Sweet Dreams

Last night, I had my first anxiety dream about Germany. JYM told me not to buy my ticket until the day of the flight, so I went to the airport to buy my ticket and it was going to cost $3000. Upset, I decided to wait to buy my ticket until right before the flight. So then, with 2 hours before takeoff, I had to drive home and pack, since I hadn't even gotten out my suitcases yet. I was super stressed.

Strangely, I had a very, very similar dream the night before I left for Mongolia.

The Cruise I Dreamt Of

Last week, people lined Woodward Ave. for perhaps the world's most impromptu and egalitarian parade-- the Woodward Dream Cruise. Being our virgin cruise with the Mustang, the excitement was more than I anticipated. Talking from convertible to convertible, posing for and taking pictures, and just seeing the excitement of the Motor City made it worth seeing.

The Excitement Builds...

As I sit at work (I'm on my lunch break now, don't worry), my mind keeps drifting to Germany. I'm not normally one to get excited about travel way in advance. The realization that I was going to Mongolia didn't really hit me until I tried, unsuccessfully, to fall asleep the night before I left. But with T-18 days until departure, my thoughts keep returning to Munich.

I think it has to do with the nature of the trip. For the first time in my life, I'm going abroad, not as a tourist, but as a future resident. I'm going to be living in Munich, interacting with "Muencheners," speaking "auf Deutsch." Yea, I'll visit Neuschawnstein, Dachau, and the all important Hofbraeuhaus, but I'll do it (hopefully) with German friends.

Most of my excitement and anxiety about this "Auslandsjahr" (year abroad) deals with integration into German culture. I'm terrified of the idea of leaving behind my friends and school in Philadelphia, only to hang out with fellow Americans in Munich. I CANNOT allow that to happen. So, I've slowly been formulating a plan.

Plan A deals with research. The JYM program really encourages students to do some sort of research, so I've already got an idea dealing with green roofs. I'm not going to reveal it here, but I will admit that I find it exciting, and the Penn professor I've spoken with thinks its a good idea, too. I also want to meet Germans through sports. A running or triathlon club would be ideal, or maybe I could meet some at a bar during "futball" games.

I also need to apologize for the past 10 days without posts. My weekend plans devote plenty of time to blogging, so I should be able to fill you in on what exactly was going on!

Now What We're You Doing There Exactly?

If I had a dime for every time I've heard that question, I'd have enough money to go back to Mongolia. But alas, those dimes are no where to be found, and I am stuck reliving my travels on this blog...

The science behind the trip is rather interesting, though, so I'd like to share it. Basically, Penn's biology department got a $2.5 million grant through NSF's Partnerships for International Research and Education--hence, PIRE Mongolia. The grant money must last Penn for the five years of the project.

Several different Penn biologists are studying different things in Mongolia, but they all collaborate on one of the main features of the program dealing with education and collaboration. The scientific infrastructure in Mongolia is underdeveloped to say the least. Out in the field, we certainly didn't have PCR machines, nor did we have access to quality labs in UB. The Mongolian students had a great understanding of plant taxonomy, but, apparently, their educations lack quality statistics or evolution courses. Penn professors will be coming to Mongolia in following years solely to teach courses in the field.

Dr. Brenda Casper is one of the leading researchers on the project. Her research normally focuses on mycorrhizal fungi and their effects on plant ecology. Since little research has been done on these vital fungi in Mongolia, she did bring back some root samples for analysis, but her main project dealt with predicting the future!

No, Dr. Casper is not clairvoyant, but she did set up four hexagonal warming chambers out in the field. These chambers, similar to mini-, open-topped greenhouses, will simulate the warmer temperatures scientists predict Mongolia will experience 20-30 years from now. Dr. Casper will look at the changes experienced by vegetation in these chambers and the many more she will put up next year. Most of the vegetation sampling I did helped to get "baseline readings" on the state of vegetation in the valley.

On a larger scale, Dr. Brent Helliker brought an existing project to Mongolia. He already studies tree rings and their reactions to past temperature shifts. The rings can tell him a lot about how the vegetation fared. He will use his results to look at the interaction between the border of the grasslands and forests throughout Northern Mongolia. Which ecosystem will win the warming war? Only time (and data) will tell.

Now this research is fantastic, but why couldn't these geniuses have done their work in, I don't know, Pennsylvania? For one thing, Mongolia is located at a much higher latitude. At higher latitudes, the atmosphere is thinner, leading to higher overall concentrations of that famous greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. This means quicker, more dramatic, climate changing trends. 

Although Northern Mongolia is relatively untouched by humans, the herders played a big part in making Mongolia a prime research destination. Over the centuries that Mongolian herders have herded, they've become a part of the region's ecology.  As that ecosystem changes, we can see one of the best examples of how a people so closely tied to the Earth will have to change with it. 

While students didn't complete their own projects this year, plans for next year will probably incorporate undergraduate research. I won't be back from Germany in time to participate, but my friend Brian is already trying to think of ideas. I'd say he's got a pretty fine spread of options.

V-Day

The day I came back from Mongolia was supposed to be a D-Day of sorts. Land on the shore of a foreign land and make a Decision. Since the decision had to do with being a Vegetarian, I termed July 22nd V-Day.

I didn't make a decision, though. Let's not make any mistake about it, I enjoyed being a vegetarian for six years. I felt healthy, happy, and proud about what I was doing for the environment. But I've always enjoyed meat (see below), and Mongolia was a nice place to try it out again.

But since resuming my meat eating, despite vowing to return to the land of Quorn, Morningstar, and Seva, I've been in quite the conundrum. I read a book titled Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It made a convincing case for eating meat while still helping the environment.

Meat requires a lot of energy to make and transport, both fossil fuels and other food. Factory farms don't know what to do with the waste from all their animals. Cheap meat tends to come from fragile ecosystems.

But when a Philadelphian eats a tomato in December, it's probably being shipped from California or New Zealand or God-knows-where. The energy used in that transit has got to be worse than eating some chicken made in Pennsylvania.

Eating meat in Mongolia was an important part of experiencing the culture, so whatever my decision, I may eat meat occasionally in Germany. In any case, I'm still undecided, but a defalt vegetarian for now.

People try to put us d-down (talkin bout my generation)

Ever since I decided to go to Germany and Mongolia, I've been nervous about telling people. I'm really excited about the trips myself, but I'm admittedly worried about peoples' reactions. Do I sound like some ungrateful jet-setter? Do I come across as spoiled? Do they think I'm just grasping for attention?

So I formulated a policy: don't tell anyone unless it comes up in conversation. I've gotten mixed reactions. Most people seem interested in the first trip, but don't really care to hear much about the second trip.

Unless they're my age. I had dinner with a friend last night, and even though I was hesitant to bring up the journeys, she seemed really interested. I think had something to do with the fact that she just got back from abroad and was planning two more foreign trips.

Foreign lands and cultures just interest this generation more than past ones, I think. Whether people are working abroad or traveling, they try to really immerse themselves. Why is this so? I don't know, but it probably has something to do with globalization and increasing our exposure to international experiences at a younger age. After all, our parents didn't have a Dora do teach them Spainish.