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When I moved into my field house in Thailand to begin my dissertation research, I wasn’t exactly moving into 5-star lodging for a spectacular vacation. The previous resident had left in a rush and didn’t tidy up before leaving. And the current residents… the rats… hadn’t really kept the place up to pristine sanitation standards, nor were they intent on moving out anytime soon. Field stations are notorious for NOT being the ideal, most comfortable living quarters; oftentimes set up in remote, relatively inaccessible places with no electricity, and sometimes even without access to clean water. My house in Thailand by many standards, relative to other primate field stations my peers and colleagues reside in, actually DOES seem like extraordinary accommodation with 24hr electricity, an outdoor hose with running water (not drinkable, but safe enough to use for cleaning), an indoor toilet in the Thai-style bathroom, and the hot water shower (I installed the second day I arrived). But ...

Script from an actual conversation I recently had (inadvertently) with a few friends. Friend 1: "So, what are you going to do?" Friend 2: "I'll have to do something different... I want it to be.. be... more like... I have to start thinking out-of-the-box like Jackie" Jackie: "What box?" ;) Source: http://www.fromupnorth.com/2011/03/various-quotations-222/ Finishing your PhD is hard work; you spend a great deal of time swimming around in your head, trying not to drown in your thoughts. I’m not sure how successful I have been with this lately. But what’s for certain is that I’m not blogging about it, cause it's been a while since we last chatted, eh. :) I love what I do. I love gibbons. LOVE.THEM. But not every part of doing what you love is that wonderful. Sometimes it can be grueling getting from point A (blissful life in the forest) to point B (back to blissful life in the forest). As many of you know, I haven’t always been a fan o...

My plan for coming to Thailand was simple: do my fieldwork and train for more triathlons. I figured with free time after the forest, endless good weather (meaning no Canadian snow), and hills as far as the eye could see, Khao Yai would be the best place for me to learn how to become a better athlete. There’s no place to swim here, but I could run and bike for hours on end. So when I arrived in January 2010, I put on my sneakers and I started to run. I’m not going to lie, running here sucks. It’s hard. It’s really, really hard. And after 1.5 years, it’s still not getting any easier. “Khao Yai” translates directly from Thai to English into “Big Mountain” and that’s exactly, quite literally, what this place is: a damn, big mountain. Even the “flat land” has hills; they just aren’t as steep as the “real hills”. :) But I made the commitment to myself to run, so I continue to put on my shoes and go. Not long after I started running was the Best Day Ever when I made my first Thai friend:...

Next week I’ll be heading to Bangkok to give a talk on my dissertation work at the International Symposium for Biodiversity and Ecology of Wildlife in Thailand at Chulalongkorn University. I’ll be in Bangkok for three days with the students and professors for the symposium, and then in the following days we will travel around the country to visit some field sites to see long-tailed macaques, stump-tailed macaques, pig-tailed macaques and gibbons. I’ve been in the house most of this month concentrating on compiling some data to present and putting the presentation together, so I’ve been working late into the night and sleeping in the mornings. My schedule is kinda wonky and I haven’t been spending much time with people around Khao Yai. For the past two nights, I actually had dreams that I was trying to talk to my friends around here, but other people kept interrupting me and causing distractions preventing me from communicating with my friends. This morning Jambee came over with a...

Just posted a few new pics at: www.facebook.com/jackieprimeproject . Album title: "Creatures that are not primates at Khao Yai" This one is my favourite.  Elephant

Look at that face, so precious. --- Comments are always welcome, please share your thoughts. *Note: Comments are moderated to avoid spam.