the Earth-bound adventures of the Lost and Found

9 November to 21 December 2009. November 9 to 20. First birthday in Davao in 14 years. November 21 to 22. Joint birthday trip to Puerto Galera with Jemi. November 23 to 26. East Asian Seas Congress, Manila. November 26 to December 19. Dumaguete, thesis research and Philippine leg with Rich. December 19 to 20. Alabang with Baculios.

lost and found by Jeneen R. Garcia to be published (or maybe not) on 27 September 2008 This year has brought me the unlikely gift of two summers: one in the Philippines, and another one in the US, where I spent the last two months. If I spend Christmas in Australia (or Chile, or South Africa), I would have three summers--that’s the maximum number of summers anyone can get in one year, unless perhaps you go to the poles. I was just starting to miss warm, languid days heading off to placid Lake Balanan in Siaton, the ice-cold waterfalls of Valencia, the surreal pillars of soft corals in Bacong on a night dive--and of course, twilight walks on Dumaguete’s boulevard--when I was soon face to face with a nurse shark for the first time in my life on another humid night in Florida. That was only the beginning. Soon after, wild alligators in the grassy Everglades, waters more placid and icy in Lake Minnewaska and Niagara Falls in upstate New York, a walk in Central Park in...

08 September 2007. Finally was able to go up to the famous Twin Lakes, Lake Balinsasayao and Lake Danao (supposedly the craters of an old volcano separated by a ridge), as chaperone of a zoology class. Went swimming and kayaking (anywhere there's water! that's always my motto). I think my love affair with lakes is really growing, the absence of waterfalls and islets notwithstanding. PS and this time, i'm putting pictures of people, because it seems animals and landscapes are not as interesting to others as they are to me :P

Returning to Dumaguete in June was like returning to a new city with new hangouts that (joy, joy!) have free wi-fi--McDonald's, Jollibee, plus some others that charge per hour--and a National Bookstore at the corner of Silliman (joy, joy!) with walls made entirely of glass. As of last sem, there was wi-fi only at two internet cafes. Imagine that. Civilization, as most cities know it, has finally set in in Dumaguete.   But the best news--wi-fi-wise--is that we also have free wi-fi in school (for a limited period) and at the marine lab =D And I hope to hitch on my neighbor's (yes, I have a neighbor now on the second floor) DSL once I get my own wireless router. So work, school, house--I'll have everything covered hopefully by the end of this month. I HAVE been working on controlling the addiction, too. I no longer stay so late in school surfing. Only till 10:30 pm at the latest =D   In fact, for this semester, I have resolved to put on the habits of a new lifestlye altog...

11 February 07. Just so the kids would get a chance to see some trees and birds and be free of their cages for awhile, we had a non-compulsory field trip for the zoology students to this lake I had never been to, either. In my class, only one student signed up (let’s hope that’s not a reflection of my teaching abilities =P). So ok, lakes are nice; I’ve had good experiences with them lately, especially in Lake Danao in Camotes and Lake Danao in Ormoc. This one wasn’t particularly spectacular. In fact, it looked more like a river than a lake, with its big boulders and narrow shape. But oh, right at the end of it there was this curious piece of dry land that looked like something out of an African savannah. And right behind that, a waterfall! Next to the sea, I think I can say that waterfalls are my second favorite body of water. So I didn’t mind having to hike all that way (and good thing my student and I had the sense to take the raft across part of the way, instead of climbing the 552...

04 Feb 07, Escano Beach. Seven a.m., the wind was chilly, and for the last hour we were there, it was drizzling. Just the day before I had been up at 6 am to do three dives (also in the cold sea) with the Aquanuts. But yes, folks, this is class for me---walking in ankle-deep water on a Monday morning to look at all the ugly little things clinging to rocks, coral and seagrass. They're actually called algae. And they each have names. And reproductive structures (even the red scum on the rocks have them!). And along the way, we got to know some other interesting creatures, too. (sorry no pictures of my classmates here. i go to marine plant physiology class with 4 boys)

04 Feb 07 – Dauin, Negros Oriental. It was a lesson in seeing. Visibility wasn’t very good because of the weather, the sites were mostly just brown sand and seagrass with virtually no corals, but never did I see so many fascinating creatures in a single dive day as diving with The Aquanuts – Joy & Kevin, Fred, Sol, Paulo, Eric, Barbie, and of course, Ana, who lately I see only when the moon is full ;-) Five minutes into the first dive and the group was already gathered round a pile of rocks and sponges, like paparazzi complete with strobes, clicking away at THREE ghost pipefish—and many divers dive again and again without seeing a single one. As if that wasn’t enough, there was also a pair of black-and-white fiddler-looking crabs and a pair of shrimps under the same rock. A few meters away, we find a teeny tiny frogfish on a block of cement. A few minutes later, another pipefish, different species this time. And on and on and on. Certainly it couldn’t have been accidental, the way ...

lost and found by Jeneen R. Garcia     Where I live now, it is December, and the nights are warm and heavy, and the sea is always calm, and the grass is fading yellow on the field. A man stands along the boulevard, his feet treading, it seems, on the horizon itself. On a bustling Monday afternoon, only sky and sea matter.   January had offered only the anticipation of the unknown and the uncertain--possibility! It was the beginning of the end, I sensed. Only, I had a vague idea of what it meant. Four months later, I had moved out of my office of four years, moved out of my rented place, and moved out of Cebu .   I was adrift for the first time in my life. I had no source of income or guidance about where to go next. All I had was a restlessness I couldn’t define telling me that my life as I had known it till then had to end.   But surely the end of the present must mean the beginning of the future. The problem was, I could see only a frightening dark wall before...

