Tag: usa

random observations

Most of the cars here don’t have orange indicators. They just have red ones in with their brake lights. Which makes them not particularly visible. So even when people do decide to indicate, half the time you can’t tell anyway.

And now a quote from the Australian newspaper, The Age:

“Up to 12 people wanted over the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq hariri are believed to be Australian citizens who could have returned home after the bombing earlier this week, according to a senior Lebanese minister. Lebanon’s Justice Minister Adnan Addoum said authorities had contacted Interpol in Sydney over the departure from Beirut to Australia of 12 men – most bearded – on Monday, the day of the bombing that killed Mr Hariri and 16 others.”

You have to watch out for those bearded men. The emphasis is mine, but that’s how the article was written.

Oh, and I’ve just realised why it doesn’t feel like my birthday. My birthday is in summer. It’s quite often stinking hot. It’s never been -2oC before (oh no, sorry, today actually reached a maximum of 0oC, but with windchill making it much colder).

Also, apologies to people who are trying to look at my site using internet explorer. I might get around to fixing the silly menu behaviour sometime this weekend.

Tags bearded men, birthday, indicators, random observations, usa, website

general

squirrels

Post author By megan
Post date 17.2.2005
3 Comments on squirrels

There are three squirrels that come and visit the place I’m staying at the moment. There’s Hooky, with a bent ear, there’s the little one with it’s tail half missing, and there’s Fatty, the biggest of them all. They usually turn up separately, and eat the nuts that have been left out for them. If they arrive at the same time, there are squirrel domestics. These pictures are of Fatty the squirrel – he’s the boldest of them all – none of the others would even consider coming inside, but he does. He’ll also sit around on the bars waiting for you to feed him if there are no nuts out. Cheeky little bugger.

Tags squirrel, usa

general

america – land of brownies

Post author By megan
Post date 16.2.2005
4 Comments on america – land of brownies

Tags brownies, usa

general

fear the turtle

Post author By megan
Post date 15.2.2005
4 Comments on fear the turtle

This is the malaclemys terrapin, or diamondback terrapin. They can be found in salt marshes in a lot of places around the states, mainly down the east coast, including Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. They usually live for more than 20 years, grow to about nine inches, and do turtle like things. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, they were so abundant they were often used by landowners as a staple diet for their slaves. Later on they were considered a delicacy, and eaten in terrapin soup.

The terrapin population in Chesapeake Bay has recovered since those days, but now have to deal with things like pollution, increasing numbers of natural predators, being trapped in commercial nets, and becoming roadkill.

The terrapin was recommended as a mascot for the University of Maryland in 1932, in response to a student newspaper calling for suggestions for an “official” leader. Shortly afterwards, the Class of 1933 gave the university a bronze terrapin as their parting gift. The sculpture was revealed in May 1933 – the live terrapin that had been used as a model for the sculpture had a ribbon attached to it, which was in turn attached to the sheet covering the sculpture. As the terrapin crawled away, the sculpture was revealed. This sounds like it would have been like a good idea in theory, but the sort of thing that would have gone terribly wrong in practice. If I was a terrapin faced with a crowd of people, I’m sure I wouldn’t have obligingly walked towards them in order to reveal a statue of myself.

The sculpture, known as Testudo, quite commonly disappeared, and was the subject of all sorts of pranks and mis-happenings, and he ended up being stored away for a couple of years until 1951. Then he was replaced with greater security in front of the campus stadium, until the 1960s, when he was moved to live in front of the new library. He has a very shiny nose as well – rubbing it is supposed to bring good luck.

terps All of the Maryland sporting teams have been known as the Terrapins (or Terps, for shorter headlines) since then, making an interesting contrast to most other University mascots (bears, bison, tigers, wolves, broncos, bulldogs, cougars, eagles, lions, panthers…). The Diamondback Terrapin was made the State reptile, and official mascot of the University of Maryland in 1994.

The University started up the fear the turtle campaign a couple of years ago – based on the idea that the Uni is a force to be reckoned with in the classroom as well as on the field, and raising money for scholarships (a portion of the proceeds of merchandise sold goes towards terrapin conservation). Hence there are banners all over the Uni with this picture – and I thought Americans didn’t have a sense of humour.

fear the turtle

There’s all sorts of merchandise emblazoned with the fear the turtle logo. Personally, I’m hanging out to buy my fear the turtle fan bracelet. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Tags fear the turtle, maryland, terps, terrapin, testudo, university, usa

general

chinese new year

We went to the Chinese New Year parade in Chinatown in DC yesterday. I was thinking it was my first ever parade, but I’ve the feeling I skipped out on a Physics lab with my lab partner back in 3rd year, and went and saw the Australian Olympic team parading through the streets after the Sydney Olympics. There was a lot more jostling on the pavement for this parade, and a lot more noise. Nearly every kid there had a box of this stuff that looked like sawdust, but made a loud exploding noise when they threw a pinch of it at the ground. If I was a chemistry geek I’d probably realise what it was. I was suprised they were allowed to have it actually, it wasn’t very stable stuff, I had my ears set ringing when a guy standing behind me had some go off in his hand (his girlfriend was unimpressed as well).

The parade itself wasn’t as long as I thought it would be, and there was no enormous dragon, although there were lots of smaller ones. The group that got the biggest cheer was the bunch of cheerleaders dancing energetically infront of the marching band.

The cutest dragon of all was this little boy though.

Tags chinese new year, parade, usa, washington dc