Hey y’all, my name is Emily Stanford and I’m a rising junior majoring in Cognitive Sciences and minoring in Politics, Law, and Social Thought. I’m writing this while triple-checking my packing list and trying to convince myself I don’t need to bring a fourth notebook (I probably do). T-6 hours until we’re Belize-bound!
I’m really looking forward to just being out in the field: mud, bugs, weird smells and all. I think I’m most excited for our time at Las Cuevas. I’ve spent a lot of time reading about tropical forests, but never actually been in one, so I feel like it’s going to blow my mind. I’m also so curious to see how my understanding of ecosystems shifts when I’m seeing them up close, watching ants build bridges or hearing frog calls in the middle of the night. Glover’s Reef sounds amazing too. I’ve snorkeled a few times before, but never over a living reef, so I can’t wait to see what that’s like.
To prepare for the trip, I’ve been reviewing our readings and putting together ID cards for cockroaches (which I now have a weird appreciation for?) and piscivorous reef fishes. I’ve also been trying to build some observational habits, bringing a notebook on walks, slowing down, paying attention to plants I’d usually ignore. I’ve done some traveling in the tropics before (I lived in Indonesia for five years growing up…I’ve included an image from the last time I was in the Monkey Forest in Ubud) but this will be my first time doing formal fieldwork, and I’m excited to see what that feels like as a student.
I’m a little nervous about keeping up with the physical demands of the trip, it’s one thing to hike, another to hike with a soggy notebook and binoculars while covered in sweat. I’m also slightly anxious about making mistakes or missing obvious things in the field, but I think that’s part of the learning curve. Mostly, I’m just excited. I’m hoping to come back from this trip with better field skills, a more intuitive sense of the systems I’ve studied, and some great stories to tell.