A letter to next year's BRI

Dear Future Borlaug Ruan Intern,

If you're reading this, congratulations! You have been given the experience of a lifetime. EARTH is a great place to conduct research and just an overall place to be. This is just a little bit of advice that I have to share with you. I hope you find it useful throughout the process (which, although it is wild and crazy, is more than worth it).

• Remember to keep your mind open throughout the trip.

 Don't come into this with an attitude of superiority, you're here to learn from others. Try new things. Do something that scares you. Remember, you came here to explore. Take advantage of this opportunity to go out and push your boundaries!

• There are going to be times where you're frustrated and homesick. 

Some days you might be frustrated by your inability to communicate clearly in spanish. You might hate the cold showers here. You'll definitely have one meal that is definitely not your taste. Take all of these things, acknowledge them, and accept them. Don't let them control how you feel about your internship or let them take away from your work.

• Do not pigeon hole yourself.

This was my biggest mistake. When I first came to EARTH, I hung out with mostly interns and tourists. They spoke english, they understood me, and it was easier. As time went on, I realized that this wasn't helping me and that I was only hanging out with them out of circumstance, not because we had anything in common. I wasn't learning as much about latino culture as I would've liked. I wasn't speaking spanish as often as I should've. I only really began speaking spanish once I started making friends with some of the students here. It's frightening at first, making friends can be a struggle even when there isn't a language barrier, but people here are very easy to approach. Within my past 3 weeks at EARTH I made some of my best friends. I wished that I met them earlier on in my internship. I learned so much from them.

• Spend a lot of time contemplating what you're experiencing and feeling. 

I know it sounds stupid, but take a moment out of your day to just evaluate what you've learned here, spiritually and intellectually. There are plenty of peaceful places on campus to go an think, so go out at take a minute to reflect.

• Document, document, document! 

Document as much as you can. Write down the stuff that you've done, take pictures, take videos, do whatever you can to capture the moments you have here. One of the biggest things I and my other intern friends found was that when we got home it felt like the entire internship was just a dream. These pictures will remind you of what you've done, the friends you've made, and the experience you had. I regret not taking more pictures.

• Most importantly, have fun and make Dr. Borlaug proud!

We came here to do Dr. Borlaug's work. We're here to change the world. That doesn't mean that you can't have fun while you're on this internship. EARTH has plenty of activities that will make your experience fun as well as fulfilling. The feria is a big event that was a big experience that I was lucky to be a part of during my internship. Expect to work hard, but remember that you will have time to have fun.

I hope this helped you! Good luck on this great adventure, we're all rooting for you!

-Allie

The last week

Hey guys,

So. This is it. This was my last week at EARTH and I can say that it was one of the best weeks I have had here. I'm so glad I got to spend this week with friends and people who supported me. Here's what happened:

Sunday
Sunday was a pretty relaxed days since I didn't have work and my friends were all working on their Animal Production projects. I skyped with Abby (who's already home! It's so weird to hear that.) and my parents early in the morning.

I ate lunch with Kalem, Fabricio, and Rena after they came back from the horse farm. I spent most of the morning working on my research paper and one of the articles I was reading was in spanish. I understood most of it and google translate helped me pick out some of the words that I didn't understand, but there was this one sentence I didn't understand. I asked for their help and we translated it in no time!

Jhoselyn went to San Jose for the weekend and came back in the evening so we hung out and ate pizza with our friend Jose.

I slept in Jhoselyn's room and that was a fun experience. We talked about our families, we watched videos, danced, sang High School Musical, and had a great time overall!

Monday
Monday wasn't too exciting since my friends were still working hard on their projects. I got to work on some of my sources for my research paper. I've split up each topic into it's own google doc, giving me the room to go into depth about each topic. I've gathered so much information about each subject that I think I might go over the 22 page assignment.

 Later on in the evening, right before a meeting for a business project, Jhoselyn, Kalem, and I took a walk to one of my favorite spots here at EARTH. There's this one building (Academico 1) that sits on a hill that faces this big red sculpture and some trees. At night it's a great place to go stargazing. This night in particular was great because a lot of starts were out, we could see some planets, and we even saw a shooting star! We took a few minutes to absorb it all and admire the beauty. We talked about astrology, some of the constellations we knew, and how stars made everything so pretty.

Once we were done looking at the stars, we went to my residence hall's study room and met up with Jhoselyn, Kalem, and Fabricio's business group. This whole empresarial project that each EARTH student must complete is so interesting to me. The group must consist of one girl, a person from another country, and there can't be more than 4 people. These groups have to market an agricultural product, produce it, sell it, and pitch it to the school in order for them to invest in it.

Their group is focusing on growing and selling this fruit called Rambutan. It tastes somewhat like an apple, only you eat it like a cherry. It's really good!

Jhoselyn spent the night in my room and we had a fun sleepover filled with High School Musical, stories about high school, and movies.

Tuesday
Jhoselyn and I woke up bright and early at 5 am so she, Kalem, and a few other of my 1st year friends could go to their Animal Production class on time for their presentations at 6:30. They all worked so hard on this presentation and I think it really paid off! Everyone dressed up in fancy business-like clothes while I just threw on an old plaid shirt, some baggy shorts, and some sandals. I walked with them to the cafeteria where they grabbed some coffee and something small to eat. Once everyone grabbed something we headed off to the classroom. While we were walking I felt so proud of them. They have been working on these presentations for a long time, they put so much effort in, and they were about to present their hard work. They looked like a million bucks!

Kalem and I before her presentation

I had a slight "proud mother" moment

I went to my 2nd to last spanish class and found out that I got a 92% for a class average! I'm so happy about it. I still have a lot (and I mean a lot) to learn, but I think I'm getting there. Coming here really made me want to study abroad more. I want to become fluent in spanish. I want to work in another foreign country. I want to travel to South America and study animal production practices there. The door is wide open, all I need to do is work on my spanish, work on my school work, and keep dreaming.

