Days away..

Well, here I am, preparing this long awaited trip (journey?) to Panama that shall begin in a couple of days, on January 3rd.

I have decided to start a blog because I have never done so but have always been tempted, and I think this is the perfect opportunity (and of course to share my adventures and photos with everyone I care about and will greatly miss over the next 4+ months.)

Some of you know exactly what I will be doing in Panama while I'm sure others have no idea, so I will just give a quick description of what this is all really about. I'm participating in the Panama Field Study Semester (PFSS) at McGill along with 25 other students from McGill and 5 from Panama, which lasts the length of a regular semester at McGill, from January to the end of April. This program aims at adding a field component to our studies and is done in conjunction with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (http://www.stri.si.edu/).

Though I am studying Environment and Economics, there are students completing other majors such as International Development, Biology, Psychology...
Monday through Wednesday is devoted to the 3 classes we will be taking which are

• BIOL 553: Neotropical Environments
• GEOG 498: Humans in Tropical Environments
• AGRI 550: Sustainable Tropical Agriculture

Thursday and Friday are dedicated ENVR 451: Research in Panama. I will be doing an internship with Isobel in Pedasi with a with local NGO.. more on that in a future post.

We will be living in the Ciudad del Saber in houses of 6 near the Miraflores locks of the Canal in Panama City.
At this point that is pretty much all I know!

If I had not decided to participate in this program I would have gone to the University of Queensland in Brisbane Australia, so I guess that will be for a next trip.
I actually have been to Panama before, for 10 days in December 2010 with my family, which makes me naturally a bit less nervous, though just as excited. I am particularly looking forward to finally mastering my spanish.

Next post will be in Panama !
Hasta pronto.

PS Here is a teaser from last year's trip!