jungle funk

So, apparently people are actually reading this. At least several people in the past few days have said, oh I'm enjoying your blog and all the pictures etc. So that's always nice to hear. I'm trying to make sure I get at least a few pictures in every post, so its not so boring, which is why I haven't been doing as many posts lately. Basically, I've shown you about a hundred gibbon pictures, and to be honest seeing new things worth sharing is becoming less and less common. So, you could say we're falling into a routine, and I think its only worth it to share the really interesting things from here on out. That being said, today is an unfortunate day off because it was pouring rain all morning. So I'm bored, and have a couple of random things I'd like to ramble about for a few minutes if that is alright with you.

Number one, I keep thinking about, but forgetting to explain the meaning behind this blog's URL: jungle funk. This term was first introduced to me by my professor Chris Schmitt at the La Suerte field school in Costa Rica. He used it to describe the lovely aroma that all of your clothing (and probably you yourself) will acquire after a few weeks in the field. At La Suerte, we came to understand the meaning of this term very quickly. When after two days I decided "oh its time to wash some of my clothes!" I was clearly an amateur. As it turns out, when you have to wash your clothes by hand, wring all the water you possibly can out of them, and then hang them to dry in an environment whose humidity is pretty much maxed out, your clothes aren't going to dry. So after waiting 3-4 days for my clothes to finally dry, I realized they smelled worse than they had before I'd washed them. Hello jungle funk! In my mere four weeks in Costa Rica, jungle funk came to encompass everything that was gross and uncomfortable that we were experiencing due to the nastiness of our climate; stinky clothes, a mysterious rash covering 1/3 of my body, "swamp ass" (visible-through-your-pants butt sweat), mud and mosquitoes everywhere, a damp pillow from my sweat. So I figured ok, this is what its like doing field work in tropical places. So I showed up in Thailand VERY prepared. I came with all sorts of waterproof stuff, thin clothes that would dry fast, fungal creams, anti-itch steroid creams, powder and vaseline to prevent chafing, etc. Well, to be honest I've barely used this stuff here. Khao Yai is a very cushy field site I have to say. So, when the PI of the project arrived and was surprised at my adaptability and  patience at our slightly inconvenient living situation, what he didn't know was that as long as I have dry, clean smelling clothes and no rashes to speak of, I am content.

The aforementioned "swamp ass" of La Suerte

However, in the face off between Khao Yai and La Suerte there are a few preferable aspects to the latter. One: our cook Rosie, the food may have seemed a little heavy on the carb side, and perhaps a little weird sometimes, but at least someone else was making it for you, and it was generally good. Two: dogs, dogs make EVERYTHING better. Three: capuchins, gibbons are great, but I think I'm still slightly more in love with the adorable capuchins of La Suerte. Advantages of Khao Yai include a washing machine, less humidity, mosquitoes that are under control (though leeches are a different story), and it gets cool enough at night to not sweat through my sheets. So, lesson learned: every field site, every forest, is different but I am still thinking coming over prepared was a better call than coming under prepared.

Okay, so now that you know why I named my blog "jungle funk" and how its actually a pretty inappropriate  description of anything here other than my dirty running clothes, here are some other random thoughts I have forgotten to share. There is a tree in the forest that smells like marshmallows! What a great creation by mother nature. Julie and I don't actually know what kind of tree or plant it is, or what it looks like, but every once in a while you are walking along and bam, you look around expecting to be near a bakery or something based on the super sweet smell permeating the air. Marshmallow is a good description of the smell, but also for some reason angel food cake pops into my brain as well when I smell it. This of course makes me think of grandma Ginny and her delicious angel food cake. I am looking forward to many baked goods a la Nancy and Ginny upon my return...

Also, in the forest I have been seeing increasingly impressive looking spiders. It makes me nervous that I am eventually going to walk straight into a web and get a huge spider stuck on my face. I've had a few close encounters. The other day I walked face first straight into a web, fortunately I don't think it was occupied. The web sure was sticky. It was all over my hair and face and took a few minutes to pick off, and even longer to get the creepy feeling of imaginary spiders crawling all over my body to disappear. YUCK.

huge spider, body over an inch long

The other day I saw another awesome scorpion in the road. Dead this time unfortunately, but I did get a picture! You can't really see how green they are from these pictures. Maybe because it was dead and its color had faded, or its just the lighting of the picture. But if you google "Khao Yai scorpion" you'll see some cool pictures!

