Internship-Gutianshan, China


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August 27th 2009
Published: August 27th 2009
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Hello Everybody,

I've been in Gutianshan, China for about 2 1/2 weeks now doing an internship which is required by my program in Freiburg. Actually, the first part of the internship, as luck would have it, is helping preliminary data collection on phosphorous nutrient cycling in the subtropics here, which includes helping Maria gather information for her masters thesis. That is almost finishing and I will now go to another town called "Xingangshan" (say it as you will--"sheeng-ahng-shahn"), where I will be a mountain goat climbing up steep hills to look at trees on a plantation set for biodiversity experiments. Perhaps, this sounds like "blah, blah, blah," so I will comment on a few things about my experience in China:

- They are louder than Brazilians... yes. The men scream and the women not so much. So entertaining.
- They don't mind gut-bursting spicy food first thing in the morning... even my mexican-trained stomach can't handle this
- Their language is impossible yet the characters are very, very cool.
- The men idle-by in the streets sporting nothing but their underwear--authenticity abound!
- I saw a snake in the river where I first thought "wow that looks like a nice place to swim."
- You will not be understood, even when attempting Chinese. Charades works best, but that's a lottery, too.
- I went to Mount Sanquinshan (a UN World Heritage site), which might be the most beautiful place I've been to.
- The food has it's good dishes, but it's hard to persevere with it everyday, every meal. It's like McDonald's for many I think: once in a long while you may want a crappy cheeseburger, but everyday spells death. Okay, it's way better than McDonald's.
- The "nature" is awesome.
- I'm luckily staying in a hotel with air conditioning and nice rooms in the middle of nowhere, so that's cool, but I'm moving to the other town, which is like Las Vegas strip without the money... think about it.
- In a week, I'll go to Shanghai to stay for several days just to have fun.
- HUMIDITY! I walked on close to flat ground for maybe 1/4 mile and was a pile of sweaty cotton. It rained and it was useless to don your raincoat. No difference.
- Bugs: there are these f*$!ing flies that like to fly straight into your eyes--they actually do it and I wonder if they are trying to lay eggs or just get a quick bite or something---regardless, annoying and curious. There are others that are 3 times to size of house-flies and those hurt... a lot--they reach for the marrow. There are these larvae in the soil (where we dug for roots with hands and tools) that have huge pincers--very scary-looking. I saw some stick-insects--took some pictures and now it's difficult to tell which is a stick and insect. The forest screams with cicada-sounding insects. So much life here! See next...


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Look closely

This grass has little serrated knives that cut my hand--cool, huh?
Muscles.Muscles.
Muscles.

Like Bush's presidency, "it's hard work"
ChristophChristoph
Christoph

A German from the University of Halle--very cool.
Mandate in ChineseMandate in Chinese
Mandate in Chinese

It seems so much more holy and profound with the Chinese characters above it. You find yourself nodding, mumbing "yes, I will be a responsible visitor."
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DSCN1765

"....and I will love and protect trees..."


13th September 2009

hey!
Missing our time there...come back soon! beijo e se cuida Maria

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