Thursday, September 13, 2007

All work and some play, too...

I was thinking today that I haven´t talked about work at all in my last few posts, so here is a little update on how that is going. First, my experiences here thus far working on developing my project with Julieta (my advisor here), have been really different than my experiences developing my Master´s thesis topic and methodology in Kansas. I don´t know yet if it is a difference between the research styles of Chris, my advisor in Kansas, and Julieta, a difference between Geography as a discipline and Agricultural Engineering as a discipline, or a difference between Brazilian academia and US academia. So far, what impresses me most is the strong focus here on establishing and documenting a solid methodology, whereas in Kansas no one ever really asked me for an incredibly concrete documented methodology. The result is that I am really enjoying this process of laying out and thinking through very meticulously what it is I am doing. I am also getting a lot of coaching and feedback on the questionaire and interview questions I am formulating. It is really, really cool, and very helpful. I feel like even if this particular project does not become part of my future dissertation, it will be a very solid and good study all by itself. I have not been out to the cooperative yet, but I go next week.


Sandra, a visiting researcher from France, arrived to Campinas two nights ago, and she is staying in the same pensionato that I am. She is cool--she speaks very little Portuguese, but does speak English, so it has taken a lot of effort to not speak English all the time with her, and only when it is necessary. We went out last night with some friends from the lab. Lots, I mean, lots of fun and it was good to get out and let loose for a night. Agricultural engineers are crazy. Here are some photos. Sandra is the one with the bottle and glass in her mouth...
Tchau!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Heather, you are so lucy to be with such beautiful people I especially like the men. I read the important part about your work too. However it is nice to see you work and play, the best in life.
Sharon