Regresamos / We return

Just finished submitting a research grant and wanted you all to know that's why this blog hasn't been updated in a while! Sorry I made you wait so long! Glad you are back reading about our adventures :)


We've returned from a few trips over the past couple of months and it was great to be back on the mainland. Believe it or not, I really enjoyed the cooler weather! And also hanging out with old friends and family of course.

My first trip was to San Diego for the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting. This is the biggest neuroscience conference in the world that meets once a year in various cities around the US. I missed last year's meeting - which was in New Orleans - so I was ready to take on the conference this year. San Diego is one of my favorite cities that host the SfN conference, so I did lots of preparing to make sure I would try some new restaurants and do a little shopping, time permitting. Most of my time spent in SD was at the conference, but it was great to catch up with old friends and colleagues and see the latest neuroscience research going on! :-P

While I had an incredible time and wanted to stay longer in San Diego, I was also excited about coming home. Like I said before in my last post, San Juan is slowly starting to feel more like home everyday. I still find it hard to believe that I live three blocks from the beach and only an hour or so away from amazing beaches, caves, and the rainforest!

A couple weeks later, Ethan and I headed to Nashville to visit our family. His sister, brother-in-law, and 2 kids live there and some other family members traveled there as well. It was one big reunion! Although I spent a lot of time working on my grant application, I was able to get out a few times and enjoy Nashville.

On Thanksgiving morning, Ethan, Craig, and I raced in the Music City Thanksgiving Day 4-miler, which started in downtown Nashville at 8am. Brrrr! It was cold! 25 degrees Fahrenheit! That will definitely wake a person up :) Ethan and I ran together and finished in just under 33 minutes. Not bad for hardly training! I also came in 5th place in my age group!

Heading to the start line... it was so cold but at least the sun was shining!

I was ready to celebrate with some turkey and stuffing. Ethan's brother brought some ham that was farmed by Ethan's nephew. It was so delicious! I wish we could have brought some home. There was also some yummy butternut squash, sweet potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce and gravy, and roasted brussel sprouts. And of course, Ethan made his famous dinner rolls. They were the best batch I have had so far. My mom also brought some pies from the Fresh Market. Mmm!!!

My mom and I went to a Radio City Christmas Spectacular show with the Rockettes at the Grand Ole Opry - it was great! Finally, all of us went out on one of the last nights tp go bar hopping around Broadway, eat some BBQ and listen to live music. Country music ain't that bad after a couple of beers! haha :) Here are some photos:

Enjoying some beers n tunes at Legends Bar

Niece and nephew tower :)

I was sad to leave my family and wanted to stay longer on this trip... it was alot of fun playing with the kids, eating BBQ, and listening to live music. Can't wait to go back there soon!

For Christmas, we'll be staying here on the island. We might do a couple day trips to explore some new places we haven't been yet. I'll keep ya posted!

More Visitors / Más Visitantes

Ethan and I have had a slew of visitors over the past few weeks. First, my PhD advisor was in San Juan for several days attending a conference. On one of her days off, we took her for a hike on our favorite trail, the El Yunque Trail, at El Yunque National Rainforest. It was a long 3.5 hour hike, but well worth it! This was the second time Ethan and I have hiked this trail, and on the first time, we missed the incredible view from the top because the clouds were passing over Los Picachos peak, one of the tallest peaks in the El Yunque Rainforest at 3,175 feet. But on this day, we lucked out. Check out these views!

View of Luquillo and Fajardo from Los Picachos peak

Another lovely view!

We had to take our photos quickly... the clouds were coming in fast!

Then, Ethan's sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew came to visit for a week at the end of April. We had so much fun with them! Ethan's sister planned so many fun activities...  Check out some highlights, pictures courtesy of Ethan's sister:

Ethan and our nephew playing in the sand at the beach near our house. 

Playing at the pool... Don't drown, Ethan!

Snorkeling at the Seven Seas

Enjoying lunch and the sunshine on the catamaran

Check out this snorkeling video I found online. This is footage from the same area we went snorkeling... and possibly from the same tour group in Fajardo. This was my second time snorkeling ever, and it was so much fun! The tour boat gave us bread to feed the fish and they got really close! There were so many of them and all different colors and sizes... I can't wait to go again!

