World Food Prize Internship in Mexico June-August 2024

 My Fifth Week at CIMMYT! 07/20/2024:  This Saturday I went to Mexico City with a co-worker! I was so excited to get a chance to explore the city. He picked me up at CIMMYT with a car and for breakfast we ate blueberry and chia seed cookies. It was a little over an hour to get to Mexico City but we got there around 11:30 AM. First we went to the historic district of Zocalo and got to see the city square. It was so cool to see in person because I had learned so much about it in Spanish class in the United States. There were so many flags too and a pyramid in the center. There were a bunch of street markets all around the area which I love being able to see and buy things at. Everything is so cheap and they have such a wide variety of things. Afterwards we went on a tour of the Cathedral in the historic district. I love churches so this was the perfect tourist spot for me. It was so detailed and big inside, I think I took around 1,000,000 pictures. Afterwards, we ate at a roofto...

 My Fourth Week at CIMMYT! 07/13/2024 + 07/14/2024: This weekend was kind of boring. Both days I went into the office for a few minutes to check on my samples and record observations on them. On Saturday when I was heading in I ran into a post-doc that is working here on different technologies. We walked together to and from the labs and then went to Walmart to do some grocery shopping. Afterwards we walked around campus for a while and just talked. That evening I watched a movie called "All my heroes are cowboys" which I loved. I'm such a big fan of old or semi-old western movies. On Sunday I watched a movie called "The Ride" which was even better. Both days I went for a short jog, a longer walk, did bible studies, and on Saturday I did my laundry too. Not too busy or interesting, but I like that the weekends are a time to relax and restart for the next week! 07/15/2024: Today I worked primarily on preparing seeds for germination testing. We counted out 100 see...

 My third week at CIMMYT! This week we hosted the dialogue NEXT event so there was a lot to experience and do! This was a big day and a half convention where scientists, founders, researchers, politicians, and more came together to discuss food insecurities and solutions. This event took place on July 10th and 11th here at CIMMYT, who hosted the event this year. On the first day I got to listen to a lot of speakers who discussed a lot of agriculturally-related topics, including tories from farmers in other countries! All of the food from this event was also amazing, and a nice changeup from the typical cafeteria food.  On the first day I ate breakfast with a scientist that works in Mexico City, a college student here in Mexico, and a Maize breeder from here at CIMMYT. Then we listened to a few panels, the director general of CIMMYT, the Chief Operating Officer of the World Food Prize, Dr. Cary Fowler, a few farmers, and many other people. After lunch we listened  to some ...

 My Second Week at CIMMYT! 06/29/2024: The Friday night before this I went to the festival of San Juan. This is an old religious tradition where on June 24th every year they celebrate the summer solstice. They celebrate at a church with many dancers and decorate it with flowers and ribbons. There are many dancers and they begin the ceremony by dancing into the church and bringing in a banner for John the Baptist. Then they dance out of the church and onto a large platform. For about two hours or more, these dancers dance a choreographed dance that they memorized. It represents the corn's lifecycle from planting to harvest. They also throw out candy, fruits, vegetables, and much more to the crowd while they dance. I caught a desert pear, a mango, and some marshmallows. The next morning, I woke up very late since I had state out so late the night before. I did my laundry at the communal laundry room, took a shower, and worked on my research report for a little bit. At 2:00 PM (14:00)...