Remembrance Day

It’s an odd feeling spending a Holiday in another country where the day isn’t celebrated. Today felt a bit like when I spent Canada Day in Ghana a couple years ago; you feel like you should celebrate it in some way but don’t really know how to. Like I wrote before, Todos Santos felt a bit like Remembrance Day to me so I’m going to say that’s how I celebrated. And true to it’s nature, the weather was even bad down here in San Cristobal. (I don’t think I’ve ever been to a Remembrance Day ceremony where there wasn’t rain, snow, strong winds or some sort of mix). But honestly it’s a small price to pay in comparison to the years that men and women spent fighting in worse conditions. So even though I’m not in Canada, I tried to find my own little way to remember.

So my research is slowly winding down. In one week my translator takes off to Cuba so we’re in a bit of a mad dash to get as many interviews completed between now and then. We’re making great time but when you have a deadline everything seems a lot stressful. My supervisor flew home yesterday, and with him went all my lovely free meals! (Back to peanut butter sandwiches for me- though if you know me you’ll know that this isn’t really a hardships) It was really great to have Dr. Isakson here with me for a week. Yes he might have introduced me  to the cause of my mid-research meltdown (ie. meanest academic ever) but he also helped me focus in on my topic and envision where I was going. And to be honest, he is one of the biggest reasons why I’m here I am today. Not only am I in San Cristobal because of his research contacts here but I’m quite honestly studying agriculture and food because of him. If you had asked me when I first began my undergrad what my field of interest was, I probably wouldn’t have known but agriculture was not at all on my radar. But luckily for me I had an awesome teacher all through my undergrad and into my master’s degree and when I had my grand realization regarding what I wanted to do with my life, I knew exactly who to turn to and received an amazing amount of guidance. We were joking the other night that maybe he could be my supervisor the whole way through- first, honours thesis, then masters…next PhD?? Right now I’m looking forward to a break from everything school related but who knows what will happen a few years from now. I wouldn’t hold my breath though.

So basically interviews will rule my life for the next few days and after that my final two weeks will be spent at the library reading articles and attempting to make sense of all my data. My original plan was to write my thesis up in a few months and then graduate in May but last night I realized that I had over looked one key step. In the midst of getting approval from the ethics as well as the risk assessment board, I completely forgot to apply to graduate in the spring. This one silly little form that basically just needs to be stamped and entered into the computer completely slipped my mind until late last night, and the deadline was a month ago. So as it stands I’m still going to try to get my thesis finished and completed within a few months of being home but I won’t actually get my certificate until October. It’s only an extra 4 months that I’ll have to wait, which really isn’t that long in the long run and I figure this means that the writing process won’t be so stressful since I’ll have more flexible deadlines. The biggest benefit for not graduating until October, in my opinion, is that the convocation ceremony will be significantly shorter! Because if everyone’s honest, those things are way too long and once the people you know walk across the stage all you want to do is go home. Anyway I contacted Saint Mary’s and they might make an exception and let me hand my application in late but it’s a whole bureaucratic process so I wouldn’t plan on it.

I don’t really know if I have any more news. Basically for the past few days I’ve been conducting interviews, typing up the results, hanging out with Dr. Isakson, and repeat. Oh I did get to visit a few more plots the other day and they are amazingly beautiful. I think everyone knows but if not, in May Ben and I bought our first house and are looking forward to planting a garden this coming year. We planted a small one this past summer but in our haste we didn’t really dig down far enough nor prepare for the onslaught of slugs. Every plot that I see just gives me more ideas and increases my excitement, so the plan for our garden is increasing and changing daily. I’m even reading right now about how to design a pet-friendly yard, complete with what I like to call a “puppy jungle”. It would take way too long to explain all my ideas here but next summer stop by our place to check it all out and hopefully we can serve you some lovely fresh vegetables.

Spanish Word of the Day: Conejo (Rabbit)

So I interviewed someone today who sells meat at the Tianguis. They literally raise every type of animal under the sun and have hundreds of each. In the case of rabbits, they currently have somewhere between 350-400! I could not imagine having that many animals but maybe my parents will be able to comment once all their new fish eggs hatch!

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