The Borlaug Blog

06/29/2024: The Friday night before this I went to the festival of San Juan. This is an old religious tradition where on June 24th every year they celebrate the summer solstice. They celebrate at a church with many dancers and decorate it with flowers and ribbons. There are many dancers and they begin the ceremony by dancing into the church and bringing in a banner for John the Baptist. Then they dance out of the church and onto a large platform. For about two hours or more, these dancers dance a choreographed dance that they memorized. It represents the corn's lifecycle from planting to harvest. They also throw out candy, fruits, vegetables, and much more to the crowd while they dance. I caught a desert pear, a mango, and some marshmallows. The next morning, I woke up very late since I had stayed out so late the night before. I did my laundry at the communal laundry room, took a shower, and worked on my research report for a little bit. At 2:00 PM (14:00) I went with my boss's family to a birthday party in Texcoco. It was for a girl named Emma who was turning 15! It was so much fun, they had food being served the entire night. They had a mariachi band come to play for her and there was a dance floor that was almost always full. I got to try lots of authentic Argentinian food and I watched the Argentina soccer name with them too! I met a lot of people who work in CIMMYT, are retired from CIMMYT, or who have studied at Iowa State University which I thought was so cool! A lot of people have either been to Iowa State University because of their plant sciences programs or they have studied there. Afterwards, everyone brought home leftovers, it was such a fun night! [CONTINUE READING]