Friday numero dos!

Hey guys!

This is my second Friday here at EARTH and interesting things tend to happen on Fridays.

I woke up at my normal time and headed to the cafeteria for breakfast where I had some more pico de gallo, which (surprisingly) doesn't get old. I left a little bit later and arrived to the Finca Pecuaria ( the animal farm) around 6:35. Punctuality isn't an overly stressed thing here in Latin America, so being a few minutes late is normal.

Today I didn't milk but I did help by keeping records of what cows we milked and how many kilograms of milk they've produced. Each cow has an identification number that is either on an ear tag that they wear or one that is tattooed on them. Some numbers are 2100, 4680, and 4100. When we milk the cows there's a funnel like apparatus that's above us that keeps track of how much milk has been produced. The numbers are in kilograms and pounds, but the numbers I write down are all in kilograms. Some cows have produced as much as 13 kgs of milk in one sitting! After milking the cows I helped clean up the enclosures with some water and a broom. Fridays are usually pretty low key work days.

During the end of my day at the farm I did a little research about the farm that I could only get from the people who work there. I have a project for my spanish class where I have to give a presentation about the farm, why it's sustainable, what happens on the farm each day, and other information. Some of the information is really detailed and needs to be answered in a certain order. It was a little hard to write down the answers since a lot of people on the farm speak quickly, but it was ok because everyone was so nice and willing to help me.

After work I showered and then went to the gaming room. About 5 minutes into my time in the gaming room I was convinced to play ping pong, learned that students take ping pong VERY seriously, and that there's a tournament going on for ping pong. It's always interesting to go there because you never know who you're going to talk to or what you're going to see. One time I walked in on a group of people watching an Arabic soap opera in spanish.

Once dinner came around, I was invited to eat Chulupas with my neighbors. These girls are so nice and funny. Everyone was willing to tell me all about their first experiences at EARTH, understood the cultural differences between the US and Latin America, all while giving me some of the best food I've had at EARTH so far.

Later on I went to the lab with Marianna, Lina, and Paula to watch them work on their experiment with soil. The equipment here is so high tech! They've got a tiny little autoclave, these sterilized tables, and lots of fridges with bacteria cultures from all different sources.

It was a very low key day so this post wasn't exactly great and exciting. The good thing is, tomorrow is Saturday and that's another day on the farm. I'm going to be on my own this weekend and I'm going to do my best to explore parts of EARTH that I've yet to see.

Goodnight guys!

-Allie