Monday, May 31

Slightly Cheesy Introduction

Call me Joseph. I am a proud student of Haverford College in Pennsylvania. Through Haverford's Multicultural Scholars Program and Professors Alexander and Feldman (Jeff TF), I was able to secure an internship with a Professor of Physics at the University of Puerto Rico. This blog is a means for me to share my experience on this beautiful island.

Oh and please excuse the cheesy Moby Dick reference, I figure every good adventure should start off with an extremely short sentence which introduces the main character (wow, I'm the main character) and sets up a casual relationship between the protagonist and the reader.

Anyway, I hope this blog is enjoyable and enlightening- profound may be asking a little much.

This past week has definitely been an experience for me. I managed to make a friend before landing in PR. On the plane, I sat next to a sweet old lady who was eager to tell me about the wonders of the island. She explained that she had moved to PR from New York many years back and she sympathized with my looming language and identity crises that I was to face shortly.

Professor Vicente (Carlos, as he prefers to be called) met me at the airport and took me around giving a short but informed tour of parts of the island. Upon arrival I still had no housing plans so Carlos and I explored my options. I chose the more humble of the two options in order to get a more "real experience." By humble of course, I mean to say that I chose the option with no air conditioning, a slight mosquito problem and one washing machine complete with a trail of confused ants (perhaps some unfortunate person had lost a cookie in a terrible washing machine mishap).

(The entrance to my apartment building)

The apartment has 4 bedrooms 3 of which are surprisingly vacant when one considers that they each have at least 2 sets of bunk beds. My room on the other hand, has only one bed and the moldy smell is actually kind of subtle! (unless of course you get your nose too close to the mattress, which tends to happen at critical relaxation times).


I was very happy to have my own kitchen which has been put to very good use. I stocked up on rice, beans, pasta, Ramen (chicken and beef), and cereal (Honey Bunches of Oats, if you're curious) and thankfully I have yet to get tired of the menu. I manage to cook happily around the leaky kitchen roof and am adequately nourished.



I've been meeting with Carlos for about 2-3 hours daily manipulating data from previous experiments (more on the nature of the experiments later) and trying to accumulate as much knowledge on the subject as possible. After those meetings I am free to venture off on my own and explore. I intend to take advantage of this freedom. Let us see what PR has to offer!