Cheap Food: a college student's dream

One of best pieces of advice that I've received in my college career was from my major advisor. She told me that if going to graduate school was my objective, I should do everything I can to "pretend being a grad student" while I was still an undergrad. During the academic year, I've tried to follow these sage words by working in the lab more, taking a graduate course, attending various lectures, and partaking in other activities that grad students generally do. I believe this summer is another extension to this lifestyle.

For one thing, I didn't want to receive any financial aid from my parents, so I am hoping to make it the whole trip with only the stipend I received from IRES. The idea of really living on my own and making ends meet by my own means excites me in a self-denying kind of way, but I would've needed to learn these traits sooner or later, right? As such, there is really me, myself, and my research here at Buenos Aires.

The lab work has been going immensely well. Even though there are not as many luxuries in the laboratories here as we do in the U.S., the environment is brimming with a scholarly and collaborative ambiance. My host P.I. has been enormously helpful in establishing the framework and questions to explore through our experiments. She has so far taught me various techniques involved in the different preparations of the leech used in this lab. Previously, I have worked with leech heart tubes and started to delve into the neuronal workings of the leech heartbeat modulatory system. The focus of my project in the Szczupak lab is to use a not-entirely different preparation to study the skin and muscle contractions through intracellular recordings, combined with my previous training with force transducer tension recordings from the Calabrese lab.

Generally I finish dissecting the preparation, taking care not to damage the nerve cord, ganglion, and innervating nerves, while Dr. Szczupak or one of the postdocs, Martin, impales one of the six cells (NS, N, T, P, AP, AE) in the ganglion which we are investigating. We proceed to change the membrane potential of the cell while I adjust and add tension through the force transducer attached via hook to a part of the leech skin still connected to the innervating nerves. Our experiments are a highly coordinated process with the three of us actively contributing and thinking aloud about what next to improve our experimental conditions.

The nature of experiments involving electrophysiology make it so that we can accumulate a vast amount of data rather quickly, especially since we are looking for the effects of tension on so many different cells. From one leech, we can produce 20 or more recordings before the cells start to die out. Even after sorting through and screening out bad recordings and controls, we still had an upwards of 70 experiments to analyze. But without the distraction from school, extracurriculars, and other social inconveniences, I was really able to sit down and focus all my mental energies on data analysis. Somehow, over a span of two or three days, I've analyzed through most of the recordings and will talk with Dr. Szczupak tomorrow about our next steps for the experiments. It is really great to just sit down and do experiments without having to worry about much else!

In keeping with my thrifty budget keeping, I've tried to establish a couple habits. One includes keeping a budget list of everything I spend money on, and the other is attempting to keep all my receipts. Low-budgeting also means cooking a lot at home for me to cut those unnecessary costs.

Typical breakfast of omelette with toast and/or cream cheese on bagel. Omelette contents vary with whatever meat/vegetable is in my fridge.

This past week, I made one of my best discoveries in Buenos Aires: a foodery at the local supermarket! It gives me access to various Argentine cuisines at a very cheap price. I've gone there to load up on food for a couple days at a time. It's interesting because a lot of the foods that are sold are quite literally the staples of a typical Argentinian diet. I know this is true because most restaurants offer these dishes, and my roommate always seems to be cooking one of these things or variations. It is very interesting to compare it to things considered staple to American diet. Here are some of the things I've picked up from them:

So much healthier than manufactured food, yet so much cheaper than restaurant food!

Ham and Cheese "Tart" (more like a quiche with a pastry top)

Left, Matambre a la Pizza (thin flank steak with pizza topping); Top Right, Rotisserie Chicken; Bottom, Tuna Pionono (a type of sweet bread rolled with tuna, peppers, and eggs stuffed inside)

Left, Beef and Veggie Tarta; Top, Empanadas; Right, Spinach Canolones; Front, Chicken Milanesa

A more "gourmet" rendition of the chicken milanese classic with ham, cheese, a salsa-type sauce and Spanish rice.

Milanesa and empanadas are particularly ubiquitous in all kinds of eateries in Argentina. One person told me that the ideal meal for any Argentinian child would be "milanesa de pollo y papas fritas" a.k.a. chicken milanese and french fries!

Argentine desserts have always caught my eye since I got here. I recently picked up this random bag of cookies and was surprised by the cheapness and quality of the product. Not to mention they had fun smiley faces to look at:

My favorite confectionery delight so far though still goes back to the national sweet, dulce de leche. These biscuits were perfectly soft and had just the right amount of dulce de leche, lightly dusted in coconut sprinkles:

Pricey, but definitely worth it!

I realize that I'm quickly approaching the middle point of my journey. I hope to continue my experience with the local culture and get as many results in the lab before I leave.