Plans for 2009....

After much debate, advice from others, and some real soul-searching, I finally have plans for next year. With much enthusiasm, I will still remain a student in the fall of 09. I will be starting a masters program in Agricultural Communications and will still be in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences here at Ohio State. While my job search yielded offers, and serious consideration with Syngenta, my love and pride for Ohio State cannot be denied.

**at the right, Me, and my friends and neighbors Jena and Gus spell out the O-H-I-O tradition in D.C. in March.... with a little help from the Washington Monument of course!

I feel very fortunate to have this opportunity, and owe much thanks to the faculty I have worked with over the past three years, in addition to my mentors in the Dean's office, for their help in providing me this opportunity. . As many of you know I am an active College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences Ambassador where I spend a lot of my free time recruiting students to the university and our specific college. During my graduate admissions process, I knew I had made the right decision when these roles were reversed, and the faculty and administration of CFAES made special efforts to retain me in their graduate programs. I am so very EXCITED to start back in a new role and am eager to share with all of you as this next phase unfolds.

**picture is of my best friend, Erin, friend Dustin Brown, and I at the Wood County 4-H Camp Counselor reunion a few weeks ago!

In other news, we are almost half way through spring quarter!! Classes, clubs, and preparing for our College Recognition Banquet are keeping me quite busy. On May 7th I will be serving as a narrator for our college wide banquet and will be named a Top 20 Senior-- one of our college's top awards. In addition to our college awards, I will be having dinner (along with other students) next week with E. Gordon Gee-- Ohio State University President, as I am recognized as in the President's Salute to Outstanding Academic Achievement.


Oh.. and if I couldn't forget-- I bought a new car! Well actually a mid-size SUV-- but none-the-less... I am now a proud owner of a red Mercury Mariner (yes, Uncle Bob and I are twins) and passed on my blue chevy truck to a 16 year old first time driver at home!

Hope this finds all of you well! Make sure to email, call, or heck-- COME VISIT me!

With love,
Stacie

Back in the States!

Needless to say, I had the time of my life in Brazil this winter. I hope each of you enjoyed following along as I posted my thoughts, activities, and a few pictures about my journey through Central America. I was so very fortunate to travel to wonderful places, learn so much about the agribusiness and production agriculture climate in Brazil, and meet so many amazing people throughout the 6 weeks. ** To the right is a picture of my host family and I on one of my last nights in Piracicaba!

So.. you are probably wondering... Whats next for me?

Well, that is a good question-- and if I knew for certain, I would share my plan with all of you. BUT- with many opportunities still out to jury, I will just update you on what I have been doing in the 4 weeks since my return to the states.

I have been able to spend quite a bit of time at home in Bowling Green. From family game nights, attending Cate's first 4-H meeting with her and a few basketball games, catching up with family and friends, and getting some quality rest and relaxation, I have stayed quite busy.

In addition to time at home, I have also spent some time in Columbus catching up at club meetings and such. Two weeks ago I spent 2 days in Minneapolis interviewing for a job with Syngenta Seeds, and I spent last week in Washington D.C. with my Alpha Zeta Partners group studying organizational change by meeting with several agriculturally-related organizations.

Now, I find myself back at home for just 5 more days before school starts back up again for Spring quarter! I am very excited for my spring quarter classes and schedule (Yes, I am a dork) and for the spring excitement on campus in Columbus.

When spring quarter wraps up in June, I will be staying in Columbus for the summer to complete an internship with Farm Credit Services of Mid-America and will be taking my FINAL 2 Classes at Ohio State before graduating in August!

Eleven day trip!!

We headed off last wednesday night to begin our 11 day trip all around Brazil. As of tonight, we are in our 5th hotel and have at least made pit stops in nearly 20 cities. While the last 4-5 days have started running together with little sleep and long bus rides in between-- I will try to recap a few of the highlights.

- Friboi/JBS Beef Processing Plant- here we got to walk through the whole process-- literally from unloading the truck, stun gun, removing the skin, halving, cuts, and all the way to processed corned beef ready for the shelf!! Very interesting, but definitely not for those with weak stomachs!

- Nova India Semen Farm- we got to visit this farm, featuring over 30 head of Brazil's top bulls, and tour their holding pens, embryo transfer facility, laboratories, and even watched them make a few collections.

- Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture- we visited the Brazilian equiavlent to the USDA yesterday and got to learn about the different sectors of agriculture around the country, ask lots of questions, and drew many conclusions about the similarities and differences between agricultural support programs in the US.

- CNA (similar to US Farm Bureau)- one of the most interesting places we visited! We spoke with representatives about lobbying the government, agricultural education and vocational training, and the leadership among Brazilian farmers in controlling policy decisions.

- HOT SPRINGS!! Best day ever! We got to spend the entire day Saturday at a Brazilian equivalent outdoor water park! After 8 hours of floating thru the lazy river, fighting the waves in the wave pool, and reading an entire book, I was sufficiently RED but loved the relaxing day!

Other visits have included: ABCZ- Brazilian Zebu Cattle Association, Beef Feedlots, Driving Tour of the Capital of Brazil-- Brasilia, visit to INMET- the national meteoroloy institute of Brazil, any several road stops along the way!!

With 5 more days of travel left before heading back to Piracicaba, we are running low on sleep and are quite sick of sitting on our bus for 4-5 hours a day, but are ENJOYING every minute!!

**sorry no pictures, internet is kind of slow and pictures take far too long to upload!

Nature Girl 2 - - Santos and Sao Paulo

This past week and weekend we spent 4 days in Santos and Sao Paulo-- both cities east (closer to the ocean!!) of Piracicaba. After traveling wednesday night, we started out on our second hiking journey first thing thursday morning. This time we were going to hike along the coast, visit some lowland estuaries, and eventually end up at a BEACH! Beginning with the end in mind-- I was easily able to get through the mud and mountains knowing that shortly we would be sunbathing on the beach. Upon our arrival, we all stripped down and spent an hour or so in the ocean. We then walked along the beach (we were the only people there!) and explored for a while before heading back to the bus.

Friday morning came early, as we set out for the Porto de Santos-- one of the largest ports in Brazil and South America. Here we visited with the port authority, and traveled down to one the bays to tour the ADM facility. We met with the ADM elevator operators and got to tour their storage and ship load out facilities. I found this especially interesting after spending my summer internship at a Cargill Barge load out facility. **left view from one of the terminals, right Gus and I-- past and future Cargill interns in our hard hats!

After grabbing a quick lunch, we went to the Santos aquarium and then on a 2 hour boat tour of the port and surrounding areas. It was really interesting to see all the products that are handled throughout the port, and it was great to relax on the boat with the group for a few hours. Friday night we spent at a local shopping mall and retired early to get ready for another busy day on Saturday.

Saturday was a pretty relaxing day as well, spending all morning at the Sao Paulo Zoo and the afternoon at the Sao Paulo Art Museum. It was cool to see all of the animals, compare with the Toledo and Columbus Zoos, and enjoy the sunshine. The art museum was very different, but they had a neat Chinese art exhibit with many pieces focused around the olympic games.

Saturday Night was a definite cultural experience-- as our whole group headed to a Samba club in Sao Paulo. We got there at 11-- which was very early for them-- and waited around til after midnight when the crowds starting rolling in. While we received many stares from Brazilians, we still danced the night away, regardless of how rediculous we probably looked. Sunday morning we shopped at the "Hippie Market" downtown and ate lunch at a traditional Brazilian BBQ. This restaurant served us over 32 different cuts of meat (bite size pieces) along with cheese, potatoes, and a salad bar, for over 3 hours!! Needless to say it was pretty quite as everyone easily fell asleep onthe ride back to Piracicaba last night!!

Overall a very good weekend!! Spending three days in class this week before heading off for an 11 day trip!! Have been able to get some souvenirs but hoping to find some more things in the next week or so!! Ohhh.. and one special person should be receiving a piece of mail in the next few days!! Watch your mailboxes to see if you are the lucky one!!

P.S. For those of you wondering... ** I have yet to find Juan Valdez or a Dick's Sporting Goods store!! hahaha : )

Weekend with Host Family

After returning from touring on Friday, we quickly showered, packed, and got ready to be picked up by our host family. The father, little brother and sister-- Marco, Joao Vitor, and Cintia, came to pick me up around 7:15. We headed to their house-- only about 10 minutes from the hotel. Upon arriving I met the rest of the family, took a tour of their home, and sat down for dinner with the whole family. Later in the evening went over to Marco's parents home on the other side of the city where I learned to make Fezuada (a native dish of Pork and Black Beans). Being that it was a long day, we headed home and went to bed early friday night.


