Tigers in Action Over Fall Break

First, the Tiger softball family would like to send our thoughts and prayers over to those who were and are still affected by Hurricane Sandy. The Princeton campus suffered from power outages and fallen trees.  We hope that those within our community and those around the state have a safe and speedy recovery.

While some of the Tigers went home to spend time with family or friends over fall break, others remained on campus, and others decided to go a little further away.  Liza Kuhn ventured to China, Alex Peyton jetted to Kenya, and Emily Viggers took an early freshmen adventure to Cyprus! In this weeks blog who better to hear from than these international travelers themselves!

Liza Kuhn: This fall break I traveled to China with my senior architecture studio class. We spent the week in the cities of Shanghai and Suzhou, specifically looking at the classical gardens of Suzhou and exploring their landscape architecture. We worked in collaboration with 10 graduate students of architecture from the Tongji School of Architecture, where we presented our midterm projects on the gardens and where we participated in a charrette with the Tongji students in which we collaboratively designed and presented a theme park proposal for our site in Suzhou. In our spare time we explored the city of Shanghai, touring its artists' district, the old city and the new city. One of my favorite visits was when we had the opportunity to climb to the 92nd floor - informally referred to as "Cloud 9" - of the Jin Mao Tower (now the 3rd tallest skyscraper in Shanghai) and take in Shanghai from this amazing view. The trip was an eye-opening cultural experience and I am so appreciative to have had the opportunity to work with the Tongji students and learn from them about China, its history and its culture. 

Alex Peyton: Over Fall break I had the opportunity to travel to Kenya as a part of my senior thesis research.  For six days I was staying at camp for the Amboseli Baboon Research Project (a 40 year long study into all aspects of baboon behavior) in Amboseli National Park.  While out in the field, I followed the senior researchers as they collected behavioral data along with fecal samples.  The fecal samples are then sent to labs at Princeton and Duke where they undergo DNA analysis and radioimmunoassay tests for hormone levels.  Ultimately, I will be using the behavioral and hormonal data to write my thesis on juvenile baboon play behavior and what factors influence differences in the behavior between individuals.   When we weren't in the field, we went on game drives around the park and saw all sorts of animals such as lions, elephants, hippos, giraffes, antelope, etc.!  But pretty much everyday there was like being on a safari.  I got used to seeing elephants on my way out in the morning...one thing Princeton is lacking.  But all-in-all I had a great time and was given an opportunity to work with one of the longest running primate research projects to date and was able to fulfill one of my life dreams: to see a pride of lions in the wild! 

Emily Viggers: Over Fall Break I took a research trip to Cyprus with my Freshmen Seminar.  This class is called Earth’s Environments and Ancient Civilizations.  The group contained the 15 freshmen from my class, a senior undergrad, two post docs, an assistant faculty (her name is Joanna and she is an archeologist that has worked on the site for years and knows everything there is to know about the history of Cyprus), and my two professors.

The trip was full of many spectacular sites, lots of hard work, and many laughs.  The first three days we spent travelling around Cyprus visiting various sites of geological significance, then Wednesday-Friday we were at the Dig House in Polis doing geophysical/archeological work, then on Friday and Saturday we continued our geological/archeological tour of the island.  At the Dig House my job was to survey an area of land where there are most likely ancient ruins from around 800-100 BCE.  I used various types geological surveying equipment including a magnetometer and ground penetrating radar.  This data should then be able to lead us to where exactly we should tell archeologists to dig to find historical sites.  

This trip was incredible and I learned so much about the history and geology of Cyprus.  What is even more incredible was my ability to get through this entire blog post without adding a rock pun.  The girls have had to put up with my terrible puns. Let's just say I had a gneiss time and I shale not take anything for granite.