condo and birdwatching

Today is now my sixth day of living in my new place. Everything's good, but I have to say that as much as I was in love with the idea of living here before, I wasn't too thrilled on my first night in the condo.

In fact, I spent the entireity of that day trying to keep my emotions in check, because I was

1. overwhelmed by how much cleaning up my roommate Jean and I had to do
2. really tired from hauling stuff to and from the dorm
3. excited, because CONDO!

I guess my being on-edge the whole day translated into me constantly tossing and turning in bed that night. I got so little sleep that I had to cancel jogging time in the morning. But I slept well the night after, as I've been sleeping well for every night now. 

Yeah I guess I sometimes miss my old dorm. I miss being able to plop down on a bed (because I now sleep on a pull-out). I miss being able to walk to Rustan's like I was walking to my kitchen. And I miss my old roommate Steph. 

Oh, speaking of Steph, recently she paid me and Jean a visit, bringing with her some delicious, delicious ice cream for us to share! Yaaaay. There's still some in the freezer right now. I'm saving it for when my stuffy nose clears out, for maximum flavor savoring. 

Anyway, onto the pictures:

The sofa area (?) back in March

The sofa area + all our stuff from the dorm

The sofa area right now (It's a work in progress, okay.)

First-day messy bed; first-day view through the window

A view of the sunset

Desk + my clutter

Nucleotide bases + Amino acid notes. I don't know why this won't rotate.

Anyway, that's it for now. Nothing else to report on, summer being summer and all.

Now that my Internet is great again, I've been biding time here watching Legend of Korra episodes and doing other Internet things. Today I found the blogs of two great young artists who I think I was classmates with in Fil 12. I like their art a lot. Their works are unbelievably good, and when I first saw their drawings I had to stop and go, "Wait, THEY drew this THEMSELVES?" Show some support for Tristan and Ara, who both don't know I'm mentioning them here heehee

Seeing how good they are makes me feel like I should already by amazing at something at this age. It also makes me wonder how different my life would be had I pursued a non-science course. Something writing-related, or something about photography and film. For starters I probably wouldn't have all these amino acids covering my wall right now. And I probably wouldn't be as sure of my career path as I am right now (hello, future Dra. Capinpuyan). 

Update: Speaking of very talented batchmates, check out this article about some graduates of Pisay (Philippine Science High School) that are going to have their work published in the International Journal of Bifurcation. 

Ugh. So many accomplished people. And here I am eating Pringles and surfing the Internet. GO OUT AND DO SOMETHING YOU LAZY BUM!!!

Yeah yeah, I'm on it. I'll do something great for the world one day. Allow me to take my time please.

Anyway, until I do get my degree in medicine and figure out a cure for cancer, here is what I've been up to: birdwatching!

There was this really interesting species of Chinese Butthead (c) Raffy Saldaña 

When Cheryl told me about this "bird and tree walk" in Ateneo, I jumped at the chance of getting to birdwatch. It would be my second time going on a birdwalk; my first was with Cheryl, who couldn't come this time because of this long story about Doc Sio and Rockwell. So I tagged Rap along.

The great thing about it was that our nature guide was Ma'am Trinket Canlas, our Cellular and Molecular Biology teacher last semester! We also saw Ma'am Leslie Lopez, our Statistics teacher, also from last sem. It was weird seeing our two teachers from different fields in this one place. And yeah, it was a pretty diverse group that we were with. There were people from outside Ateneo, and there was this one very personable fellow from the Filipinas Stamp Collector's Club, who showed us pictures from his trip to... someplace I can't remember. There were families with kids there too, and Ma'am Leslie has the coolest, most curious little daughter ever!

We didn't find as many birds on this trip as we did on my first trip, but it was a great experience anyway. We walked to behind the Manila Observatory, where Ateneo doesn't look like Ateneo anymore. It reminded me of the outskirts of Hogwarts, at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. 

Anyway, Rap got really excited about the fruiting trees there. There was a kamias tree behind the MO, and a duhat tree near the Covered Courts, and we ate from both of them. I felt uneasy about eating unwashed fruit, but hey, it's been two days since I had those wild fruits and I'm still alive and well. And I discovered that I don't hate duhats so much after all.

We also saw a kingfisher, which is this very beautiful blue bird that you are most likely to have seen before, if you've ever gotten a class in Bellarmine Hall. 

Very Ateneo-y!

I also learned that the molave is not actually a tree native to the Philippines. Which is pretty disappointing. Ever since my history class with Ma'am Habana, I've been learning that a lot of things I thought were distinctly Filipino are not actually native to this country. Like mangoes. Even rice and corn! It's all been a lie! 

Anyway, there are still a lot of amazing species out there we can call our own. I may just be channeling my Environmental Sciences book (and Biology teachers) when I say this, but the Philippines is a biodiversity hotspot. There are tons of species here you won't find anywhere else in the world, and the numbers only grow each day. Take for example this bird, the lowland white-eye, which is endemic to Luzon:

There were a few of these on campus during the bird walk! 

And in Mindanao, there's this tree called the Mindanao Gum, or the Rainbow Eucalyptus.

If you're from Cagayan de Oro (and study in Xavier University), then I'm sure you've seen these around. I just recently learned that this tree, called the Mindanao Gum or Rainbow Eucalyptus, is actually native to Mindanao, and doesn't grow anywhere else in the Philippines. That's pretty amazing. I remember asking my parents as a kid why these trees were being painted. It's not paint. It's 100% tree.

Anyway, enough nerding out for now. You really should come on the next bird walk. They're all free, and they even let you borrow some really powerful binoculars, and you get to watch birds through this scope that allows you to see every singly feather. It's great. 

On that note, CAN YOU PLEASE LEAVE US ALONE, SM?!