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These past 6 months in Barcelona have been fantastic and it wouldn’t have been so without the support of a number of people. Firstly, Julia Dordel and the TerreWEB internship scholarship which made it possible for me to be here. Second, Joan Romanyà and the other professors at the UB’s Department of Soil Science (Montse, Jose, Mari, and Amparo): thank you so much for making my time with you so great and so productive! I thank my thesis supervisor, Mark Johnson, at UBC for being ok with me taking off to Spain and supporting my project here. I am grateful for my sister’s company in Barcelona and for friends that came to visit (Luisa y Lourdes, queridas amigas!). Thank you to Angel, our housemate, for not minding a third person in the apartment, and of course, great, big thanks to my partner, Luis, for making my time here so special.

This is the end of The Barc6lona Half. I really enjoyed writing it and taking photos with the blog in mind. I hope for those of you who followed that you enjoyed it too, and I hope to see you soon and/or stay in touch.

On to new adventures!! (like finishing this thesis…)

My first week in Barcelona. Having arrived last Saturday night, Sunday was dedicated to relaxing at the beach. There were no coco gelados (cold coconut water) or milho verde (roasted corn cobs), but it was a nice beach day nonetheless. The cool maritime breeze and 8pm sunset are a stark contrast to the short, dry, hot days of Cuiabá, Brazil that I recently left behind.

On Monday afternoon I took the 30-minute bus ride from my apartment in the Poble Nou neighborhood to the University of Barcelona to meet with Dr. Joan Romanyà, my supervisor for the next 6 months. The UB campus is lovely, with a mixture of old and new buildings gathered in a corner of the city, palm trees scattered here and there. Joan’s office is in the Departament de Productes Naturals, Biologia Vegetal i Edafologia (Department of Natural Products, Plant Biology, and Soil Science) in the Faculty of Pharmacy. On questioning Joan why soil science was in the Faculty of Pharmacy he explained that historically biology was part of Pharmacy and when Biology became its own faculty, some parts remained behind. I have the feeling that soils are often squeezed in wherever they may fit, sometimes not even considered separate from plant science. It’s hard when soils are part of so many interdisciplinary issues such as sustainable agriculture, climate change, water management, food security, etc. However, this also allows for much collaboration, as Joan asserted he often collaborates with colleagues in the Faculty of Biology.

Joan is a soft-spoken, laidback man and I was pleased to see he was wearing sandals at work, reflecting the casual work environment I was hoping would be there. After discussing our plan of action for the next few months, meeting other professors, and a tour of the lab, I sat down at my new desk to start reading up on what I need to learn to carry out our lab experiment. There are sadly few students around, only one work-study student from Chemistry. Joan has no graduate students at the moment as academic funding in Spain is tight right now. Still, I look forward to working with Joan and learning a lot from him. Speaking of learning, next week I will be presenting a poster at the Soil Organic Matter (SOM) 2015 Symposium in Göttingen, Germany. I hope to learn more about SOM and see what other research is being done on biochar.