Happy (late) Thanksgiving from Chile! Hoping you all had a yummy meal and were able to spend quality time with friends and family. There is lots to be grateful for and most times it’s the things that are the closest to us.
We are now back at the center until the program is over (December 18th) and will be working on analyzing our data, writing our research paper, and creating a presentation. There is a little less than three weeks lefts and I don’t want it to end. I am currently writing some of this blog as smells of mac n’ cheese, turkey, pumpkin pie, and many other delicious items are cooking in the kitchen. It’s an odd but kinda cool feeling to be in a country where it’s just another normal workday and that Thanksgiving doesn’t have a significance. This morning many of us woke up and ran downstairs at 8am to start helping make many of the desserts and dishes we are about to devour. Besides being able to spend Thanksgiving with 22 of my friends and fellow classmates/colleagues/professors, things have been going great.
The past week was one to remember. Many beautiful sunsets/sunrises. The warmth of the sun beating down throughout the day. And the pouring rain as you take a long nap in the tent. This was our last expedition out in the field and we all split up in our three groups to go collect the data we need for our projects. It’s interesting to go out in the field and take data that you are going to be writing a research paper about. Hopefully this is some great practice for future grad school stuff.
The first night we arrived, a group of 13 of us decided we wanted to hike up the small mountain (aka big hill) to camp out for the sunset and then again for the sunrise early the next morning. It was such a great decision looking back at it, even though at the time it seemed kinda stressful. It was freezing, lots of wind, and right after dinner no one wants to hike an hour and a half with backpacks and camping gear for the night.
The next two days consisted of the eight of us (team tree-bug is what we called ourselves haha) to go out in our waiters to take sixteen stream samples with macro-invertebrates in all of them. We would have two teams of two in the stream at once with one person shifting their feet for thirty seconds and moving along the sides of the bank while the other holds the net to catch the debris and bugs. After this, we would have ten minutes to look through our net by dumping all of it in a tray and pick out all the findings to put in a jar in the middle of all the groups. Both of these days collecting the data turned out to be beautiful, and being the white kid I am I had to apply lots of sunscreen… and yet I still got burned (whats new though haha). We stopped for a lunch break halfway through the day eating in a field filled with lots of dandelions, and taking a little snooze before we hopped back in our waiters and finished for the day. It was super fun to cross many streams up to your waist and feel the weird wrapping the waiters do on your leg as the pressure of the water gets stronger. Plus it’s so hard to differentiate between being wet and just being cold. Many times we would all think that we had holes in our waiters, when in reality it was just the cold water numbing your feet and toes.
The two days following were tree collecting days. This was not my project, but we all helped each other collect data so there was more data points to look at and we wouldn’t have to take so long to gather it separately. We measured the girth of the tree, the distance of the person standing away from the tree, and the angle the person was viewing the tree looking at the very top and the base. We did this for a little more than 800 trees and by the end of doing all of this, I decided that plants and trees are not for me. We looked at two tree species; Nothofagus, and Nirre. There are only three main species of trees that grow natively here in southern Patagonia. The main difference between the two tree species we were looking at is the serrated edges on the leaves along with the height difference.
Our last day was kind of a free one, though the entire day and night it poured rain so there wasn’t much you could do. We played many board games inside, and looked at some of our data that we collected and started to compile it in Excel. My favorite was taking a three hour nap bundled up in my sleeping bag outside in my tent. What can I say, I like my sleep and even more, a good nap. The stars at night in this beautiful location were always stunning if there weren’t any clouds covering them up. Since there wasn’t any light pollution around and you were almost in the middle of no where you could see SO much. Plus it was even cooler to look up, because being in the southern hemisphere meant that there was a whole new sky of stars to look at. No little or big dipper to find, just brand new constellations of all kinds. Another plus of being in Patagonia is the sunsets each night. No matter the weather, there was always a magical painting across the sky each night. There is no daylight savings here so the sun sets around 10pm and it doesn’t get pitch dark until around 12:30am. That messes with your head quite a bit. But hanging out with friends, talking around the fire, and going to watch the sunset makes up for staying up late each night.
Now that I am back at the center for the next 3 weeks and have sorted out the bugs we collected into their different taxa I will start to write my paper. I am looking at the patterns of dominance of specific taxa within each site and what are some of the causes behind the changes in numbers between site locations and the species richness in them. My other two colleagues are looking at the alpha and beta diversity within each location and between the sites. I am excited to get to get things going because at least for me it’s much easier to be motivated to do things once I have a plan set up, and starting that plan is the hardest part.
I often catch myself wishing for certain things (even if I love them) to be over, or for it be a new chapter. Being content with the place and chapter I currently am in is just important as any other. There is no need to rush things just to move onto a new and different stage. Life is already very quick, so instead take a moment to look at what you have in front of you. All the people/memories/things/opportunities/etc. that actually mean something to you. The things that make you have that warm fuzzy feeling inside, or have the awkward side smile. The important things that makes you think “this is what life is worth living for”. These things can be an array of objects, people, ideas, relationships, religions, past memories, future memories, your favorite hobbies, or even the unknown.
Simple: be THANKFUL and just know someone else has it worse than you do.
Go on an adventure sometime soon with someone that means something special and let them know that.
Luke
Traveling with Luke 