i. What were your goals for the course in Peru? To what extent did you realize these goals? Please give specific examples if possible. We’d also like to know the extent to which COVID-19 affected your ability to realize your goals.

Before starting the course, my goals were to learn all I could about the steps involved in the research related to functional characters and to meet new people interested in functional ecology and to be able to understand more about their perceptions and ways of working.
I believe that I was able to learn a lot about the research related to functional characters in general, but sadly I think I could have learned more about data analysis if COVID-19 wouldn’t have changed things in the way it did. Anyway, I think that I will have different PFTC5 related opportunities to learn more about data analysis and discussion of results.
When it comes to my second objective, meeting new people and learning about their ways of thinking and working, I think I nailed it. COVID-19 made a lot of us live together for more than 20 days and it seems that you really get to know people if you get stuck with them in a foreign country during a global crisis. I learned a lot about how people manage stress, work, and ecology, and I also made good friends.

ii. What did you learn about yourself during this course?

I learned that I can certainly work in groups, even on really rainy days and in really stressful situations.