A clean slate, but I still must tread carefully

Another very good day!!

It was beautiful, warm, and welcoming.

I feel like I made a good impression on everyone in the lab today despite the language barrier. I watched only the synthesis of polypropylene with Lorena and Maria.. however I also talked to Mario and Vivian.

I was brave enough to ask Vivian out to lunch.. of course she chose the place because she knew the area, but I paid. It was very good, we had Charquican (likely spelling error) which is a Chilean dish which is a puree of potatoes, squash, meat, and corn. VERY yummy. I couldn't finish it all. Vivian and I talked and laughed.. she actually knows more English than I thought. She understood everything I said very well.

Anyway, I won't be in that lab again for over a week. Tomorrow I am working with Renee at the Catholic University. Admittedly, however, I really will miss everyone.

I feel like I got really close with Kathy today. We went shopping at this HUGE mall, the biggest I've ever seen!! And despite her barely knowing English, and me barely knowing Spanish, I feel like we had a lot of fun. It was a really productive shopping day. I bought a cute black jacket, courderoy brown jeans, 2 thinner jackets, and a black shoulder bag.. also cute :) She also told me she thought the person mentioned above is strange and noted that he tried to talk to me.

I really want to hang out with them sometime. Maybe tomorrow night we will go to a club. We will see.

Anyway, I should get to bed!! Goodnight :)

I am tired so I will just make this quick. I just wanted to say that I love my lab experience today. The days just seem to be getting better and better. I worked with Renee Rojas at La Universidad de Catolica, which I loved. It was definitely more like a real campus. More people who seemed to know each other and who were close with the faculty. More students who were more my age. It was also a rather pretty campus with statues, trees, and a beautiful backdrop of the mountains. Renee Rojas was also really fun and spoke good english. He had lots of interesting things to say and he seemed pretty energetic. He also gave me a nice lecture on catalysts and why they are trying to use non-metallocenic catalysts and just the basic mechanism. His lab was really fun and today we tried to make capillaries. He also took me and Carolina out to lunch which was nice :)

I'm tired so I'm going to bed.

I just had a good experience at the catholic university... so I'm feeling good.

Am I just a duckling?

I woke up at 8:39am and cursed aloud. My first day and I already overslept!

Tied my hair and ran out of the dorm... only hoping that I was running in the right direction. Thankfully, I made it to the metro station no problem and I arrived at the lab exactly on time, at 9:30am. The only person there was Juanito.. lol.. I was early I guess.

S0on Umberto arrived followed by Christian. He talked to me and asked me how much I knew. I basically told him I had no chemical engineering lab experience. He then gave me a lecture on the board of what their research was about. For the most part I think I understood it. It's just polymer synthesis.. basic stuff, polyethylene and polypropylene but using a catalyst that starts with an m.. and different cocatalysts such as MAO (which has higher "activity" but poorer form) and TMA which has less "activity" (a word which I had never heard of before, but found out the units are kg/ (mol*atm*hr). I learned how they did the reaction using toluene solvent, and that the air quenches the reaction and so it's done in these boxes where you stick your hands in these giant gloves attached to the box. I learned that the air inside the box is nitrogen. I saw the machines they used to test the resiliency or elasticity of the polymers as well as the ones to press the polymer as well as the ones to analyze the properties (such as molecular weight). I learned about nanomaterials and the theory behind separating a nanoplate from clay (since clay is polar they have to first make it nonpolar and then can add ethylene to make it in the proper form). I learned the form is important so that it can go to industry.. I learned what good form looks like. But when observing the reaction it looked pretty much like Chem 6B stuff. easy! Yeah I learned but I want to do more.

The thing is, after following Christian around and observing the first reaction it seemed like he had no idea what I was supposed to do. I thought I would be given work immediately, I mean after all I'm getting paid. So put me to work! I want to prove myself useful. I don't want to just be paid to learn theory and observe other people. That gives me little gratification.

