well then, they must be good…”.
Taking the cocktail is for me always a transcended experience as they always make me very sick and I soon collapse: it is like being in the movie “the matrix” just before taking the famous pill…
Anyway, I usually do not like taking medicines, neither going to hospitals (unless I am going to the hospital cafeteria, which serves one of the best food on island), so for me to go and consult a doctor about taking medicines was quite a step (well, last year when I had dengue, I hoped I could see a doctor, but I was way too much in a comatose status to walk by myself to the restroom, the idea to have to be in a car and then in a waiting room in the hospital was tiring enough to pass to the act! –thanks god I had Marine taking such a good care of me!!!).
I went to the Tafuna clinic because it is usually more quite than the hospital (no roosters, chickens or dogs), the A/C inside is not freezing and the queue is usually faster. But today, it was some special kids day, and they were everywhere. A kid about 6 decided to come and play with the Palagi (me). At first he was very cute, until he decided he was going to skin me. So as he was scraping skin off from my arm, and I was holding him head as far as possible from me, I was desperately looking around for sign of a mother. Finally she came, took him away, set him next to her and… pinched his balls! I swear!! I think the punishment worked quite well because for the next 20 minutes he did not try to attach me anymore, but… wow… that was quite impressive!
Finally the doctor saw me. He told me I look very good. “well, thanks, but… is there any medicine I can take?”. Well, apparently all you can take is Tylenol, but the doctor also stressed on the fact that if I start bleeding I would probably need a blood transfusion.
I left the hospital bleeding from my arm and feeling a bit disoriented… no, no, hospitals are not places for me… I am going to look for some tealeaves to rap around my neck now…

Craving holidays

Xmas is coming.

I am definitely not a Xmas person. I do not mind people putting up Xmas decorations, but I do mind a bit seeing all that plastic around…

But I am definitely a festivity person! I think I will have to look for one of those calendars that show all festivities around the world. It is inspiring! And I love having time for holidays. The main reason why I like having a lot of time is because I really dislike flying on planes (the big one I mean, where I cannot see in the front, the ones here are very “user-friendly”), so if I have to take one, better be longer than a weekend!

Being on a small lost island 5-6 hours away from Hawaii (which is 5-6 hours away from the west coast), which is… 12 hours away from Italy etc…. having enough leave time is important to make sure, that, after a 2-4 days of traumatic plane traveling, I still have few days to actually enjoy the place.

I haven’t left the island since July this year. This makes it 5 ½ months no-stop of 137 km² of rocks, 65% of which consisting of inaccessible steep (>30%) heavily forested slopes. I loved this place when I came back from Italy (which was 95% no-joy working trip anyway –nothing I would define an holiday), but after a while… it is like loving somebody very much, but this person does not leave you alone for a second. You know the relationship could work so much better if you just had some time just for your own… if you could only go out one evening without him/her… In the island case, she (the island, which us Italian regard as a female) is always with you… and you cannot really hide away from her… until… well, the next holiday! After 3 full earth revolutions around the sun (in which the sun hits you always in the same way anyway… you do not really have that seasonal variation neither…), spinning in Neverland all by yourself (ok, with 3 cats and 1 dog)… 5 ½ months without getting off-island are way too much. Some morning you wake up in the morning wanting to scream: “Stop the World! I want to get off!”. Then you look out and another wonderful spatial fluorescent sunrise is hugging you, and with a resigned smile you get out of the bed to go to work. Life is not too bad and it would be insulting complaining. But on the back of your throat there is still that chikten Tikka Massala taste that you know you could be eating if you only were off-island… and again, your taste bugs are hit by a hint of snowball, a hot chocolate, the smell of a fire place, the warmth of a hug. It is all there, off-island, waiting for me… all I need is enough holiday to get out of here!

So, another reasons why I love holidays here on island (and recently weekends too) it is because I can work and gain comp time! Comp time that I can use to spend more time in places like… uhmm… Alaska? Totally worth it!!!

The news? I am leaving in 4 days on the Thursday flight! Finally! And my good star aligned all the planets to make this a great holiday… passed the plane phase…

I am meeting with James Bond in Hawaii on Friday, flying down with him to San Francisco on Saturday, driving to Sacrento on Sunday where I am staying couch surfing for 2 days. Back to San Francisco on Tuesday, SnowDave is going to be there all the way from Alaska for the AAG conference! Wednesday I will be (sight) flying to Portland… Rob, Liz, Biniam, Elly… the warmest welcome back home ever! More meetings planned for my ecoregions projects, stupid GRE test… and soon enough… Maria and Tyson will be flying in from Spain, Samudra from… I can never remember… Akiko from Japan!!! Doesn’t this sound like one of the best get-together ever?!?!

Snow in Tafuna

It is Sunday morning. I wake up early because I got a lot of work to do! Sami has been sleeping on my belly and I move slowly not to wake him up. I stretch and look out of the window to check on the weather. A nice sunny day, and the Tafuna plain is covered with a thin blanket of white snow. “Great!” I think as I walk to the restroom “it was about time for some snow, it is already December”. Then I pause for a second… “I do not think this is possible…”. I ran back to the window to look out again. WOW! This is the view…

It seems like the big Thanks Giving day in Samoa is not much on Thursday evening but rather Sunday morning. It seems like every single family in Tafuna is having a Umu (the traditional samoan oven make with hot rocks, banana trunks, banana leaves…). I wonder how many turkeys are cooking right now.

The thin blanket of snow is in reality the smoke coming out from the umu (in the process of heating the lava rocks that will cook the food I think), blocked there by a stratified atmosphere. Amazing view.