I've been reflecting a lot on my time here, and I've realized that in a lot of ways, I arranged my experience this summer as a sort of test for myself. There were two questions in particular that I wanted to answer. Firstly, am I capable of traveling to a foreign country that speaks a language in which I am only somewhat proficient, having an apartment and living on my own for the first time, and adapting to a completely new culture almost entirely independently? And secondly, when I eliminate many other distractions from my life and focus on research as a (more than) full-time job, even taking myself out of my research "comfort zone" and into a new environment with new people and new techniques, do I still love it, and do I still know that this is what I want to do with my life? The answers to these questions are, respectively: absolutely, and an overwhelming YES! Not only have I survived on my own here, but I've truly thrived. As Austin mentioned in one of his last posts, this experience has given me a tremendous amount of personal growth and made me much more confident in myself. I settled in immediately, and I've felt perfectly at home in Buenos Aires since my second day. I've definitely learned that I can be very adaptable, adventurous, assertive, and self-sufficient in new situations. As for the second question, I've fallen even more in love with research throughout my stay here, and although I felt sure that research was the path for me even before I came, I now know absolutely, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that this is where I want my life to go. In fact, it's going to be hard for me to cut back to being a part-time researcher in order to be a full-time student in the fall. My desire to complete MD/PhD training has been reaffirmed as well, as I've spent a lot of time talking with my peers and superiors here about the need for a constant push towards medical applications in our research. All in all, I learned a lot of fascinating information and research skills that will be very useful as I progress through my training. I also strengthened my ability to think like a real scientist, and I got some really awesome results, of which I am quite proud. I can't wait to share them with all of the IRES people and everybody in my Emory lab!
Apart from my time spent in the laboratory, I've become very fond of the city in general. Here is a list, in no particular order, of the things I will miss most when I leave:
1. Not wearing a watch and not having any portable time-telling device, and not caring, because deadlines are never set in stone and nothing starts on time anyway.
2. Going to fancy restaurants for delicious meals, and paying no more than $6US.
3. Seeing all of the locals out diligently mopping the sidewalk with soap and water in the morning on my way to work. It never fails to puzzle me and make me smile.
4. The very friendly head security guard at the lab institute who greeted me every day, in spite of the creepy way that he winked at me as I was leaving each night.
5. Introducing myself as Raquel because I receive blank stares when I say Rachel, and nobody can pronounce it anyway.
6. Yerba Mate (traditional herbal drink).
7. Living in a place where almost every single sentence begins with the word "Che" (as in Che Guevara, famous Argentine revolutionary). After trying to pinpoint an exact meaning of the word for several months, I've determined that it can take on practically any meaning. Most commonly, it seems to be used as "hey you" or just "listen to me because I'm about to say something."
8. Entering or exiting a room and customarily greeting every person with a single kiss on the right cheek, whether I know them or not.
9. Constant subway entertainment in the way of skilled (or painfully unskilled) performers and people selling useless items, and astonishment at the number of locals who eagerly purchase such useless items.
10. Alfajores. No US cookie will ever be the same.
11. Learning new Spanish expressions from my lab mates every day (often colloquialisms or vulgar expressions that my Spanish courses failed to teach me), and then being teased relentlessly for saying "¡ay ay ay!" when my experiments go wrong, because cursing in Spanish just doesn't come naturally to me.
12. Tango.
13. Medialunas (like miniature croissants, but sweeter, eaten for the third meal of the day with café or mate).
14. Oocytes. They drive me crazy, but I love them all the same.
15. Feeling like I could run laps around groups of people as they dawdle down the street, because nobody is ever in a hurry.
16. Using decimal points in place of commas and commas in place of decimal points when writing numbers. Also, writing the date as day-month-year instead of month-day-year. Those habits are going to be tough to break.
17. All of the wonderful people I worked with in lab.
18. Laughing to myself at locals who dress in multiple heavy coats, mittens, scarves, and hats, completely bundled up with only their eyes showing, when it's really not that cold.
The list could go on and on...
This has been the experience of a lifetime. Thanks so much IRES for making it possible!
Wow, Raquel! Good job putting all those amazing feelings and concepts into words. So happy to hear all of this!!
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