Dr. B: June 2008 Archives

The course's field assistant, Johanna Weston, coordinated the amazing First Annual Welly-Wanging competition.  Students competed by flinging their field-issue rubber boots off the their right foot without using their hands or kicking the boot.  Competitors were judged based on distance in a best-of-three competition.

Our two winners were Noah Jouett (Best distance:  18 meters) and Mary Boyum (Best distance:  16 meters).  The winners (dubbed the winning wangers)  were garlanded not with a traditional laurel given to Olympic athletes, but with a balsa leaf worn on their heads.  We'll post more photos of the competition later, but here's one taken by Debbie of Leaves and Lizards.  She and Steve, along with our guide Geovany, were our special guests (and only spectators) for the competition.


From left:  Mary Boyum, Adaire Chatry, Johanna Weston, Christopher Gurguis, Samantha Behrent, Lorea Ormazabal, Katheryn Miller, Katherine Biernat, Adriane Smith

All three groups finished their fieldwork yesterday, and so far the data are fairly complete and should give them quite a lot to analyze when we return to Dallas tomorrow.  Steve and Debbie have told us that they have gotten more than they expected from our group, and we hope to have even more to tell them about their property after more analysis is done.

The students have a free day today, and some will head out for whitewater rafting, while others are doing a canopy zip-line tour.  They are anxious to see a little more of the area around us, and are thinking a lot of their friends and family and what to bring home as gifts.  Last night most of the students went to a local church in Monterrey for mass, and enjoyed the experience and the differences in Mass her compared to back home, including for a while bats circling in the top of the church.

We will have them post one more blog entry before we leave, and some photos of yesterday's welly wanging competition.