The Journey Towards Being "Cultured"

Photos: Day 4 Spanish School and More

erraticallyabstract — Mon, 9 Dec 2013 22:00:00 GMT

Day 4 Spanish School

erraticallyabstract — Mon, 9 Dec 2013 22:00:00 GMT

For the first week of our trip we are going to be studying at La Herradura, the spanish school in Montevideo. Today was the first day and the staff and teachers were very friendly and helpful. I am in the intermediate class and some of my colleagues are also in the beginners class and both were very helpful to further devlop our spanish before heading out into the field. Even for strong spanish speakers there is a lot of dialect differences between different countries and being able to talk to official teachers and to see how the slang and cultural conditioning changes the language can make a huge difference in your ability to enjoy your time traveling and to understand what's going on around you.

After class we were able to go to Al Museo Nacional de Historia Natural (The Nacional Museum of Natural History) of Uruguay to see the snail specimen collections donated by other researchers and get a better idea of what we would be finding in our own escursions. We also met up with some of our UR colleagues and world renown malacologist Fabrizio Scarabino who will be helping us in our research.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the city a bit and overall it turned out to be an information overload kind of day but very fun.

ErraticallyAbstract

Photos: Day 3 Walk Around The City

erraticallyabstract — Sun, 8 Dec 2013 23:30:00 GMT

Day 3! and Still Alive! lol

erraticallyabstract — Sun, 8 Dec 2013 23:30:00 GMT

We decided to walk through half of the city today xP I'm not sure if that was the plan or if our hosts were just so excited to show us everything that they didnt realize how far it was lol. But 4 hours of walking and 3 1/2 miles later everyone was exhausted. It's a beautiful city though so it wasnt such a terrible sacrifice. The funniest thing I've seen so far has been "soccer courts" the way we have tennis courts or basketball courts in the U.S. lol. Different cultures different priorities I suppose. We walked to a naval museum and saw some old relics of cannons, nazi bombs, and Uruguayan ships but the museum itself was closed so we could only look at what they had outside. We also got to see the pier and the infamous "wall of buildings" near Playa de los Pocitos. We finished the trip with a stop at the Montevideo Shopping Mall before heading back to La Casonda. Our housemates surprised us with a welcome BBQ dinner and some story teling and singing around the porch which was a lot of fun. Overall it turned out to be a good day.

Till tomorrow,

ErraticallyAbstract

It was the plane that never ends... xP

erraticallyabstract — Sat, 7 Dec 2013 07:55:00 GMT

Well we made it in time to still catch our 11pm flight to Montevideo! xD That was great. I slept most of the flight but had some pretty views the last hour before we landed. We had to take a bus from the airport because we had so many bags but my first impressions of the city was that it's pretty kool down here. And of course I HAD to visit the beach as soon as we got settled xD Lol. Lunch with some of our correspondent friends at a cafe called Decano (which was about 12$ USD a meal but the food was good lol) and getting to put bodies on the floating heads we were used to on skype was great. After all of that fun we got our first glimpse at a Supermarket here, and the strangest part was the fact that it was actually part of the mall xD lol. But "Devoto" is more like walmart than a supermarket anyways. Some freshly made Ravioli's to top off the night and everyone was exhausted by the time it was all over lol. Our house mates are really nice so I think we're gonna like it here. Vive La Casonda amo!

ErraticallyAbstract

Photos: Day 2 Arrival in Uruguay

erraticallyabstract — Sat, 7 Dec 2013 07:29:00 GMT

Photos: Day 1 Departure

erraticallyabstract — Sat, 7 Dec 2013 06:56:00 GMT

Traveling!

A Hop, Skip and a Jump! Kerplunk?

erraticallyabstract — Fri, 6 Dec 2013 14:08:00 GMT

Departure Day!

So the plan was to take a short hop from Austin to Dallas, a little skip from Dallas to Miami before making the big jump from Miami to Montevideo. However, Mother Nature had other plans. xP lol. Dallas flights in and out were cancelled due to an ice storm that blew in yesterday and last night. So a bit of up and down and up again and esclators (eek! >.< *escalator phobia*) we managed to rent a car to take us to Houston and with the new flight should still arrive on time in Miami x)

So it's the Glee music CD and a quick stop at Buc'ees and we're back on track! Take that Mother Nature! lol *knocks on wood*

*Glee Sings* ~Don't stop beeliieeveeeennn~

ErraticallyAbstract

Photos: Snails, Snails and More Snails!

erraticallyabstract — Fri, 6 Dec 2013 14:00:00 GMT

Snail Sleuthing!

erraticallyabstract — Thu, 5 Dec 2013 21:15:00 GMT

In case you were interested,

The trip to South America is thanks to the National Science Foundation (NSF) grant that we recieved and the support of Southwestern University (SU). I will be one of three students from SU and two more students will be joinging us from the University of Hawaii! We will be part of the AMPLIFIED team (Ampullariidae Model using Phylogeography Laboratory Integration with Field Investigations into Ecology and Diversity).

The snails I will be primarily reasearching is Pomacea maculata an invasive species here in the United States that is native to South America. I will also be looking at P. megastoma a sister species of P. maculata that is not invasive and so far has only been found in South America, mostly in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. There is very little information documentated for either of these snails but especially for P. megastoma. I will be experimenting with these snails at the hatchling stage (fresh from the eggs!) and looking at their comparisons and differences in order to understand their life cycles and trophic interactions.

I want to look at Loricariidae (catfish) while I am there to see if they are a possible predator of the snail because we have catfish native here (in the US) and they appear native in the same water systems as the snails. There have been studies that say they eat mussels in Brazil but I have not found any that specifcially look at predation of snails.

I have posted more pics of the snails in a folder "Snails, Snails, and More Snails!" if you'd like to take a look!

14 Hours to Departure! =D

ErraticallyAbstract

Last Full Day in the USA!

erraticallyabstract — Thu, 5 Dec 2013 09:09:00 GMT

Hey Nomads,

I'm so excited/anxious to be leaving for Uruguay tomorrow! We will be leaving before noon to fly to Miami, Florida for a layover before flying out. I've never been to Florida before so now I can add it to the very small list of states I've been through! xD lol. There's still so much to do today to finish packing and getting things in order for the time that I'll be away. I have a running list of things I cant forget and yet I still having this looming feeling that I am going to forget something! lol. I guess that's just how it is. I'll be gone until Januaury 20th so there's a lot to account for before I leave and today is going to be full of last minute packing and enjoying the last few hours with my family and my handsome kittycat Bentley! I'm going to miss them all so much. <3

26 hours to departure! Till next time.

ErraticallyAbstract =)

First Day of WorldNomads Journal! ^.^

erraticallyabstract — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 04:07:00 GMT

Hello there!

I havent blogged or done online journaling for a very long time so I hope anyone reading this is kind to me. Lol. I will write in a personal way because it is easiest for me to get my thoughts down when I dont have to worry about proper grammar or sentence structuring (although I consider myself a pretty good writer naturally).

I will write as often as I can. Hope you enjoy!

ErraticallyAbstract <3