PIRE II

And that's a wrap on PIRE. Whew. As I write this final blog post, I'm sitting in a bookstore called The Bookmark with Gabriella, sipping on hot green tea and soaking in the ambiance of this quiet little shop. I realize I have a lot to be thankful for, and a lot of...

We've spent full 8 weeks in San Juan, PR. It was thrilling and valuable experience. I've helped with my friend's research (EEG study) and there were participant almost everyday last week. For my research, I've collected 90+ participant through online, which was very...

The final week has come to a close! I can’t believe how time so stealthily escaped me during this trip. Research concluded on a high note. I ran 3-4 participants each day and completed all of the transcribing for my verbal fluency and picture naming tasks. Though I...

As I am now home reflecting on the past week in PR, I am so grateful. It was such a unique experience that I will never forget. The final week, I was able to completely finish my PIRE project reaching my goal of 44 participants which was really rewarding. Everything...

Week 8 of PIRE completed! I feel immense pride, accomplishment, sadness, and happiness all at the same time. I remember receiving the acceptance email for PIRE in December and thinking how long it would be until I was in a lab testing participants - and now the 8...

This week consisted of the perfect balance between testing participants and taking advantage of my free time. I was able to test 8 participants across 4 days, which brings me to a total of 21 participants! I experienced some technical difficulties with one of the...

There's a book by an author that I like that starts with the following line: "Rain drums its fingers on the garden shed..." That sentence has been playing through my head throughout the whole PIRE experience. Here in San Juan, it rains while I'm on the train; and it...

This has been my busiest week here! Now that I finally have a full schedule of participants, I’m exhausted. Though, I’m elated that my project is going well. It’s very routine now. Of course, I’m obligated to note all of my little struggles, as they’re almost comical...

Hey everyone, Week 7! Isn't that crazy, I can't believe next week is the last week I am in San Juan. I am definitely going to miss this place and the people I've met here. This week was full of the usual excitement. I was able complete 14 participants (7 sessions) in...

Despite the excessive heat advisory reigning over our heads, the sixth week of PIRE was nothing short of an adventure. With participants coming into the lab, footsteps traveling down new paths, and cats dozing beneath idle vehicles, I felt as though this week was the...

I can't believe it's already been 6 weeks in Puerto Rico! I still have a lot of things to do and want to learn here. As my in-person study had been paused, I am helping other people's recruitment and study set ups / wrap ups. There were sometimes that the electrodes...

Apagón: blackout. This is a word I became intimately familiar with this week. Quite honestly, I don’t think the Puerto Rico experience this week would have been complete without it. As I sat comfortable and cool in the other students’ Airbnb, eating ice cream cake and...

I tested 8 participants this week! 11 participants were scheduled at the beginning of the week, however due to sickness and the university shutting down for a day, not all of them were able to make it/reschedule. Even though there were only 8 participants, I'm still...

This week has flown by. I had a couple participants but was able to take a little break because last week was pretty exhausting. I also spent a lot of time coding all my data so that everything is ready to go when I get back to State College. I was able to finish...

Classes finally began this week! Campus is now lively, which allowed me to have what I cautiously call “luck” with participant recruitment. I was able to reach far more students in masses this week than before. Still, you can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make...

This week I had 4 participants!! It might not seem like a lot, but compared to the amount of students who already participated in my study (1), it was a lot. I've found that recruiting through my participants is more effective than going up to people around campus -...

It's a bird…it's a plane…no, it's the return of productivity! Classes have started up again at the university. I'm sure that I was one of very few students who'd been looking forward to the start of the summer session. Recently, I'd been holding out hope—although I...

There were some big changes on the research process. Sadly, there was a problem on recruiting participant at the UPR (since it was a vacation season), so it was decided to close my in-person study. I would be helping other one's recruitment and lab session. However,...

This week I moved over to the CRiiAS building permanently because I found that I was able to recruit more participants and found that the office where I was working was more comfortable. Funny enough, I have become friends with some of the employees, so it has been...

