Minimos y Maximos

If I had to make a graph of the amount of fun I've had in my last week here in Panama vs. the amount of frustration vs. time, starting with Sunday, February 10 and ending with Saturday, February 16, it would look something like this:

Fig 1. Amount of fun vs. amount of frustration vs. 

time in Panama this week, Feb 10--Feb 16, 2013 (P<0.0001).

Let me explain. I think it was Monday when the advisor with whom I applied to do a PhD at OSU emailed me saying I'm his first choice and he really wanted me to join and might I hurry and tell him soon if I was going to accept his offer? Which sounds great, but I would much rather have heard that from UC Santa Cruz. Hearing that totally killed me and made my life a nightmare as I tried to sort out which school I really wanted to go to. Then in the next few days I heard from the Santa Cruz advisors that they requested I be accepted, but were sill awaiting approval from the grad department. So I spent the first half of my week thinking nonstop about this decision that would change the course of my life (Fig 2).

      VS.  

Fig 2. A graphic of my graduate decision.

In the meantime, my friends and I did some cool stuff like exploring this abandoned army bunker above our lab. We climbed a long staircase in inky darkness and made it to the top without falling in any of the random holes which seemed strangely to me like trap doors. Wielding tiny flashlights and our cell phones to combat the darkness, we poked around and gave ourselves a tour of rooms decorated only with dead or half-alive flora and the spray-painted wisdom of past trespassers. It was exciting and a little spooky! Then we climbed a water tower and played black jack, betting pennies. 

Then Wednesday happened, where I tripped while running by a construction site. Three seconds later a few workers ran over and dragged me up by my arms, which was not exceedingly helpful. My foot hurt pretty bad, but I could still walk so I finished my run and went home. The next day at work I changed into sandals at one point and realized about half of my foot was purple and very swollen. Oh, and I have about 10 bruises or cuts elsewhere on my body. 

Thursday night, after icing my foot, I had a heart-to-heart with my roommate. She is in her first year of a PhD studying floral diversity response to paleoenvironmental change (Fig 3). I figured she would have a lot of good things to say about deciding on a grad program. I talked through  my hard decision and by the end it was pretty clear to me what I needed to do. I have always wanted to live in Santa Cruz, so that's where I need to be. I feel so much better now that I have decided! I'm still waiting for the official acceptance though.

Fig 3. The first image when a search on "floral response to 

paleoenvironmental change" is entered in the Google search engine.

Don't assume this has anything to do with my roommate's research.  

On Friday we went into the field again (woohoo!) and I spoke a lot of Spanish. Instead of giving up meat on Fridays during Lent, since I do that all the time anyway, I gave up English. I feel like I improved so much just in one day! I never want to speak English again. Later we had a volleyball tournament at which I spoke a lot of English, only because this one English scientist friend I have wanted to discuss the relationship of science and religion and I didn't feel well enough equipped to do that in Spanish. I didn't even feel well enough equipped to do so in English. Later about 10 friends and I cooked and played Pictionary in La Jaula over beers and rum! It was very fun. 

Overall, my frustrations with grad school decision-making and my injury were big downers, but since I figured out the former and did a lot of other really great things, I think I came out on top this week. Oh, and we just made super excellent vegan chili and cornbread together while practicing Spanish and discussing alternative eating (Fig 4). It was a great night!

Fig 4. The second image result with one enters 

"super excellent vegan chili" in the Google search engine.