shelby primatologist

Dec. 6, 2016 10:22 PM

Today has been so exciting, I mean seriously, this doesn't happen every day- at least not

to me! My name is Shelby, and I am a 16 year old girl on a flight to Brunei, Borneo. How cool is

that? First, I was invited to meet the most famous primatologist in the world, and not only was I

invited to meet her, but I was asked to be assistant. Yup, thats right, Dr.Ekada, here to

help,save, and conserve orangutans. Oh, and I have to fly in a helicopter. Well, off to bed with

me. I have quite a bit going on in the next few days, I'll need the rest.

Future Primatologist Assistant,

Shelby

P.S. I need a cool signature. Shelby Ekada or Dr.Ekada Hmmm...

Dec. 8, 2016 9:31 AM

Oh my, I woke up at 4:00am this morning, I'm still not yawning. I feel like I've been up for

hours. Well... I have, but I am now in a helicopter on my way with, my tour guide, Alex to the

camp. He's weird. Earlier he was singing Bob Marley and he's a ginger, who does that? I

thought gingers had no soul. But he seems like a good tour guide for the trip. Ta Ta for now- I

need to take some pictures of...well everything! I love taking pictures, CLICK, CLICK,CLICK.

And I'm back. It is currently 7:00pm. So, an update on things. My tour guide Alex,

remember him? He was reading the maps with the window open and accidentally dropped the

maps out the window of the helicopter. We obviously had to land in the spider-infested jungle?

So, we've been searching, searching, and MORE searching. As I was writing this entry I was

intelligent enough to let Alex direct us and he seems to have lost direction of our helicopter.

Well, I guess we're setting up camp in his root bound, spider infested, dark jungle for the night,

and we can't really do anything about it now. Luckily I thought a head of time, and packed some

food,water,two small tents,and a few other things I thought we might have needed. But, who

knows what kind of huge,scary, hideous spiders are out here in the darkness of night where

nobody can see them? No sleep for me tonight, no ma'am. Just going to stay in my tent eating

lemons and bananas all night long.


Shelby

Dec. 9, 2016 8:56 AM

Good morning Brunei! I'm lost in the root-bound,blue skied, green tree filled jungle and

yet I'm still smiling, oh my I'm such a joyous person...Then again, maybe not. Well I had a fairly

long day yesterday so I was out like a light last night, not even minding the evil hairy spiders

that, I'm sure, were out to eat me. I woke up this morning and IT was sitting on top of my tent.

And when I say IT, of course I meant a spider. I almost died! Luckily I didn't, but I did scream. I

screamed so loud I think I gave IT a heart attack...

4:08 PM now,

We were searching, searching, and still searching for the maps all day long. Then Alex finally

found the maps on the ground. He picked it up, held it in the air and...SNATCH! Right out of

Alex's hands. An orangutan swooped out of nowhere. Who knows what happened to the maps

after that? The orangutan could have gobbled them down by now, or dropped them, or just

thrown them away. So Ta Ta for now, I am going on a wild orangutan chase.


Shelby

P.S. At least the orangutan has a sense of direction.

Dec. 12,2016 1:37 PM

And I'm back, from my wild orangutan chase, we decided to name the orangutan,who stole the

maps, Princess. I think it suits her, she tries and acts as if she is the ruler of the jungle. Yeah

right. Anyway, sorry I missed a few days, but our old pal, Princess, decided that she needed a

new journal as well as a sense of direction. But, she has opposable thumbs and no money so

she thought, "Hmm...Lets steal Shelby's journal. She doesn't need it. " So she did, then

realized,after a day or so, she doesn't know how to write or read. So therefore she has no use

for it anymore, not that she did in the first place. So into the muddiest puddle she can find goes

my journal. Which ironically is right next to MY tent. I think she did that to torture me. Now I have

a journal full of muddy puddle juices. Yuck! I have to let it hang off the side of my backpack to air

dry. Well off again to find Princess, hoping she still has the maps.


Shelby

P.S. Maybe if we're lucky, we will find the camp as we wander aimlessly through the forests of

Brunei. Do you know how confusing this is?!? You can't tell your right from your left around here!

