Not quite in the Southern Hemisphere yet....

Never thought I would spend my way to Dubai watching Celine Dion. But I did. And it was So good.

After I posted my last blog, on my way to Gatwick Airport, the bus driver had a little bit of fun at the riders expense. I gues its a way to keep himself entertained. But he kept announcing we were arriving at different airports than the one we were supposed to go to, and the first time, when he said Heathrow instead of Gatwick, there was an uproar on the bus!! it was quite funny!! Have to do something to amuse yourself in a 2.5hr journey that you do multiple times each day all week!

Anyway, besides the amazing Celine Dion movie I watched on the plane (was from her world tour - and I admit, I was a sucker and cried a few times), i watched "Fantastic Mr. Fox" which I REALLY recommend! I had heard about it briefly when I worked at the cinema in Vancouver and thought it sounded lame - but super good! And then I finally got to see the end of "Temple Grandin" - which I started watching when I was working at UBC over the winter - true story about the life of an autistic girl who ends up developing brand new and novel ways of animal treatment.

Didn't get that good of a view of Dubai from the plane as I was sitting in the centre aisle, but from what I did see - there are some freakin tall buildings here. yikes. I've picked a window seat for the next flight so I am looking forward to a better view of the city!

I was expecting much more from Dubai airport to be honest - there are some very beautiful bits, but at the end of it all, its an airport, and there is only so much you can do for an airport! Except there are lazy boy type chairs in the waiting lounge (all full, so none for me :( ) and a bunch of communal mobile phone charging stations! hehe.

Still an hour and a half until I can board the next plane! Its 0230am right now and I just want to sleeeeeep! I'll be in Jakarta in 12 hours if all goes well and then sleep I shall do!

Southern Hemisphere here I come!!!

My whirlwind week on the currently extra football crazed island is winding up – on my way to the airport now where the real journey begins. I have a 7 hour flight to Dubai, a 4.5hour lay over there (from midnight to 04h30 boo) then a 9 hour flight to Jakarta! It has been a pretty busy week in Oxford, and I feel like once I got that proboscis piece done, the time just disappeared and I have not much to show for it. It’s hard to do work when you are watching football! I’ve got to say, that although I am so excited about everything that is coming up now, I am kind of sad I am going to be missing the big matches at the end of the world cup! I want to see the Black Stars (Ghana) make it to the end!! Yes, I am optimistic! After Germany, England and France’s performances these last 2 days, it seems like Ghana might be my only hope, and I am missing their game today! :'( Wonder if they could have the games play in the plane!!! Hehe!

It’s been lovely in Oxford this week, bright and sunny (for the most part), and I’m looking forward to being back here in the fall! But now it’s time to see Rich!!!

By the way, I would still love to hear how everyone’s summer is going, so send me an email every now and then (or just comment on this page), keeping me up to date!

Talk to you on the other side of the equator!

New England Primate Santuary has gone probos-crazy!!

Already half way through my time in Oxford and it is flying by! Actually getting a good amount of work done, which, at the rate I had been going at the last few months, is impressive.

The biggest thing I've accomplished here thus far (besides daily dosages of world cup!), is a couple blogs for the New England Primate Sanctuary on proboscis monkeys!! The first one, which is OUT NOW!, is just introducing these lovely monkeys and giving a bit of background in why they are so interesting (according to me - you may disagree, but I doubt it ;) !!) And soon out will be one about the threats proboscis monkeys are facing - namely deforestation, and talking mostly about palm oil, as that is one thing that people from any where in the world can actually do something about!

So here is the link to the blog! I think I'll be adding to it throughout the summer with all the different primates I'll be with! Keep checking this link for more, and there are other contributors as well, so you can learn a lot (I think) from this site!!!

http://www.neprimatesanctuary.org/education_letters_from_the_field_stark.html

Football, Papers, and Snakes, Oh My! It's England time!!!!

First of all, I'd like to say wow!! Over 110 viewers in a week! I will try not to let you guys down with updates for sure! :)

So I've FINALLY made it through security at the airport - an hour wait in line and some very angry people - but now its time to relax before I head back to lovely island of the United Kingdom.

To everyone I got to visit with here in Calgary - thank you sooo much for taking the time to see me and for picking up where we had left off, that being 2 years for most of us! I had such an excellent time and reminded me just how important you all are to me. For those of you I didn't get a chance to see - I'm sorry! and next time I'm back, you guys are in for a serious catch up visit!!! I hope that the we will all stay in better contact from now on, I don't want to wait another 2 years to catch up!

And an extra message to the lovely mrs. adrienne town - I still am sooo happy that I was able to be here pre- and post- birth of lincoln! he is such a wonderful little boy, and is the luckiest baby in the world to have you and jonathan as parents. love you all so much! <3

But now back to Oxford - I'm so excited! It will be a whirlwind week as I have to finish up everything for my southeast asia trip - mainly lesson plans for Borneo! yikes! :) I figure I should also freshen up my snake knowledge as well, never know when that might come to be important! I also need to finish up a paper I am hoping to publish in the near future and I am contributing to a blog for a primate sanctuary about proboscis monkeys! I will pass along the link to the sanctuary as soon as I get my blogs written for it! And somehow, in between writing papers, preparing lesson plans and learning about snakes, I've got the WORLD CUP to watch! I'm super excited about being able to experience it in the UK - even though it is taking place in South Africa, it will be so great to watch it in a country that actually likes the sport ("like" being an extreme understatement). Boy it is a busy 7 days I've got ahead of me!

Almost time to board the plane! Lets hope for some good films and for SLEEP! Be in touch soon!

Welcome to the Blog World, Danica!

So this is my first attempt at blogging, and I'm not to sure what exactly I am doing, and what this blog will become. But as I am terrible at updating my friends and family about what I am up too, and with everything going on this summer, I am hoping this will be the best way for everyone to be a part of this summer with me!
 
I'm also wanting to be able to share the issues along my travels that I think are important, with the hope to involve everyone in the role of taking action and taking a stand! I want everyone to understand what is happening around the world (and also why I am doing what I am doing, even though I'm in a field in which I will probably never really make any money in! :s )

So, as brief as I can make this:

For this summer, I'm starting off in Jakarta for a couple of days for a well deserved reunion ;), before I head over to Sulawesi and spend some time with Buton Macaques!! Then I'll be off to Sabah, Borneo to join my proboscis monkey friends one more time!!! After 2 weeks of proboscis and orang-utan and who know what else fun, I'm going to catch up with some lovely ladies in Kuala Lumpur before I head back to Java and spend some more well-deserved ;) time at a primate rehabilitation centre. And finally to round off the summer of island hopping, I'll be ending it in Japan for an exciting conference and opportunity to meet  and reunite with my fellow primatologists from alll over the world!

Island hopping begins in one week with England. I can't wait!

D