{"id":445,"date":"2011-04-25T21:29:40","date_gmt":"2011-04-25T21:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christielau.com\/blog\/?p=445"},"modified":"2012-01-11T01:52:05","modified_gmt":"2012-01-11T01:52:05","slug":"curious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christielau.com\/blog\/curious\/","title":{"rendered":"Curious"},"content":{"rendered":"

During our vacation on the Galapagos Islands we \u00a0visited a farm where tortoises roam freely. Visitors are also allowed to roam freely so I squatted near one, about 30 ft away, and watched him eat grass.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tortoises really do move in slow-mo and the sound of their breathing is steady and hollow, like Darth Vader! To my amazement, this tortoise \u00a0started feeding in my direction and would occasionally make eye contact. At the time I felt like I should appear and breathe similarly so that I would not alarm him and hopefully attract him even nearer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

"Hares are awful, aren't they?"<\/p><\/div>\n

Or perhaps he was rather more interested by my dissimilarity, like I was with his. Was he merely curious? Did he wonder what was so stinky? Do tortoises investigate with their mouths? As he got even closer, my excitement mutated into nervousness. I fixated on his eyes and worried over not understanding his intentions. He continued to advance (Zzzzzzz), and at last I made a sharp movement. I panicked because…he was too alien.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Immediately, he hissed and sucked his head into his shell.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I flinched because I believed our minds were too disconnected. And yet, once he recoiled I knew we were at least on the same chicken wavelength. I still wonder what would have happened.<\/p>\n

-Christie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During our vacation on the Galapagos Islands we  visited a farm where tortoises roam freely. Visitors are also allowed to roam freely so I squatted near one, about 30 ft away, and watched him eat grass. Tortoises really do move in slow-mo and the sound of their breathing is steady and hollow, like Darth Vader! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ink"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christielau.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christielau.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christielau.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christielau.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christielau.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.christielau.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":461,"href":"https:\/\/www.christielau.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions\/461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christielau.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christielau.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christielau.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}