I guess I should stop rambling now. I've filled up almost my whole morning with Skyping and writing this, so I would say I have killed time successfully. I got to four-way Skype tri-internationally with Alaina, Katie (USA) and Elsie (South Korea) early this morning, and then with Nathan a little bit later. Lucky me! I suppose I'll make lunch soon and then spend the afternoon entering some data and reading on the porch. Until next time something interesting happens...

monogamy? HA!

Well, for a long time people (even scientists!) looked at pair bonded birds and gibbons and thought "oh how sweet, they're monogamous! If these creatures can do it, surely humans can too!" Well, the more you know. As it turns out, when scientists dug a little deeper, watched a little closer, they realized "Wow! These animals aren't quite so lovingly devoted to their mates as we would like to think." It isn't the fairy tale, and there are evolutionary reasons WHY. Monogamous social systems evolved in most cases because there were pathetically helpless infants who needed care from not one, but two, parents (although its hard to say if that's the case with gibbons because the males don't really do much, besides play with the infants, but that's a different debate). However, there is a difference between a social system and a mating system. As it turns out, lots of socially monogamous species also participate in extra-pair copulations; this is known as a mixed reproductive strategy. Its like insurance. If you happen to be mated with a male who isn't of the highest genetic quality, but is still maybe a good partner or father, you might benefit by mating with a better, neighboring male but staying with your current mate. As for males, they aren't constrained by gestation, lactation and infant carrying, so technically they could go out and mate all they want with whoever they want (which many male primates do), but in doing so they risk leaving their own mate unattended to possibly do the same. So, its a tricky business, and thus extra-pair copulations are rare, but they do happen.

I just so happened to be lucky enough to witness one today. YEAH! It was in fact the first copulation I have witnessed here, and it just happened to be an adulterous one. What a lucky day! (Though I can't say the same for Chinda and Chu...) So, here's how it happened. Julie and I had just stumbled across A, hooray! because we wanted to do the python with them. I briefly saw Chu (A male) but then he disappeared. Then we saw more white individuals and were like crap is this the C group? But no, because we did see Chu, who is black and all of C is white, so we knew A had to be there too. It turned out to be an intergroup encounter at the border of C and A. We hadn't been with them a minute before we saw Chao (C male) and Andromeda (A female) mating. WOAH! Chinda (C female) and Chu (A male) were nowhere in sight, but the C juvenile was hanging around. Chao and Andromeda proceeded to copulate 4 times (bummer I didn't get my camera out in time!) before finally moving apart. Chu showed up again not long after and we followed him and Andromeda for the rest of the day.

Shortly after reuniting Andromeda attempted to initiate a duet, but just ended up doing three lonely great calls while Chu seemed to give her the silent treatment. (I do not presume to know what the gibbons are thinking, this is simply my anthropomorphic interpretation of what was going on, don't take it too seriously). So, a little bit later Chu and Andromeda started a duet, together this time, but as soon as Andromeda gave her first great call: silence. Zip, zilch, nada. More silent treatment from Chu. Let me tell you, a great call without a male reply is like peanut butter without jelly, it just isn't right. About ten minutes later they tried again. This time, they got past the first great call at least, but even then, no male replies for the first two great calls, then the next three were a VERY half hearted reply, and finally he gave a reply to the next two, and on the last, nothing, again. Well, this just seemed too coincidental. Males LOVE to sing, and they never miss that many replies in one duet. It seemed like Chu was holding a bit of a grudge. After a while he got over it though and they spent most of the late morning happily grooming each other. This is really boring for us as it is just: "Ok your turn," groom for 5 minutes, "My turn," groom for 5 minutes, "your turn," etc. So, we sat bored while they groomed and ate some fruit and acted really boring. They were too high in the trees to do the python. When they finally did move they went back to where the C group was and we can't do the python when there are two group present, because then we would record two groups singing at once. It was interesting to see how they behaved at this meeting though. Andromeda was suddenly shy and kept her distance while Chu made sure to stay between Andromeda and the C group at all times.

When we got back I told the project PI about it and he said something along the lines of "Oh Andromeda, she mates with everyone!" Apparently she is not only the oldest gibbon in the study site but also the most notoriously promiscuous. She was in fact one of the first examples published of extra-pair copulations in gibbons. Way back in 1992 (See http://anthro.siu.edu/reichard/reichard_ethology_95.pdf). Shes still whoring it up over 20 years later, even though her last surviving offspring was born like 15 years ago and she certainly won't be making any new baby gibbons by mating with her neighbors (shes that old).

