Typing While Thinking of Texcotzingo and Teotihuacan

Anyone who knows me at all knows that I can’t sit still to save my life. I’m always tapping my leg, clicking a pen, twisting in my chair. You also know how much I dislike sitting at a desk and working on my computer all day. I prefer to go outside, get my hands dirty, and just be doing something active. Knowing all that information, you can imagine how hard it was for me to sit in my office for two days straight, working on my internship report so that it would be finished by next Thursday.

Now you may be thinking, “Isabell, you still have 18 days left! That's a little over two weeks! Why does your report need to be done so soon? Chillax!” Well, next Thursday I will present my research in a Spotlight Session to CIMMYT staff. Therefore, I need to have my report done so that I can present my research and develop a slideshow to go with it.

So you can imagine me sitting in my office on Monday, “dying” because it's such a beautiful day and I would like to go outside, but no, I have to type away. Now, to be fair, I did get a lot of my report done on Monday. I was analyzing the Hub Model like it was nobody's business, but as I was typing, I couldn’t help but think about being outside, and my mind began to wander back to June 29th.

It was a beautiful Sunday morning in Texcoco. My friend Joshua picked me up because today we were going to the Teotihuacan Pyramids. This ancient Aztec site consists of the Sun and Moon Pyramids. The Sun Pyramid is one of the biggest in the world, and the Aztecs also believed it to be the creation place of the Gods. We climbed the stairs of the Moon pyramid, and Joshua kept pretending he was falling to scare me (I’m terrified of heights). However, I remembered the awe I felt looking at those Pyramids. Thinking about all of the things we don’t know about them and how we will never know.

Pictures of the Sun Pyramid

The View from the Moon Pyramid when we climbed it

We then made our way to Texcotzingo, a site that acted as the summer imperial gardens and was a sacred place. It was created by Netzahualcoyotl, and he developed an aqueduct system to bring water down the mountain. The feeling of hiking up the mountain to sit at the top and enjoy the view was priceless.

The Aqueduct System of Texcotzingo

A Cave in the Mountain and The View from the Top of the Mountain

By the end of the day on Monday, I had completed the “Methods” section of my paper and started my results. It felt so good to have accomplished so much, but I still wished I could’ve been back at Texcotzingo and Teotihuacan.

Now I thought one whole day in the office was terrible, but a second day in a row was even worse. I could not sit still. As I was typing away, I would stop to check my email even though I knew there was nothing there. I was constantly getting up to “go to the bathroom” even though I didn’t have to go, just to move a little. I found my mind wandering to Texcoco and the walks around the city just to get groceries and lunch. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t seeing something as cool as Teotihuacan. I was just enjoying experiencing the culture and the change of scenery. By the end of the day on Tuesday, I had completed my entire paper, including supporting information and references, but boy, did I have the itch to be outside. I also completed my whole slideshow to submit on Wednesday.

The City of Texcoco

Speaking of Wednesday, I was with Sylvanus, which meant I was FREE! Free from the chains of my computer and office. He put me with Joshua to take soil samples so that we could measure moisture content, and I was like a kid in a chocolate factory (If you know me, you also know I love soil!). This task was incredibly important because it is considered a confounding variable in an experiment being conducted by the mechanization team concerning the time it takes for different machines to plant a section. After we spent the rest of the day running trials on the efficiency of a four-wheeled tractor. I ended the day by attending a tech talk about the maize breeding program at CIMMYT. I was so happy to have spent the day working outside and learning new things.

Taking the Soil Samples (Credits to Joshua for the Amazing Pictures!)

The Tech Talk about Maize Breeding

Thursday, however, was a slightly different story. I was with the Geographic Information Systems team. In the morning, I got a presentation on what they did and how they did it. Dr. Sonder even let me mess around with the machine learning software they use to piece together the images from drone flights. It was super cool, but then came the bad news. They plan on having me help fly a drone (Even more super cool), but that won’t be till this afternoon. It was ten o’clock. That meant I was being sent back to my office.

Even though my report and slideshow were completed, I was lucky enough to have some things for the Iowa State Honors Program that I needed to take care of. Even then, it felt like torture to have to wait until the afternoon. It was all I could think about. So I took my mind back to the past Sunday.

I was able to explore Mexico City with my friend Sylvia. First, we went to Mexico's National Anthropology Museum. It was so big that we spent four hours wandering around, and that was without being able to read any of the descriptions. We were able to see the Aztec Stone of the Sun, which was originally thought to be the Aztec calendar because of the Mayan Calendar.

The National Museum of Anthropology

After we went to the only castle in Mexico, the Chapultepec Castle, this is where the French Kings and Queens of Mexico lived during the French occupation. It was beautiful and had a great museum full of artifacts and paintings.

The Chapultepec Castle

This memory was just what I needed to get me through to the afternoon. And even when we didn't end up flying the drone, I decided to focus on the fun adventure I hope to have this weekend.

On Friday, I was with Odette to learn about the gender equity department. However, our activities didn’t start until ten, and I had to be at work at eight. So, I went back to Puebla and Cholula. The grand and beautiful churches made the issue of waiting feel a lot smaller.

The Cathedrals and markets in Puebla and Cholula