Here are some photos of the Bio-Bay tour we did in Fajardo at La Laguna Grande (the Grand Lagoon). There are only 7 Bioluminescent bays in the world... and three of them are in Puerto Rico! Here is a post from one of our favorite blogs about fun things to do in Puerto Rico with more information on the Bio-Bays. 

They had a food cart near the Bio-Bay that sold corn dogs wrapped in bacon! 

Got our life jackets on, ready for some adventure!

Getting our stroke in sync

We took the early tour before the sun set so we could get a better view of the lagoon and the mangroves. You can't see the dinoflagellate during the day, so you have to wait until after the sun sets to see the action. I was a little weary of going kayaking around a lagoon in murky water, but it was an incredible experience. These little dinoflagellates light up so much in the dark! Every time we moved our hands or oars in the water, it would light up! Ethan said it was one of the coolest things he's EVER seen. So obviously, we are going back next time we have more visitors.

Ethan's Churrasco Mofongo entreé at La Estación after the Bio-Bay tour

On the last day of their visit, I gave them a tour of the lab. I also showed the kids some fun science stuff. Check out my niece's fascination with a human heart!

A future cardiologist?

She was in awe over this heart... much the same way I am in awe of the brain!
I also explained to them what we study in the lab and showed them some of our "subjects."

Overall, this was a really great visit with my new family. We packed in a lot of activities and I think they had a great time.

We had about a week and a half to recover from this fun visit before my mom and step-dad came to visit for Mother's day and my birthday. My mom arrived first to stay at our house for a few nights, then joined her husband at the Conrad hotel and resort, where they stayed the rest of the week. They wanted to mainly relax, so we spent most of the time hanging out at the pool or walking along the beaches. For Mother's day, Ethan and I made my mom some breakfast, then we headed out to Playa Mar Chiquita, my favorite beach in Puerto Rico. We also wanted to do a little shopping, but the Puerto Ricans like to close EVERYTHING on Mother's day (this is also the case for Father's day too! who would have thought?). While we are used to Mother's day sales on the mainland, the Puerto Ricans use Mother's Day as another excuse to celebrate and party!

For my birthday, Ethan brought my mom to the lab, and I gave her a quick tour and introduced her to all my fun lab mates. After lunch, the lab surprised me with a birthday cake! It was so yummy. Then we finally went shopping. They have the Premium Outlets here, just like Waterloo in upstate NY. For dinner, we ate at Silk, where I enjoyed some delicious sushi!

After my step-dad arrived, we gave them the usual tours of Old San Juan and El Yunque. This time, El Yunque was a little different. Because May is one of the rainiest months in Puerto Rico, the rivers and waterfalls were gushing at El Yunque!

This stream/river is usually half the size of what we saw here!

My mom and I on the flood steps at the Baño Grande pool in El Yunque. 

It was nice having my mom here to show her where we live. I wish she could have stayed longer. Can't wait for your next visit, Mom!

Sunset stroll in Old San Juan con mi mamá

Wow, you are a trooper if you are still reading this! This was quite the long blog post... until next time!
¡Hasta Luego!

Busy, Busy, Busy / Tan Ocupados

Wow, I just realized it's been over two weeks since our last post! March has definitely felt a like a whirlwind; so many things have been going on this month!
First, the Quirk lab had our annual "winter" retreat the first weekend in March at this beautiful mountain resort called Casa Grande in Utuado, PR. Utuado is about 2 hours southwest of San Juan, tucked away in the beautiful mountains. The purpose of these retreats is to step away from the busy lab and get to know each other better and talk about science on a philosophical level. We read and discussed a chapter out of Karl Popper's book The Logic of Scientific Discovery in addition to some other philosophical readings on science related to the Socratic Method, theory testing, etc. We also had another session on women in science and what that means for the lab and for the future of science in general. Overall, it was a pretty enlightening retreat, and I had a great time. One very interesting thing I learned was that Puerto Ricans do not really care for peace and quiet. The mountain resort we stayed at had a lot of non-Puerto Rican tourists who were there for relaxing, mediating, and doing yoga, and several times our group was asked to be quiet! It was very interesting to see the different cultures from both perspectives: the Puerto Ricans being loud and rambunctious were not doing so to be intentionally rude, but were just having a good time... which lasted into the late hours of the night. On the other hand, the non-native guests were trying to have a peaceful visit and probably seemed onery to the Puerto Rican guests. Greg (my advisor, the professor in charge of the lab) was saying that maybe next year, we should go to a place where there are more locals. But I am not sure if I will be able to handle all that loudness! haha :) Anyway, here are some pictures from the retreat:

