¡Buenos Días from Buenos Aires!

I've been in Buenos Aires for almost a week now, and I can officially say that I am in love with the city. I have an adorable studio apartment on the top floor of a building in a trendy residential and shopping neighborhood. Here are a few pictures of the area surrounding my building:

As a whole, the city reminds me a lot of a larger, cleaner, more vibrant, friendlier, and more laid back version of Manhattan. I've had the chance to do quite a bit of exploring by foot around the neighborhoods in which I work and live, and I'm hoping to venture into new neighborhoods in the coming weeks. There's a subway line that runs almost directly from my apartment to my lab, so I generally get off a few stops early or a few stops late in either direction in order to give myself extra time to explore.

The weather has been surprisingly pleasant here: mid 60's during the day and around 50 degrees Fahrenheit at night. It has been raining off and on the last few days though, and I had quite an experience trying to find an umbrella in the city. I still don't quite have the hang of shopping in Buenos Aires. Instead of having large stores that sell practically everything, like we're used to in the United States, Buenos Aires tends to have tons of miniscule stores that specialize in just one or two specific products. This layout comes in handy when you finally find a store that sells the product you want, but it can be a little frustrating when you're wandering around for hours looking for a relatively simple item. Another thing that I've noticed while wandering the streets and gazing into stores is the rather disturbing nature of the mannequins in Argentina. This one is like a cross between Pink and Chucky:

I think the goal is to frighten customers into making a purchase. Apparently this scare tactic is effective, judging by the number of horrific mannequins that I've seen.

My Spanish has improved a lot in the short time that I've been here, although I'm still struggling quite a bit with the accent. Porteños (people from Buenos Aires - literally, people of the port town) have a very distinctive accent, as well as their own unique set of slang terms. The most difficult part about the language is the "yeísmo," the pattern of pronouncing the letters "y" and "ll," both of which are typically pronounced with a "y" sound, using a soft "j" sound that is similar to "sh" or "zh." For example, when saying "Yo me llamo Rachel," (meaning "My name is Rachel," which sounds like "Yo may yamo Rachel" in most Spanish dialects), a Porteño's pronunciation would sound like "Sho me shamo Rachel." This aspect of the language, although very beautiful, can be quite confusing, and when combined with the fast pace of speech and rising-and-falling, song-like tone, it causes the language to sound more like a combination of French and Italian instead of the Mexican Spanish that I'm used to. Luckily for me, all of the students in the lab are fluent in English, since most of their science textbooks and all of their publications are written in English. We've worked out a system in which all of the science talk is done in English, and the rest of the communication is in Spanish so that I have a chance to practice. It seems to be working great so far!

The lab work is going very well. I'm learning a completely new skill set here - specifically, my project involves doing electrophysiology recordings using Xenopus oocytes. It's a great technique to know, and I think it will complement my knowledge of molecular biology techniques very nicely. I actually already have some preliminary data after my first week - although I attribute this entirely to beginner's luck and an excellent teacher, and not at all to any personal skill. One aspect of electrophysiology that I'm really enjoying is the ability to get my results almost immediately. It's very satisfying when performing an experiment to know within a matter of seconds whether a certain drug treatment or condition is effective. Each time that I marvel at the instantaneity of this type of work, the lab members tease me for being a Western blotter at heart. Although experimental results are obtained much quicker, other aspects of my new lab work are more tedious. For example, the process of microinjecting every individual oocyte with cRNA, although kind of fun in its own way, does make me miss chemical-based transfections.

One part of the lab work that I'm especially enjoying is the lack of regulation surrounding food and drinks. We generally eat Argentinean cookies and drink coffee/tea while doing our experiments, which makes the already fascinating science that much better! I've been eating very well (and very cheaply) here. The cuisine is drawn mostly from Italy and Spain, with an original Argentinean flair added. Based on the restaurants that I see on every block, the most common foods seem to be pizza, pasta, gelato, various pastries, and empanadas. Surprisingly, I haven't encountered much beef so far, but that may be due to the fact that I've been eating in relatively casual and inexpensive (though delicious) cafes and restaurants. A couple of my favorite traditional Argentinean dishes so far are the drink yerba mate (similar to a very strong and bitter tea, shared in a social setting) and the cookies alfajores (two or more cookies sandwiched around dulce de leche and covered in chocolate and/or powdered sugar).

I'm especially looking forward to the next several days, as May 25th marks the 200th birthday of Argentina, and I hear that quite a celebration is in store for the city of Buenos Aires. There's no work on Monday or Tuesday due to the holiday, and a few lab members are planning to take me downtown to enjoy the festivities. I'm sure I'll have lots of interesting news to report!