We also saw a barking deer (and scared it into barking and fleeing), and a cool lizard who blended in wonderfully with the leaf litter. We also saw an awesome spider with an X marked right in the middle of her web like "Insects land here!" So, it was a great day!

 Andromeda

 little froggy from the other day

 "bugs land here!"

 the lovely creator of the web

trouble in paradise? 

 do you see the lizard?

there he is!

 huge caterpillar

grooming solves any problem!

creative energy

So, I find myself feeling a little bit wound up lately. I've been having trouble sleeping because my mind is full of thoughts and images that just want to explode out of me. I think I have a lot of creative energy built up inside me with no way to release it. Every day I get so see such beautiful things: dazzling lightning storms, fluttering butterflies, sunrises and sunsets, the way the sun peeks through the trees early in the morning so just little shafts of light are visible, deer that walk right up to me on the porch and say hello, gibbons that glide effortlessly through the canopy, moss covered rocks, trees with huge buttresses. All these things and more are giving me a jittery hand that wants a brush and a canvas. Since I don't really have any other creative talents, besides painting, I'm sort of at a loss. I can't write poetry. I'm not great at drawing, and find it a little boring so I always rush. I'm so desperate that I bought the back-to-school pack of Oreos at the store just because they came with free colored pencils! So, I'm stumped. I suppose taking and sharing photos will help though, so that is what I'll do.

 Early morning on NOS territory

NOS main male relaxing

 translucent mushrooms

 rainy season is slowly making its mark

 me and HUGE tree

butterfly wing

Those pretty photos are from Monday and Tuesday in the field. Monday we followed the NOS group, which is a huge group: black female+white infant, white main male, 2 black secondary males, 2 white juveniles. So that was interesting. We went to Pak Chong in the afternoon for groceries and to buy our new rope setting device. We thought we were getting a bow and arrows, but no. Julie's bird watching guide friend has a friend, whose uncle makes these weapons for shooting fish. They are basically like a sling shot and a cross bow mixed together and shaped like a rifle. Its interesting. We were skeptical at first, but after seeing it in action we decided it was perfect. There are little metal spears (we had the pointed ends cut off so they wouldn't get embedded in the tree if we missed, and so we wouldn't accidentally kill anything). The spear is locked into place at the end of the "gun" shaft, and then you pull the sling shot part around and hook it onto the little spear. The spear is tied to a bunch of fishing line which is wound around a little piece of PVC at the end of the tip of the "gun." When you pull the trigger, the spear is released with the fishing line attached, so you can pull in the fish you've gotten. So, we spent Tuesday morning setting ropes with this new device. Instead of impaling fish, we aimed for branches and slung the fishing line over them which we then replaced with rope. The only tricky thing is when the spear gets stuck in branches. We broke the line a few times yanking on it, and lost a few spears this way. Overall though, this thing works really well, and is pretty awesome. Julie has been pondering what kind of reaction she is going to get at customs when she returns to France with a knife, a machete, a (broken) crossbow, and now this thing, in her luggage. The other event of the day was that one lucky leech got to absolutely feast on my back today while we set the ropes in the first tree. I was adjusting my shirt and felt him and heard him fall off. He was VERY fat. It wasn't until we got back 3 hours later though that I realized the damage. I was still bleeding after my shower and my sports bra and shirt were nicely bloodied. 

 weaponry (AKA new device for setting ropes)

 Julie: weapons expert

post leech attack carnage

still bleeding 3.5 hours after he fell off

Well, that's about it for now. Hopefully I can sleep tonight. No coffee today, and only 6 hours of sleep last night should make that possible. Who knows though, my mind is always racing at night.

