Recently the Wall Street Journal published the following article:
Rocket Scientists Shoot Down Mosquitoes with Lasers
In light of that information I am posting the following advertisement:
Wanted: Rocket Scientist
Location: Honduras, Pena Blanca, specifically the area around my house
Job Description: Eradicating the Mosquito population and I suppose Malaria and Dengue Fever as well
Requirements: A laser gun and the knowledge to effectively use one
Pay: Negotiable in terms of baked goods (In other words it is a volunteer position for the good of mankind. However you will be fed well.)
Please apply soon as I am being eaten alive as I type.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Recent trip to Belize
Ok so as most of you know we made another trip to Belize this past weekend. Now a bunch of stuff happenned so we have decided to blog about it in chunks rather than just posting a huge story about our trip, that even we wouldn't want to read due to its length. So we will be throwing up a couple different posts about the trip (and hopefully some pictures too). I can guarantee you that these post will not be in order because I am about to tell you about something cool that happened to me (eulogio)that occurred somewhere in the middle of our trip (though in my defense still towards the beginning).
Ok enough of my qualifying and rambling, on to the story.
While in line at the border between Guatemala and Belize, on the Guatemalan side (you go through checks on both sides no matter whether you are coming or going), the most bizarre thing happened to me. It was of such a grand proportion that it gave meaning to 5 years of my life which up to this point had seemed all but a lost cause. Ok so I am exaggerating but as you will see it was still sweet. As we waited for our passports to be processed for our exit from Guatemala/entry into Belize. A strange yet familiar sound fell upon my ears. I was instantaneously both confused yet excited, my brain said, "Whats this?" while my heart said, "Yipee!". What had alighted upon my ears was Russian. In the line next to us, at the counter, was a man calling in Russian to another man at the back of the immigration building. Gathering myself from the initial shock of hearing such a foreign (it is not everyday you hear Russian in Central America) yet familiar sound, I leaned over to Chris and said, "Check it out these guys are speaking Russian". Chris, who instantly seizes every opportunity to speak German - which is surprisingly quite often here, began prodding me to go and talk to them. Not being as feisty as Chris I held back but did begin to listen. After listening for just a second I realized that they were having trouble understanding the immigration forms that they needed to fill out, and the man at the corner was asking the man in the back how to translate a certain word. Upon hearing this I decided to pounce and throw my very very rusty Russian skills into action. Just as the second man was making his way up to us at the counter, I dug into the recesses of my mind and out popped, <<вам надо помощь?>> "Do you need help?" to which the first man seemed to be very startled and let out a "OO HO" probably didn't expect someone to pop up behind him in Guatemala asking Russian questions. Anyways promptly following his exclamation he asked me a couple of questions concerning what he was to fill out, I basically only confirmed what he already suspected were the necessary answers. After he finished filling out the forms, we had a brief conversation about where I was from, the men seemed confused when I told them the U.S. but after explaining that I had studied Russian at the University of New Mexico and that I had briefly lived in Ukraine over the course of two summers, I think it made sense to them why a brown guy from the U.S. in Guatemala was speaking in Russian with them. After I stumbled over every word (and accidentally interjected a couple of Spanish words for good measure) the first guy looked over at the rest of our group and said, "good, very good speak". After this we chatted a bit more and it turned out that they weren't Russian but were Belorussian and were from Minsk. That was about the extent of our conversation since we had to move on to the Belizean border, and they were off to catch a bus into Guatemala.
So there you have it the first instance of me using the Russian portion of my degree in the real world, and it happens in an immigration line in Guatemala.
Ok enough of my qualifying and rambling, on to the story.
While in line at the border between Guatemala and Belize, on the Guatemalan side (you go through checks on both sides no matter whether you are coming or going), the most bizarre thing happened to me. It was of such a grand proportion that it gave meaning to 5 years of my life which up to this point had seemed all but a lost cause. Ok so I am exaggerating but as you will see it was still sweet. As we waited for our passports to be processed for our exit from Guatemala/entry into Belize. A strange yet familiar sound fell upon my ears. I was instantaneously both confused yet excited, my brain said, "Whats this?" while my heart said, "Yipee!". What had alighted upon my ears was Russian. In the line next to us, at the counter, was a man calling in Russian to another man at the back of the immigration building. Gathering myself from the initial shock of hearing such a foreign (it is not everyday you hear Russian in Central America) yet familiar sound, I leaned over to Chris and said, "Check it out these guys are speaking Russian". Chris, who instantly seizes every opportunity to speak German - which is surprisingly quite often here, began prodding me to go and talk to them. Not being as feisty as Chris I held back but did begin to listen. After listening for just a second I realized that they were having trouble understanding the immigration forms that they needed to fill out, and the man at the corner was asking the man in the back how to translate a certain word. Upon hearing this I decided to pounce and throw my very very rusty Russian skills into action. Just as the second man was making his way up to us at the counter, I dug into the recesses of my mind and out popped, <<вам надо помощь?>> "Do you need help?" to which the first man seemed to be very startled and let out a "OO HO" probably didn't expect someone to pop up behind him in Guatemala asking Russian questions. Anyways promptly following his exclamation he asked me a couple of questions concerning what he was to fill out, I basically only confirmed what he already suspected were the necessary answers. After he finished filling out the forms, we had a brief conversation about where I was from, the men seemed confused when I told them the U.S. but after explaining that I had studied Russian at the University of New Mexico and that I had briefly lived in Ukraine over the course of two summers, I think it made sense to them why a brown guy from the U.S. in Guatemala was speaking in Russian with them. After I stumbled over every word (and accidentally interjected a couple of Spanish words for good measure) the first guy looked over at the rest of our group and said, "good, very good speak". After this we chatted a bit more and it turned out that they weren't Russian but were Belorussian and were from Minsk. That was about the extent of our conversation since we had to move on to the Belizean border, and they were off to catch a bus into Guatemala.
So there you have it the first instance of me using the Russian portion of my degree in the real world, and it happens in an immigration line in Guatemala.
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