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! ;)

The World's Best

We did it! We finished our first running race in Puerto Rico.

Yesterday Maria and I ran in the so-called World's Best 10K across the Teodoro Moscoso bridge in San Juan, PR with 7,813+ other people. It was an intense, crowded, and hot introduction to racing in Puerto Rico.

We had been training the past few months in preparation for the race but we were not quite ready when the time came to race, which for me makes it no different than any other race. Our times were respectable and an excellent starting off point for future PR's in PR. Maria finished 1860th overall, 227th out of 3044 women, and 68th out of 688 in the F26-34 group. I finished 1502nd overall, 1326th out of 4838 men, and 300th out of 1009 in the M26-34 group. As you can see Maria did much better than I did even though she finished in 58:54 and I finished in 55:57. We both could have done even better given the amount of time it took to get to the start line and through all of the walkers.

A friend of ours gave us a tip on where to park for the race and to essentially ignore the starting corral system they use to separate the various runners based on expected finish times. However, we arrived a little later than we had planned and by the time we got to the start line all of the corrals were filled. We snuck into corral 2 although we were assigned to corral 3. They had security posted at each entrance but they didn't seem to care much; they were all on their phones and let anyone who wanted into the starting corral, including the kids with backpacks full of something and no race bib anywhere in sight.

Once in the corral we just wanted to get out. It was packed and sweaty and hot. Luckily there was a slight breeze that made it somewhat bearable. We waited for 20 minutes until the start of the race.

Just before the gun went off the crowd started moving forward toward the start line. We really got packed in at that point. After the gun went off, I told Maria to take it slow until we get to the line so we didn't trip and injure ourselves, but once we got there she took off. I had to weave through the crowd to keep up with her. We were both amazed and annoyed that just 30 seconds after we crossed the line (two and a half minutes after the gun went off) we were passing hundreds of walkers. I have no way of ever understanding why someone who is fully intent on walking an event like this would ever want to be in the front, in the way of runners, being pushed out of the way and kicked and stepped on (we did not push or kick any walkers, although I may have stepped on one. Sorry.)

Anyway, we made it through the crowd and settled into our pace. We soon met a bearded man with a strange accent who told us that there are much better races in PR for posting good times. We could see from his shirt that he was a member of the local running club, Borinquen Runners. The group seems interesting and we might join them at some point.

All in all, we had a good time and feel quite accomplished. From an organizational standpoint I think they could have done a much better job, although the event expo held the two days before the race was pretty impressive, in my opinion. I may have even found a job at the expo! We will wait and see...

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!

Things / Cosas

Last Friday we moved into our new permanent apartment in San Juan, three blocks from the beach and within walking distance to the grocery store, bank, hardware store, drug store, and the best places to eat in Condado. That's the part of San Juan where we are now, Condado.

It's much different here than where we were staying in Cupey Alto. Up in the hills it is quite comfortable at night, around the mid to low-70s, and the traffic and city noise is far off in the distance, but not the occasional stray dog fight. In Condado, however, it stays quite warm most of the time. We never once used the A/C in our Cupey Alto apartment, but here we have had to keep it on every night for fear of melting.

While the beach is very close, we took a nice jog there Thursday morning, it comes with traffic and city noise. I'm not a big fan of that but I'm getting used to it.

Maria's work is also closer now. It takes about half the time to get there as it did from Cupey Alto, depending on the time of day. We are getting very used to the traffic patterns and I'm even starting to drive like they do here. Watch out when I'm on the road in the states.

We have quite a bit of room in our new place but we have quickly filled it with things.

Friday wasn't only the day we moved into our new place, it was also the day we got all of the things we had shipped from Rochester. They were actually ready to be delivered on January 4^th but we knew we were moving and had them hold our stuff until we moved.

It's hard not having the things that you are used to having around, although the experience did make us realize how many things we don't really need. As the movers brought in box after box I started questioning the decision to bring it all and if we actually had places to put it. I was secretly, or not so secretly, hoping that all of our things would be lost at sea and we would get the insurance money instead, but it sure is nice to have some of our stuff back.

Since last Friday, we've found places for most everything and the apartment is starting to take shape. So far we've only found two broken items, an Ommegang beer chalice and a stemless Riedel red wine glass. Unfortunately, those are two of our more expensive glasses, i.e. they weren't free, and we didn't list them separate from the other glassware on the insurance so we likely will not be getting enough in damages to replace them.

We also had to box up many of the items that were already in the apartment, since most people move in with nothing, the landlord has it ready for living in. We are grateful for the furniture though, it's actually pretty comfortable and fits the apartment nicely.

We have some more cleaning and organizing to do; It will be a little while before the "hotel" portion of our apartment is open to the public, but we have three queen sized "beds" available for guests when it does (a bed, a futon, and an air mattress). We're looking forward to visitors because we get to explore more of the island while we show you around.

I took some photos just before the movers came and some just after they left. Have at 'em. We'll have some more photos of how we've made the place once we get a little more organized.

The Living Room

The Kitchen

Our Bedroom

The Bathroom

Guest Bedroom

The Office Nook, and through the door--the "garage" as Maria likes to call it.

The Dinning Room (Don't worry, that wall was painted that day.)

Unpacking a box of glassware

THINGS!

Bikes and other things

Table Full of Glassware

Broken glass 1 of 2

San Sebastián - The End of the Holidays

In Puerto Rico they know how to stretch the holiday season. This past weekend marked the end of the that season in Puerto Rico with the celebration of the San Sebastián street festival. This is the biggest festival in Puerto Rico, so we decided to have a look.

