Animal Diversity

One of the classes I'm taking this semester is Animal Diversity. Not surprisingly, I LOVE this class! It's so fascinating! One of the coolest parts about it has been how much attention we've given to invertebrates. When I started the class, I realized we would spend the majority of the class studying invertebrates, and to be honest, I was a little disappointed. But it's actually so interesting! It's really helped me feel a lot more wonder about all the animals in the world, from sponges to jellyfish, from blue whales to flatworms. Animals that seemed so simple before have been surprisingly complex, like earthworms-- I always used to think of earthworms as being "barely" animals, but they actually have complex organs, a brain, eyes, jaws, and make themselves burrows which they return to daily. 

It's also been really fun to do dissections every week. My lab partner and I have gotten to be really good friends, and we have had fun getting more used to using the instruments and learning a ton about each animal phylum that we've studied. We started with the most basic, Sponges (Porifera), which lack true tissues, symmetry, or any ability to move, and have slowly moved up through the phyla, advancing in complexity through Cnidarians (Jellyfish, sea anemones, corals), Platyhelminthes (Flatworms, tape worms and flukes), Annelids (Earthworms, sea worms, sand worms), Nematoda (Roundworms -- the ones Alicia did lots of work on), Molluscs (Clams, snails, squids, octopi) and now we're working on Arthropods (Spiders, insects, millipedes). Some fun facts I've learned about these animals:

Nematodes are the most abundant type of animal on earth. Of all individual animals (not species, individuals), 80% are nematodes.

Platyhelminthes have extremely complex life cycles-- usually three or more hosts (they're almost all parasitic), and as many as eight different forms and life stages.

All Cnidarians are stinging-- the reason sea anemones feel kinda sticky when you touch them is because they've shot off hundreds of microscopic "harpoons" that are all sticking on the outside of your skin with "strings" still attached to the organism (they're not strong enough to get through human skin and actually hurt you)

Spiders lost their sensory organs (antennae), but many of them use the front pair of their legs as antennae most of the time and walk on only six legs.

The largest arthropod that ever lived was some 13 ft long (It was a giant swimming scorpion)

Our closest relatives as chordates are sea urchins and starfish.

Arthropods are the most species diverse group-- about a quarter of all known animal species are beetles.

There's a wasp that's about the same size as a single celled paramecium-- and it's not even the smallest insect in the world.

Live the Riv

Going back to school was exciting, but it was sad to end my 8 month hiatus. Surprisingly, the plane was mostly empty, and I had all the room I could want.

I am living at the Riviera Apartments now! I love my little home, but I'm also excited to be moving to the Brittany apartments in May. One of the best parts of the Riviera is being next door to Swig, a gourmet soda place. 

Dental days

While I was in Albuquerque, I got to shadow a number of dentists. It's been fun as I've expanded the number of practices I've visited to see how the atmospheres differ, and how each dentist interacts with their patients and their staff.
I spent a couple of days in a general dentist's office, and really liked what I saw. General dentistry does look like a lot of fun since there's such a wide variety of different things you can do, and you get to build patient relationships a little more than you might in a specialist setting.
I also went to an endodontist's office. Endodontists are specialists in root canals and apicos (a procedure that tries to repair a failed root canal) primarily, though they also perform some procedures that deal with tooth development and regeneration. Since the only procedure they do, for the most part, is root canals, with the occasional apico, I thought it would be really boring. But I actually really enjoyed it! It was fun watching the doctor work, especially because everything is on such a minute scale (clearing out nerve channels on teeth is really precise work!). There were cool microscopes and cameras that the doctor looked through as they worked, which was quite different from, say, oral surgery, which is what I have the most exposure with.
And, best of all, I got to meet the zoo dentist! I went to his office, and he was really friendly and gave me a lot of advice about dental school, getting ready for applications, and choosing where to apply. He was also an older dentist, and it was good to get his perspective on dentistry since most of the dentists I've met have been relatively young. He told me that he's been volunteering as the zoo dentist for decades. His first animal patient was an otter. He took me to a back room where he had pictures up of him doing root canals on a polar bear, a jaguar and giving a filling to a mountain lion, and he had a hand print in paint from a gorilla he'd done some work on as well. It was so cool!

Ice Castles

On New Year's Eve we went to the Ice Castles in Midway! They were super fun, and it felt like I was walking through Frozen or something from the Chronicles of Narnia. 

We had watched some music videos filmed at the ice castles in previous years, and the videos actually made it look much smaller than it really was. There was plenty of space and a variety of fun areas in the castle.

There were lights that changed color constantly giving an otherworldly glow to the ice. The fountains were cool since steam would billow up out of the center of them, while all around was caked in ice.

Arches

On our way up to Utah for Christmas, we went to Arches. It was really fun, especially because we seemed to be the only ones there. It started snowing which gave the place a very different feel than usual. We had fun driving around and seeing some of the rocks. 

The best was all the extra cairns people had made.

I really liked seeing the park without so many people; it made it much easier to get the pictures we wanted.

Overall Experience

I loved my time in Spain. Absolutely loved it. It really was the time of my life, and while it was different than I expected, it certainly lived up to what I had hoped for out of the experience.

