My Seventh Week at CIMMYT!

 My Seventh Week at CIMMYT!

08/03/2024:

- This was my last day in Puebla! We started the morning off by packing up everything from the Air BnB and returning the keys. Then we went to a gas station and got some ice and a cooler for our leftover food from the fridge. We headed into the city and stopped for breakfast at a churro place. It still amazes me how cheap everything is in Mexico. I ordered one of everything and the total came out to 300 pesos which is like 15 USD. Everything was so good too. I had churros in Mexico City that were filled but these ones just had a glaze on the outside. They were still amazing though. I had a maple syrup one, a chocolate one, a milk one, a German donut, a cheese tart, a creme horn, and a hot chocolate. It was all so good. Afterwards, we walked around the markets for a little bit before heading to Cholula to visit a big cathedral there. It was one of the prettiest ones I've seen yet and the cathedral is at the top of a large hill so you could see the whole city from its balcony. After we walked down to the bottom of the hill, we went to a street market where I got to try blue corn ice cream. It wasn't as sweet at other flavors of ice cream but it was still so good and the texture was so unique. I also bought a cute hand embroidered shirt for my little sister and a pretty blue bracelet. Then we drove to a big street market in Puebla to eat quesadillas. I had one with cheese and corn smut. They were massive but so good. I also had Horchata which is my favorite drink here. I love cinnamon so much. Afterwards, we got some street churros and started the drive home. It was such a fun trip and I'm so glad that I got to explore a new area of Mexico! Plus I got to eat a bunch of good food and explore new churches and street markets which are my favorite parts of traveling!

08/04/2024, 08/05/2024, 08/06/2024, 08/07/2024:

- Over these days, I went with my boss and his family on a work trip. It was so much fun and I got to see so many towns and different parts of Mexico! We left early on Sunday morning at 7:00 AM and drove for a little over two hours before stopping to eat breakfast at KM 118 Cafe. I had a cappuccino and a Paris omelet which had ham, mushrooms, and cheese and came with a side of baguette and bacon. It was so good, it kind of reminded me of food that would be served in the US. Then we drove for 4-5 hours more to Guadalajara where we were going to be staying at Hard Rock Hotel. We stopped before checking in to the hotel to eat lunch at Los Chilaquiles. They specialize in Chilaquiles and Barrie. I had the barrio since I have never had it plain before in Mexico. It was so good, it was just a bowl of meat with consume sauce and bean tacos served on the side. The meat was so flavorful and tender, I loved it. Then we went to go check into the hotel which was so nice! I think that it was the nicest hotel I've ever stayed at. Once we got checked it, we just chilled and did whatever until supper. I went to the rooftop pool and did some work and relaxed for a few hours. Then I went back to my room and showered before we all met up to have supper at the Hard Rock Cafe in the lobby of the hotel. I ordered a burger with bacon, cheese, and fried onions. That was so good too, I love burgers. Before going back to our rooms to go to bed, we went on a short tour of the hotel to see all of the fun rock and roll artifacts that they had as decoration and to have them explained to us. It was so cool, I feel like my dad would have loved it there! 

The next day I woke up at 6:30 AM and got ready before heading to Sessions, a restaurant in the hotel, for breakfast. I had a bean taco with red salsa and two eggs on top. It also came with hash browns on the side and I ordered a macchiato. All of the food was so good. Then Alberto and I drove to the CNRG which was about an hour and a half away. We spent the morning there taking a tour and having each department explained to us. It was so interesting! They are the biggest diversity bank in Mexico and they have so much more than we have here at CIMMYT. Their building is also huge and so cool. Afterwards, we headed to the INIFAP which was right next door. There we got a tour of their corn and seed production fields and they explained to us all of their processes and important information about what they do. After working at CIMMYT it was so interesting to see how they do things differently and the things that they do pretty much the same. After our tours, we drove about an hour and a half back to Guadalajara. We were lucky not to get hit by any heavy traffic on the way there or the way back, especially in such a big and busy city. When we got back, we picked up Elena and Alberto from the hotel and went to go eat lunch at an Argentinian restaurant named El Tango. As an appetizer we had two types of bread and quest fundido which is an Argentinian dish. It is a bread bowl filled with cheese and topped with a spiral of chorizo. It was so good too. I had the chicken milenasia which is liked a breaded chicken fillet. It was served with fries and guacamole. That was so good too. Afterwards, we drove to Tequila about an hour and a half away. There we got to see some traditional dancing, a church, the town hall, and we got some ice cream. It was such a cute town. It's where a lot of tequila distilleries are and it's a very popular tourist destination. Then we drove home and went to our rooms to relax before bed. We were all still so full from lunch that we didn't eat supper. 

