Leaving in 17 Days!!!

Life was a little more stressful this week. We had a lot of reading to accomplish and a creative paper to turn in. Luckily, I have changed my Jins class to a credit/no credit course so that I can stop worrying about doing my best. However, I still have to read a book called Open Veins of Latin America for class this week and write a paper about it. The readings have generally been interesting but I can't help but feel that all this time that I spend reading is taking away from the amount of time that I should be dedicating to learning all of the frog species that I must identify once I arrive in Panama. Hopefully class will lighten up so that I don't have to pull a bunch of all nighters memorizing frogs.

For environmental studies we learned about how to teach English as a second language. I feel much better about the whole thing because Professor Cook came and informed us that we should use as much English as possible, only resorting to Spanish if the student continues to not follow anything we say. It also will be rather informal and fun which is right up my alley.

Marc and Chad also gave us a better idea of what to expect from the locals, apparently us girls may get proposed to and the guys in our group might have local men trying to pick fights with them or trying to give them their sisters to marry. I'm sure we'll have some interesting stories when we come back to the States.

This week I finally contacted the appropriate person in order to get Dr. Kriger to come and speak to Truman about the Amphibian Extinction. Now it is up to the Lyceum committee to determine if he fits their criteria.

My computer is still at ITS :o( I can't wait to get it back.

So, this week my group Courtney, Audra, and me contacted Julie Ray and she really gave us a much better understanding of what we will be doing in Panama. For the arboretum project, there was a plot cleared 7 years ago in order for Omar Torrijos wife to arrive via helicopter for the opening of the parks visitor center. So then they had a very unsightly plot of land at the entrance of the park for all the visitors to see in addition to decreasing the amount of habitat for wildlife. To take care of this, Julie wrote a grant that would fund the construction of an arboretum filled with native trees and plants, a trail, and maybe even a pond. She received second place and they planted  all of the native trees in rows (plantation style) last year. The first week that we arrive in Panama she will take us to see the plot and come up with a development plan. For now, she would like for us to clean up the area, make a gravel trail, and design signs that identify the trees and provide fun facts about the native plants and animals. She also wants us to consider building benches, a pond, and a picnic table and will work with us to get more native plants for the plot.

For the diversity and abundance of amphibians' project, we clarified that well will be looking for all amphibians, but we should expect to just see frogs. However, lungless sallys come down from the bromeliads in March and we may be able to see a few of them. She also sent us a copy of the amphibian field guide that she is making for the area, so that we know exactly what species she has encountered in the area (she started in 2006). She will also be going over all of the species with us when we arrive and possibly take us on some special trips to look for some of the rarer species to see how they are doing.

Additionally, she advised us to take a look at some pictures of Bothrops asper, the Fer de Lance viper snake, and the Bothriechis schlegelii, the eyelash viper, both of which are found in the region and are venomous.