As expected the streets were packed and it took much longer than usually to find parking. We eventually found a garage where we could park but we had to wait about a half an hour for someone to leave before we could get a spot. But this is to be expected in Old San Juan.

With the car safely parked we were free to roam the streets. There were booths with free stuff, food vendors, street performances, parades, artists. You name it, they had it. It was one of the most diverse festivals that I had been to. After a few hours of wandering and wondering we headed back to the car and out of the city. We thought about the concerts and night activities that we were going to miss but the miles long line of cars attempting to get into the district made us glad to be heading to our quiet, uncrowded, home. There's always next year.

Here are just a few of the things we saw at this years San Sebastián festival. Adiós.

The sign says "1,136 Murders in PR in 2012."
And on an island with extremely low legal gun ownership.

Fun in the dark

This weekend marked the final weekend of "vacation" time (for me anyway) before officially starting my new job. Nothing too exciting has been happening lately, hence the lack of blog posts. That isn't to say San Juan has been without any goings on...

Earlier last week, there was a power outage. And I don't just mean the power flickered on and off or was just out for a minute or two - because that's already happened up here at our house on the hill a few times before. This time, our power was out for over two hours... and it happened as we were coming home after a sweaty run on the beach and hungry for dinner! As we were driving back from Ocean Park and making our way through the long and windy road to our house, traffic came to a complete halt. Not so unusual on the major highways but quite unusual for the road leading to our house. At first, we thought there was an accident - sometimes we encounter crazy drivers whipping around the curves and always cutting into the oncoming lane. We waited behind traffic for awhile and noticed a truck from the electric company driving up the hill past where traffic had been stopped. Then we realized that some power lines must be down and they were going to remove some branches and debris that had taken them down. We often noticed that the bamboo trees covering the hillside next to the road often become overgrown and sag over the power lines... in an unsafe way. Finally the power lines gave way, causing the power to go out.

Looking up from the car, these bamboo trees are just laying on top of the power lines... waiting for an accident to happen! :-/

First, we had to find an alternate route home - which was nearly impossible because we live far up in the hills. 10-15 minutes later, we finally arrived home to find that we had no power. Second, we had to figure out how we were going to cook dinner... because we were starving! And it was getting dark. Luckily, I decided to pack our headlamps in our luggage (who would have thought we would need them?) instead of packing it up with the movers, so we were able to cook some rice on our gas stove and Ethan grilled some chicken outside on the gas grill, and we had a nice meal. In the dark. It was quite delicious actually!

Cooking some rice on the stove

Grilled chicken, brown rice with pigeon peas, and fresh tomatoes... ¡Bon Prevecho!

Then, as we began cleaning up, the lights came on. Whew! We were worried that we would be without power overnight, and we had just bought fresh milk and yogurt the day before! Thankfully, this night was the worst of it. The following day when we came home just before dinner time, the power was out AGAIN! But this time only for about 30 minutes. Geez! Now we are wishing we had brought our camping gear with us - flashlights, gas stove, and gas lamps! Hopefully, this won't happen as often in our new place in Condado.

Last night, we decided to go out for some Mexican, and we found a nice place called Bartola's in Miramar. What a great place! A cozy and friendly atmosphere with great service and delicious food. We started with some house made guacamole, which we devoured immediately. It was so good, we forgot to take a photo! Our entrees arrived shortly after: I ordered the ceviche tostadas and Ethan got the enchiladas. The black beans were soooo good!!!

My meal

Ethan's meal

After our delicious dinner, we wanted to stroll around a bit and noticed a fine arts theatre just down the street. We decided to check it out and bought two tickets for Lincoln. Only $7.50 each! What a steal! They also had an amazing snack bar! Beer, wine, espresso, charcuterie platters, and gourmet desserts in addition to the usual popcorn and soda. Wow, check out these prices!

What, you can't read the menu? :-) Large popcorn AND soda $5.50  Glass of wine $6 Espresso $1.95 Cookies 2 for $3... not bad compared the prices you see at the movie theatres in the states!

The movie was pretty good (personally, I thought Life of Pi was better... even though Lincoln has more Academy Award nominations) and the theatre was excellent! Large comfortable seats that rocked back and forth and wide arm rests for your food and drink! We are definitely going back.

So that was the last of my "vacation". I actually am very excited to be starting my new job on Tuesday! Hope everyone is having a great New Year so far!

The holidays continue in Puerto Rico...

Just because Christmas and New Year's have passed does not mean that the holiday celebrations are over here in Puerto Rico. They celebrate another holiday, Tres Reyes or Three Kings on January 6th. This is actually quite a common holiday in Latin and Spanish cultures that celebrate the arrival of the three kings that came to visit Jesus after he was born and brought him gifts. For Puertorriqueños, it means getting more presents and candy - a much-loved holiday, especially for the kids. The night before, children put grass in shoe boxes and place them under their beds and the following morning, they find candy and small gifts in their shoe boxes. Kind of reminds me a bit of getting an Easter basket! :)

In Cupey, where we currently live, they have something extra special for the neighborhood kids: Los Reyes Magos where three men dress up like the Three Kings and ride horses down the street and hand out candy for the kids! This was also accompanied by a float full of people singing and playing typical Puerto Rican instruments including the Güiro, the Cuatro, and Palitos. It was quite fun to see this happening on our street! It was especially nice to see the kids (and Ethan) getting all excited to get candy from the Three Kings!

¡Feliz Día de los Reyes!