Casa Grande Terrace

View of the pool from the terrace

One of the lab members ordering a drink at the cozy bar

The Quirk lab goes for a hike

Beautiful view of while on the hike

A few of us also stopped by a cave on our way home. It was beautiful! You can see the other side of the mountain where Casa Grande was located from this cave. I can't remember the name of the cave, unfortunately :-/

Second, our friends Ben and Leora came to visit us from Rochester last weekend! We were so excited to see them. They also brought their baby Misha and we had such a great time. We took them to the beach, had them try lots of Puerto Rico's tasty foods, and strolled around Condado and Old San Juan. We also cooked a feast of America's Test Kitchen Pulled Pork for them and invited our neighbor over and had some fun late night conversation. Here are some photos from their visit:

Enjoying the day at the Piñones Beach with some agua de coco

Strolling around Old San Juan near the Old Wall. Look at those huge waves!

Cool statue near the Old Wall in Old San Juan... the Three Kings perhaps?

Brunch at Caficultura in Old San Juan. It was delicious!

Our second visit to El Morro. Always a beautiful sight!

Third, I made a trip with some of the lab members to Vieques to teach kids about neuroscience! It was part of Brain Awareness Week, a national event that promotes awareness of the brain, mostly to school kids, but really to anyone who is interested. Our lab actually participated in several events we planned in Puerto Rico. We had some artists come visit our lab who were interested in our research and how we can connect the mind with art. They in turn, invited us to their space and showed us their artwork and what they do. They were a very interesting group that I hope our lab keeps in touch with. One of the undergrads also planned a Brain Awareness Week event at the Río Piedras campus for the psychology department. As you can see, we love spreading the word about the brain! Anyway, Vieques was so beautiful and I had a great time helping with this event and watching the kids get excited about science. Here are some photos:

My first time on a little plane. There were ten of us. How were we all going to fit on that thing!?

All packed in like sardines... but still smiling!

Getting ready to head to Vieques! The plane ride was only about 5 minutes

Up up and away!

Five minutes later, we are landing...

View of the ocean from the school we visited in Vieques

Teaching kids about the brain

Wild horses roaming around Vieques!

So as you can see, it has been a fun-filled March. We are ready for more! We have some more visitors coming in April and May... hope you are planning a trip here if you haven't already done so! ;)

Life in the Quirk Lab

So it's been a while since the last post and that's mainly because things have started to pick up for me in the lab! I finally finished all the training requirements for laboratory work at the University of Puerto Rico and have started getting my feet wet with some behavioral experiments. The Quirk lab studies fear learning and memory. What does that mean, you ask? We study how the brain remembers something aversive or fearful and how the brain "un-learns" these fearful memories. Actually, most scientists believe that a new memory is formed which competes with the previous fearful memory - which is why sometimes previous memories can "resurface" and cause experiences to become fearful again.

Aside from the nerdy work that we do, everyone in the Quirk lab is very friendly and fun. It is a lot bigger than my previous lab in Rochester with 6 grad students, 6 undergrads, and 2 postdocs (including me). Needless to say, there is never a dull moment in the Quirk lab! Currently, we are getting ready for our lab retreat. Every year, the Quirk lab plans a weekend away to partake in some workshops and discussions that help to strengthen the relationships between members of the lab. It is a very good way for everyone to reconnect and learn how to work better as a team. I am really looking forward to it!

Se gana algo, se pierde algo / Win Some, Lose Some

What a whirlwind of a week it has been! After finally settling on the Volvo, we showed it our landlords, the Kuilans, and they recommended we have it checked out by their trusty mechanic just down the road. While Ethan took care of that, I was headed to a lab safety training session at Centro Medico, aka the medical center. We have driven several times from our house to the medical center, so I was not worried I would get lost. I even gave myself 45 minutes to get there! But somehow, I managed to miss the exit! I was so mad at myself. Fortunately, I was able to get turned around and back on the highway and was only a few minutes late arriving. Sometimes when you are forced to figure something out, you learn better, so I'm starting to feel more confident about driving around San Juan despite the heavy traffic and lack of signage on the highways. They do have signs for exits and speed limits and whatnot, but sometimes they are either blocked by giant trees or there is no sign before the exit to let you know it is coming up! And before you know it, you've missed the exit and you have to turn around… and there is almost NEVER an easy way to turn around!

