Aubri Carman is a very talented young scientist that became friend of the Arteaga family while the lab was still a recurrent dream during my postdoctoral time. Aubri is a superb student (Flinn Scholar) and a great athlete (she plays football, runs, and does triathlons) . On her way to Costa Rica, Aubri decided to spend some time in the "real" Mexico (no, Rocky Point is not real Mexico). We invited Aubri to describe her experience in Mexico and to share with us some words of wisdom.
Aubri: While in Mexico, I had an amazing time visiting Mario and his family! The trip began in Mexico City, where Mario and I were able to explore historic sites such as El Zocalo, La Basilica de la Virgen de Guadalupe, and Teotihuacan, and catch up on what we had missed in each others lives over the past year. We spent a considerable amount of time eating, too; I'm pretty sure Mexico is the only place where it is acceptable to eat a tamale, chips, and salsa for breakfast (not that I am complaining!). After enjoying Mexico D.F., we traveled by bus to Xalapa, the home of the Arteaga lab. I was able to tour la Universidad Veracruzana and the current and future spaces of the Arteaga lab. It is a bit different than the space that Mario and I worked in at the University of Arizona, but once the lab gets up and running I am sure it will be great! I got to watch Mario and his wife teach some new students how to do a few things with bioinformatics, which was a good reminder for me since I no longer work with tools like BLAST. Together, Mario and I were able to laugh about all of the funny things that happened in our old lab, such as when I messed up a big experiment...oops!
When we weren't at the lab, we went to Coatepec and passed time eating churros and wondering how many people called me a "Gringo." I also got to enjoy the beautiful yard at the Arteaga family home, where the youngest member of the lab, Lili, and I played futbol and did cartwheels every night. Every day, I get better and better at understanding Spanish, but I still sound like a studdering child when I try to speak-- something I need to work on! All I can say is that it is a good thing Mario can speak English :)
All in all, I have had a wonderful time visiting Mexico and hope to return soon and see the Arteaga lab as it grows! I am sure Mario will continue working (no, not with the "airbunnies") hard to make the lab the best possible. Maybe someday it will even have it's own Chipotle cafeteria or ice cream truck! A special THANK YOU to Mario and his family for so generously hosting me!
Mario: Dear Aubri, thanks for visiting us, we will miss you so much ! We hope you had a good time in Mexico, we are sure you will have a great time this summer, we wish you the very best in all of your adventures and we hope to see you back in Mexico soon.
Sincerely,
Mario, Ana and Lili
what are the "airbunnies"?
ReplyDeleteairbunnies = virtual quotation = air quotes
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_quotes
got it
ReplyDelete