3 weeks!!

Hello everyone! I am back again and I have just 3 weeks left until I am back in the United States! I also bought my ticket from Seattle to Minneapolis and I will be back on July 17th at 11:00pm. It's very exciting but very scary too because I have a ton of stuff to do before I leave and no time at all. But, I'm not too far behind and going to Juizhaigou and traveling with Alex was definitely worth it! Back in Chengdu, Alex and I spent a fun-filled afternoon with Laura at the Wholesale market in the north. We explored the Chinese medicine market and stalls upon stalls of the same little stores selling bulk toothpaste, Chinese snacks, tea, alcohol, and various other amenities. We then wandered into the hotel supply store where we found the wholesale restaurant supply stores, a gold mine. Of particular interest was a watermelon knife that Laura bought which we had to try out that night, but we all left with loot. The next morning, on the 12th, Alex left and hopefully made it home OK and in time for jury duty, oh the American Legal System. I went to school that Tuesday, went to rugby, ran some errands, and wrote a ten-page paper for my women's studies class about Women in Ancient China all before hopping on a bus to Juizhaigou the next morning at 8:00am. The main road to Juizhaigou was taken out by a landslide so we took another one-lane road and were stuck in a tour bus traffic jam for the first 6 or so hours of the trip. 12 hours later I arrived in Juizhaigou and found the rest of the UW group. The next week or so flew by in a whirl wind of field research and I was so happy to have the opportunity to participate. The research is a collaborative effort between the park science department, Chuan Da, and UW and there were professors, students, and park employees all working together on interdisciplinary projects focusing on understanding past, current, and future human impacts on the park and surrounding natural environments. I helped out mainly with the ecology and geology teams; other teams were wetlands - mapping the wetlands in the park, anthropology - talking with people about preserving traditional practices, especially in relation to the environment, archeology - self explanatory, and bamboo - trying to understand the regrowth of bamboo in the park, which is also a habitat for the giant panda. I helped set up plots to record plant presence and diversity with in the park and helped map terraces that have been occurring in the park, possibly as a secondary result of human activity. I learned so much about different fields of research and really enjoyed working with everyone. It was a great experience all around. In other exciting news, I came home to discover Laura's sister gave birth to her 3rd child, Cruz Emmanuel Lopez who is cute as a button. Congratulations are definitely in order! Also another reason to be excited to go home and another reminder that time, in fact, does not stand still while we are here and many things can happen in a year.
I got back tonight and am starting on my mile-long list. Blog, check. Write more later if anything else interesting happens.....i mean when :)!