After spanish class I ran into my friend Marcko and ended up sitting in on an english class with him and some of my other friends. They were learning about families and family structure, so naturally we watched "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". Some of the jokes weren't translated well and there were times where Profe Kent and I were the only ones laughing, but the other students got the overall idea.

Kalem and Jhoselyn stayed the night which was a lot of fun! We stayed up, danced around, and watched some movies on my computer. It was funny how the three of us found a way to sleep on my small twin mattress. We slept on an angle so our legs were off the bed and we were sprawled out together.

Wednesday
We woke up bright and early at 5 am and headed to breakfast. Every wednesday and saturday Earth 1st, 2nd, and 4th year students spend the morning working on one of the farms. Today farm schedules got rotated, so now Jhoselyn and I got to spend today together. I practiced artificial insemination on another cow, which was difficult. I need to work on this skill in school, I'm going to need it in order to become a  large animal vet.

After lunch I went to help my friends out in one of the fields on campus. There was an EARTH 25th anniversary celebration before we went to the farm where all the students stood out on the futbol field, spelled EARTH, and threw paint in the air in order to take an awesome photo. Everyone was covered in different colors and it was amusing to see these rainbow people crawling through the rows cutting weeds. We weeded the yucca, pineapple, and potato areas. I had never been to these fields before since they were really deep in campus. I still can't get over how beautiful this place is. From the fields you could see all of the mountains rise up around you. It's so peaceful...Well, that is until you get cuts on your hands, bug bites, and prick yourself on a plant. Luckily Marcela, my friend who invited me to go with her to the farm, brought an extra pair of gloves so I wouldn't cut myself while working. Even though it was hard work we all had a lot of fun. I talked to some of my friends and found out a lot about them. We discussed favorite bands, figured out what words meant in different languages, talked about cultural differences, and we all agreed that getting bit by ants is a lot worse than getting bit by mosquitoes.

Marcela and I before the farm

A view of the mountains from the road

Working in the pineapple row

The finished product

I also got to bond with the girls in my hall with a good old fashioned Chalupa dinner. We all sat in the hall, ate (chalupas are probably one of my favorite types of latino food), and talked about the going-ons at EARTH.

Thursday
Today was a very relaxing day. I spent most of the day working on my paper, which is currently 14 pages long and growing. Profe Moro and I met in the morning to work on figuring out what should be included.

In the afternoon I went to my very last spanish class. I learned the future simple tense, which is very simple (ha ha very funny Allie). Profe Villalobos and I worked on a worksheet that talked about how insects are a good food option. Insects are eaten all around the world in many cultures because they're easily accessible, require less space, have more protein, and have less fat than meat. The FAO is currently working on promoting the consumption of insects in countries where it's the norm.

That's one of the great things about EARTH. I'm learning spanish through subjects I am passionate about. Before  EARTH, I only learned basic spanish. I knew the standard "Hola, como esta? Bien y usted? Donde esta el baño? Que hora es?" stuff. I didn't know how to explain my research or anything agricultural in spanish up until now. Everyone talks about agricultural issues at EARTH so you learn quickly. Finca= farm, mandera= hose, ternero=calf, agronomia= agronomy, weed= malezas, malezando= weeding, and so much more. I've learned more spanish here than I have learned over the course of 8 years.

I said goodbye to Profe Villalobos and she gave me a certificate stating that I had completed the 3rd level of spanish. These spanish classes have helped so much, I know that they're just the start of my journey to become fluent in spanish.

I spent the rest of the night with Jhoselyn and Kalem again. We spent pretty much every night together this week.
Friday
I woke up 6 (hooray for sleeping in!) and grabbed some breakfast with Kalem.

At 8 am I had a meeting with Sofia at Aromas. We discussed my experience here at EARTH, travel arrangements, and other things. I talked about how I loved EARTH, the weather, the food, and the environment here.

After my meeting with Sofia I went to Profe Moro's office to work on evaluate my paper and start editing it. I got super far on my research paper, I just need to fill in some more details and edit it before October comes around. Profe and I are also starting to work on the undergraduate research paper which is going to be about my research at EARTH. Undergraduate research and hands on experience is really beneficial for the student and I can;t wait to talk about that in detail.

I stayed up with Jhoselyn during the night. We went to watch the stars in my favorite spot and spend some time together. We talked about what our dreams in life were. Jhoselyn wants to get a masters degree in bovine science and own a farm with brahman simmental mixes. She would use them for meat, breeding, and milk, utilizing all that she can with them. Jhoselyn's family owns a farm with cows, at one point they had 200 cows! We realized that we wanted similar things in life and fantasized about working together in the future. We both want to work with cattle, I want to work in south america, and we work well together, so it'd be a dream come true!
Saturday
My last day was great.

I woke up at 5 and had my last breakfast of gallo pinto with Jhoselyn, Fabricio, and Marcko. The sunrise was really pretty, I felt nostalgic, and I had to take some pictures.

The last time I saw the mountain from the cafeteria

I didn't work in the lecheria on my last day since the 2nd year students weren't going to be split up into groups. We worked on making fences which allowed me to take a bunch of really nice pictures of the fields. I got to say goodbye to my cows (05416 is my favorite :c), said goodbye to Giver (who gave me a container of mastitis medicine as a parting gift), Yamy, and Yan, and say goodbye to all of the students. Everyone was so nice to me on the farm, I couldn't have asked for a better experience!

One of my cows

The view from the farm

Pinning wire to the fence

The road from the pastures to the lecheria

Some of the work experience class

After work everyone went to Mau's (one of the nicest farm workers) house for a lunch party. We ate a whole pig! We had this really spicy pork and bean soup, pork loin with yucca, and fried pig skin. The party was so much fun! Mau's nieces and nephews played futbol in the front yard with some of the students, people were dancing, everyone insisted on taking lots of pictures, and we all had a good time winding down after a long workday and a crazy week. I got to say goodbye to Profe Moro and all of my friends from the farm for the last time.

