Arecibo

6/23/11

For the past two days now, we have been cleaning, counting, and weighing beans at work. There are some beautiful varieties, including canary yellow and cranberry colored beans and ones that are speckled like cows! It’s truly amazing the diversity that is out there! I love seeing the rainbow of colors and wonder why I can’t find them in the store. I mean those canary yellow beans look awesome! Like Skittles, my friend says. Unfortunately, they lose their color when you cook them. But the cranberry beans and speckled beans probably don’t.

Yesterday, after work, my friend and I went to get frappes (fruit smoothies) at Fruitera, a locally-owned Frappe “kiosk” on the main highway. Choose whatever fruits you want! Only $3.00 Delicious, and I definitely got my money’s worth. Banana strawberry pineapple. Yum.

After some shopping, she took me to see some of the sights in Rincon, including Stair Beach and El Faro, the lighthouse. My parents also arrived. They are staying near Rincon. My parents met us at the lighthouse, my friend went home, and my parents and I went to dinner. I sat in the front; my mother was tired of navigating and my dad was probably tired of her navigating. I’m sure they had an interesting car ride from San Juan, where they landed that afternoon. We tried to find this Thai restaurant, but it’s pretty well hidden, so we ended up at the Lazy Parrot, which was just fine. I had a nice glass of red wine and my mother had a mojito. There were vegetarian options on the menu and my father and I split key lime pie for dessert. All was going well. Till I thought I lost my key! Oh no! I was freaking out, really freaking out, afraid of admitting I lost it. Who would I tell? How would I tell them? Ah, no, so stressful!

Phew, found it.

Today after work we tried to see JJ Barea in the town plaza. He is from Mayaguez and plays for the Dallas Mavericks. We were told the event started at 6 PM. It was so hot and there were just too many people. Among these many people I saw a young girl that reminded me of, well, me! She was tan and had skinny legs (my parents called me chicken legs…did wonders for me self-esteem haha) and dark brown hair with a flip at the end and glasses (except my glasses were so much uglier, big pink frames reminiscent of Dr. Ruth’s). We bought some small Puerto Rican flags and waited. And waited. And waited. By 7:30 PM the band had just started and we had no idea when JJ would get there and I was getting pretty darn frustrated because no one understands the idea of personal space. Everyone, seriously, please do not invade my bubble! Anyway, we gave up and came back to the station. I was just out for a walk and saw the fireworks. I guess JJ finally showed up.

6/24/11

Some more counting and weighing of beans today. Yes!

Also, we amplified DNA with PCR and ran it on a gel. We reviewed proper pipette technique. Everyone here seems very concerned that I know the correct way to use a pipette. I remember electrophoresis from freshman year of high school. The two boys in my lab group thought agar gels were good substitutes for footballs and broke ours. Ugh, testosterone.  

My parents picked me up for the weekend today after work. Only my parents would come down to visit me during this internship. Ah my life. Ah family. I love ‘em. I especially love them in the car. Riding with them is quite entertaining, to say the least. When I’m in the car, my mother is a true backseat driver. We put her in the back partly because I’m a better navigator and partly because my dad is sick of her sound effects and commentary by the time I come into the picture.

I took my dad to La Frutera for a frappe. Pineapple and mango. Yum. Except the girl had trouble understanding my father’s order.

We dropped my bag off at the hotel – it is a nice resort, right on the beach – and continued on to dinner at a Thai restaurant way off the beaten path. The Thai restaurant has a second location in Rockaway Beach, NY. The food was delicious and I love that I can taste a variety of different wines while I’m here. An albarino from Spain. Quite lovely. And restaurants pour generously. Oh happy night. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to read any more of the nice thick plant pathology textbook.

6/25/2011

I still woke up at 10 to 6:00 AM. I wandered the hotel and read my plant pathology textbook.

My parents arose a couple hours later. We ate a leisurely breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant. My mother and I wanted to sit outside; only problem was, the blackbirds are everywhere, including overhead. Sorry mom, might want to wash that dress.