Saturday morning -- for the first time in Brazil-- I got to sleep in! When I got up my host Mom-- Cleide-- had made a delicious breakfast. Cleide and I then walked about 5 blocks to visit Cintia (sister) at the clothing store she works at. When we got home we changed our clothes and packed our bags to head 30 minutes out of Piracicaba to a summer cottage. We spend all afternoon swimming, having Brazilian BBQ, dancing, and playing cards. It was a lot of fun-- and was definitely something very similar to many of our summer cookouts in Ohio!

Saturday night we headed back to the city-- got cleaned up and ate some more (Brazilians love to eat!!) Vinicius (brother), Cintia (sister), and Cleber (their cousin) and I headed out around 10 o'clock to visit some of their friends and go to a few bars around Campus. We had a great time and met a lot of people-- even some who spoke english!

Sunday was absolutely perfect-- as all we did was sleep, watch movies, and eat. It reminded me of being at home as well... especially when my host dad Marco turned on his favorite show TWO AND HALF MEN!! We talked about how that was my dad's favorite show too! (It is really amazing how much American music and television programs Brazilians follow). Everyone slept in, ate lunch, watched 27 dresses, and got cleaned up before I headed back to the hotel around 7. All-in-all it was a great weekend with a great family. I really enjoyed spending time with such wonderful people-- and could find some many similarities between my family and theirs.

Friday Touring.

Friday was spent touring around Piracicaba-- seeing the central market (much like the North Market in Columbus) and visiting the Cathedral in the town square. We were able to spend some time shopping, walking around, and took a lot of cool pictures. After lunch in the downtown area-- we headed down by the Piracicaba river and took more pictures at an old abandoned sugarcane mill.
We spend the afternoon touring Coplacana-- a local sugarcane cooperative. Coplacana has its headquarters in Piracicaba, but has several branch locations to serve all of its members. We were able to tour their office building, their seed and animal feed divisions, chemical warehouse and their supply store. They were truly a full service co-op-- complete with a automotive center to help their farmers out with anything they needed. After leaving Coplacana we headed outside Piracicaba to visit a new biodiesel plant. The new plant will be online in about 10 months-- and will be able to process several different grains to produce biodiesel. This was one of my favorite stops thus far, as I was able to ask a lot of questions to help compare and contrast the differences between biodiesel and ethanol production.

Flowers, and Palm Trees, and Oranges.. Oh My!!

We took a break from classes yesterday to travel out of Piracicaba to tour different farms, agribusinesses, and processing facilities. We started off on the wrong foot, as our bus driver got us lost and almost 2 hours late to our first tour. Our first stop was at Veiling Hollambre-- one of the largest flower markets in all of Brazil. Here, nearly 500 flower buyers gather each day to bid on a variety of different native and exotic species. We got to walk through the thousands of racks of flowers, watch as buyers bid on flowers, and talk with a worker from the market.



From there we visited a 25 acre greenhouse that produces many ornamental products to sell at the market. Gustavos--manager of the operation-- showed us several different species of palm trees, both native Brazil.. and others extremely rare brought back from other countries. Gustavos was a graduate of ESALQ-- the school we are studying at-- and in addition to a tour, he shared with us his career path, marketing and entreprenurial advice, and other information about trade and agriculture in Brazil.
** left some cactuses in colorful pots, and right.. MUMS!

After leaving the greenhouse we switched industries, now on to citrus. We toured a seed generation and seedling facility. Here, they produced seedling for lime, lemon, and orange trees. We toured the greenhouses and learned about the bud grafting process for selecting different traits. From there we stayed with the same group of guides and traveled on to a orange processing facility. Oranges are brought in by the producer, put in a special holding room to ripen, and are then cleaned , inspected, and package for delivery. Our last stop of the day was at a GIANT orange grove. We got to walk down into a valley, surrounded by orange trees, pick one off the tree, and ENJOY. The day in all was a definite VITAMIN C overload-- as at everystop we have oranges, orange juice and more- but definitely a very fun day!