Cutting up the pork

One of Mau's dogs eating a pig bone

I left the party around 4 and went over to Jhoselyn's room to hang out with Jhos and Kalem. We spent an hour or so just laying in Jhos's bed talking, laughing at stupid jokes, and enjoying each other's company while we still could. Around 6 or so Kalem and I decided to go swimming while Jhoselyn worked on some of her homework. We walked to the pool and watched the moon as we went. It was such a pretty night! Kalem and I did a few laps and goofed off. We taught each other the difference between push (empujar) and pull (halar) by splashing water at each other. Once it got around 6:30 Kalem and I headed up to the cafeteria and grabbed a bite to eat. I got to say goodbye to some of my friends there and I got to look around the cafeteria one last time, so I was happy.

After we ate, we went to Jhoselyn's room and hung out with her. Fabricio came by later on and I gave everyone their gifts. We were going to order pizza, but in the end we ended up getting snacks from La Jama and headed over to my favorite spot to look at the stars. I brought a blanket for us to lay on, so we had a bit of a picnic underneath the night. The moon was really pretty and there were a couple of stars in the sky, so we looked at them for a little while and talked. It was like something out of a movie. I got spend my last few hours with 3 of my best friends that I made through the internship looking up at the sky, wondering how we'll leave our mark in the world.

Around 11 or so we packed everything up and headed to my room. Jhos, Fab, and Kalem helped me pack what was left in my room and weight my suitcases. It was sad, but I didn't cry. It was one of those things where you have prepared yourself for the sadness, you see it coming and you just embrace it because it's better to acknowledge it rather than let it overwhelm you. Once my bags were ready to go I said goodbye to Fabricio and went with Kalem and Jhoselyn to Jhose's room to watch a movie with each other one last time. We stayed awake long enough to watch half of the movie, but once 12:30 hit it was time for us to call it a night. Kalem had to go to her room and sleep, so she gave me a big hug and a kiss and wished me luck. In the end I spent the night with Jhoselyn. We slept until 4 and we had loaded the taxi by 4:30. With a big hug, a kiss, and a promise to keep in touch, we said goodbye.

Jhoselyn, Kalem, and I on my last day :(

That was my last week at EARTH. I really hope that I can come back someday soon. I'm so lucky that I got the chance to be here. Thank you so much to everyone who supported me throughout this trip. Thank you to all of my friends at EARTH, te amo mucho! Thank you to Lisa Fleming (aka the woman behind it all), Keegan Kautzky, and the World Food Prize for giving me this life changing experience. Most of all, I want to thank my family and friends who have read this blog and kept up with what I was doing here at EARTH.

Thank you all for a wonderful experience, 

-Allie

What's going on?

Hey guys, it's Allie!

You're probably wondering why I haven't posted any posts these past few days. Everything is fine, there's nothing wrong, I just want to take a break from blogging during my last week here at EARTH. I only have 6 days left to spend with my friends here and I still have some things that I haven't done here, so I'm going to go out and do all of the stuff I've been wanting to do.

I'll post about my last week once I get home and have some time to reflect on this great experience I have been blessed with. I'm sorry, I just want to spend some time living at EARTH rather than sitting in my room writing about it.

Thank you so much you guys! Stay tuned to see how my last week goes!

-Allie

Hey guys!

I didn't get to go to the farm today since the river overflowed but today was pretty good other than that!

I woke up at 5:30 and ate breakfast with Kalem and Jhoselyn. They had to go to the pineapple farm today, so we got to eat together (in our tired early morning states). We talked about our plans for the day and talked about how excited we were for the weekend. Once we were all finished we walked to the farms through the rain.

I knew that the river would be flooded over, but I figured that I would see if I could pass it today. In a stunning turn of events, the bridge was flooded and I couldn't go to the farm. Luckily I don't have a lot of stuff to do on the farm anymore. The majority of my project is typing now, which is ok! I went back to my room and worked on my paper for most of the day.

When I left my room for lunch, guess what was by the bike rack? My bike, that's what! Whomever took it returned it. I'm so grateful that I got my bike back, I don't even care that someone anymore! I locked it up immediately of course, so now I don't have to worry about losing it! Once my bike was secure I went to the cafeteria and ate lunch with my friends Rena, Dani, and Darling. Being around them and my other friends really helps me with my spanish. I'm understanding more and more of what's said and I'm really proud of that. Once lunch was done I walked over to Jhoselyn's room to see how she was doing (and to tell her that I got my bike back). I walked in on her and Fabricio studying for their animal production test. I looked at some of what they're learning and I recognized some of the stuff from my animal science class. It's interesting to see that most of the anatomy terms are the same in english and spanish (which will certainly make things easier should I travel abroad for animal sciences). Once they were ready I walked with them to their class, wished them luck, and headed back to my room.

I didn't have a lot of work left to do (plus I was hyper from the coffee I had during lunch) so I worked out a little. I got a lot of work done today and I felt really proud of that. Once 6 came around I had dinner with Kalem. We're going to town tomorrow and I'm really excited to see more of Costa Rica before I leave.

Well that's it for today you guys! Thanks for reading!

-Allie

The end of a month

Hey guys!

Today was another great day here at EARTH!

Since Kilian missed the bus to go to the FIO so he helped me out in the finca pecuaria with some of my research. We loaded milk into the back of the truck, watched the cows walk into the corral, observed their behaviors while feeding, and took pictures of the cow's udders, feet, and ear tags when they were being milked.

We worked in the finca until 11 and I headed back to my room to shower, record some of the data collected, and grab a study sheet for my spanish test! I ate lunch with Kilian and some of the girls I've become friends with. We talked and they helped me study for the test. It was on simple preterite and preterite imperfect which are my two worst enemies. After lunch I took the test in Profe Emilia's office. I think I did ok, but I know that I struggled with a few of the sections. Once I finished the test I went to help out in an english class. I learn a lot of spanish by sitting in and helping out with english classes. Things have to be explained in both languages so I get to hear direct translations and explanations. I also get to help out my friends, which is a big plus!

