My First Week at CIMMYT!

 

My First Week at CIMMYT!

   - June 21st, 2024: I arrived at CIMMYT around 10:00 PM (22:00) where I checked into my room and ate supper. I have a suite in the Azteca building on site with my own bathroom and a kitchen in the center room! I read through the manuals to get to know the campus a little more and to get a better understanding of what times different buildings were open as well as services. 

- June 22nd, 2024: Since I came late on Friday night, I had the whole weekend to explore before starting my internship on Monday! I got a tour from Jean-Flavien Le Basque of CIMMYT. We explored the main building, the administrative offices, the research centers, the residence halls, the playgrounds, the shops and cafeterias, and so much more! After that I went to the gym, worked on research in a common area, and played soccer with a few PhD students there. 

- June 23rd, 2024: With it still being the weekend, I had plenty of time on my hands to finish getting settled in. I attended a livestream church in America, got breakfast, and visited the grocery store to get essentials for my room. The cafeteria here is around $2 USD for a meal which I think is very cheap compared to America! Although the campus is very well protected, people can also use UberEats to get food, the security will just check their identification before allowing them access in. Right next to my building there is also a pool that residents can use, a gym in the next building, several playgrounds for children, and basketball and tennis courts. There is so much to do on site! I also like taking walks around the fields and around the campus in the evenings. Since I arrived, it has been raining everyday, which is the complete opposite of what I had expected the weather might be like! For supper I ate meatballs and veggie lasagna, it was so good! The comedor doesn't serve such Mexican food here because there are so many nationalities here but I like their meals anyways. I'm excited to try authentic Mexican food eventually though. 

- June 24th, 2024: This was my first day of work! I got up at 7:00 AM to get ready and have breakfast at the Comedor (cafeteria) and then I headed to the main building of CIMMYT to get administrative onboarding. We discussed logistics and had another short little tour of places I should know about on campus. Then I was taken to the Genebank where I will be spending most of my time. There I met Alberto Chassaigne who will be my supervisor for the next two months. He gave me a tour of the different sections in the Genebank and the different labs located within. I got to meet many people from all over campus and got to learn about each section that I will be exploring in the next few weeks. I was also shown my office and was able to settle into the area. I share it with one other researcher but there is plenty of space. Due to my experience with the German language, I was tasked with fixing a machine that was purchased from Germany several years ago that the Genebank has been unable to use since they were unsure how to program it. Thankfully, my office is even big enough to move that in so I can spend more time researching the issue. I also got a chance to go into the vault where we gathered sensors that provide data on humidity, dew points, and the temperature of the area they are located in. They collect data every ten minutes. I then got to help sort the data we collected from them and identify issues within the information. After that I toured some more buildings and met even more scientists! Then around 1:30 PM (13:30) I was released to go eat lunch and work on projects I was given in my office. At 3:30 PM (15:30) I had a meeting with Cristian Zavala who is the Germplasm Bank Coordinator. He explained the process to me again more in depth and took me around to all of the facilities to understand it better. We discussed improvements that could be made and briefly viewed the manuals. We then established a time the next day to go out into the fields to see the pollination process. This was new to me, even though I come from a corn crop production farm, because they don't use Hybrid corn seed so they need to manually pollinate it. Then I went back to my office to read a new of the manuals and take notes before going back to my housing area. I went to the gym for about an hour (one of my favorite activities to do here) and then I did a bible study, practiced my Mexican and German, and called my little sister in America! Even though it has been less than a week, I miss her so much. Almost as much as I miss Crumbl Cookie. I'll attach the flavors below for you all to see because this is not a week to miss. I'm currently trying to get my family to get them and freeze them until I get back so wish me luck. Speaking of food, I had instant coffee in the morning that is MUCH stronger than in America and very bitter. At lunch time I ate fried fish with a type of coleslaw which was 10/10. In America coleslaw is one of my favorite foods but this one was mostly carrot shavings and it had RAISINS in it! I thought that was so wild but I loved it. For supper I went to the Comedor (Cafeteria) and got chicken with veggies which obviously was 10/10. I also got pasta which was surprisingly 10/10, it had a type of Alfredo sauce with spaghetti noodles and square blocks of cheese, but then it also had big raisins and pecans in it! But somehow it all worked together really well. It was perfect too because on Friday my sister sent me a picture of Chicken Alfredo that she was eating and I had been craving it ever since and that's basically what I ate just a little different. My day was great overall, my only recommendation is that they need an ice cream place here because ice cream is basically its own essential food group. 

