Hi everyone – my name is Sohee Kim and I’m a rising sophomore at Martel! It is currently 2 days before the trip and I am beyond excited. Tomorrow, I’ll be heading to Houston since we need to be in ABL by 6 AM on Friday. This will be my first time traveling to Central America and the tropics, so I am super excited to explore a region I’ve never visited before.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been busy preparing by researching my taxa (Surgeonfishes and Rainforest Mammals) as well as preparing for my presentation topic, Which Focuses on Visual and Auditory communication in rainforest animals. I’ve read numerous scientific articles and am looking forward to seeing some of these organisms in real life. I expect that I’ll be able to encounter some of the mammal species at our night tour at the Belize Zoo, which I’m especially excited about as a pre-vet student!

I’ve developed my foundational knowledge based on the required readings and additional scientific articles I have sought out for my presentations, and I’m excited to build on that foundation by visiting the actual historical sites and ecosystems we’ve been reading about.

I’m a little nervous about the inevitable, countless mosquito and bug bites to be obtained throughout the trip, but hopefully my hydrocortisone cream can help with that.. I don’t really have experience with fieldwork other than BIOS 213 (Intro Lab to Ecology/Evolutionary Biology), so I’m really excited for these next two weeks to gain some insight to what it’s like to be a tropical field biologist!