After english class ended I took a walk behind our building. I've been trying to find a sloth and I've started to look around the woods more. I couldn't find a sloth, but I did stumble upon these little critters! There were about 10 of these Cotis forraging for food. I thought they were the cutest things!

That's it for today guys! Thanks for reading!

-Allie

The moment I've been waiting for

Hey guys!

It finally happened! I learned about AI and palpitated a cow! It started out as a rough day though.

I had a headache last night so I took some medicine before I went to sleep. Apparently I forgot that naproxen knocks me out, so much so that not even the thunder or my alarm woke me up. You know how I'm supposed to get to the farm at 6:30? I woke up at 7. I jumped out of bed, threw on my work clothes, grabbed my stuff, brushed my teeth, and rushed to the farm. I ended up being an hour late, but Profe understood. I felt so bad, I don't usually do stuff like this.

Anyways, I didn't do a full dairy protocol assessment today since we already have information from 4 days. I took notes on 8 cows and then organized some of my paperwork. I had to give a presentation on my work in front of everyone too, so I drew charts and tried to compose fluent spanish sentences in my head in the hope that it would be good enough. Profe gave a brief overview of my project to the students and once he was done I got up in front of everyone and tried to explain my data in broken spanish. When I slipped up Profe helped me, the visuals were pretty clear, and students initiated discussions about my data, so I believe it was an overall success. Profe said I did a good job and I hope it's true!

After my presentation, Profe led 4 other students and I to the circular corral. There were 5 cows lined up and the table in the center of the ring had the semen tank, gloves, oil, and aprons ready to go. Profe explained AI procedure to us, showing us how hot the water has to be to thaw the semen, how to load the gun, and how to put the plastic case over the needle. Profe helped me suit up and I was ready to go, armed with a weirdly constructed yellow apron and a plastic glove that went up to my shoulder. I wasn't going to perform AI so I spent my time trying to find the cervix. It was confusing at first because I didn't know what I was touching. The other students knew what they were feeling for whereas I was kinda standing there, waiting for Profe to tell me if I found the cervix. I found it and Profe explained to me what would happen if I was administering AI. I palpitated 4 other cows just to make sure that I knew where to look and it got easier each time I practiced. It was so cool! I feel like I'm a real animal science student now!

That was the highlight of my day (and quite possibly my internship) and I'm so thankful that I got the chance to do this.

It's really late guys, sorry this post is so short! Thanks for reading!

-Allie

Live and Learn: Future Interns, Take Notes

Hey guys!

Although I didn't have work today it was still an eventful day!

Last night I stayed up really late with a few of my friends, Kalem, Jhoselyn, and Fabricio, and watched some movies in my room. It was a lot of fun because I switched the language to spanish and I turned off the captions. The others asked me if I wanted subtitles but I need to learn spanish somehow. Life doesn't have subtitles. I can proudly say that I understood 70% or more of the dialogue of each movie. Every once in a while they would ask me if I understood what was going on and if I didn't understand they would explain it to me. Fabricio speaks english extremely well, so he played translator every once in a while. One interesting thing I noticed was that humor doesn't always transcend languages. Some things were funny to them that I didn't think were funny and vice versa. It was intriguing to me!

After the second movie ended everyone went home and I got to sleep. When I woke up (about 5 and 1/2 hours later) I was about to go to the cafeteria when I looked at the bike rack in front of my door and realized that there was something off. Ladies and gentlemen, someone took my bike the one day I forgot to lock it. I never ride it so it was locked to that spot for weeks, that is until I rode my bike with Jhoselyn last night and forgot to lock it. Apparently this happens often at EARTH, so often that when I told some people in my hall that my bike was stolen they laughed and said, "Welcome to EARTH". I've been told to wait a day to see if the bike is returned, but if it isn't back by tomorrow I'm going to look around and find it. Lesson learned.
FUTURE INTERNS: LOCK YOUR BIKES. ALWAYS.

After breakfast I went to have my weekly meeting with Profe Moro.

Now the second learning moment of the day happened during lunch. Usually I'm pretty easygoing when it comes to tico food. I'm not too picky and I've become accustomed to trying new things. So when I got to the lunch line and realized that I didn't know what the meat being served was I figured to just go with it. I got rice and beans (surprise) and a dish called mondongo. When I asked the cafeteria lady what was in it she just said "vaca' which is cow, so I assumes it was a safe bet.

I have never been so wrong in my entire life.

A picture I took before it all went downhill

The first bite was really weird. It didn't taste like beef at all. It was rubbery and reminded me vaguely of bad pasta. It took a while for me to even chew one piece. I gave up on it after the first bite and focused on my rice and beans. Soon Kalem came over and sat with me. Once she sat down we talked for a little bit and I finally asked,"Cual es este comida?" Kalem smirked mischievously and asked me if I ate some of it and if I liked it. I told her that it wasn't really my thing and that I didn't want to eat any more of it. After a minute or so of asking her to tell me what it was, Kalem gave me the bad news.

Mondongo is a stew with cow stomach in it. I ate the rumen of a cow. 

I thought she was joking with me and insisted that she was lying. I didn't believe her until Kalem brought one of the cafeteria ladies over to validate that it was, indeed, cow stomach. At least now I know to ask what,specifically, is in what I'm eating.

I downed 2 cups of coffee to take my mind of the stomach within my stomach and prepared a slideshow presentation for my spanish class on EARTH's Periurbana, the urban agriculture farm. I wrote a post all about that a few days back if you want to read it over. I think I did really well with my presentation! I'm more comfortable speaking spanish thanks to my friends. When I hang around them I absolutely have to talk in spanish, so it pushes me out of my comfort zone. I'm so grateful for all of my friends here at EARTH. I've learned so much from them and I hope I have helped them as well.