the century egg

Well, today was a day off so that Julie could write her proposal and so that we could meet the PI of the project. We were supposed to have lunch. Well, he came in, soaking wet from the field since he just HAD to see the gibbons first thing, at 1:30 pm and Julie was starving waiting on him. I was okay because I'd had a late breakfast. He walked around in his soggy field clothes in absolute shock and disbelief at the conditions we were living in. Julie and I just kept giving one another glances and little smiles because really, to us its not a big deal. Except maybe the no kitchen thing, and even that isn't really a problem now that we've adapted. Yeah, we have cold showers because the rangers are too lazy to fix the heater, yeah we do dishes in the bathroom sink, yeah I have a curtain for a wall, and yeah, we have no kitchen. Really though its not a big deal and (at this point) Julie and I figure its easier just to get along with what we have than to make a big fuss.  To me, from what I've heard of at other fields sites, this is cushy, easy living. I mean, we have a washing machine with a centrifuge thing that gets our clothes almost dry for Pete's sake! Dr. Gibbon (I'll call him since I don't really want to mention his name while complaining about him...) had an absolute conniption. He took photos of my room, while my stinky running clothes from this morning hung up for everyone to see/smell, to show our Thai collaborator. He whined and said this was absolutely unacceptable before FINALLY pealing off his wet clothes and taking a shower. Then, he and Julie went to talk to the park chief about this. Julie shouted at me as she went out the door after him, "EAT EAT EAT!" as it was already two and apparently we were NOT going to be going to get lunch together. Poor Julie, I knew how hungry she was and at this point it was already 2:30. What is silly and annoying to me about all of this, is that Julie sent countless emails to Dr. Gibbon about this situation; how the research house was emptied and she was told we could no longer use it, how we were thrown into makeshift arrangements at the search and rescue center. He didn't seem so bothered by this until he arrived, quite unprepared despite Julie's warnings "you will have nowhere to sleep!"

Anyway, now I'm just mad because what came out of the meeting with the park chief is that a wall will be built, yay! No, not yay, because in fact two walls will be built. One to separate what is currently my area from the rescue center patient area (which rarely sees patients), which just fine. The other will cut my current living space in half so the Dr. Gibbon can sleep on the other side. GREAT. My stuff is jumbled around all over anyway, I'm living out of my suitcase. The only place for me to hang my clothes line is on that side of the "room". I am currently USING a lot of that space for my own stuff. So, with the creation of this new wall, I'll be living in 10x10 feet of space that is going to be stuffy as all get out. I actually LIKE my current curtain situation because it lets in so much breeze. So, I'm a little peeved. Dr. Gibbon is only going to be here for a month, does he really have to cut my room in half with a new WALL for his month-long stay?

End rant.

The only other thing that happened today was that I tasted my century egg. Google it please. Anyway, its a nasty preserved egg, and in Thailand they paint them pink. Julie made me get one at the market last week just to try.

Look at that pink egg looking all innocent like Easter.

Noooooope.

MAYBE if you like hard boiled eggs this is for you, but if you're a person disgusted by the smell of those, then century eggs are VERY far outside of your comfort zone. So, I decided that I didn't want to eat it cold. I think normally they are eaten in like soups or salads, but I didn't feel like ruining other good food for this. So, I just heated it up in some boiling water and pealed the shell off.

 beautiful...

 oh no, oh no.

 not excited.

Well, once you peal off the shell, you realize that this thing stinks, not any stronger than a boiled egg, but its maybe more of a chemically smell. So like rotten egg smell plus toxic chemicals. Which isn't surprising considering how they're preserved: "in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime and rice hulls for several weeks to several months." Also, according to Wikipedia this chemical smell is probably an ammonia and sulfur odor. Then you cut it open and see the nasty yolk which has sort of a creamy, frosting-like consistency.

Then, if you're me, you take the teensiest sliver of a bite possible and decide, well that was not for me! It leaves a chemical taste in your mouth too. So, the end. Probably won't be doing that again. Luckily if a Thai person ever tries to force me to eat this again I can say "oh I've already tried it and I don't like them that much". But don't be too turned off by my disgust. I honestly think if I liked hard boiled eggs I wouldn't have been so grossed out. The egg white has a jello-like texture, which isn't bad. The gooey yolk is weird though. I also shouldn't write it off so quickly, perhaps if prepared in a way that suits my taste I would like it a bit better.

So, tomorrow Julie will attempt to finish the proposal, I will check over it for her (since its in English and she's French). Hopefully, we will go to Pak Chong in the afternoon to get food and the bow we're going to use to set ropes with.

To finish, some pictures of butterflies! According to Julie, we will start to see more and more butterflies as time goes on. This is great because I was a bit disappointed when I first arrived to only see a few teeny brown ones. I thought, this is a tropical rainforest, there has to be more butterflies than this!

 boring and brown...

until they fly! pretty blue!

rainy season

Well it looks like the rainy season is really starting to get underway. We were lucky enough to have not one, but two power outages since I last posted!

