Allegra
Allegra Maruoka Joined: January 3rd 2006
Logged in: January 19th 2006
Logged in: January 19th 2006
Travel Blog Posts
Sigiriya and Dambulla were AMAZING. Our professor(Indiana Jones) took us to a few of his sites. Right now he is in the process of restoring the largest brick structure/ stupa in the world. We got to see it being restored. Pretty amazing. I also saw my three legged monkey there. Dad, you should be proud. I took an awesome picture of that monkey, you'll see. Our professor took us to many archaeological sites. It's hard to fathom the idea that you're standing where an ancient civilization once existed. He also took us to drip caves where forest dwelling monks used to live. I touched some ancient writing. I think it was from the 3rd century BC. Pretty cool!!! We went to Sigiriya. It's this huge rock/mountain that one of the king's sons made into a resort. ... read more
As I told you on Monday we did go to Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage. We got to see the elephants walk down to the river. I helped wash this one elephant's face. She was lying down in the water and she grabbed my hand with her trunk! They have a tight grip!!! I tried to pull my hand away and I couldn't. She then went for my leg and almost made me lose my balance and fall in the water! Good thing I can bend the way I can, that could have gotten messy. The next day we went to Kandy and visited the Temple of the Tooth again. We actually got to see the tooth this time. Gorgeous! Wednesday morning we went to Grirtale and Minneriya. We were 4 wheeling through the forest and stubbling upon ... read more
Some of you were interested in reading the blogs of other people in my group. Some of them even have pictures up so you can see the places I'm talking about. You just have to search for their blogs. Kim and Jamie I'm sorry I didn't send you links to this site I forgot your new e-mail addresses but I'm glad you found it! Here are the names of the other people in my group: Jon Pearce (my professor) Adele Barker Somala Ang Laura Pearce Bob and Victoria Johnson (I think they have a joint blog, nopt sure) Nora Gutierez Chris Drake Have fun, talk to you later! - Allegra ... read more
I haven't had the opportunity to do an update in a few days so here is goes: Thursday I told you I was going to milk a snake. Well, I didn't get the opportunity to do that. Prof. de Silva was on a research expedition and was attacked by hundreds of ticks and he was hospitalized for a few days. He was still really weak so he didn't want to bring out all of his super poisonous snakes because he didn't want to over exert himself and put everyone in danger. He did, however, bring a Russel's snake which is highly venomous and he milked it for us. It was really angry right away so we had to be careful. It kind of got loose and I was standing 3-4 feet away. Pretty amazing. I got ... read more
It's been raining here. I like it. It may prevent us from seeing some of the creatures today during our field studies but the sounds it very soothing. It's also funny to see the monkeys all wet. the fur on top of their heads looks like when someone towel dries their hair and stands up all crazy. SO CUTE! Today is Herpetofauna day. Herpetofauna is the study of amphibians and reptiles. We just had lecture and after luch we are going to have lab. Then, we will roam campus and look for more specimens. Today we have Prof. Anselm de Silva. He is one of the most qualified herpetofauna experts in all of Asia, the most qualified in Sri Lanka. He has about 300 published books and has conducted many studies here. He is a great ... read more
This morning we drove to PGIS and performed the opening ceremony for our program. There were introductions and speeches and the Chancellors and professors lit the special oil lamp. We began lecture this morning with the the ecosystems of Sri Lanka. Right now we're having a break and when we resume we will have a lecture on vertebrae diversity. I'm really looking forward to that one!! Yesterday I met a 10 year old boy named Indie and he took us up to the top of the mountain behind our bungalow. It was amazing! I saw so many types of plants I'd never seen before, things look so different. Except for the pines. When your in the pine area if feels like hiking in Tahoe. After lunch we drove into Kandy and walked around the market place. ... read more