At night I watched and tried to help Kalem and Jhoselyn with their business project. Each student at EARTH has to complete a group business project within their 4 years at EARTH. So much effort is put into these projects and it's really interesting to see these projects come to life and succeed. I hope Kalem, Jhoselyn, and Fabricio's group does well. I helped them pick the meaning for one of their business's colors (yellow), helped them come up with a business slogan (Amistad con empresa, agricultura, y el mundo), and helped them with their logo. I'm learning all about these projects and I kinda wished that these types of projects were encouraged in US schools. The schools give students loans to start these projects and the students have to pay them back (with interest) but the students keep whatever's leftover. It's a great way to gain business skills.

Throughout this experience I have learned something new everyday. My time here is coming to an end but I know that I'll still learn new things while I am here.

Thanks for reading you guys!

-Allie 

I'm milking all of these dairy puns

Hey guys!

Since today is a monday I spent all of my time working on my internship project and the paperwork it entails. I know I've complained about it in the past, especially the excel stuff, but I'm really proud that I've gotten a lot of it done. The biggest part that I've been working on is the dairy protocol analysis, or dairy protocol assessment.

I've mentioned dairy protocol assessment a lot but I don't think I explained it too well in the past. Here's a quick crash course in dairy protocol 101.

Dairy protocol is the system used to milk the cows. This system has several parts that ensure that the process is sanitary, safe, and productive. These steps include:

1. Forestripping (quickly milking the cows by hand to stimulate milk production)
2. California Mastitis Test (testing the milk to see if the cow has mastitis. This infection is not only painful for the cow but it also makes the milk unusable)
3. Suckling (allowing the calves to drink some milk which stimulates milk production again)
4. Pre-dipping (sanitizing the teats after the calves have suckled)
5. Drying (quickly drying the teats)
6. Unit connection (connecting the milking unit to the udder)
7. Unit disconnection (disconnection the unit from the udder)

The first 5 steps should take no longer than 2 minutes to complete. The more time we spend on this part of the milking the less milk will be produced. As for the unit connection and disconnection, that time should be no longer than 6 minutes. This saves some milk for the calves, keeps teat structures intact, and is less painful for the cows. We see if we follow these advised times by recording when each step takes place on this rubric.

After we fill out this rubric, I go back to my computer and enter the times in a excel spreadsheet (yes, the ones I have been spending so much time on). 

Isn't it pretty?

Once I've filled in the spreadsheet I make histograms of the time from forestripping to unit connection, the time from unit connection to unit disconnection, and the comparison of milk yield to the time spent milking. These charts are really good visuals and they really hit home.

These are the charts from July 26th 

As you can see, we only followed the recommended time with 2 cows. The majority of the cows took 6 minutes to connect and 1 took as long as 9 minutes! These times are so high because the workers try to work on 4 different cows at once, which sounds like it would make the process quicker when in reality it only lengthens the time spent on each cow. This is one of the biggest problems we have at the lecheria. 

On this chart you can see that we only milk 19 cows within the recommended time limit. The most time we spent milking a cow this day was 12 minutes, which is twice the recommended time limit. We've even had one of the cows milked for 13 minutes! This is extremely painful for the cows, it ruins their teats, and makes them vulnerable to mastitis. We had 6 cases of mastitis within the past week and only 1 of those cows was milked within the recommended milking time. This is the biggest problem we have at the lecheria. 

This one shows the correlation between the time spent milking and the amount of milk produced. The milk yield is usually  higher the longer the cow is milked, however, this isn't good in the long run. The longer we milk the cows the less they'll be able to produce in the future. It would be a better investment to spend less time milking, get less milk now, and preserve the milk glands than over milk the cow now and prevent it from producing more milk in the future. 

I hope I did a better job of explaining what I've been doing lately. This is a big part of my welfare assessment project since dairy cows are kept to produce milk. If we make this process quicker and painless for the cows they better their emotional, physical, and mental state will be.

If you want to learn more about this system, let me know in the comments or message me on facebook!

Thanks for reading you guys!

-Allie

You know you're at EARTH when...

Hey guys!

So t-minus 2 weeks until I come home to the states! It's really bittersweet. I'm excited to come home for a week and then start my adventure at ISU, I can't wait to see my family and friends again, and of course I'm excited to have some old fashioned american food.  I'm excited about all of this stuff, but I'm going to miss EARTH University and all of its quirks and oddities. There are a few things that really set EARTH apart from other places

You know you're at EARTH when people cut the line to get a cup of coffee. Nobody cares, just do it quickly, say "Perdon", and smile.

You know you're at EARTH when a gecko falls from the ceiling onto your table during a meal. Yea, that happened today.

You know you're at EARTH when people call their roommates doña (regardless of whether they're a guy or a girl).

You know you're at EARTH when you address the cafeteria ladies as "madre".

You know you're at EARTH when you join in on the glass hitting and cheering that occurs when a guy and girl sit together.

You know you're at EARTH when people put your laundry in the dryer for you when you don't wash your clothes quick enough.

You know you're at EARTH when gallo pinto becomes a major part of your daily diet.

You know you're at EARTH when you see 3 different soccer jerseys from 3 different countries.

You know you're at EARTH when someone tries to sell you malanga, yucca, or plantain chips.

You know you're at EARTH when your friend goes to the kitchen and comes back with a huge block of cheese they made. The first time this happened I started laughing hysterically and nobody understood why. Apparently it's completely natural for people to do this.

You know you're at EARTH when there's a long line for breakfast at 5:30 in the morning. Most college students wouldn't even think about getting up that early.

You know you're at EARTH when you own at least one straw hat.

You know you're at EARTH when your boots are always clean. Costa Rican rain is mother nature's spin cycle.

You know you're at EARTH when you hear 3 different languages being spoken at the same time.

You know you're at EARTH when you hear the words "water buffalo" and "biodigestor" used regularly in conversations.

You know you're at EARTH when strangers are willing to go out of their way to help you.