Next I followed Paula around and watched her do her reaction. She spoke more English and so was easier to connect with. Maybe because she's a girl as well. Anyway, I had fun talking to her and meeting people through her which includes Mario, Katie, and Lorena. I learned that they all like to dance and Paula wants to take me dancing on Friday -- yay :) I also learned that Juanito is an excellent reggaeton dancer. lol i wouldn't have guessed that. Let's see how they dance to reggaeton here, I'm curious.

5 o'clock came around so quickly. They all talked to me and wanted to help me and tell me where good places to go and eat and shop were. They are all so nice and sweet. I look forward to getting to know them.

Oh I'm in the lounge and Shannon just walked in. We're talking to a guy from Panama named Erik. Maybe we'll eat soon. So I'll wrap this up now. Bye!

how cool

My second day was much more exciting.

Rodrigo picked me up from the Hotel where I met up with Shannon. We were taken to downtown and to CIMAT. This part of Santiago looks much more exciting. Better looking buildings.. very pretty.. very old looking. CIMAT is located in the Physics building and looks so old.. it has so much history. Muy bonita. Reminds me of Berkeley buildings. When we went in there were students crowded in clusters around these tables with papers. It looked like their Physics homework that they were getting back for a grade. It all felt so real. Felt like a real college. I dunno to me, UCSB doesn't feel like a real university. It's peaceful, calming, laid back... but you know. It's Santa Barbara for goodness sake. This.. combined with the cold weather and the students discussing their grades, and the old buildings with interesting architecture felt real. I kinda wished I was staying there longer.

Carolina is young and sweet.. I dunno for some reason I expected an old lady. But she was very eager to help us and take care of us.

I was then introduced to Dr. Quijada. I was nervous at first, I've never been part of a research group before. I met all the grad students, they all seemed very nice. One girl was from Columbia, another girl from Ecuador. There were several girls but only 3 guys (Umberto, Christian, and um..................... forgot the other person's name). I also met a professor from the Catholic University who said I could work in his lab as well. In fact we arranged for it to be on Wednesday where I see his lab. Dr. Quijada showed me his lab.. yes ok it's not America where everything is new, shiny, and top notch. But I was still eager to learn. One section was for polymerization, another section to test the robustness of the newly synthesized polymers, another section to analyze them. Dr. Quijada says that I can choose who I would like to work under. The other professor, Renee, is more on the Chemistry side instead of the Chemical Engineering side, but he said i should come visit him anytime. Everyone seemed welcoming, except one person... who showed almost no expression while I was there. I wonder what his thoughts were.

For lunch Shannon and I explored town and ate at this local Chilean restaurant. Good meat. But I had no idea what I was ordering. I just looked at the menu and picked something at random since I didn't know what it meant. It was this yummy tender beef cut in 2 circles and wrapped in bacon. Strange but satisfying.

Finally I arrived in my dorm. Yes it's exactly like the UCSB dorms except I get my own room. It's clean, nice, but I don't get my own bathroom and living room :( I met some people at the dorm but they all seem either slightly stand-off-ish or too shy. I got to practice saying "hola" and "bien." Guess what? i've never said hola to anyone before just a few weeks ago. Now I'm using it all the time! In this dorm, there are a bunch of international students. About 70 something. And about 50 of them are from Panama. I met 1 from Chicago, 1 from Holland, and 1 Columbian.

Well I'm getting tired and I gotta get up early to take the subway to school and I have no idea how long that will take. here i go!

Mi Primera Dia

Here I am!!!!! I made it. I am in Santiago, Chile in Hotel BonaParte.
However, I feel like my trip has yet to begin. I know no one here. I move in to my University apartment tomorrow. I meet my professor, Carolina (my mentor), and Shannon (my roommate) tomorrow as well.

Right now... I am alone. It's such a weird feeling. This sense of freedom is scary and exciting. I have never been absolutely alone in a foreign country before. In a completely unfamiliar place.
Somewhere where I do not know anybody. It's curious for me, but I know this can get old quickly. In fact, I am glad I am only spending 1 night alone here.

