¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Argentina!

I managed to come to Buenos Aires just in time for the biggest celebration this country has ever seen. On Tuesday, May 25th, Argentina celebrated the 200th anniversary of the revolution that eventually lead to its independence. The graduate student with whom I'm working in the lab, Juan, took me downtown on Tuesday evening to experience all of the excitement. All public transportation was free that day, so figuring out a way to squeeze into the packed subway cars was an adventure in and of itself. We finally made it downtown, only to discover that the chaos of the streets made the subway cars seem spacious and peaceful by comparison. The celebratory parade was supposed to start at 7:00, but knowing that the Argentinean attitude toward time and deadlines tends to be very relaxed, we knew that the parade would be late, so we decided to flee from the crowds for a few hours while we waited. Once we got away from the main avenues, we were able to find a coffee shop and enjoyed a traditional merienda (the third of the four daily Argentinean meals) consisting of coffee, sandwiches de miga (paper-thin, toasted, crustless sandwiches), and medialunas (miniature croissants with powdered sugar or glaze on top). Finally, we were ready to return to the deafening and boisterous crowds on Avenida 9 de Julio, one of the central avenues in Buenos Aires and one of the widest streets in the world. The last estimate I heard was that there were over two million people crowded into a single street. Here's an ariel view (courtesy of Google):

The parade finally arrived at around 9:45 pm, and it was still going on when we left at midnight. The parade was basically a depiction of the country's history, from the indigenous tribes to the colonizers, immigrant groups, wars, cultural and artistic trends, political turbulence, and the rise, fall, and rise again of democracy. Although I could only see bits and pieces through the overwhelming crowd, I learned a lot about Argentina's culture, people, and spirit, and I definitely feel honored to have been a part of such an important historical day for the country. Unfortunately, most of my pictures didn't turn out because my camera (or, more likely, my poor photography skills) couldn't deal very will with the quick movements and bright lights. Here are the best of my photos, though. The first one is just a view of the crowd and stage, and the next two show tango dancers and musicians who rode by on top of taxis.

The bicentennial celebration was definitely the highlight of my week, but I did a few other exciting things as well. Juan is a musician, just like I am, so he has been introducing me to a lot of musical venues that are off the tourist-beaten path. On Sunday night I joined him at a jazz club and enjoyed incredible music paired with equally incredible food. Then today we went to a free concert after work and heard one of the most famous Argentinean violinists, Xavier Inchausti, play solo Paganini in the library of the Buenos Aires National Academy of Medicine. Somehow it seemed very fitting that I found myself in a room full of thousands upon thousands of books on science and medicine, listening to one of the most technically skilled violinists I've ever heard...

Unfortunately, this was a rather slow week for science. Our oocytes weren't expressing our receptor, so no data can be obtained until the new oocytes are ready on Monday. As one of the more experienced graduate students explained to me, "In this type of science, your boss isn't a person. Your boss isn't even a frog. It's a bunch of tiny half-frogs, and if they decide not to work properly one week, then there's nothing you can do about it!" On the bright side, I got to spend a lot of time practicing assembling and disassembling all of the equipment, which is actually the hardest part of these electrophysiology experiments. I've gotten a lot better at making the microelectrodes and impaling the oocytes without destroying them, so even though I wasn't able to collect any data this week, I still got a lot accomplished. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for good oocytes and lots of data next week!