After a delicious breakfast, we spent the morning at the beach. I again enjoyed the warm waters, so much better than Jersey! My father and I watched the yellow crabs dig their holes in the sand. I finished my book, Chaim Potok’s The Chosen (and can’t wait to read the sequel, The Promise…anyone have a copy they’d like to lend me?).

Then lunch at a natural foods store. We drove through the torrential downpour to get there. FreshMart is the island’s answer to Whole Foods. It’s their only natural foods store chain. The Aguadilla branch has a café as well. I was a bit disappointed by the falafel (so I will be making a trip to get falafel in Jersey when I get back if anyone would like to join me) but was so happy to find a store selling most of the things I’m used to getting at home! My mother said it reminded her of Dean’s, the natural foods store I used to work at when I was in high school. Yea, that sounds about right.

A lot of people sell things (or beg) at traffic lights. You can always get water and coconut candy and peanut M+M’s. Never plain or almond or crispy M+M’s, always peanut.  

Then down south to La Parguera. It was about an hour and a half away. That’s the only problem, really, you have to drive to a lot of different sights. On the way, we stopped at a pineapple stand (I love roadside fruit stands.) I bought a pineapple and treated my father to a coco frio. The man cut open the coconut (with a machete!!!) right there and gave it to my dad with a straw. My dad loved it. Personall, I could do without it, but I got my pineapple and I was happy. But anyway, we made it down there. It reminds me a bit of Keansburg, lots of fried food and pizza. Vendors selling tee-shirts and towels and jewelry. We walked around and got drinks before heading out on the boat to see the bioluminescent bay. At the restaurant, there was a cute little girl with her parents. The little girl wanted her own menu and wouldn’t let mommy do anything for her. She was adorable, little miss independent.

Before we embarked on the bio-bay boat trip, we were served dinner: chicken empanadas (and my mom had a couple MEdallias, the only beer made on the island). Being a vegetarian, I whipped out the bread and hummus we bought earlier at FreshMart and made myself a nice sandwich. IT was nice to have real hummus (not chunky blender hummus) for a change. The bio-bay was amazing. When you move your hands around and stir up the water, the microorganisms light up! Of course my mother did not go in the water, but my father and I did. We moved around quite a bit to stir up some light for her. I was glowing.

On the way home, we stopped at Rex Cream in Mayaguez. I tried the bizcoccho, which everyone loves, and I also liked it, but went with vanilla chocolate chip instead. My parents did not even try the corn or tamarind ice cream. I was very disappointed in them. But they liked the ice cream, and I got to show them the town plaza with all the neat statues.

6/26/2011

I wore my new knit orange hat today. It made me happy.

Today we ate breakfast in the room (darn, no pancakes) so we could get off to an early start. It is quite a long drive from Rincon to the Arecibo Observatory. But, my dad wanted to see it, and a professor from Cornell University told me it was pretty amazing, so I did not protest. I did, however, want some tea. We stopped at two bakeries on the way and no tea! Again, darn.

So, I read a bit in the plant pathology textbook (not as much as I would have liked). In the backseat, my mom read The Chosen. She reads so much more quickly than I do! I was impressed.

So, eventually, after mostly highway driving and some winding roads, we made it. We climbed up the 500 steps to the visitor center and viewing platform. There are a lot of things to read and see in the small museum there, and a lot of the physics stuff went over my head, frankly. However, I was happy to see a woman’s name. Annie Cannon, from Harvard. Read a short biography here: http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hua12001

We planned to stop at the lighthouse in Rincon on the way back to the hotel, but it started pouring when we were about 20 minutes away. So we stopped at a supermarket. And my mother went into Payless, of course. And my father got pizza at a Pizza Hut-like place. And we waited out the storm.

I, of course, had the hummus sandwich I packed in the morning.

The rain finally stopped and we went to the lighthouse. We walked around the town of Rincon, as well, and got some nice fruit at a roadside fruit stand. The town is small and there are very few shops and the art gallery was closed for a flute recital, so we came back to the hotel. It was drizzling, but we went in the ocean for a bit anyway. I’m hoping for more beach time next weekend.

Now we are off to dinner. Again to the Thai restaurant Ode to the Elephants. Delicious food and a nice wine selection. I hope I can get away with pairing a red wine with spicy Thai food.