Another exciting week in Granada! I ended up changing the requirements for my study and am now recruiting participants from Andalucía, which has definitely made my life a lot easier. My timeslots are now all full, which has been a little overwhelming, but also very relieving. This has been my second week running participants and I think I’m finally starting to get the hang of it. However, I did have a total of 4 no-shows this week, which was a little discouraging, but the graduate students in the lab said that it’s normal. Rather than going home, I decided to take advantage of my free time, and did some more exploring in the old city. I went to the Alcaicería, which is a section of the city that used to be an ancient Arab market. I did some shopping and picked up some gifts for my friends and family back home.
The Alcaicería de Granada 
This week all of us PIRE students were also invited to attend an event called ” A Pint of Science”, where two graduate students from our lab presented their research. It was great to learn about their experiments and also get to talk to all of the other graduate students, outside of the lab.
The weather this week also hasn’t been the greatest. Last week was warm and sunny and this week was cold and rainy. None of us were prepared for this cold weather, as we all heard that Southern Spain is very hot during the summer. However, we made do with what we had, and made the best of it. We were actually caught in a storm on our way home from the lab, and had to wait it out for a little bit until we found a bus stop, but it was actually quite peaceful.
Thunderstorm on our way home
On the bright-side, the day after the thunderstorm was absolutely beautiful. It was warm and sunny, which made for a great walk to and from the lab.
Views from our walk to the lab
Hi Deana! I understand the struggle of no-shows! It’s frustrating because it seems as though your time is wasted, but you get the chance to explore around the area which is awesome. I hope you get more chances to explore when you least expect it (but also have all your participants show up :).
Hey Deana! Glad to hear you’re having an easier time recruiting participants and it’s great that you’re already all booked up! Shopping in the Arab market sounds fun, as does the “pint of science.” I’m sure it’s nice to get to know your colleagues outside the lab. I hope the warm and sunny weather returns to you quickly, but it is nice to get a bit of cool weather every once in a while. Good luck with your study and can’t wait to hear more about Granada!