I fell in love with the country and culture, and I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity to go on this study abroad. I went to just about every major sight in Madrid, and attended the vast majority of the museums at least once (Reina Sofia, Tapestry factory, Naval Museum, etc.).

Some of my favorite experiences were from going to tapa bars and experiencing modern Spain. I loved going bar hopping, especially in Granada, where I had easily the most successful experience of it. The history in Spain was breathtaking. I loved learning about the history and getting familiar with the culture. My host abuelita made the experience that much better, and I enjoyed befriending her and her husband. My favorite cities we went to were probably Seville and Barcelona, and, of course, I absolutely loved Madrid. All of the trip was so great though, and I really liked seeing how much diversity there is within Spain.

In retrospect, I would’ve gotten the Rick Steve’s guide as an eBook. It would’ve been really helpful to have it around and be able to pull it out more easily and frequently in cathedrals and museums where I wanted to know more than just what was on the signs. I would’ve taken a good rain jacket; I’m not really sure what I was thinking when I decided not to bring one. I also would have started going out for tapas on my own much earlier, and I would’ve tried to talk to younger people. Most of my interviews were with people who were at least fifty years old, and I think I would have liked to learn more about today’s Spain from people who don’t remember the years of the regime. I also would have spent more time walking around and window shopping, rather than focusing almost my entire attention on the large attractions of Madrid. 

One of my biggest regrets was not tasting the famous jamón sooner, and let me tell you, there really is a difference between the usual jamón serrano, jamón iberico, and the jamón de bellota, pata negra. Anyone who goes should definitely try them all, because they really are quite great. The best is definitely the bellota, and I definitely recommend it to everyone!

The experience was so fun, and I would so recommend to everybody that they travel and experience other cultures. The biggest highlights were:

Tapa Hoppin'

(Foods-- the jamón, the paella, the gazpacho and the tapas are the way to go)

The Royal Palace

The "Golden Triangle of Art" in Madrid

The Sagrada Familia

Attending a Real Madrid soccer game

The cathedrals of Burgos, Seville and Toledo

Flamenco

Meeting a completely new people with their own widely diverse culture, learning about the history and people of Spain, and gaining a greater appreciation for all people everywhere.

Last days in Madrid

The last two days in Madrid, Laura and I went through all of the biggest sites-- The Prado, the Reina Sofia, The Royal Tapestry Factory, the Royal Palace, the Parque de Retiro, the Egyptian Temple of Debod, the museum of style and fashion, and so many other things!

It was really fun, and while we had a disappointing experience Tapa Hoppin', we ended the whole trip with the best Flamenco show I've been to, accompanied by the best paella and probably the best meal of my time in Spain.

T(w)oledo

Toledo is a fascinating city from a historical standpoint, being a rare example of Christians, Jews, and Muslims living in relative peace, cooperation and harmony for hundreds of years. There's a super fast train that takes you from Madrid to Toledo in 25 minutes, which was perfect. Unfortunately, it was pouring buckets all day, and Laura and I were drenched before we even made it to our early morning mass. We got through most of the day by going out and exploring for an hour or so at a time, and then retreating to a lovely little cafe that served us a few of the Spanish foods Laura hadn't tried yet.

While it was cold, windy, and very very wet, we still had fun at the beautiful synagogues and the breathtaking cathedral.

 One of my favorite El Greco paintings is this depiction of the derobing of Christ, and it was great to see it again.

Cooking in Madrid

Laura and I took a cooking class in Madrid, and learned to make Gazpacho, Sangria, and Paella. It was really fun because it was the two of us, one other guy, and the teacher. Our teacher took us to the market with her to buy most of the ingredients. We saw exactly what she got... and some really unexpected things, like how various organ meats are harvested.

But it was really fun cooking! The paella was more labor intensive than I expected, but we had fun cooking together, and getting to eat all of the things afterwards. We didn't know there would be an option of non-alcoholic sangria (apparently if we had called ahead and told them we don't drink, they would've gotten us things to make a virgin sangria), so while we didn't get to try what we made, we got the instructions to make it with assorted fruit juices to simulate the classic Spanish drink.

The two things we made turned out really well though! We were both pretty proud of our first attempt at making Paella and gazpacho.

Barcelona revisited

I really loved visiting the Sagrada Familia again, and I think it's one of my favorite things from the whole trip to Iberia. We got to go up in the towers and walk across the top of the nativity facade (which is currently the main entrance).

I gained a much better appreciation for the sheer size of the church. When it is completed, it will be the tallest church in the World, and is already the third tallest.

We went all through Park Guell, and had fun seeing the most iconic view of Barcelona again.

We also went back to the old Catalunyan palace and managed to get there just in time to see the most amazing sunset. I wish our cameras could have captured it, but it was perfect timing, and rather impromptu.

We went to Las Ramblas and checked out the iconic Moderist houses. They were all very different-- from each other and from anything else I'd really seen before.

We ended our trip to Barcelona with some great churros and liquid chocolate topped with the biggest, thickest glob of whipped cream I've ever seen.