Just Myself....

I desperately failed my Earth Week vow to blog once a day.

I blame it on hell week, the week most notoriously known for triple and quadruple tests that you study for and still miserably fail well, because it's Tech...and because of some serious April storms and showers.

Now, while my mind was wondering around studying for real, I toyed around with the idea of Botswana and partaking in the conservation movement, if only for 3-4 weeks during December and possibly going to a reserve to take care of them. Now if I could only become contacts with Beverly and Dereck Joubert, whose work and personalities I have come to adore and cherish! I will get to them in a later post, I can't possibly do them the justice they deserve in this one.

Roundtrip tickets to Botswana: $3000.
Hotel + food: $500 for the duration of my stay.
Miscellaneous costs: $100, and I'm trying to be really sparse.

...I guess you could call this a once-in-a-lifetime dream come true, although medical school may or may not be tied, if not the first place. I'll have to struggle with that myself over the next year or so and choose where my career goes; I adore animals, animal conservation, biology, medicine, philanthropy, environmental engineering, food, and the green movement. Where to go from there? Doctorate in medicine, Ph.D. in biology (Cornell is the ideal school, and I saw Ph.D. in biology and environmental engineering...definitely a contender!), maybe a melange of them all?

A little side story: A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of going up to the Smokey Mountains with a few friends to enjoy the scenery and what little wildlife I saw (the neon blue lichen was indeed fascinating) in a mere 3 hours. We went to a BBQ place, no escaping it as everyone planned it as part of the trip, and everyone ordered the ribs and catfish.

GROAN. "Animals were made for eating!"
A long grimace later and trying not to burst out in consternation, I was so proud of myself for keeping quiet. Even though the ribs/catfish were all you can eat, I held back and stuffed myself silly with the sides first. I wouldn't call this triumphant at all in any fashion, but I'm slowly getting there. Slowly trying to become more vegetarian. Slowly eliminating meat everyday to just once a week, and imbibing on vegetables. They actually taste great! (I'm not kidding you, they have flavors that burst if you pick, cook, and season them right!)

I think I've come a long way, from eating meat 2-3 times a day to once a day, to 2-3 a 7-day week. But there's a longer way to go- 100% vegetarian. Somehow I don't believe I'll be able to fully become a vegetarian because so much of my culture revolves around an insane amount of meat/fat, my relatives would take direct insult...and the fact that the majority of the only vegetarians around are Buddhist monks. One step at a time! Slowly convincing everyone that it's ok to be veg-o.

Now listening to:
Aruarian Dance - Nujabes