j girl adventures

April 15, 2011

juliaschmidt — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 13:21:00 GMT

Fabulous Day!!!

Today was quite a day for introspection. I couldn't help but think of last April having to drop out of school because of my illness. Feeling like all my dreams had been crushed and feeling lost about the direction my life was going. Now all of my dreams are back on track and better than ever. There are not any words that can describe the gratitude I feel towards all those who have helped lead me back towards my way. You all know who you are!!! How lucky I am!

Further along those lines of lucky. Today was spent in the sun bear sanctuary. Sun bears are the world's smallest bears. You will see by the photos and video. They are extremely cute, very inquisitive and very resilient little bears. They are mostly nocturnal creatures but perhaps because of their current surrounding and feeding times are pretty active in the day here.

The eight volunteers split up into groups. I feel lucky with my job, though at some point will have to do what the others did. Namely clean the cages which have massive amounts of pooh! (icky) My job was the scatter feed the enclosure. The keepers herd all of the bears out so we can go in. We hide bits of fruit all over. On tree branches, on the platforms, in the bushes, and in their hanging tires. The keepers also poured honey all over the trees for the bears to lick off. It was very messy in the enclosure. Apparently the bears love to dig holes and then cover them up. I must have tripped four or five times. After we were finished the keepers let the bears back in. It was awesome watching them forage around. I have video attached which shows this.

Our next job was to paint one of the enclosures. There are big metal sheets on the fences and the sunlight reflecting off of these hurts the bears' eyes. So we painted them green. The work was grueling. So so hot and the sun blaring down. Must have felt like over 100 degrees. There were a few bears curious about the work I was doing and were milling about on the other side of the fence.

I rested again in the afternoon, not feeling so good. Hopefully by next week I will feel much better, recovered completely from jet lag and somewhat used to the heat!

Girls Night Out

For the evening we planned a night out. We hired the driver to take us to a night market. The women I am with are hilarious. We sang car songs all the way to the market. I laughed so hard! The market was very interesting. We all definitely stood out. The indonesian word for white person is 'boulle' and I can't remember how to say crazy, but I heard constantly from people as we walked by 'crazy boulle.' It was awesome.

It is now time for the weekend and relaxation. We go back to hard work on Monday. Next Friday I end the ten day quarantine and get to go back and take care of the orangs who cannot be released. I can't wait!

Photos: Samboja 041511

juliaschmidt — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 13:12:00 GMT

more photos!

April 14, 2011

juliaschmidt — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 22:48:00 GMT

Yay! Samboja!

Today was an awesome day. We learned all sorts of different food enrichment techniques.

I started with making happy sacks. We take a piece of burlap sack and put in sunflower seeds, peanuts, jam, fresh ginger, raisins and fruit flavoring. Then we sew them up really tight.

Next we peeled bananas which were then pureed with other fruit. We had hollow plastic balls that we injected with the fruit juice to later be frozen.

There was one other type of enrichment which was super messy. The burlap sacks were tied into knots. We then dipped them in a mixture of flour, water and fruit flavoring and then hung them up to dry. The dry rock hard and it's very challenging for the orangs to open them.

Afternoon called for another nap. I am almost adjusted.

The evening was super fun and relaxing. The sounds of the jungle at night is awesome. It's super loud. We also have to watch for wild boar when we are by our rooms. I am pretty sure I heard their snorting earlier in the night.

I miss everyone terribly but I can't believe what an awesome adventure I am on!

April 13, 2011

juliaschmidt — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 22:40:00 GMT

Good Morning

Waking up on my first day was certainly rough. The anti-malarial medication is going to take some getting used to. Breakfast is nice and early at 7:30. Around 8:30 we headed down to the clinic. This is the area where we do most of work. Surrounding the clinic are seven orangutan islands. There are only 3-4 orangs on each island. They were all very curious about us and stopped what they were doing to keep close watch over what we were doing.

After our introductions we headed back to the clinic and learned how to make enrichment. We package their snacks in such a way that it is fun and challenging for them to get their snacks. (Maybe Nick should try this at home with me and cupcakes. If it's too challenging, no cupcake for me!)

Then we were off to lunch. I was supposed to have a tour of the sunbear sanctuary after lunch but I was so exhausted I took a long nap instead. Recovering from this jetlag has been such a pain in the butt.

The food here is pretty great. Rice and all sorts of interesting vegetables.

All the volunteers hung out together at night time. I really could not have been luckier. All the women are super awesome and so much fun to be with. It has really helped with the loneliness.

Photos: Samboja 041411

juliaschmidt — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 22:33:00 GMT

My day at Samboja

April 12, 2011

juliaschmidt — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 18:48:00 GMT

Leaving KL

I was very excited and sad to be leaving KL. The driver I met a few days earlier arrived to pick me up. I left in a horrible thunder storm. A little scary on the highway. When I arrived at the airport I was very dismayed to find out I had to pay a $100 surcharge because my luggage was too heavy. It originally was going to be around $200 but I gave the man my sad face and he reduced it in half!!!!

Stopover in Jakarta

I had a 2 1/2 hour layover in Jakarta. I stopped off in a cafe and there was only one chair left. The man I shared the table with was super cool. Originally from the Czech Republic, he now lives in Finland. He works for some oil company. Funny thing is I was on my way to save the forests from destruction and he was on his way to destroy them!!!