On Wednesday we did the Python experiment with W (finally!). It was especially fun to watch W today because the infant was starting to become independent. He was off mom for a good amount of their stationary time. Swinging from branches, scrambling around, playing with Wotan (dad). At one point, when Sari (mom) left the tree Wotan was in and took the infant with her, he hurried back as soon as she stopped to continue playing with his dad. That sure was cute. Gibbons are pretty good fathers, males tend to play with the juveniles more than the females, as far as I can tell. Maybe the females figure if they have to lug around the baby all day, then dad should have to play with it. We were just finishing up when it started to look like a storm was rolling in. It started off sunny, then it was a bit windy, then came thunder (still sunny), then finally the clouds rolled in. It started sprinkling just as we got back to the car and we showered and did laundry as fast as we could expecting a big storm. Well that didn't happen. It never happens when you're expecting it.

Thursday was another day off since Julie had to go report that she was still in the country (something you ahve to do every 90 days) to the immigration office in Bangkok. I woke up and Skyped my parents, and sadly heard of the Wing's loss to Chicago. No more playoff hockey for my poor old dad. After that I had some coffee, instant of course. The coffee gave me an incredible burst of energy and put me in an excellent mood. I guess because I haven't had any in a few weeks? So I got busy with my laundry and cleaning my room. I started prepping for lunch; cutting up asparagus, rinsing my rice, etc., and literally as soon as the rice was in the rice cooker and I had pressed cook the power went out. THERE WASN'T EVEN A STORM!. Okay, there was some far off thunder and some clouds, but that's it. But it was enough to blow over a tree somewhere in the park onto the one pathetic electric line. The power was out for 9 hours. It was an incredibly boring day. When it got dark and I could no longer read I sat and watched far away lightning on the porch for almost an hour. Riveting stuff. Actually, it was nice. When I came in a bat came with me, so I had to open the door again and hope it would find its way out, it did. Not too long after I heard another noise. I went to the other side of my curtain wall, into the triage area of the search and rescue center and went to the source of the noise. There was a nice rat staring back at me from under some cabinets. So, at least I know my suspicions of something creeping around my desk and trash can at night were not just paranoia. It scurried away and I couldn't find it so I left it alone. Julie came home, and not too long after had her own run in with the rat. We worked together to try to chase it out the door. We may have been successful...Of course, at about 9, when it was time to go to sleep, the electricity came back on. I was so tempted to make some food, since all I'd eaten was PB&Js and yogurt for meals all day, but I just went to bed instead.

This morning we got up, despite an ominous forecast, and went to find the A group. We finally found them after much searching, and after listening to tons of OA duets. OA duets are really cool, but really loud. They're like a normal duet, except the interlude part is this really loud "oh-ah-oh-ah-oh-ah!" sound repeated over and over. It sounds sort of like a siren.

**Normal duet = introductory sequence (male + female), female great call, male reply, interlude(male + female), female great call, male reply, interlude, etc.

The cool thing about OA duets, besides their loudness, is that they are really contagious. Once one group sings an OA duet, all the other groups start. So, it was a loud morning, with lots of singing. We found A, and I finally got to meet Andromeda, (probably) the oldest gibbon in the Mo Singto study area. She's been the adult female in her territory since habituation began here in 1991. The A group was actually the first group habituated here. Julie says she is about 37-38 years old, which is ridiculous. I think a gibbon's life expectancy is about 30. She sure looks old, her wet fur from last night's rain didn't help her appearance. She's so old that she hasn't had a baby in years. Its just her and Chu; empty nesters. He is younger than she, and is certainly not helping his fitness by remaining with a barren old grandma. I wonder why he stays with her even though she can no longer improve his reproductive success. I guess they must have a very strong bond. We did our scan, which was easy (thanks for being old and slow moving!). We couldn't do the python experiment though, so we'll have to come back another day. Just as we were getting ready to leave, it started raining, and I mean RAINING. We made our way back as quick as we could, mostly staying on trails, slipping only a few times in the mud. We got laughed at by the people at the park restaurants when we emerged from the forest completely soaked. When we got back I learned that my dry bag indeed does work, and my pants are more waterproof than I thought because my notebook that was in my velcro pocket was dry! Of course when we got back we also learned the electricity had gone out again. The thunder and lightning was a bit scary. A few times the fluorescent bulbs in my room sparked and the switch wasn't even on so I'm not sure what that was about. Luckily power was back by 1:30 pm so I started our laundry and got my data entered into the computer. Tomorrow we aren't going into the field because the forecast looks bad, and because Julie wants to get her proposal done for her research here next year, and because its Saturday, which means tourists.