- June 25th, 2024: My morning started a little later today at CIMMYT. I still woke up at 7:00 and used this time to get ready, read my bible, drink coffee, and do some tasks that I had yet from the day before. Then I got to CIMMYT around 9:50 and put my stuff in my office before going to the Introductions office to meet with the head of that department. He showed me how the whole process works. CIMMYT gets seeds from different organizations or countries and the introductions department has to catalog it, ensure that it is an adequate sample, and make sure that the passport that comes with the sample is accurate. Then he took me around the facilities and showed me a deeper glimpse into the physical aspect of this job. This process could take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. As of 2024 CIMMYT has had no new introductions yet. Some years they can have very few or none and other years they could have thousands. And an update on Crumbl Cookie, I asked my older sister who is in Med School and lives in Iowa City if she would get them for me and then freeze them until I get back and she has yet to respond. the clock is ticking, only four more days with the PB&J cookie and the Butter Cake cookie left on the menu. After my meeting with the Introductions Department, I came back to my office to work on the Lab Scanalyzer. It is a very expensive machine that was purchased back in 2018 and it is my main goal to get it running. The manufacturer is German and I speak German so they thought this might be a suitable task for me. I contacted their customer service today about a specific aspect of the machine and then I emailed them but until I hear back there isn't much I can do. I looked through the entire manual and there is no information on this specific part of the machine. I can't call the company because my phone plan is only for Mexico, Canada, and the US but the manufacturer is in Germany. Then at 11:00 AM I went with Cristian out to the fields. This is when I got to see and practice their pollination methods. I will post more about this process in another post, and same with the Lab Scanalyzer in case any of you have suggestions (please). After that meeting I went back to my office to look through more manuals, work with the Lab Scanalyzer more, and work on other tasks I was given. In the evening around 3:00 PM (15:00) I went into another office to learn how the Videometer works and to see what all it could do. It is a machine that can identify what percent of a sample is made up of different crops. One example would be a sample that has 2% inert material, 96% maize, and 2% barley. It also has several different cameras that can help to identify quality of a sample just as identifying endosperm and other aspects of a corn seed. I worked on this for two hours and left the office around 5:30 PM (17:30). Then I went on a run at the gym, took a shower, and ate supper which was an egg bake and roasted vegetables (My favorite one yet). After that I practiced my Spanish and German and went to bed. 

June 26th, 2024: I began today by waking up at 7:00 AM, getting ready, drinking coffee, doing my daily devotionals, and reading my bible. I got to the office around 8:15 to look at the Scanalyzer once more before working with Dr. Gabrielle at 8:30. We worked on age acceleration. We began today by gathering different varieties of seed and testing each three times to determine the moisture content using a John Deere moisture determinator. After we took three samples of each kind of seed, we counted 100 seeds from each and put them in a labeled envelope. On Tuesday of next week, we will put these seeds on a wire rack over a bowl of water and put them in a 40 degrees Celsius germinator for seven days. After this we will test the germination success by putting 25 seeds each in 4 different "tacos" or rolled pieces of paper. Then we will be able to count how many out of the 100 total seeds germinated. After we finished setting this experiment up, we put our packets of seeds in a conditioning vault to maintain their quality until Tuesday. I then attended a quick meeting for new students and scientists on campus before going to lunch with my boss, Alberto and his wife. We went to Brazzo in TexCoco where I tried a taco al pastor, a quesa birria, and a tostada, all of which were very good. This was my first time going off of campus and trying authentic Mexican food but it was just a good experience! Then I went back to my office to work some more and do research. I left around 5:30 PM (17:30) and went for a run before eating some cookies and doing my German and Spanish practices. Update on the crumbl cookies: My sister is getting them for me and freezing them until I get back!! Yay!! I had to Venmo her though but that's okay because I offered. 

June 27th, 2024: I woke up at my usual time this morning and drank coffee while doing my devotionals and bible study. Then I got to work around 9:00 AM because that's when the workday begins here and I didn't have any earlier meetings. I actually had NO meetings so I just did research and writing all day. At lunch I went to the Comedor and ate pork with a zucchini ham sandwich. Then I continued to do work and research until 5:30 PM like usual. After work I went on a run and showered, and then I went to my boss's house at 7:00 PM (19:00) to eat arepas and watch soccer. When I got there I got to help make an arepa and learn how the process of making them is done. Then two other families came over and we all ate arepas, played bored games, and watched sports together. After a while the soccer game ended and we watched track and field instead. I had two arepas and some extra meat to try. My first arepa was shredded chicken, cheese, ceviche, guacamole, and salsa. My second was ground beef, cheese, guacamole, and salsa also. They were so good! It was my favorite meal that I've had in Mexico so far. Their son, Alberto, speaks perfect English and he taught me a few more Spanish words. After supper we drank chai which was a lot spicier than it is in America and is not sweet at all. I'm not sure I liked it that much but I'm glad I tried it. 

June 28th, 1014: This morning I woke up at 6:00 AM to get ready and read my bible before heading into work at 7:00 AM. I had to come in much earlier today to work on the Lab Scanalyzer because the contact is in Germany and the time difference was so extreme. I downloaded all of the needed workflows for the machine and now I just have to fix an issue where the machine doesn't identify seeds and create a new workflow that can measure the length and width of a corn cob. I am going to see if I can also develop a workflow that can estimate the number of kernels on an ear of corn. I'm just so happy that the machine is working and that we're making progress! At 5:10 PM (17:10) today the building is getting fumigated and we can't be in it until Tuesday so I will probably come in early on Tuesday to work out these other problems with the German contact. After that I went back to my office to do research and work on the Lab Scanalyzer. Instead of leaving at 5:30 (17:30) like usual, I left at 4:50 PM (16:50) because of the fumigation. Tonight I am going to a festival! I'll put pictures in next week's blog. It is the festival of San Juan, I'll also write more about the history! After that I studied German and Spanish, showered, and FaceTimed my sister. First week complete! I'm so excited to see what I do and learn next week! Also here are the crumbs cookies my sister is getting me :) Peep my FaceTime with my sister in the corner.