Anyway, I made it to the training session, and although all of it was in Spanish, I managed to figure out what was going on. It was only general lab safety anyway, so it was nothing new for me. After the training session, I headed back home and heard some disappointing news. The mechanic told Ethan that the coolant and oil were mixing in the engine of the Volvo and would need a head gasket replacement. So Ethan called the dealer and told him there was a problem and he just said, no worries, just bring it back. We weren't sure if that meant he would just give us our check back or if we had to trade it for another car or what. I was so distraught because we had spent so much time looking for this car, AND I had just filled it up with PREMIUM gasoline!!! Grrr… but Ethan was right, better off spending $40 on the gas than $1500+ on a new head gasket and who knows what else might be wrong with it… :-/

So, to take our minds off the car situation, we went to see some houses and apartments with Toni. We checked out some nice homes in Guaynabo, a well-respected suburb of San Juan. Most of the homes were in gated communities with parks and tennis courts, and some of them even had a pool! We really liked it there, but the homes were just a bit over our budget. We decided to consider 2 bedrooms instead of only 3 bedrooms since there seemed to be more space than we thought for our bikes and tools. They showed us a smaller 2 bedroom apartment, but it was just too small, then Toni thought of this cute apartment that we might like in Condado. Condado is another nice area, mostly filled with fancy hotels and restaurants right next to the beach. I never thought Ethan would want to live there because it would be too noisy and crowded. But we went to see it anyway. It was a 2 bedroom 1 bath apartment but the bedrooms were spacious and there was also extra space in the laundry room and part of the 2^nd bedroom had lots of extra space for an office area. I was excited to see it. How fun would it be to live just three blocks from the beach!?!? As soon as I saw it, I fell in love with it. The front entrance is shared by only one other tenant, and it is adorned with beautiful tropical plants and charming patio furniture, perfect for relaxing and enjoying the fresh air. We walked up a flight of stairs to the front door and went inside. It was so cute! The first thing I noticed was the beautiful blue tile on the kitchen counters… que bonita! We wandered through the dining area and the living room which were adjacent to the kitchen. Just beyond the living room was the master bedroom… with tons of space! That connected to the newly remodeled bathroom which then led into the spare room… which seemed enormous! On the other end of the spare room was a nice area perfect for two desks where we could situate our offices. Off to the side of that space was the laundry room which had plenty of room for our bikes and tools. That then led back into the kitchen. It was the perfect place. And I couldn't believe we were so close to the beach! We decided to take it as soon as the current tenants moved out - mid-January… just in time for our things to arrive! Plus, the current tenant was moving back to the states and wasn't planning on taking any of the furniture… so it could all stay with the apartment! This deal was getting better and better by the minute! Now we wouldn't have to spend all our money buying new furniture. I was so glad we found this place… I can’t wait for all our guests to see our new home! It's about 10 minutes west from the airport and 5 minutes east of Old San Juan, depending on traffic of course! Here is a picture on google maps of the location:

After the house hunting, we had to take the Volvo back. L I really wanted to keep it but knew it would be a big hassle for us in the long run. But we were so incredibly lucky that the dealer took it back, no questions asked, and gave us our check back. Whew! But now, we still have to find a car…

So far, we've been lucky with some things but unlucky with other things… Now, onward with the car hunting!

Enfermo de los Carros / Sick of the Cars

It's only been 10 days since Maria and I landed in San Juan, but we are exhausted. We intended to start our lives here by searching for a car so we could turn in the rental we picked up at the airport. But then two days after our arrival, Maria caught a cold. Yes, a cold, in Puerto Rico. Two days after that, I caught the same cold.

So, managing through these colds, we were able to visit Maria's lab and say hello to everyone, get some paperwork done, and observe the amazingly congested traffic in San Juan. Traffic here is bad, really bad. Our current home is 13.4 km (8.3 mi) from Maria's lab, yet it takes at least 30 minutes to get there if you are lucky. No one signals when they turn, no one looks were they are going, and everyone's car looks like it's been in a demolition derby. Neither of us enjoy being in traffic so, although we enjoy the avocado and tangerine trees and the view of San Juan from our home, we decided we need to find a closer place. Luckily, our landlord/realtor extraordinaire, Toni, is on the case, and we have 3 appointments tomorrow! But we still needed to get a car. Here is a video of the drive from our house on the hill to the main road which leads to the highway  4X speed (coming soon).