Everything looks the same. The ground is root-bound, the sky is blue with not even a single

cloud, and all the trees are the same shade green and look the same.

Dec. 13,2016 5:22 AM

Shhhh! Be quiet, Alex isn't up yet and I don't want to wake him. He's not the best tour

guide, but he seems cool. I mean at least he's trying. Also, it turns out he's not much older than

me, he's only 18 years old, and he's Birute's nephew! Who would have known? I sure wouldn't

have, if I hadn't asked. Luckily I did, if I hadn't, I would have just gone on thinking he was this

weird ginger pilot in training, who liked Bob Marley music. Here's how our conversation went.

"Hey." I said.

He turned his head slightly confused and said, "Hey?"

"Whats up with you? I mean, who are you? I know your name, but for all I know you could be

this psycho killer leading me to your torture chambers."

He smiled."Well my name is Alexander- you know that much. Umm, I am currently 18 years of

age and planning on going to college in Arizona. I..."

That's where I interrupted and cut him off before he could finish his sentence. " No way me too!"

"Cool!" He replied.

"You seem pretty chill...for a ginger." I tease glancing at him.

"You seem pretty adventurous...for a girl." he laughs as he finishes his sentence.

"Touche'. " I replied with a smile.


Shelby

Dec. 14,2016 12:30 PM

So, it's about noon right now. Everything is going pretty well, except for the fact that

we're still wandering around with no sense of direction, on this beautiful day when I could be at

Ms.Galdikas camp relaxing. But, I'm not complaining, oh no. No ma'am. I'm having a joyous

time staring to figure out Alexander a bit better. All this time I thought his name was Alex not

Alexander, that makes sense. But, I think I will just call him Alex. Alexander is a bit long. And it is

quite tiring if I have to say it a thousand times a day.

Later Today 7:12 PM

Oh my goodness, it has been eight days! Eight! I was supposed to be at Ms.Galdikas camp all

settled in by now. I know I'm being a sour party pooper right now, but I have a good excuse to

be. First, we found Princess and so I tried to climb a tree to grab the maps from her and she

decided them would be cool to throw the maps out of the tree at us. So I had to jump out of the

tree to try and catch them. I didn't catch it...But I did land in a muddy puddle, now I am cold and

wet. On top of that as I was getting out of the puddle Alex said, " Oh my gosh! Shelby, stay very

very still!"

Me being me immediately started to feel scared, "Why?" I asked.

"I uhh, don't know how to tell you this, but there is a huge centipede on your back," he said

quietly. I was calm for maybe three seconds then WHAM!! I slammed my back against a tree

and then started rolling in the same muddy puddle I fell into until I was sure it was no longer

clinging to me. Yeah, it's really not my day.


Shelby

Dec. 15, 2016 6:04 AM

Today, I decided to make breakfast for all three of us. I bet you're wondering who the

third is, our one and only...Princess. We're on pretty good terms now. Well, sort of. I made all of

us a fruit salad out of bananas, lemons, and some langsat fruit. Everyone enjoyed it, especially

Alex, as he came back for thirds. Anyhow, I got so close to the maps, Princess started to slowly

hand them over to me, but then she thought tricking me, climbing back up the tree, and laughing

loudly would be better. Both Alex and Princess thought it was hilarious. Alex fell onto a pile of

dirt laughing, leading me to laughing and falling over too. I think the dirt blob he fell on was an

abandoned ant hill...Don't tell Alex he hates ants. Luckily I fell on my purple fuzzy blanket that I

happen to have made myself. Alex and Princess enjoy sitting on it, I think I will make each of

them a blanket too. But, I will wait till I get to Ms.Galdikas camp to start new projects. Maybe I

will even make Ms.Galdikas a warm fuzzy green blanket. Yes!


Shelby

Dec. 16,2016 2:49 PM

It's about mid afternoon right now, and still no luck with getting anywhere, but its been a

fun experience so far. I've managed to climb a tree, fall in a mud puddle, and make a fruit salad

(Which I think is a pretty big achievement because I'm not the best cook.) I have even managed

to give a spider a heart attack! Now that was the cherry of it all. I probably sound like a looney

person, but come on it's a big,vicious, most likely venomous, man-killing machine. I deserve a

high five for that one. Hahaha I'm pathetically talking to myself about killing one spider... I forgot,

earlier today I had a huge spider on my leg! This is how it all started, "Uhh Shelby, you have

another situation, kinda like the one day before yesterday," Alex said shockingly.