____________________________________

I flew in at 7:40 in the morning. I got worried because I could not find my backpack anywhere in the baggage claim. Finally after what felt like half an hour of searching I finally found it! I rushed outside to meet with my cab driver. By that time it was near 10 in the morning! Holy cow. He had been waiting for 2 hours with a sign holding my name along with all the other personal drivers. I dodged all of the cab drivers bombarding me with offers to drive me and tapped Rodrigo on the shoulder. He saw me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. Then he carried my bags.

I stepped outside and breathed in the crisp cool air. In just hours I was transported from the beginning of summer to the beginning of winter. It was slightly foggy and I could see my breath. Everyone was wearing big bulky snow outfits. I was shocked and awed to see how close we were to the Andes mountains. Snowcapped peaks were really nearby! Rodrigo drove me through town and showed me the sights with a brief explanation of each. He was funny and friendly despite limited English. He escorted me to the hotel and waited till everything was settled. Then he kissed me goodbye.

Afterwards I had planned on taking a nap. Instead I felt like I wanted to explore the city. Somehow, without knowing any Spanish, I managed to do quite a few things. I managed to figure out how to buy a card and take a metro to get to one of the main tourist areas (the biggest metropolitan park in the world). There I saw 3 llamas! I also walked up this hill where there was a great view of the city.



Santiago reminds me a lot of Athens. It's got the same looking buildings and streets. Graffiti in lots of areas, somewhat dirty, high rise condos, and a huge population (6 million).

However some things were different:

1) I saw trees. They were fall trees. Deciduous trees. I don't see that in Greece, not even California. All along the streets and parks were lined with autumn leaves, looking like they were about to fall off and die.

2) It may be because it was a Sunday, but the streets were quieter. Drivers are not as crazy. Although they are like Greeks in that they almost have no regard for the lines dividing 2 lanes.. but they are more laid back about it. There was less honking, drivers seemed more patient. The streets also seemed less cramped and much easier to navigate than in Athens.

3) People are more beautiful (and nicer, which I will explain in detail later). Rumors are true. I say the people here are more beautiful than in any other country I've been to. Women are tall, thin but not too thin, light skin, dark hair, pretty eyes, fashionable, made up. Most of them were wearing black leather pointed boots, tight jeans, and expensive but warm looking jackets. Men, also good looking and fashionable, but not too arrogant either. Just genuinely nice.


After a while, I got tired. Tired in general from lack of proper sleep, and also tired of constantly worried about being a 20 year old female tourist who is alone in a new city. I kept looking behind me to make sure I wasn't being followed. But so far, everyone I have met has had honest intentions.

--An old lady on the bench tried to talk to me. She knew no English, but still tried vehemently to communicate with me. She even asked a random passerby if he knew English so she could translate. Finally she pointed up and said "arriba" (I guess that means up?) and "ciao."
--The man who tried to sell me a hairdryer did not know any English whatsoever. Instead he demonstrated to me the hairdryers use by plugging it in an outlet and letting me feel the heat. I bought the cheapest one.. which was still expensive ($26 USD). It was funny because he kept talking to me in Spanish. And I kept talking to him in English. We were having what felt like the silliest conversation ever, pretty much like one of us was speaking gibberish. Yet much of communication is nonverbal. Tone of voice, hand gestures, eye contact. It was pretty funny.
--The woman who worked at the clothing store did not know any English. So she asked another customer to translate for me. wow! so nice!
--And my favorite example of Chilean hospitality.. was when I walked in the Starbucks to use their restroom. I didn't even buy a drink, I just really needed to go. A young pretty lady communicated to me that the bathrooms were not in order. They wouldn't flush. I said I really needed to go and asked her where I could find a bathroom. So she personally escorted me across the street to another restaurant where she asked the worker if I could use their bathroom. He said of course. And then she left back to her work. I don't think I've ever seen that kind of niceness anywhere.

So I had a good day. But I really look forward to tomorrow when I will be with company.