Getting Ready To Go...

I started my blog a month ago so that I would be good and "practiced up" on the basics of blogging before my Big Trip!

It was close to this time last year that I was beginning to apply for the Patagonia PIRE (Partners for International Research and Education) program.  BYU has been developing international relationships with universities throughout Chile and Argentina- the Patagonia region- to learn more about phylogeography and speciation, and to give undergraduate students (like me) opportunities to get international research experience.

I applied for the program last winter, interviewed for it, and then didn't find out I was accepted until the last day of the semester (mid April).  I moved home once I found out I was accepted (to save money and because my famly is awesome), and took a required  preparatory class fall semester.  There was a cultural portion of the class, and a portion devoted to preparing a research proposal and learning more specifics about the PIRE project.  

I will be going to Cordoba with one other student- Amanda- who took the prep class with me last semester. 

After nearly a year of preparation, planning, and saving money, It's almost time to go! In less than two weeks I will be flying off to Argentina.

I bought my backpack this weekend at REI and got a really amazing deal.  

Amanda and I plan to take "small" weekend trips to nearby locations during the time we are supposed to be making scientific discoveries.  After we finish up our research (we constantly have to remind ourselves that's why we're going), we want to spend three weeks backpacking throughout Argentina and Chile.

We spent time throughout last semester looking through numerous travel guides that we checked out from the library.  We made our final decisions on the books we liked and we each purchased a book to take down with us (to plan our amazing backpacking trips).

• My Birkenstocks are in the shoe-shop getting a new cork bed/insole put in (can you be a true backpacker without Birkenstocks?)...
• My passport is back from the almighty passport people with new pages put in...
• My Ralph Lauren shorts that were only THREE DOLLARS a pair at Dillard's are out of storage...

Slowly but surely I'm getting ready...