So here are some photos from today, none of the cute W baby from Wednesday because I forgot my SD card that day. Silly me.

 A vine in the shape of a heart!

 Andromeda

 Chu

 Chu grooming Andromeda

Andromeda looking ancient

rice cooker adventures

Part of each day here is dedicated to learning how to cook palatable meals using only a rice cooker and a device that boils water. This wouldn't be too difficult if I could have rice or ramen noodles for every meal without going insane. However, as a Western chick, I need some things like bread, (non-Asian) noodles, and most of all potatoes. Cooking meat also stumped me at first. Storing fresh meat is a whole different story, because the freezer is out of commission and our fridge has a rough time keeping things cold enough in this weather (a problem compounded by the power outages we have at least once a week). So fresh meat must be eaten ASAP, as I tragically learned this week. I had to throw away a whole chicken breast along with the rice I cooked it with when I realized that even after repeated rinsing and thorough cooking, the smell was not going to go away. I read some helpful hints on the internet on what people did to freshen meat before the days when throwing precious protein at the slightest sign of spoilage was an option for most Americans. So next time I'll try to revive my stinky chicken rather than throwing it out, and if all else fails cook it in some spicy curry to mask the smell... This may disgust normal people, but throwing out meat isn't really an option, and from what I've read I should be fine as long as its thoroughly cooked. So, I'm still learning, and I have confidence that if nothing else after five months in Thailand I will have learned how to be very resourceful and thrifty.

Experiment 1: Rice cooker macaroni and cheese
Original recipe: http://www.lynnskitchenadventures.com/2009/02/rice-cooker-macaroni-and-cheese.html

So, I couldn't find broth at the store, just little chicken flavor cubes; the instructions in Thai obviously. I also don't have a measuring cup and didn't think to buy one, so I had to guestimate on quantities. I just dissolved a cube in some hot water and hoped for the best. So, I'm not sure if with regular or properly prepared broth this recipe would be good, or if I'm just a purist and like to have my macaroni a certain way, but I am definitely not using broth to boil my noodles next time. It gave it TOO much flavor, and I don't think mac and cheese should taste like chicken soup...it should taste like CHEESE! So, noodles boiled in water next time. Also, there is no shredded cheese to speak of, so slices were the only option. Other than that, it was good. It doesn't look beautiful, because the cheese is white and because some of it stuck to the bottom of the cooker (the bane of my existence).

Voila!

Experiment 2: Coconut and green curry "soup"
One of my favorite Thai dishes. The awesome thing is that here you can make it really easily with various soup mixes. So I bought a carton of the coconut green curry sauce and just had to add my (questionable) chicken and broccoli and cook until everything was done! So easy and so tasty! The only drawback is that since I only have one appliance to work with I had to make the rice first, then the "soup" (quotations because I boiled it down so it was less soupy and more saucy). That makes things take longer. It was really good, and the strong flavor and spiciness masked any smell the chicken may have retained after cooking.

YUM! Spicy!

Experiment 3: Sauteed asparagus and grilled ham and cheese

So, the actual experiment 3 was just going to be chicken cooked with rice with "Chicken Rice Sauce" over it, but as I mentioned earlier that stunk to high heaven, so I chucked it and had a PB&J for lunch. For dinner, I sauteed some asparagus in butter with chopped green onions and garlic, which was so delicious, but this rice cooker gets so hot I think the butter burned on the bottom. Anyway the bottom blackened which was hard to clean. I may buy some olive oil or something which may work better, but I'm not sure. The asparagus didn't burn though! I made a grilled ham and cheese sandwich to go with it and it was a great meal. Ham is a good meat option that won't go bad as fast as fresh meat. 

Experiment 4: Au Gratin potatoes with ham
So this was the experiment I was most excited for, but most worried about failure. Since I didn't actually have a rice cooker recipe, just this recipe for Gratin Dauphinois (http://gratineeblog.com/2009/10/julia-childs-gratin-dauphinois/). I had read you can cook potatoes in a rice cooker, so I figured this was just taking boiled potatoes one step further.

