I honestly don’t know what to expect from this expedition to Belize. Research and being away from civilization are pretty foreign to me, but if anything, I’m anticipating a fascinating (but incredibly busy) two weeks.

My preparations have been consistently interrupted by bouts of procrastination. One of these bouts involved a walk through Hermann Park. Even though it wasted some time, I’m glad I went because I came across the most unusual bird. I walk to Hermann Park all the time and had never seen anything like it before. I walked over to the zoo to show the bird staff my photos, and they told me that it was a purple gallinule.

In Belize, I hope to learn how to actually document findings like this in detail because I don’t consider myself to be the most organized individual. I’m pretty nervous about the presentations because I’m not the best public speaker either, but I’ve done my best to prepare, and hopefully it’ll be ok.

I’m most excited to recognize organisms from the taxa I researched: beetles and hydrozoans, among other cnidarians and ctenophores. My only experience in the tropics was a trip to Peru when I was 11. The expedition spent three days along an Amazon tributary near Iquitos.