Finally in Borneo!!!!

I landed in Borneo with a total pit in my stomach. The words 'what did I do?' kept floating in my head. I got off the plane to walk towards the baggage area thinking this is my home for the next 6 weeks.

I came out with my luggage and was immediately harassed by taxi drivers. Yet another man came up to me and I tried to brush him off. But he said are you Julia Schmidt? It was the driver from Samboja. He brought me over to a young girl whose name is Hesty. She is the volunteer coordinator and from Borneo. We had two hours to kill while we waited for the 4 other volunteers to arrive.

We all sat down at a cafe and Hesty started filling me in on the program and how everything is going to work. I became more and more excited as she talked. I couldn't believe I was actually going to do this.

The four other girls arrived and it was time for the party to begin. I immediately felt comfortable with the girls. There is a pretty amazing group here.

We finally got to our lodge at nightfall. Words cannot describe how beautiful it is here. I still have to take pictures of the lodge. When you see them you will understand.

The very first night and immediately there is a bright orange spider is my room. Did I mention that it is HUGE. Oh dear.

I couldn't wait to wake up in the morning and see the place in the sunlight.

Kuala Lumpur Video

juliaschmidt — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 05:12:00 GMT

Insect Video!!!

Kuala Lumpur

juliaschmidt — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 04:44:00 GMT

Day 1

Well found out my first night in KL just how not adventuresome I am. I swear the hostel is perfectly nice. I am sure I would have been just fine in a bunk bed (on the top) and coed showers/bathroom. Um, no. The next day I immediately checked out and off to a hotel with a big giant bed and private bathroom. I figured, hey I am going to have a roommate in the jungle for six weeks, a little privacy won't hurt beforehand.

Day 2

The taxi drive to the hotel was awesome. He is Indian Malaysian. He
is also a retired policemen. He was super friendly!

The hotel is at the edge of Little India. I walked through
Little India and found a pretty cool department store that was
having a huge sale and got some really cute clothes! I also found
little cupcake lip glosses so I got one for me. I
guess if I can't eat them....

I then found a pretty cool market to walk around in. Still in Little
India. I finally tried some street food. I had these really spicy and yummy garbanzo bean mix and I had some awesome corn on the cob.

On my way to an amazing Indian restaurant I found out that KL is not safe to walk around alone as a girl at night. Made it okay though. It was about a 20 minute walk to the Indian restaurant. The food was awesome. I had starfruit juice and chana masala. Looks like I am confined to my hotel at sundown. So sad. Now I can't get 'I'm just a girl' by No Doubt out of my head.

Day 3

Oops, I slept until 11:00 am. Damn jet lag!

I had a good day today. I went to the Bukit Bintang area which is in the Golden Triangle. There are thirty thousand shopping malls. It's crazy. I first went to the glitziest one. They have a whole floor of just spas. It was awesome. I went to one and had a 45 min head neck and shoulder reflexology massage and 45 min foot reflexology massage. (Please touch me) Though I just noticed I have bruises all over my arms!!!!

I then went down the road to the super fun shopping mall. They had all the clothes like they have at the JJ market in Bangkok. I had to buy a new bag. Thank goodness I am here alone, there is no way Nick would have done all that shopping with me.

I took the KL monorail today. That was super fun and adventuresome.

I am now going to relax and watch a movie, do some knitting. I am super exhausted!!!!

Day 3

Another fyi for me. Apparently lone females are reluctant fares for the taxi drivers in kl.

Finally got a cab. Though at a ridiculous price. What's a girl to do?

I started my day at the bird park. It was super cool. So many birds. I got to feed ostriches and emus. I haven't seen an emu since I was little in Australia.

I then walked to the butterfly park. Guess what? That was super cool too. I think I took some pretty good pictures. Through the exit was an education area where they had live specimens of insects. I took video of it. I saw an eight inch millipede and a six inch grasshopper. I am starting to get really worried about the jungle! I got so creeped out I practically ran out of the exhibit. Even now just writing about it creeps me out.

I then took a cab to the central market. Kinda lame but close by to the china town market. I finally found the dvds! All stocked up now. I made friends with the second guy I bought from. He gave me his number for when Nick and I get there to call him.

Then I was so proud of myself I walked back to the hotel from china town. No easy feat. KL is damn confusing. Each major street has like 4 different streets. Kinda like big/little Kedzie in Logan Square. Though I think I finally got a hang of it.

Back to hotel at sundown. But properly equipped with Pizza Hut, movies and oh so much knitting!

Leave at 8am for Borneo.

Good bye for now KL. Time to get my jungle on!

Photos: Kuala Lumpur

juliaschmidt — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 03:14:00 GMT

Out and About

Adventures so far....

juliaschmidt — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 03:03:00 GMT

Bangkok and About...

Well the first adventure (well misadventure) involved losing my ipod on my very first flight of the trip into Tokyo. Luckily the ipod had been located and returned to me by a very nice woman!!!

In Bangkok I found a very lovely yarn shop. I love the idea of all that wool being worked in a climate that never dips below 85 and is always extremely humid!!! Of course it was necessary that I purchase some yarn. Also a purchase was made for a certain someone. I just wonder who that could be?!?!??

Off to Kuala Lumpur!