I sliced the potatoes as thin as possible. Then I chopped up a green onion for flavor. I rubbed the bottom and sides of the cooker thoroughly with butter. I arranged a layer of potatoes in the bottom, added some bits of ham and only a teeny bit of cheese and sprinkled some green onions on as well as some garlic powder. Then I poured some (non-boiling but room temp) milk over it. I repeated this with a second layer, then put on the lid and pressed cook. I had to add more milk a few times so make sure the potatoes were submerged enough to be cooking. In the end it worked out really well, except for the sticking problem I can never solve. Hence the poor presentation on the plate... But my goodness what this lacks in aesthetics it makes up for in flavor. It was SO delicious, brought me back to Grenoble a little bit (though the people of the Dauphine region might be ashamed of this take on their specialty).

 Bon Appetit!

And an old favorite
So, these were all my brave new attempts of the last few days. However, I should mention a staple that is pretty easy and simple that gets me though a lot of my days. Some variation on rice and vegetables. Rice and vegetables with sausage, or with scrambled eggs, or with ham, or with nothing. It's easy (except with eggs, the eggs have to be cooked first, adding a step), and filling and yummy. I usually use garlic powder, salt and butter for flavor, but the chicken and rice sauce I just bought would also be good. Chicken and rice sauce is a sweet, garlicy, gingery, sort of spicy brown sauce. It is put on the steamed chicken version of chicken and rice (the breakfast I'm always talking about). There is a different sauce for the fried chicken version.

Simple but yummy!

So, this is how I'm getting some variety into my diet, and making sure I have enough protein to survive intense mornings in the forest. My mom challenged me to make rice cooker pizza, mostly as a joke I think. But I told her she'd have to try it first before I waste a bunch of money on all the ingredients, which I'm sure will be difficult to find at the Tesco Lotus. So, not sure how interesting this post is to any of you, but perhaps if you ever find yourself forced to survive with only a rice cooker, you'll have a head start. As for myself, I've come a long way from the girl who got here and worried about how on Earth she'd even be able to cook the eggs she had bought.

ELEPHANT!

The moment we've all been waiting for, or at least the moment I've been waiting for...I finally got to see a WILD Asian elephant! Julie and I were chatting on the porch when our ranger friend sped by on his motorbike shouting that there was an elephant on the road. The place he said it was was sort of far but we grabbed our cameras and jumped into the truck to go have a look. As we passed the viewpoint where the elephant was supposed to be we were beginning to lose hope and assume he'd gone back into the forest, but then a couple more curves down the winding road there he was! He was taking his sweet time in the middle of the road, munching on this and that. We took a bunch of pictures but eventually decided to pass him when he looked to be going back into the forest. We had to drive quite a ways to be able to turn around and head back. On the way back towards home we saw him again or another elephant, since the first looked to be going back in the forest, on the other side of the road. We snapped a few more shots and headed back slowly on the lookout for others. We didn't see any more elephants, but we did see a civet crossing the road and two porcupines! So it was an all around very successful night of animal watching!

The rest of the day was also very good. I was happy to be in the field again after three days off due to weather and the weekend. We followed the B group to try and redo the python experiment. We were about halfway through our scan when we heard the bark of a barking deer and Julie's face fell, seconds later I could see why. The gibbons immediately started up with a disturbed song sensing danger from the sound of the deer's alarm. So, we had to call it a day, once again. It was an interesting morning though, and I got to see just how pathetic Baak's (female of B) great call is. At one point it seemed that the male and female of B were in the middle of a fierce duel with the BD group to prove who could duet better. Unfortunately for both groups, they have equally pitiful sounding songs, and I had to hold my breath to keep from laughing a few times. A couple of times Baak screwed up her great calls so badly I didn't even know if I should record them. It was definitely a battle based more on quantity and rate of great calls produced than quality. Nonetheless, it was entertaining, and reminded me a little bit of a rap battle.

I experimented with potatoes in the rice cooker today. I think I will post about my various rice cooker adventures of this past week tomorrow. So for now, I will just reveal that whatever it is that I made today was delicious and very UN-Asian. I spent the afternoon working on Excel compiling some data for Julie, which was great because it kept me from being bored out of my wits. So today was a good day, in fact most days we go into the forest are good days. I haven't been posting on days we stay in, because there isn't much to mention. So you're probably getting an inaccurate level of cheerfulness coming from me. On the days that I am stuck here I feel bored and useless and lonely, so that is no picnic.