The research is taking away from my experience

Spain is still amazing and I'm finally acclimated to being in a much different culture.  I have to admit it was very hard for the first week, but now I'm having a great time.  I'm eating at 9 or 10 at night and taking an afternoon siesta.  I'm not sleeping, but do go home for a little break or shopping or something.  My Spanish is slowly improving.  Everyone tells me it's good, but I can't see it.  I usually sit around blankly while anyone is talking around me.

Lab is going well, thought I never seem to leave.  I have run several reactions, and just started my critical transformation last night, which runs for three days.  Since my graduate student doesn't want me to do anything else until we make sure that the photochemistry works, I'm going to try to ask for tomorrow off.  I have to say my favorite part of the lab is the auto column machine.  This device takes what had been a 3 hour hell into a 30 minute process.  It has a UV detector and only collects solvent with compound in it.  When you are done, you print out a list of what compounds are in what tubes.  Wonderful invention.  I'm stealing it.  

Yesterday was "Alex is an idiot day." That's an annual event that occurs shortly after I join a new lab where I make everyone think that I'm a moron and spend the next month trying to disprove that.  Within ten minutes, I broke a flask with an advanced intermediate (luckily I was able to save it) and made a nitrogen ballon explode.  Also, I showed a general inability to use a balance.  I'm pretty sure it's supposed to weigh more when full than empty.  However, I did manage to keep the palladium on carbon from burning, which seemed to be the only right thing I did.

I had a great weekend.  I went out Friday night with some people from lab and went to several different bars.  Until then I had only gone to English pubs.  Saturday night was spent with the "Jew Safari" as Yoni calls it.  I had dinner with the Sefardic Study aboard program and then went out to a pub with Yoni.  As Ryan noted, it is always great to see someone you know while overseas.  Sunday afternoon was spent at the beach with my roommates.  We went an hour north of the city.  The view was great and the beach was nice too.  I'm planning to be a tourist this weekend and thinking about some diving or maybe a day trip to Montserrat (not the island).  It is a monastery on top of a mountain that is supposed to have great hiking.  I have to go buy a card reader because I forgot my camera cord, but be looking for pictures to be forthcoming as well.