I know I'm missing so many other things that make EARTH unique. I'll probably remember them once I'm back in the states. On the bright side, I have 2 more weeks to experience more weird EARTH things! I'm ready for this week and whatever it entails!

Thanks for reading you guys!

-Allie

Look ma, I sutured a cow!

Hey guys!

Saturdays are always exciting for me and today was no exception!

I woke up bright and early at 5:30 and headed to the cafeteria for breakfast (Gallo pinto! I've learned to love it).

I walked to the finca pecuaria and got there early at 6:25. I sat down and talked to some of the other students before we got to work. Once Profe Moro came to the farm everyone got split up into groups. 4 students or so go with a 4th year student to help them with their project. Jenny gets 3 students to work alongside her, Yamy, and Giver (He-ver) and I get to stand on the steps of the lecheria and record the information I need. After 2 hours, all of the cows were milked and lead back into the big corral. I wrote down all the time spent on each step, opened and shut doors to let the cows out, and tried to stay somewhat clean while standing around the cows.

Once I put my notes away I walked to the circular corral to see what the students were doing. Turns out they were doing a few surgeries! I lucked out and saw 2!

The first surgery involved cutting the genitalia of a male calf and moving it back towards the legs. This calf had an issue where his genitalia was close to where his navel was. This needed to be fixed in order to keep the cow healthy. We started off by giving the cow some local anesthesia to lessen the pain (poor little guy). The students made a foot long incision where the problem was and then proceeded to cut, push back, and re-wire the affected area. Once that was all said and done it was time to suture up. The suture needle wasn't like a sewing needle at all. It was this 4 inch curved needle that was about 1/4th of an inch thick. We used some thick suture material that was somewhat like cotton yarn and small plastic tubes to mend the skin together. I even got to do one of the last sutures! I had to put the needle through the skin from top to bottom (which was more difficult than I thought it would be. Cow skin is really thick, so I really needed to push down on the needle to get it through), slip a tube onto the needle, sew from the bottom to the top, slip another tube onto the needle, thread the needle through the starting point, tie it three times, and cut it. My old sewing skills helped me a lot.  Once we washed the area with bentadine and this aerosol disinfectant which looks like purple spray paint, some of the guys helped pull the calf up and moved it out of the center of the ring.

The next surgery was removing a tumor from the eye of a heifer. This cow was huge! It took Daniel, Mau (one of the farmhands), and 2 other students to pull the cow to the ground and tie it up. Once the cow was tied up, Daniel and the other boys sat on the cow to restrain it during the procedure. We held the head down and proceeded to cut the tumor out. We removed the extra tissue that came along with the tumor and let the cow go. There's a video of this procedure and pictures of the other surgery at the bottom of this post.

That was the highlight of my day! I love doing surgeries! I can't wait to do more things like this in college. I hope everyone had a good saturday! Thanks for reading!

-Allie



WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES ARE BELOW. IF YOU ARE AFRAID OF BLOOD OR SQUEAMISH IN ANY WAY, DON'T SCROLL DOWN.

Removing a tumor from a cow's eye

Late!

Hey guys!

I completely forgot to post this and I didn't do anything exciting today, so I guess it's a good thing that I'm combining these two things!

Thursday

I woke up at 5:30 (as usual) and worked on the farm from 6:30-11:00. I recorded the dairy protocol as usual, except I left a few parts blank because we don't do some procedures. We should be doing these procedures consistently, but the workers only do the full procedure when Jenny and the other students are there. Anyway, I got that information down and helped clean up afterwards. I've fallen into the routine of the farm and it's come to the point that I know what needs to be done next. It's really nice and I know I'm going to miss it a lot when I leave.

After the farm I went to my room to shower and type up the data I recorded into one of my many spreadsheets. I've learned to love microsoft excel even when I still don't know how to make a good histogram on it. Thankfully Profe Moro's been helping me out with that.

After that I ate a quick lunch and headed off to the library to meet with my spanish professor.She took Kilian and I on a field trip to the periurbana, which is the urban agriculture farm. It was amazing! We learned about hydroponics, aquaponics, and other forms of agriculture that could be used in urban areas.

A poster that describes some of the benefits of urban agriculture

A wind chime made out of recycled materials

One of the hydroponic beds

Beets! These are used to feed insects so they don't eat any of the other plants!

Some flat beds

Beds made of recycled materials like tires and washing machine parts

A biointensive bed fenced in by water bottles 

Raul talking to us about hydroponics and when to transplant seedlings into the hydroponic system

The aquaponics system

An aquaponic bed with Tilapia underneath. The water the fish live in are cycled through the plants, giving the plants nutrients and water while simultaneously cleaning the water.

It was a great tour and I hope that we start seeing more urban agriculture in the US. We need all the help we can get!

Friday

Today was a national Costa Rican holiday! We celebrated the annexation of Guanacaste, which was originally a part of Guatemala, by having the day off.

I slept in and had breakfast at 8:30 which was extremely weird. It's 3 hours earlier than my normal breakfast time so I've been a little thrown off. Whenever there's a holiday everything is pushed back by and hour or so.

I hung out most of the afternoon with my friends Kalem and Jhoselyn. We watched Frozen in spanish, talked about stuff that goes on here at EARTH, and we took a few unplanned naps. These girls are amazing. I learn a lot of spanish from them and I teach them english in return. I've even taught them how to say "Hey baby, how you doin'?".

That's about it! I'll be working on the farm tomorrow and that'll be interesting! I'll type that up (on time) tomorrow.

Bye!

-Allie

I'm running out of clever titles

Hey guys!

Today was a pretty average day for me so this is going to be pretty short.

I didn't get to AI a cow today(boo), but I got to use my dairy protocol assessment again so now I have more data. I might assess the dairy protocol one more time. Some of the numbers were astounding. One cow was milked for 13 minutes straight! Now that we have this information we can easily monitor our time better and improve upon our system.