November 25, 2006. Fiesta time in Dumaguete! my third weekend here, and i'm into my third watersport--kayaking =D for this weekend, i had two visitors from cebu who were in town for the grand eating. kayaks courtesy of malax , whom i met on Multiply, and whom i met in person for the first time. additional beauty courtesy of jakathra , whom i met in Bohol almost exactly three years ago during my first time to kayak, and her paddler-outdoor-everything loverboy morris, whom she met on that same trip. the experience of sitting inside a single kayak floating towards the sunset, and then under the full moon at midnight was so enthralling, i became a convert for life after that. this was only my second time to kayak (and, turns out, kat's, too). malax, my paddling partner who paddles from MACTAN to BOHOL in her free time, was kind enough to give me a professional orientation on how to maneuver our tandem sit-on-top kayak with feathered paddles (whew all these outdoor sport terminolog...

November 19, 2006 – Agan-an, Sibulan, Negros Oriental. What better way to spend a birthday than to try skimboarding for the first time? The wind was so strong, the board banged against my lower lip and front teeth while I was holding it. But it was SO worth it. *that's cebu island there in the background =D note the raised pinky finger all throughout. hehehe. bakla talaga ako!

  when i was younger, i used to make an inventory of all the gifts i got and from whom. now that i’m older (and we do get fewer gifts, don’t we, if at all =), i count how many people greet me, sort of as an indicator of whether my friends have also increased in number along with my age. my standard is that the number of greetings i get by phone and text should be at least equal to my age. last year, it was off the scale—too many friends ;-)   this year’s birthday index:   ADVANCED (day before) = about 2 or 3 texts ON TIME =   25 texts, 1 call (only! tsk tsk) **first greeting from my father (who says he doesn’t believe in birthdays anymore since shifting religions) at 00:05:47 **weirdest hour award goes to my former boss who sent a greeting at 03:51:55 BELATED (day after) = 2 texts, 4 calls   i guess that’s good enough, even though i didn’t quite hit the number on the day itself.   actually, i didn’t have the usual “rite of passage” feeling this year; didn...

November 19, 2006. What I found in my solitary search for a marine sanctuary. From Bantayan, Dumaguete City to Agan-an, Sibulan, Negros Oriental.

thank God for the rain.   the other day, and then last night, we finally got SOME downpour, although it was intermittent and didn’t last very long each time.   it’s the end of my second week, and i’ve had a little more experience about what they day-to-day is like as a graduate student of Silliman. last Monday, for example, i paid my first visit to the university library.   researching at the library   i have to say that going into the silliman library makes me miss the ateneo and UP diliman libraries =( i typed in “ cora ls journal” into the online public access catalog (a.k.a. OPAC) and got FIVE results. i typed “fish journal” and got about twenty. and this is in a university by the sea that has pioneered coastal resource management in the philippines? people told me i had to go to the Marine Lab if i wanted to see publications on marine topics, but there the materials aren’t properly cataloged. still, wasn’t this supposed to be the MAIN library?   i went to l...

November 11, 2006. First dive of the semester =) Even though had a headache from a beginning cold and cough, went diving anyway to try out my brand new regulator and gauges =D my buddy, ian ray, assembled my reg for me. (of course, all headaches and illnesses disappeared underwater, as they always do)

day 2 make myself feel better by fixing up my room-- something i can find comfort in and feel proud about. finally, starting from scratch with a place of my own. and of course, wonderful God that i have, just as i finish taking photos of my new sanctuary , i get a text from the department head telling me i have a slot for a teaching fellowship! nervous about teaching, and college zoology lab at that, but i don't say no to a challenge, especially if it's something i'm afraid of. and at last, i can enroll. grocery for breakfast food and buy a trash can for my room. have a dilemma--blue, basic one, or red and yellow one (to match my floor and laundry basket) that costs twice as much. at the last minute, beauty wins over budget. day 3 i finally get to attend the class i missed; talking to my classmates, with whom i have different things in common with. and the teacher who tells me to shift to environmental science is actaully funny, in a wry way, which is doubly funny for me. m...

September 12, 2006. Was supposed to dive at Apo, but it was too late to make arrangements, so we decided to go Dauin instead. First time to dive in a black/gray sand setting, and what a great experience it was! We went down maximum 15 feet because the currents were really, really strong, but in exchange, we saw these jacks schooling at that depth (usually they're found in open sea). You'll notice that my shot is pretty unsteady--that's the current dragging me along, and you'll see in the video how fast it is.

September 11 and 12, 2006. I'm skipping a couple of trips, dives and melodramatic events in my life to upload this album of my visit to Dumaguete via Lilo-an, Santander, Cebu and my amazing dives in two sanctuaries in Dauin to give you (and me) a glimpse of my future home and lifestyle. Just a selection of the most interesting things I saw on the trip. I'm so excited already! PS my new website header (the one you see above) is a picture from the masaplod norte sanctuary in dauin. super strong currents! was hardly moving even though i was finning like crazy. but perfect visibility. also the turtles up there i cut out from a picture of an anemone that you will see below =)

Photos from some of my summer trips , all taken in May. Special summer collections to follow. Keep posted!