hasta ahora

ok ok ok, so I haven't been writing. unexpectedly, I'd been really busy! I mean, I knew I'd be busy doing my research, but at nights i figured i'd be twiddling my thumbs. riiight. i should know myself better.

anyway, i'll try and do a quick recap of saturday through today.

Saturday:
two long flights! I always forget something when i travel, this time it was my headphones. And i didn't realize it until I sat down in my seat on the plane and reached in for my ipod, and came back with only an ipod. if i had checked, oh, 1/2 an hour earlier, i could've walked down the terminal and bought some.
customs in mexico took forever! i figured they'd be more blase' about it, but i guess not...
Dr. Borges and his wife picked me up, and they took me to this really cute authentic local taco place. The taco places here are really interesting. They're tiny. They're bright. They have little tables and little chairs. And the kitchens are right there in full view. Now, I can't speak for any other taco place, but this one reminded me of tapas in spain. the three of us picked out (or more accurately i let Gui and Zoriah pick out) a bunch of different tacos. They came on little plates, one or two at at time, two tacos on each one. And we just shared. they were yummy! and aparently this place hand-forms their tacos (not with a machine like most).
I checked in at my hotel and passed out

Sunday
Zoriah and Gui picked me up at my hotel at 11:30 - I slept like the dead and could have slept the day away probably. We met Ricardo, the programmer I am working with, and drove downtown and walked around all afternoon. We visited the main plaza (Zocalo), the palacio de bellas artes which has a lot of murals by famous artists (like Diego Rivera), the main catedral, and some aztec ruins beneath the city - amazing! Then we dined on a rooftop overlooking the catedral and the plaza. Exciting experience of the day: ordering my breakfast over the phone (ah, the glories of room service) completely in spanish. Successfully!

Monday
I started my research! Gui picked me up at 8am (man was that painful!) and drove me to the Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatria where he works and gave me a little tour. He has a little office on the 4th floor with a little computer/desk that he set up for me. I was terrified, especially when the day started out all wrong with the internet not working, the computer refusing to turn on, an important paper or something missing... blah blah blah. But it turned out ok. Gui took me to lunch at an on-campus cafeteria and ate with a friend of his who was very nice, but was difficult to understand her spanish at times. In the evening I walked across to the mall and ate and walked around for a little bit.

Tuesday
Research continued to go well. Ricardo came in the morning and helped me learn SUDAAN, which I was suprised at how quickly i picked it up. Ricardo is amazing - he's an incredibly gifted programmer, yet very humble. You would never know from looking at him. Anyway, we made more progress (according to Gui - I thought it took forever) than expected. For lunch Gui had one of his employees, Marisol, take me out for lunch. She's very enjoyable to talk to, extremely friendly, and patient with my horrible spanish. After work, Itziar's sister Mariel picked me up and we galavanted around town. We did a walking/driving tour of UNAM (the main university here where she goes to school and Zoriah works) - it's huge! then we went to Coyacan, the artsy part of town which is so cute! we ran into two of Mariel's friends, were thwarted in our attempts to eat mexican ice cream (we were all very disappointed), did some shopping in the local artesan shops, and ate tamales for dinner at an even smaller, cuter shop than the taco one. oh, and she indulged me and drove me to starbucks to get my necessary mug souveneir!

Wed (aka today)
Another early day, harder to get up today than previously. Research again is going very well. I like Gui very much, I think it just took a few days for us to warm up to each other. We're both naturally quiet. He was in meetings most of the day so I had the office to myself and was very productive. He gave me his calling card to call my sister because it was her birthday today, so I surprised her, and then he let us go early. 2pm!! I went back to the hotel, took a glorious nap, and then went to the mall for a quick eat and some shopping. It was a lot of fun! AND the best part is that Gui said "he was feeling generous" and is not going to pick me up until 9:30 tomorrow! so i can sleep in!

OK, so that's a quick recap. Unfortunately there are so many other things that I'd like to spend a little more time commenting on, but I need to get some homework done before going to bed! School continues on without me...