It is hard to believe I have less than 3 weeks to finish up with data collection, experience the city of Granada to its fullest, and of course, to eat Los Italianos gelato everyday. For now, I am making the most of each day, soaking in all of my favorite things here (and the strong, hot, 90+ degree sun).
Can’t get enough of the stracccciiiiii
I am not sure what I would do without Google calendar to help organize the busy days. We have some incredibly long days in the lab, sometimes hitting 8 participants in one day. But the more time I spend in the lab, the more I realize just how important and relevant our research is. Laboratorio 19 en planta uno has become my home, and not because it is where I spend most of my time. It is in lab 19 where the people I meet make me feel as if I am right where I should be.
Laboratorio 19 coding spot
views from (outside) lab 19
The other lab members I work alongside are not only patient with me, but they engage me in conversation, help me when I am in need, and even like to joke around which I always appreciate. It makes the long days feel not so long anymore, and it gives me opportunities to practice speaking Spanish.
Borja (lab manager) sporting the ERP gorro
But I couldn’t write this post without mentioning the participants I test in the lab. I do not want to say it is surprising how nice and genuine these people are, but they have far exceeded my expectations.
For example, participant 0019: This participant was a native Spanish speaker, but when I heard her English I had to ask her to clarify whether her L1 was English or Spanish. Her fluency of languages was incredible. I could not wrap my head around how easily she transitioned from speaking Spanish to speaking English. After the English Verbal Fluency task she told me she was frustrated because she kept thinking of the vegetables in Spanish (she makes her grocery lists in Spanish so that explains it jajajaja). They are the people like this participant that remind me of the complexities of bilingualism and the reasons I am so drawn into studying the bilingual brain/language processing. I hope one day I can code switch between languages like 0019.
A different participant offered to plan out my next trip to Spain, another invited us out for tapas after work, and most, if not all of the participants, show curiosity towards the research, my life at home, and how I am spending my time in GRA (often times they give me great recommendations for places to eat, que guayyyy). Being surrounded by such nice people has made data collection almost as enjoyable as eating an ice cream at Los Italianos 😉