I had to give a group presentation for my Spanish class with another student named Newton about nomadic pastoralism. It was a little frightening! I had to explain everything in Spanish. Luckily I understand the basic words that are needed to explain the system. It wasn’t great but it was something! We all sat around in a group and talked about different systems of farming like industrial farming, integrated farming, etc. It was interesting!

Integrated farming is really stressed here at EARTH. Learn more about this system of farming here!

Thanks for reading you guys!

-Allie

Black out!

Hey guys!

So, in a surprising turn of events, it was raining and thunder storming all day today. I know, huge surprise right? Rain in Costa Rica? How strange!

Obviously the rain isn't what threw me off. The unusual part of today was the 5 1/2 hour long blackout. Usually the power is pretty sturdy when it comes to storms. There's the 5 minute or so power outage, but today from 6:30 to 12 we lost power. There was no internet, no operating fans (it wasn't that bad since the rain cooled everything down, but still), and no working outlets. I planned on working on a paper Profe Moro and I discussed but my laptop died about an hour into the power outage. Basically I sat around in my room writing stuff down and playing music on my phone waiting for the power to come back on. Eventually it came back on and I got most of my work done on paper, so I decided to go to lunch.

Today there was a EARTH University special event that was being celebrated during lunch. We were celebrating the annexation of the Guanacaste campus on the pacific side of the country. There was a buffet, there were tablecloths, centerpieces, and even a mariachi band! I was a little confused because I originally thought that we were celebrating the actual annexation of the town Guanacaste, but one of the cafeteria ladies (we call her Madre) filled me in. God bless these cafeteria ladies, they always explain what the food is to me and they're so nice. We laugh about my horrible accent and I always ask them how their days are. They're basically the guidance counselors of the school. The food was great, as always, and I sat with a few Ecuadorian friends of mine. It was a lot of fun!

After lunch I watched some youtube videos on artificially inseminating cows (which is not something to watch if you get queasy). Tomorrow's the day you guys! I'm really excited but at the same time I'm really nervous. What if I hurt the cow? What if I break my arm (it's happened to people before)? What if? Luckily Profe Moro will be there to help me and the other students, but I'm still worried about screwing this up. Most veterinarians do AI often and it's an important skill to know. It's my first time so I know I'll learn from my mistakes, I just hope I don't screw up monumentally.

Once dinner came around I ate with a few of the girls from my hall and one of their friends from Mexico. I was helping them with their English and they helped me with my Spanish during most of our conversation, so it was really helpful. Everyone's been telling me that I'm improving, and I would hope that after a month here I would improve somewhat, so hopefully by the time I leave I'll be somewhat fluent (or at least more competent). We talked about Lord of the Rings (I had my copy with me), cultural differences, and dancing.

Oh, speaking of dancing, I went to Bachata club with them afterwards! I'm certainly no ballroom dancer like half the people here, but I'm getting better.  Bachata is pretty simple and the steps are easy to follow, I just get thrown off because I focus too much or I lose track of the beat. I always feel bad for the person I'm dancing with. I danced with a few of my friends, Jhoselyn and Estefany, and they helped me more than anyone else. Well, Wladamir (one of the guys) does his best to help me out, but in the end he's just far too advanced for me. The guys here really dance which is extremely weird for me! I'm used to guys just kinda standing there and swaying to the beat. Here they do the fancy twirls and dips, which is intimidating. I had a lot of fun though! Dancing here is a big part of the culture and I think it's a lot of fun, even though I am really bad at it.

That was my day! Wish me luck with tomorrow's AI! I'm gonna need it!

-Allie

The Lazy Gringo

Hey guys!

It's really late and I don't feel like anything I did was really interesting (it was basically reading and making histograms) so here's a video about EARTH University.

Have a good one guys!

-Allie

Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

Hey guys!

Today I wandered around campus on my own and I kinda had a few hours to contemplate some things that have been on my mind lately. I walked around the forests here, checked out the church, and I walked around a little at night. I took some pictures of some of the things I saw, and I only took a few pictures because sometimes there are things that you can't take pictures of.

Basically this is just going to be a post where I ramble on about nature and how we don't give it the attention and respect that it deserves.

Here we go.



One of the biggest pitfalls of my generation, specifically those of us in the US, is our inability to be patient and observe what's around us in a peaceful manner. While I was walking around the forest I had one headphone in my ear that cancelled out some of the sounds around me. I couldn't even spend 10 minutes listening to the sounds around me. Tonight I spent 30 minutes in silence, no headphones or music, and looked at the stars. There aren't that many stars here since there's a lot of cloud coverage, but the few stars that were there were worth the effort.

That's another thing. Nature is really noisy. When most people think of silence or quietness, a forest or another nature landscape comes to mind. It's a little worrying that we think nature is silent, that it doesn't make itself known in our minds. One of the books I read in Arnoldo's office a while back had this quote that really stuck out and made me think about our perception of nature.

"The transformation of the perception of nature during the industrial and scientific revolution illustrates how 'nature' was transformed in the European mind from a self organizing, living system to a mere raw material for human exploitation, needing management and control."

-Vandana Shiva

Sometimes we ignore nature and push it to the edge. We're constantly trying to fight against nature, to fight against this thing that always seems to bring us down, when in reality we need to allow it to take over our lives. I'm not saying that we should all go out an live in the forest, Ralph Waldo Emerson style, I'm just saying that we need to know when to stop and re-evaluate what we're doing to nature. We need to treat nature better than we would treat ourselves. We call it "Mother Nature" but if we treated our mothers the same way we treat nature, well, we would be in deep trouble. 

I think that EARTH University and the people who live here do a good job of acknowledging nature. There are small paths all around campus for people to walk on so they don't ruin any plant life by walking through the forest. Everything here has the environment in mind. We recycle, compost, and make sure that waste is minimized in an efficient and nature friendly way. Most buildings here have solar panels to collect energy in a safe and sustainable. Most importantly, EARTH teaches students to become one with nature and to work with it rather than against it. We're taught that we need to use what is given to us in a wise and sustainable way in order to live good lives. We're here to learn this information and spread it once we go into communities, whether they're our own community or another community.