I froze in my tracks, then smirked, " Yeah, right you cant fool me." That's when I looked down to

see a fuzzy brown spider on my left knee. I belly flopped and most likely killed it then, but

needed to make sure, so I ran into the nearest tree. It was very graceful. Anyways, I gotta go.

Back to searching, searching, and more searching for Princess and the maps. Ta Ta For Now.


Shelby

P.S. Maybe, if we're lucky we will wonder right into the helicopter, but so far we don't seem to be

very lucky.

Dec. 17, 2016 4:12 AM

Well, I couldn't sleep at all last night...The thoughts of spiders were getting to me. So I decided

to go wondering around through the endless depths of root-bound, green trees, under the

midnight blue skies of the Brunei forest. I found foot prints on the muddy forest floor, which I

thought meant I had found our old trail back to the helicopter- or at least I thought it did. I started

to run down the trail and followed it for about three minutes, then it came to an end. It ended

with Princess wearing Alex's stollen shoes. I think she stole them while Alex was asleep. But, if

you look at it as the glass is half full, Princess did lead me to a gorgeous waterfall. So I thought

Alex would be glad to have a lovely bath in this gorgeous water. I quickly ran back to our small

camp and ripped Alex straight out of his sleep and ran him all the way back to the waterfall. As

soon as we got there Alex said something, I can't remember what, right before I pushed him in-

SPLASH! The next thing I knew, I was rolling on the ground laughing like an idiotic hyena. Of

course, Alex needed revenge. He ran out of the water screaming like a little girl and pushed me

in on his way out. This time he was the one laughing on the ground. To my surprise though, the

water wasn't as cold as I expected it would be. I admit it was a tad bit cold, but it was

refreshing. No more muddy puddle water covered clothes.


Shelby

P.S. The next entry shall be from Alex.

Dear Diary I guess. Am I supposed to put the date? Dec. 17, 2016 5:09 PM

So I guess I'll start with the fact that I was just pushed into a waterfall. In my opinion was

just an cold, awesome, scary...overgrown puddle. Yes, Shelby pushed me in. But I got my

vengeance...I pushed her into the waterfall too. So, here's how it went. I was in my tent fast

asleep when, WHOOSH! In came Shelby...Dun, Dun, Dun! I was out of that tent before I could

say, "A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk, but the stump thunk the skunk stunk."

That is a fun tongue twister my aunt Birute taught me when I was smaller. It's been stuck with

me ever since I was little. Anyway, off topic. When we got to the falls I yawned and asked, "Well,

what was so important you had to go and do that?" That's the last thing I said before I was in the

water. "What in the bloody universe made you do that???" I yelled, dripping wet. I looked up to

see Shelby rolling on the ground laughing as usual.

"You look like a wet dog!" she yelled.

"Yeah, I bet..You're about to!" I replied slowly raising my voice. The last thing she said was...

"What?!" Then SPLASH!!! In she went.

Am I supposed to sign out now?

Tour Guide,

Alex

Dec 18, 2016 11:11 PM

And I'm back! Live, on the lost, aimlessly walking through the spider-infested jungle

show? I don't even know. Alex started with "Dear Diary." Usually I start with something like "Hi,"

or "Hey," or maybe even "Dear Journal," but never "Dear Diary." Not judging him, no ma'am or

should I say sir? I never thought about that. No m'am and no sir, there, I said both. Happy now

Diary? I mean Journal? Happy now Journal? I bet you are. Hahaha oh I'm so pathetic, I'm

talking to my journal again, as if its going to respond.

Later Dec. 18,2016 4:15 PM

I am sick! I CANNOT be sick! I am the magnificent future primatologist assistant Shelby! Well,

my name doesn't sound magnificent, but my job does. Maybe I should change my name to

something like Stevey or Bob, but those are boy names. Why do boys have such cool names?

