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!