Wandering through campus really made me appreciate the world I've been blessed with and the life I've been given. It's a gift to be living consciously and an even greater gift to have the opportunity to explore. I like this world and the things that inhabit it. I love the trees here, the little armadillos running around, the flowers, the mountains, and every other natural part of EARTH. I also love and miss parts of New Jersey and New York where nature rules. I love Island Beach State Park, I love the Long Island Sound, I love Alexandria Bay, I love the Adirondacks, I love the fields in the north country, and I even love the small parts of Howell where nature is left in peace. I love all of these places and I want to keep them the way they are. I want to be a vet and work with animals, but I also want to do my best to keep nature safe and preserved. I think we can all do this, you don't have to be an agronomist to recycle or keep the planet in mind while you're living. If we can all be conscious of the world around us and respect nature, I genuinely think that we could at least maintain what we have.

Well, that's what I thought about today. Do you guys ever think about stuff like this? Do you think that we need to work with nature or against it? Do you agree with me or am I turning into a sentimental hippie? Comment and let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading!

-Allie

Adventures in English and Nature

What's up guys?

So I know things haven't been exciting these past few days and I haven't really done anything but talk about spreadsheets, but today was different!

I had a late night so I was so happy when I woke up to an email from Profe Moro saying that I could either go to the farm or stay in for the day and finish up some spreadsheets. I got to go back to sleep and got up again at 7 for breakfast. It was a little rainy this morning too, so not only did I get to sleep in, but I also didn't have to walk in the rain. Pretty great morning if you ask me.

After breakfast I edited the spreadsheet that has the data from wednesday's milking. I calculated the time it took from the forestripping to the unit connection, unit connection to unit disconnection, and the overall time it took to put the cow through the lecheria.Our average time from forestripping to unit connection is 5 minutes, our average time from connection to disconnection is 7 minutes, and our overall milking time is 12 minutes. We should only be spending 2 minutes on the forestripping to unit connection and we might want to lower the connection to disconnection time to 6 minutes. So with that information added and some other minor tweaks, I have finished my spreadsheets and protocols for now.

When lunch came around, I read some of the animal welfare book and took some notes. While I was eating I met up with one of my friends, Marcela, and she asked for help with English. Marcela's so sweet so I obviously said yes. I mentioned that I wanted to walk around campus since it was a beautiful day and then our adventure began. We got our bikes and spent the rest of the day exploring campus while teaching each other spanish and english.

EARTH's campus is huge and most of it is protected forest or farmland. I've only seen a fraction of its beauty, and even with today's excursion, there's still more to explore. Our first stop was this small gravel path behind the security and bank building. I had never seen this path before and I'm not exactly graceful on a bike, so naturally I was a little nervous. Marcela led us through the forest, over mud puddles, and swerved around potholes. After a minute or so into the woods, we stopped and found ourselves at a riverbank. People have told me about the river, but I had never seen it before. There's a lot of trees blocking the sun and casting nice shadows. There are birds nests all over the place, and there's even a little picnic area on a hill next to the river. It's really shallow, so Marcela and I took off our sneakers and socks and stood calve deep into the clear, cool water. We practiced english and spanish together and it really helped. We would point out an object or say the word in our native language and the other person would say it and try to spell it. We used words like bird (ave), river (rio), bird's nest (nido de ave), right (derecha), left (izquierda), rock (piedra), when (cuando), where (donde), wear (lleva), were (estaba), and other words. It was fun to go back and forth between english and spanish!

The river

A nice picnic area

After 10 minutes or so, we put our shoes back on and rode towards the front of the campus. Along the side of the road there's a farm area filled with a bunch of crops. We pulled over and Marcela gave me a tour. The first thing Marcy showed me was this vineyard composed of this citrus fruit that it a mixture between a lime, lemon, and orange. The flowers of this plant are absolutely gorgeous. They're one of the prettiest flowers I've seen here in Costa Rica. We looked around and pulled a few ripe ones off the branches. Marcela loves this fruit, so by the time we walked out from under the vines there were about 4 or 5 in her bag.

Marcela showing me a citrus fruit 

It's her favorite fruit!

The citrus was vine-line so the set up was similar to that of a vineyard 

The citrus flower

The papaya trees are right next to the citrus so we looked at that next. I didn't think papaya was from a tree! The fruit is so big that I just assumed that it grew from vines on the ground. These trees are really strong and flexible so they can easily hold the weight of the papayas. Papayas are regularly served in the cafeteria and we have an abundance of them.

A papaya tree!

On the other side of the citrus area was this big plot for some malanga. Malanga is a root similar to yucca, only bigger and with a different texture. People here use malanga and yucca the same way we use potatoes in the USA. 

A field of malanga

There's also a big area where pineapples are grown. In case you don't know, pineapples are grown from a bush and not a tree. Marcela and I walked along the rows looking for some ripe pineapples to take home. Most of the pineapples are harvested as soon as they're ripe, so we only found 2 semi-ripe ones. We plucked them out of their bushes, put them on our bikes, and rode off.

Pineapples

Our next stop was this big monument in the front of campus. It was dedicated to the man who created EARTH University, there's a big sign that explains it right next to the monument. Water flows through the monument and back into the river all day, so it's very peaceful and quiet here. Marcela and I sat down and talked for a while about cultural differences and our families. It was really nice to hang out and have a full conversation with her, all in spanish!

The water monument

After visiting the monument we headed back to campus. We rode through the recreational area and watched some of our friends play soccer in the open air gymnasium for a few minutes before we headed back to our residence hall. It was a great adventure and I'm glad that we both learned a lot about our different cultures while observing the beauty surrounding EARTH University.

That's about it for today you guys! I hope today's post made up for the past few that weren't very entertaining. Thanks for reading!

-Allie