This is me at the beginning of the semester. I am celebrating international women's day at the Praça da Republica. The banner says "Living without violence is a right of all women."
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so it's been a while since the last update. I am pretty zeroed in on my research project.
So, like I said, we went to Ilha do Mosqueiro to collect water samples from various beaches. Each beach has a different level of human impact. We're comparing the samples to see if, indeed, human activity causes differences in cyanobacteria concentration and diversity. Cool, huh? Well, to me it is. I am learning more about phytoplankton than I ever thought possible. I think it is funny how these little duders exist everywhere on the planet and have such a significant role in the food web, yet there are rarely any classes taught about them.
My project is sponsored by Dr. Rosildo Santos Paiva. He is a botanist/oceanographer at the Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA). He is a truly remarkable fellow if only for the fact that he helped me design and execute this project. I was thinking about it. How many American professors would help out a student who came pretty much out of nowhere, with no credentials, and with limited English skills? He didn't know me when we first started and he still has not had contact with any of my supporting institutions. Yet, he is always patient with my Portuguese and helps me every free minute he has. Damn, Brazilians are awesome.
Now that the samples have been collected I am supposed to identify each species of cyanobacteria using a microscope and picture books. It's been rough going so far since I have never even thought about cyanobacteria so much as thought about the different possible species. Dr. Paiva spent two hours this morning going over a slide from one of the beaches with me and my lab partner, Rafeal. Rafeal is a biology student from UFPA and I am learning loads about the Brazilian university system from him. Get this: he has five full classes this semester plus TWO internships. I fuss over four classes and one job.
Things are picking up with identifying species. I already recognize a couple genera as well as some other types of algae. Tomorrow Dr. Paiva will be teaching us how to measure the density of organisms within a sample. It's gonna be fuuuuun.
Well, all in all, I am enjoying being a Brazilian university student, if only for a month. I've been reading lots and eating a lot of junk food. The basics.
Lots and lots of beijos!
Today's mission: Learn about where your trash goes. Do you want to cause a bloom of toxic cyanobacteria? Oh, I have read the reports of cyanos in Lake Superior. They're there, alright.
