When I was a sophomore in high school, a friend told me about a summer course at Rice University. Students had the chance to spend two weeks in Belize, hiking, snorkeling, and learning about the tropics. I couldn’t imagine anything that sounded more amazing. At that moment, I knew I needed to go to Rice.

Tomorrow, we will be in Belize. I can’t believe it. This will be my first field research experience, and I am so excited to learn more about tropical ecology! I am doing research in a lab that studies tropical ecology, and my work is currently all data analysis on the computer. I’m looking forward to seeing the other side of my project learning about how all the data I’ve been working with was collected!

I have visited several tropical countries, and I drag my parents hiking wherever we go, so I’m not too nervous about the animals we’ll encounter. I do hope to avoid getting sick, and I’ve gotten quite a few immunizations in the last couple of months. In preparation for the trip, I’ve been doing lots of reading, and I have learned a lot about the incredible diversity of plants and animals that call Belize home. It will be awesome to put faces to all of the names I’ve been reading about. I recently realized how little I know about individual bird species, and on this trip I hope to learn more about the birds of Belize and be able to identify some of them. I know I will learn a lot about the ecology of Belize from this course. Even more than that, however, I hope to learn about ecology research and get a tiny glimpse into the life of a field ecologist.