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) I went with my boss's family to a birthday party in Texcoco. It was for a girl named Emma who was turning 15! It was so much fun, they had food being served the entire night. They had a mariachi band come to play for her and there was a dance floor that was almost always full. I got to try lots of authentic Argentinian food and I watched the Argentina soccer name with them too! I met a lot of people who work in CIMMYT, are retired from CIMMYT, or who have studied at Iowa State University which I thought was so cool! A lot of people have either been to Iowa State University because of their plant sciences programs or they have studied there. Afterwards, everyone brought home leftovers, it was such a fun night!

06/30/2024: Today I went to the Pyramids of Mexico City! They were built by the Aztecs and there was a lot of history involved with them. The Aztecs used to be a massive empire that ruled the area, they had a lot of interesting traditions and rituals as a civilization. Growing up in Iowa, I had always learned about the history behind these pyramids in Social Studies so it was so cool to see them in person! I walked around to each pyramid and listened to the reasons for the designs of them and what they were used for. I got to go inside one of them which was cool, they painted all over the insides too for their gods. The museum was closed so unfortunately I couldn't go in there but I still feel like I learned a lot. Afterwards we went to La Gruta which is a restaurant in the area. It was such a cool experience, the restaurant is in a cave. I ordered the corn soup because in Mexico it is traditional to order soup before your meal. They served me a bowl of corn and poured the soup over it right in front of me. Then I had the pollo con mole which is my favorite dish in Mexico. It is chicken with a chocolate sauce over top. It's a little sweet. It was served with rice and beans which I also loved. Then we drove back to CIMMYT. I went for a run, took a shower, and FaceTimed my sister. When I was at the pyramids I got two bracelets and a mask to bring hime for my family. What's cool about the mask is that it was made with rocks found around the pyramids.

07/01/2024: The lab was being fumigated today so instead of going into work, I was supposed to go out to the fields. The key word there is "supposed". I woke up and did my devotional and read my bible like any other day. Then I got dressed to go out to the fields to be on a pollinating crew, however, as soon as we got out there it started pouring rain. We waited for 15-20 minutes but the rain was still going hard and the forecast said that it wasn't going to stop soon. So I went home and got the day off! I was sad because I wanted to learn how to pollinate, I had learned about it before in college classes of FFA contests but I had never done it myself since we primarily use hybrid corn in Iowa. I was also happy though because I wanted a day of nothing since I had been so busy all weekend. I went for a long run, ate lunch, took a shower, watched a movie, and worked on college things for the fall. Then I FaceTimed my boyfriend which was good because we are both always so busy. Then I went to bed! It was a very successful day of doing almost nothing important.

07/02/2024: No worries about not getting to pollinate yesterday, because that's all I did today. When I first came into the office, I worked on age acceleration with Gabriel. We took our 100-count seed samples and put each one in its own container. We put 150 mL of water in the base of each container and put the seeds on a wire rack. We needed to do this is that the seeds had 100% humidity but weren't touching the water source itself. Then we put them in a germination machine and we will leave them there for 72 hours. This is one of my favorite processes I have done here so I'm excited to continue it on Friday. After that, I spent around 4 hours in the field working on placing tassel bags on stalks. We had to find the highest developing ear on the plant, make a small cut, and place a bag over it so that it wouldn't be pollinated by the same plant. Then we would go into other rows that already had this process done and count how many of the developing ears were ready for pollination. After doing this the entire morning, we spent the afternoon putting bags on the tassels at the top of the corn plant where pollen is produced. For every 2 pollination ready ears in one row, we needed one bagged tassel in the next. That way when we go back out to pollinate we can use one tassel bag to pollinate two plants. This was such a good process to learn but very exhausting. Especially with the taller corn seed varieties. I feel like I was always reaching up to try and bag the highest ear and it was almost always barely in my reach. I am so glad I got a chance to do it in person though because it was so much more informative to me than when I learn it in the classroom. Then I went on a run, took a shower, studied German and Spanish, and went to bed. Overall it was a good day and I feel like I learned a lot!

07/03/2024: Today I went to Toluca! It is another CIMMYT base about 2-3 hours away depending on traffic. We left at 8:00 AM and I fell asleep on the way up. I don't know why but anytime I get on a plane or in a car, I fall asleep. When we got there, we got to take a tour of the facilities and dropped on seed accessions for them to store. Then we went to a different location of the same plant where they have the gene bank. We got to go inside and see all that they have. They had bean seeds, chili seeds, and so much more! It was a lot smaller than the Texcoco location but it was really nice there. Afterwards we went out to the fields to pollinate. It made me really glad I had learned the day before so that I could be helpful there. In their fields I got to see the different types of corn and how the landraces vary. I also got to see how the types varies so noticeably from country to country. Then we had a tour of the greenhouses and I got to see where Norman Borlaug studied and lived at that specific location. It is just a building now, they didn't preserve it like they did here in Texcoco. It was still cool to see where he lived and studied though. On the drive home we stopped at a restaurant to eat. I had coffee which they had made with cinnamon, and enchiladas verdes. It was really good but a little spicier than it is in America when I've had it before. Then I fell asleep on the ride home (no surprise) and we stopped at Walmart on the way. It was perfect because I needed to get milk, bread, and laundry detergent. When I got home, I went for a run and studied German and Spanish. I want to go back to Walmart again this weekend to see all the differences in groceries they have here and explore their mall, we'll see though!

07/04/2024: I worked on the Lab Scanalyzer today at 8:00 AM first. We are having issues developing the new workflow and with logins so I needed to call the service contact today to try and figure some of these issues out before I can work on it for other things. After that, I went to my office for an hour or so to work on research and writing. Then I worked with Rafael, a traveling scientist from Uruguay. He teaches at a university there and is here at CIMMYT to learn more and to see if there are any improvements from Mexico that he can bring back to Uruguay. We worked on the VideoMeter scanning seed samples from Uruguay. One issue that we noticed with the machine is that it doesn't count the first few seeds or taking any imaging of them. After we finished working on that, I went to my office to read lab manuals and make sure that I understood them. In the afternoon, I took a tour of all of the labs in the Biochemistry building with a group of men from Uzbekistan. They are here to learn more about CIMMYT and what we do here. I got to see the lab where they test gluten quality, the maize quality lab, the wheat quality lab, the disease and bacteria prevention labs, and so much more. I personally like labs more and was so happy to get a chance to explore them more. Afterwards, I went home and went for a walk before showering. Then I worked on my German and Spanish and did some work from Iowa.

07/05/2024: I went in a little early today to work on the Lab Scanalyzer because of a whole new set of issues but we're making progress. Then I took six seed germination samples and tested their humidity before running them through the VideoMeter. I'm really starting to like the VideoMeter the more I learn about it and improve in using it. After that, I tested the humidity of all of the other seed samples and a few other scientists and I worked to make "tacos". That's when you separate a 100 count seed sample into four individual samples and you roll them up in a germination paper. Then we put them into a controlled environment where they will stay until Tuesday. Over the weekend I have to go in and check on them to make sure their have enough water. After we finished rolling all of the samples I worked on the Lab Scanalyzer a little more before heading to the administrative building to get my ID! I love it so much, except I have to give it back when I leave which I'm so sad about. Then I went home to eat lunch. When I came back, I was walked through the whole conservation and viability testing process within CIMMYT. Then I went for a long run after work, worked on this blog, worked on my German and Spanish, and watched a movie! Later tonight I'll go out into Texcoco with some friends. It was a good second week!