CAMPUS/AREA UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, February 2, 1994
3
Costa Rica club shares culture
Group advises U.S. travelers
By Denise Nell Kansan staff writer
When Amy Turnbull, Lawrence freshman, decided to take a week-long trip to Costa Rica in October, she wanted to know where she should visit.
So she asked people who would know members of the Costa Rican Student Association.
Gustavo Alvarado, San Ramon, Costa Rica, junior and president of the group, said members had suggested to Turnbull their favorite tourist attractions, neighborhoods and restaurants.
UNITING TO BE HEARD
"They told me where to go and what to see," Turnbull said. "They really enhanced my understanding of the culture."
Alvarado said that he and five friends had formed the association almost a year ago. The group decided that an organization that informed people about the Costa Rican culture would be especially useful at the University of Kansas because the Office of Study Abroad sent from 40 to 50 students to Costa Rica each semester through an exchange program with the University of San Jose in Costa Rica.
"We really want to share our culture," Alvarado said. "So far, the best way we've found is to share with people who are going
The group has about 20 members who meet four times during the semester, Alvarado said.
to Costa Rica."
Martin Echandi, San Jose, Costa Rica, senior and the group's secretary, said that American students preparing to go to Costa Rica often asked him whether they should take a radio with batteries or whether it was safe to drink the water in Costa Rica. He said he thought that it was his responsibility to explain to them what his country was like.
"It makes me feel like I'm doing a good thing to show everyone how Costa Rica is," he said. "People start asking you questions, and you feel good answering them."
Alvarado described the group as informal. He said the meetings were like gatherings where students could get together and
talk.
In September, the group organized a picnic to celebrate Costa Rica's Independence Day. Alvarado said he also was working on bringing Nobel Peace Prizewinner and former Costa Rican president Oscar Arias to speak at the University. Arias, who developed a peace plan for Central America, won the prize in 1988. The group also has been trying to get a Spanish channel in Lawrence.
Turnbull, who became the group's fund raiser and the only non-Costa Rican on the board, said her career plans included working with women and children in Latin American and Hispanic communities. She said the members of the group had helped her develop her career plans.
"They're wonderful people," she said. "They helped me really think about what I want to do."
Women tap into bartending experience
Janet Cull, Kansas City, Mo., sophomore, has been a bartender at the Red Lyon Tavern, 944 Massachusetts St., for six months. In her three years of bartending, she said, she sometimes had to call the police because of drunken and disorderly patrons.
Tom Leinger/KANSAN
Belligerent patrons bar safety concern female bartenders
By Angelina Lopez Kansan staff writer
Sara Kapfer, Lawrence junior, knew that the man sitting at the end of the bar calling for her was out of money.
Business had been slow Friday evening at the Red Lyon Tavern, 944 Massachusetts St., so Kapfer had played several games of pool with him. She said that he had been a bit strange but very polite and that she had been nice to him in the way that all bartenders were nice to patrons. When he only had a dollar to pay for the last $1.50 beer he ordered, she smiled and told him that she would take care of it.
When she walked toward him, he leaned across the bar and showed her a gun, she said.
"Sara, this is a robbery," he said.
Kapfer said she had given him the money in the drawer.
"My boyfriend said if he had been here he would have tackled him," Kapfer said. "The guys say things like, 'That wouldn't have happened if it had been on my shift.'"
Some female bartenders like the fact that they are shoulders to cry on.
Female bartenders in Lawrence rarely have guns pointed at them. But weekly they have to handle cocky under-age kids with fake IDs and belligerent drunks who slur phrases such as, "Hey baby." There are great advantages to being a female bartender, but there are also many concerns.
Vermont St. The reasoning is that at many bars most of the clientele age them, she said.
As a bartender, a woman can make more money than a male bartender, said Lisa Wilson, Lawrence senior and a bartender at Rick's Neighborhood Bar and Grill, 623
"Customers think you know everything, and they tell you their problems," Wilson said. "It's emotionally draining, but it also pumps you up."
Wilson also said she felt less vulnerable behind the bar.
"I feel cockier," Wilson said. "I don't let anyone get the upper hand."
When customers think that they can get the upper hand is when safety becomes a concern for female bartenders, Wilson said.
Sarah Blasdel, Leaword senior, was bartending alone one evening, working the 5-9 p.m. shift at Hockenbury's Tavern, 1016 Massachusetts St., when a male customer came into the empty bar, she said.
"He asked me my name," Blasdel said. "I told him and offered my hand. I always shake hands when I meet people."
She said that when he took her hand, he had pulled her toward him, making her lean against the bar, and that he had kissed her on the cheek — all without her permission.
"As much as the whole incident freaked me out, it pissed me off more." Blasiel said. "It's my bar and the place where I work, and I shouldn't be scared there."
"If I'm in an uncertain situation, I'll call a friend and ask them to check on me every five minutes," Veilleux said.
Wilson said the best way for a female bartender to deal with a belligerent or a scary patron was to hold her ground.
She also said that if a customer was belligerent she could rely on her regular patrons.
"If I'm trying to get some guy out of here, the patrons will back me up," Velleux said.
"When he sees 10 guys behind him, he's not apt to resist me," she said.
"When you're the bartender, you're the boss," Wilson said. "Be cautious, but feel confident. For the short time you're there, it's your bar."
shirring drugs Ken Audus, associate professor of pharmaceutical chemistry is researching a way to make some medicinal substances inhalable.
Sniffing drugs
physical chemistry
Joe Harder/KANSAN
Source: Ken Audus, associate professor of pharmaceutical chemistry
KU professor envisions drugs as nasal spray
By Roberta Johnson Kansan staff writer
Soon, patients may only have to inhale their medicine to be treated, thanks to the work of KU professors.
Ken Audus, associate professor of pharmaceutical chemistry, has taken nasal tissue from sheep to see whether peptides — strings of amino acids that are smaller than proteins — can pass through the barriers of the tissue cells.
Insulin — a peptide used by diabetics — has a difficult time getting into the bloodstream from the nasal passage because it is water soluble, Audus said.
Lauren Smith, director of research at the American Diabetes Association, said that researchers had been working on the possibility of inhalation of insulin for several years.
Currently, diabetics must inject insulin with a hypodermic needle or through a pump that is attached to the body 24 hours a day.
Audus said that insulin could be attached to dry, microsize particles of starch, which could be sprayed into the nose and could absorb moisture.
"Part of the starch absorbs water," he said. "The cells shrink as they take water out, and then the insulin can get in."
Audus said that this method was non-damaging because the cells regained water fairly quickly.
His study of the cell barrier between the bloodstream and the brain could lead to other medicinal possibilities, he said.
Audus and colleagues have isolated and replicated a single layer of the barrier cells and are trying to find out whether peptides can attach themselves to substances and still be accepted through the barrier.
Doctors already use a similar process with an anti-cancer drug on patients with inoperable brain tumors, he said. The drug attaches to amino acids and is carried into the brain.
"Some of the amino-acid carriers are promiscuous," he said. "If it looks like an amino acid, they will carry it."
Audus said that these amino acids were taken on a need-basis and that many cells had openings that were specific to certain amino acids or sugars, such as glucose.
Val Stella, professor of pharmaceutical chemistry, is working on a similar project, Audus said. Stella was not available for comment.
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