The next morning, we all got. up and got ready around 8:00 AM before driving about 40 minutes to a burrito place to eat breakfast. It was kind of like a cafeteria style restaurant. You walk through a line and order your burritos and they put them on a tray for you. Then you check out and take your tray to a table to sit and eat. I got one burrito with beans and cheese and one with egg and beef. They were both so good, but especially the bean and cheese one. I also had one cookie that was like a pie crust filled with fruit jam. Afterwards, we went to a seed production field and Alberto and I spent a few hours walking around the fields. We looked at different issues with the corn like diseases, rooting issues, deficiencies, insect problems, chemical burn, and more. It was so fun to see real world examples of agronomy characteristics that I would learn about in school. We also got to see how the corn was developing and when the pollination process should be done. Afterwards, we drove to Ajijic which was a little over an hour away. It is a very pretty tourist town right by the lake. We got ice cream and walked along the lake. Elena, my boss's wife, bought me a matching heart shape necklace there too which was so sweet, I love it. Then we drove to Quarto de Kilo which is a common burger place along the interstate here. We all had a bacon cheeseburger with French fries and it was so good. The patties are a quarter of a kilogram in size and are fire grilled. Then we started to drive to our hotel in Morelia. We spent the night at Mansion Soleis.  If I thought Hard Rock Hotel was fancy this was like 10x fancier. It is owned by Marco Antonio, a popular musician here, and it was decorated with a bunch of things from his music career. After getting settled in, we went down to the jacuzzi and met a couple staying there. They were from Mexico and there for vacation but they were so much fun to talk to. Then we walked to an asian restaurant next door to the hotel for supper. We all ordered Pho soup and we also ordered some appetizers. The food there was so good. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and watched a movie before bed. 

The next morning we woke up and went to breakfast around 9:00 AM. We went to a cafe there at the hotel and we each ordered a coffee and a pastry as a light snack before we stopped for food on the way home. I ordered a caramel iced latte and a chocolate chip muffin which were both very good. Then we took some pictures around the hotel before loading up all of our bags. We stopped at a gas station before hitting the road and then we started the six hour drive home. We stopped about halfway through to eat at the Gran Buffet. It is a huge buffet along the interstate with a bunch of different types of food. I ate three plates of food before having ice cream for dessert. I love buffets, they're my favorite type of restaurant. Then we finished the drive home and got to CIMMYT around 5:00 PM. I laid down for a little bit before going on a walk and eating supper. I was so tired after all of that traveling that I just unpacked my bag and went to bed. 

08/08/2024:

- First day back in the office after a week out of it! I spent a late portion of my morning going through my emails and setting up my to-do list for my last week here at CIMMYT. There's so much to get done. Other than my work in my office, I had a few administrative meetings and a couple zoom meetings with organizations and my university in the United States. I got through a lot on my to-do list but every time I finished a task I usually added two or three more things. I'm glad that I have so much to do because I think that it will help the next week go by faster but at the same time I'm worried that I won't have enough time. After work I went for a long walk and lifted weights before showering and eating supper. Then I called my little sister because she had gone back to school shopping with my mom and she wanted to show me all of her new stuff! 

08/09/2024:

- Today was another lowly day. I still had so much to catch up on from missing the past week. Between my final reports and presentations and getting ready for college, my to-do list is like three pages long. I'm a little worried about giving my presentation here at CIMMYT. I have to give a presentation that everyone is invited to over the work I did here and what I will do after. I'm just nervous because every visiting scientist and student has to give one and the last one that was given was over a specific research report. Since I don't have a specific research project though, mine feels very vague in comparison. Today I mainly worked on that and my research report for the World Food Prize. I also worked on setting up meetings and dates to work on the Lab Scanalyzer next week and the Video Meter. I also have one last rotation of germinationand accelerated aging to do next week and had to find time for that. It's crazy to think that I only have a week left and I feel like this week is going to be my busiest one trying to get everything done. After work I went to the gym to go for a run and then I worked on my reports a little bit more. Tomorrow is a charity day where we go to tourist locations and all of the money from it goes to a good cause so I won't have much time to work then.