Traveling and Science

To continue with the theme of this week I would like to talk a little bit more about traveling. I am not as well internationally traveled as my partner Kate; however, I have had some unique experiences through traveling. One of my fondest adventures and only time I have ever left America (other than Canada) was my high school trip to Jamaica. I went with my family and for the most part it was a pretty standard touristy trip as we didn’t ever really leave the guarded resort which was really populated by American tourists, but I was able to win a free trip in the resort game show to the Jamaican canopy tour. If you have never seen or heard of a canopy tour it starts off with a long bus ride up the hills and mountain side of Jamaica and is followed by a short hike in the woods. Eventually you reach a spot were you strap into a harness and ride a zip line from tree top to tree top in order to keep exploring the Jamaican highlands. It was during this trip that my father, brother, and I were able to meet a local working Jamaican man, namely our bus driver. In talking with him I learned more about Jamaican customs, family life, and history then I had all week. Granted the other stuff was fun but so was talking to him. I learned that Jamaica’s inhabitants were originally sugar slaves working for the English. Many of those slaves ran away to the mountains and they were known as “maroons”. Jamaica had one of the highest rates of runaway slaves and they all sought refuge in the mountain tops. Eventually the maroons revolted and killed many of their slave owners, thus freeing themselves and becoming the country they are today. This is why they speak their own dialect of English. Also many people believe it is legal to grow and sell marijuana and this might shock you as it did me but it is illegal. The driver told me though that the police are corrupt and look the other way for profit but he did not want to be a part of that shady scheme because he was a family man. Tourism is their number one revenue, and in one place in particular tourists could jump off of cliffs into a lagoon. Local Jamaicans performed diving shows there for money where they would dive from heights of 90 feet! Anyways I have found their people interesting and while in the resort I even met a British family and they were informative as well.

Other then that my travels have all been American based which can be informative as well. I love hearing different accents and the Virginian accent really gets me. A Virginian woman at a gas station referred to my home state of Massachusetts as (Mass-er’-chu-serts) which almost made me think that Southerners play up their accent as much as I play up my Bostonian accent when I travel. Like maybe its an inside joke amongst them, when they see some yankees roll into town they say “Watch this, I’ll give them a thrill.” One unique travel experience I had was sleeping in central park. A friend of mine and I decided after a long series of build ups and let downs we should just sleep in central park and I tell you after that I can really appreciate why homeless do not get jobs because it is impossible to hit the refreshing REM sleep at the base of a statue in NY because it gets cold and traffic does not stop. My friend and I became friends with one transient for the evening and we pretended that we were vagabonds from Boston. At about 5 in the morning I woke up and his face completely encompassed my field of vision which sort of freaked me out. As it happened he just wanted to tell me that foot traffic around this time makes sleep difficult so it’s best to move from the outskirts of the park to the middle. As I woke up I noticed all the bums were making the move, it was as if a bum blew a conch shell in the middle of the park to summons his tired brothers and sisters. After what was the worst nights sleep possible we went to the today show with Matt Lauer. During the commercial break I put my friend on my shoulder and told him to start a chant. He exclaimed, “Hey it’s Matt Lauer’s birthday.” The audience was surprisingly receptive and a good portion of us began to sing happy birthday to Matt until he turned and made a disgusted look at my friend. Anyway the point is this, travel, meet people, and have fun with it. As Kurt Vonnegut put it, “We (humans) were meant to fart around this planet.”

Another thing that has fascinated me this summer is how far humans have advanced technologically. If you think about the chances of earth existing, then the chances of earth being able to host life, then the chances of human life developing, and finally the chances of humans being able to put together a comprehensive alphabet and language system you get a realization of a strange sense of humility as to how lucky we are to be were we are. Maybe it is because technology baffles me but the large hadron particle collider has really captured my imagination. It is a huge track 300 feet below ground that is going to smash atoms in august to better understand physics. They are trying to recreate the big bang. The countdown to the first firing of this collider is at http://www.lhcountdown.com/. Definitely check it out and let me know what you think of this scientific advancement. Also as a sort of opinion question, if you could travel to outer space for free would you do it? Hit us back at interns@experience.com.