Cars here are much more expensive than in the states. First, they charge the dealers/importers an excise tax, then a state tax on top of that, and then a municipal tax on top of that. It's kind of a bum deal because the local transit system is unreliable and doesn't cover much of the metro area. The politicians know that everyone needs a car and so they tax them to the max. Did I ever mention how much I love government? Anyway, we visited a few dealerships and quickly became disillusioned as dealer after dealer attempted to sell us cars that were literally falling apart. We didn't want to spend a lot, but we thought we were being realistic. So, we turned to Classificados Online, the Craigslist of Puerto Rico, if you will. We searched and found many cars in our price range that seemed pretty quality. Unfortunately relatively few sellers ever got back to us, likely due to their ads being abandoned or just not wanting to deal with people in English. We did get to check out a few cars, but even then they had issues, rattling noises, bald tires, missing jacks, and lots of scratches and dents. If you ever find yourself looking for a car in Puerto Rico, you are going to need to look past the scratches and dents, but we were not willing to settle for garbage.

So we took a small break from cars and focused on finding Bed, Bath & Beyond to pick up some needed home supplies. Long story short, Google maps is only marginally helpful in Puerto Rico, do not trust it with your life. We had to take a break in our search for lunch at a nice little restaurant serving up local and Cuban favorites. While enjoying some some wonderful tostones (fried plantains), I bit right through one and into my fork. I heard a loud crunch and yeah, I chipped my tooth. Maria says it isn't bad, but I still don't like it. So, adding injury to illness, I was ready to give up but Maria, coming off of her cold, made sure I got back on track. After we found BB&B and got what we needed and made it home, we were able to get some much needed rest.

We were seriously considering just renting cars the rest of our time here, but made the decision to head to Caguas - a small town south of San Juan and only 10 minutes on the backroads from our house on the hill - and visit some more used car dealerships.

It was a hot day and I didn't want to get out of the car but many of the dealers just put a piece of paper in the window with the price written in small type. So naturally, Maria made me get out of the car and walk down the rows to see the prices. We managed to find a reasonably priced Suzuki Grand Vitara at the first place we stopped but we wanted to keep looking and told them we would come back. We drove all the way down into Caguas, a city seemingly made up of Car dealers and restaurants, and began our search on the other side of the road. About halfway back from our starting point, we found a Ford dealer that also sold used cars. There we meet our friendly salesman Ronaldo or "Ronnie." He was pleasant and seemed very honest after Maria asked about a Jeep Liberty and he told her that she didn't want it because that model has too many problems. Maybe he was keeping it for himself, but I tended to believe him because I would never drive a Jeep Liberty. We sweated our way around the lot (did I mention it was HOT?) and finally settled on a 2005 Volvo V50. It looked nice, but I don't know anything about Volvo's and neither does Maria. We took it for a spin and heard something funny... nothing! We were pleasantly surprised because every other car we looked at at that price were really just garbage. After the test drive, my first question to Ronnie was, "What's wrong with it?" He laughed at me and pointed again to the rear quarter panel where he earlier had explained an accident had occurred. So I had Maria test all the lights and just as I thought the turn signal and brake light on that side weren't working... then I saw the disconnected cable, plugged it in and voila!, the lights came on. So now I was seriously looking hard for what was wrong with this car. I checked the engine (not that I know that much) and the whole compartment was clean, I tried to pull the wheels off the car but they didn't go anywhere, the treads looked decent, the windows were fine. The only thing I could see was that the wipers needed to be replaced, and, of course, there were dents and dings and some sun damage to the paint but, from our experience, that was to be expected. I looked at Maria and we had only one move left, to make an offer. So we did. Ronnie asked his manager and to our surprise they took the offer. Now I got really skeptical but I didn't know what to do other than to buy it because it was the first time someone actually tried to sell us a reasonable car. So we bought it. And now we own our first Volvo!

Tomorrow I'm taking the car to our landlords' trusted garage to give it a once over. Here's to hoping we didn't get taken.