The Magnificent Stevey or The One and Only Bob. It's not fair, girls have such boring names.

Except for Ms.Galdikas, of course. Her name sounds awesome, Birute Galdikas. It sounds

mysterious. While Shelby on the other hand sounds so original and boring. On the other hand,

Ekada is good though.


Shelby

Dec. 19,2016 8:26 AM

What a gloomy morning, It's raining outside and I still have a cold so Alex and I decided

to stay inside our tents today and wait out the rain. Plus, I don't want my cold to get any worse. I

absolutely hate being sick. All day long sneeze, sneeze, sneeze. Ugh it's no hard to want to go

outside and jump in muddy puddles, but have to stay inside of a tent all day. I decided I would

make Alex a fuzzy blanket out of some fuzzy yarn I found in my backpack of wonders while I sat

inside all day. He loves it. Now I'm starting to work on one for Princess too, even though shes

not being the best orangutan right now. I wonder how long she will keep this up? I most likely

will be having to work with her to keep her out of trouble at Dr.Birute's camp. The first thing we

will work on is her manners.

Later 2:00 PM

Well still raining, it looks like it's almost done though. I'm tired of just sitting in a small cramped

tent all day long. I've been sitting here for about six and a half hours now. So, I'm a bit cranky.

Oh look, it's just drizzling outside. Yay! Wont be long now. Alexander and I are pathetically

playing rock paper scissors and tick tac toe, like five year olds. Is this what it has come to? Why

cruel world?Why? Finally stopped raining.Yay! Yippee!Woohoo! Gotta Go! I've had to stay in my

tent to wait out the rain to long!


Shelby

Dec. 20, 2016 6:56 AM

Good morning world! Like I always say, "You gotta have the rain before the rainbow."I

never really say that, but I should start! I am miss sunshine this morning. It's sunny and

gorgeous out and I feel like today we will find the maps. We may even find the helicopter today,

or just magically wander into Dr.Birute's camp. But Alex on the other hand is mister Rain- On-

My-Parade. He thinks "Nope, we wont ever find it. All is lost, everything is gone, there's no hope

for any of us! Goodbye cruel world we're all just going to be lost forever and eventually die." But

I feel deep down in my intestines, we WILL succeed today. I will search from sunrise to sunset,

and I will succeed!

Later 7:07 PM

Alex's has rained on my parade.We didn't find the helicopter.*frown face,* Alex is evil! His, "I told

you so!" laughter is all I can hear.

"Hahaha, I'm dying of laughter." I say sarcastically, with a straight face.

"HAHAHA me too kid.Me too!" Alex replies, not even minding my sarcasm.

"Kid? That's hilarious. Real funny, you're only a few years older than me, and acting like a hyena

on drugs."

"Touch." Alex's says wiping a tear of joy from his eye, trying to hold down laughter.

Well, Ta Ta For Now.


Shelby

Dec. 21. 2016 2:45 AM

Hey! Hey! Hey! Guess what? Well you can't talk so I'll just tell you! I was up all night,

rolling around in my tent over and over and over and, okay you get the point, right? I decided I

would just get of bed, walk around, and stretch, but not get lost. So I did, not a bit bothered by

the darkness.While I was walking around I heard a small rustling sound in the bushes. Of

course, me being me, I thought it was a giant, man-eating, vicious, rabid spider out to eat me. I

started jogging backwards and BAM! I ran right into our helicopter! It was behind some large

bushes- which happen to all look the same around here! Oh, I was so happy, so very happy,

even though I got a giant bump on my head. I immediately started on my way back to find Alex

so we could fly out of here and head to Ms.Galdikas' camp. Then, I realized that it was still 2:00

AM,my head was killing me, and we couldn't fly in the darkness. So I decided to sleep in the

helicopter till morning just to be sure I didn't loose it again. I told Alex I would find it, I just knew it

was out here somewhere, just waiting to fly us back to camp. Well, goodnight, or should I say

good morning?

Later 8:09 AM

Good morning. Again? I woke up in the helicopter still very happy to fly out of this spider-

infested jungle and to finally meet Ms.Galdikas. Also happy to tell Alex that I...wait, oh no! I

forgot about Alex! I have to go find him. He's probably worried sick! Gotta go. Bye!


