On Thursday I did a complete dissection with supervision. Because we don't have all of the necessary materials as of now, we can't do a full electrophysiology prep until Wednesday. We also found out that the equipment that was sent from Arizona had already arrived, but was held in customs. So hopefully we will have everything and actually start the experiment very soon. One cool thing is that as I meet lab colleagues, I start putting faces to the names on papers. One thing that I was disappointed about was the fact that I will not be able to get internet access on my laptop at the lab - time will pass by a lot slower...
On Friday, because my mentor had to finish things up with the Semana de las Ciencias, I had another free day to roam the city. It's a lot colder than I expected. I was expecting a tropical winter where it was humid but not too cold, but I was mistaken. It is about 40F right now... Apart from the weather, I can use the metro system pretty much with ease and know now which ones are cheaper than the others. I just went around the Centro again, doing some touristy things and buying stuff from street vendors. I also warded off some homeless people by pretending I didn't speak Spanish. I got lost a couple times and went through some sketchy places. But I saw the Palacio Legislativo y otros...
On another note, I'm finally getting more used to Spanish - though I still cannot communicate what I am thinking as effectively as I would like, at least I now understand enough to guess correctly what people are saying. I met a couple university students and had a couple drinks with them. I talked about Arizona and the usual stuff, and it is very obvious that they are not used to seeing peoples of Asian descent down here, much less one that can speak their language. And for the first time in Uruguay, I finally had the famous drink called el mate, a communal drink that they pass around among each other. It tastes like tea, but I think they said it was somewhat narcotic. Well, I didn't feel anything so... Anyway, speaking with people my age is both easier and harder. Easier to relate to, but harder to understand because of the slang and the speed at which they speak. And to further add to the generalization that everything happens later in Latin America, they finally decided to go out at 3am. In the US, I don't think most bars are even open that late. Too bad I passed out at 2am.
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