Another Day

It turns out that a research meeting is the same everywhere. Grad students scurrying around and the last minute to come up with something profound to report on. Arriving at the meeting room, scrambling to get the projector running, trying not to be the first to speak. It was all very familiar. And so was the subject matter. Nothing was over my head or out of my area – i.e. Noise propagation in system identification (sounds smart, huh?). After the meeting it was lunch – but not the lab lunch – I guess it was cancelled. The rest of the day was pretty unproductive for me – a lot of reading.

Found a real grocery store last night. Actually had fruit and vegetables and lots of strange fish. I’ll take a picture next time if it doesn’t seem too awkward. Got some pasta and spaghetti sauce and ground beef. It was all kind of expensive. Oh, and I found some real salt! And pepper. I’m still looking for food containers so I can bring my lunch. This has actually turned out to be a difficult thing. Not sure why.

Some observations/questions:

I don’t know how the women walk in heels everywhere – my feet were sore after the trek to the store and back last night in flats.
They seem to have a love of umbrellas – they’re everywhere.
Women stare at my wedding ring. Upon noticing this, I have tried to see the types of wedding/engagement rings women here have. I haven’t seen many diamonds and the ones I see are small. It’s strange in a place where every other lady has Louis Vuitton or Chanel bags and other expensive clothes – they seem to love luxury
There are not many garbage cans outside and along the streets. I had to give my McDonalds coffee cup to a clerk at a store I went into after about 30 minutes of walking around and not seeing a place to put it.
A lot of the elderly people are hunched over