Shelby

Still Dec. 21, 2016 8:32 AM

Later,

Well, I finally find my way back to our small camp Alex and I set up, where we've been

for the past 2 weeks, after about half an hour of leaving a trail of orange pebbles. You're

probably wondering where I got the neon orange pebbles right? I needed to remember where

the helicopter was after I went back for Alex and I didn't want to risk losing it, so I improvised. I

hopped out of the helicopter grabbed a few pebbles and thought, "These wont do, they'll blend

right into the ground." So I rummaged through the helicopter looking for something and found a

bottle of neon orange spray paint and *VIOLA* perfect trail. Anyway, as I was saying, I finally

found my way back to our campsite and I ran to Alex's tent and guess who was still snoring the

day away? Yup, that's right- Alex. I stopped and thought, " He looks as if he's enjoying himself,

fast asleep while I was out lost in the spider-infested jungle." I thought it was the perfect time to

pull a prank on my old friend Alex. I crept quietly out of his tent and fetched a bucket of cold

water from the waterfall. I mean it wasn't that cold, but it was still early, the sun hadn't hit it yet,

so it was fairly cold. Anyway, I carried the bucket back to the camp and slowly crawled into his

tent.

"Psssst...Alex," I whispered. But, no reply so, count down please? Five, four, three, two,

one...SPLASH! He was up and out of the tent, screaming which sounded as if he was a little girl,

before I could say, "Super cala fragilistic expiala docious." I'm so evil aren't I?


Shelby

Dec. 22, 2016 10:25 AM

We had just packed all our camping supplies and we started our way back to the

helicopter following my amazing trail of neon pebbles, when I realized we still hadn't gotten the

maps back from Princess! I went from little miss sunshine to a sack of overcooked potatoes who

just had a slap of reality. Back on the search for Princess went Alex, I stayed on the trail to the

helicopter with all the supplies to unpack and do nothing,but wait as Alex insisted he go alone.

Later 11:02 AM

It's been about an hour since Alex left me all alone at the helicopter to fend for myself. I'm still

waiting for Alex, the brave knight, to return with the maps we're so desperately in need of. Then

again Alex is afraid of ants.I don't know whether or not to consider that brave.

Later 11:25 AM

Just as I was about to lose hope, I accidentally hit my elbow on an emergency box. I opened it

and found spare maps, band-aids, food, you name it! It was all there, everything we've been

needing. How could we not think of that? If an orangutan stole our maps maybe we should

maybe open the emergency kit! It's just a thought. Wow, I feel so smart right now, seriously.

Even Later 1:01 PM

Alex is finally back! I realized that I had a whistle in the emergency box the whole time I was

waiting for the brave knight to return. I could have blown it hours ago to catch it his attention, but

I am slow today.

Future Primatologist,

Shelby

Dec. 23, 2016 11:09 AM

Well off we go, we're in the air heading to the conservation camp. When Alex returned

without the maps, I told him what I had found and he replied surprisingly with, "So we had the

extra maps all along inside a stupid box? Ha ha good, lets go!" So here I am in the copilot's

seat, helping Alex navigate, on my way to,finally, the one and only, Dr.Birute Galdikas! It seemed

as if we were wandering through this forests, for weeks...wait, we were!

Later 2:19 PM

Everything worked out magically. I met Ms.Galdikas who happened to be even more amazing

than I could have ever imagined. She loved the blanket I made for her on the helicopter ride to

her camp. As for Alex, he is now my absolute best friend in the world, forever, and my

permanent traveling companion. He is going to be hanging around the conservation camp, the

same amount of time as I am too! We're also going to the same college, and hopefully at the

same time. Last, but not least, our very own Princess, continues to follow Alex and me around

camp doing mischievous things. For example, she attempts to steal more things of mine, like my

journal or my pens. But, all in all, I think everything worked out perfectly. Now I can almost say I

am officially a Primatologist Assistant.

Primatologist Assistant,

Shelby

P.S. Still haven't chosen a signature.

shelby primatologist

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