On Monday, which was a memorial day, I was planned to have 2 participants starting at 7 a.m. in the morning. I was at the campus 6:30 in the morning and struggled to the way in to the lab room. However, the guard at the campus told me that the campus is closed for the...

“Here in Puerto Rico, you make a friend in a day.” While swimming in the warm, calm waters of Isla Verde this week, a new friend told me this. I think it really encapsulates what it’s like to be here. San Juan is a city made of its people, and the people are made of...

In terms of participants, it's been a very slow week (I had no participants to test..). However, 2 people reached out, and they are scheduled for this upcoming week. Since changing the requirements for my study, I've put up flyers in different buildings than before -...

It's hard to believe that I'm halfway through my time in Puerto Rico. While I'm not where I'd like to be in terms of research, I want to keep in mind that a turnaround is possible. I wonder if the PIRE experience will end up panning out like a good book or movie: a...

This week was quite the adventure of a week. We have had several issues with our lab room because of AC maintenance which has caused me to have to cancel most of my sessions. It was quite a bummer because getting participants is hard enough and now, I was losing...

It will be a quieter blog post from me this week, since grass grew and paint dried before the past seven days went by. Generally, recruitment has not been favorable to the PIRE students here from my lab, but we don't expect this trend to last forever. However, it did...

Unfortunately, there were no participant signed up for the in-person session. However, I started my on-line survey study and data so far looks great. I was worried about if the study is proceed in online survey form, people would randomly submit their answers, which...

My biggest accomplishment for week 3 was testing my 1st participant! They were the first person who reached out and fit all my study requirements, and I was super excited to receive their email. Besides one technical issue, my first session went smoothly. Even though...

I cannot believe another week has already passed by! I’ve become rather accustomed to living here, even though it’s only been a short three weeks. I’ve learned how to walk and take public transport everywhere I need to go, gotten to know many wonderful people, and...

Hola todos, Week three has gone by so fast. It started off with finally getting access to the room we will be using for the next couple weeks. We were able to set up our stuff and test all the equipment. I ran my experiment to make sure everything was working...

The second week in San Juan has completely flown by! It has been such a wonderful, beautiful whirlwind. I am beginning to fall for our barrio, the community here, and this island. On Sunday, my housemate, Anna Raquel, and I were invited to have lunch with Ana, a PIRE...

Starting this week, I started to have participants. I put almost 30 flyers all over the campus, and it was worthed. I had 2 participant so far, and 2 more sceduled. On Tuesday, I had my first session with participant, and it took more time than I expected. I was...

I can't believe it's been two weeks already - it feels like I just got done writing my previous blog post. Between going to the grocery store and using the train/bus system, I would say I've grown accustomed to the area. I'm excited to explore more of the island and...

The PIRE experience no longer feels so much like vacation, and—irony of ironies—I'm glad for that. By now, the Bayamón and Sagrado Corazón train lines should know me quite well, since I've been utilizing San Juan's free public transit like it's going out of style....

This week was a mix of different things. I started the week by going out to find participants. I had a successful first day of recruitment when I was able to get a couple of people to give me their contact information. It was a bit challenging later in the week...

Greetings from Puerto Rico! This past week has been a pleasantly eventful whirlwind, complete with latte art, sleepy cats, torrential downpours, and movie nights. Exploring San Juan has allowed me to get to know Jin and Gabriella—the other undergraduates from my...

Upon arriving at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (SJU) at Puerto Rico, the first thing that struck me was the humidity. I felt worried since I don’t speak Spanish, and this was my first visit to a place that uses Spanish Language. Since it was just the first...

My PIRE experience is already off to a great start! Our first day here was spent acclimating to the area and getting settled in, and we visited a nearby cafe to start practicing our Spanish. We meet up with Rosa on Wednesday to set up the lab space, and she showed us...

The journey begins! Our flights to Puerto Rico got delayed, causing us to land in San Juan about ten hours late, but we made it safely. In the first few days, we have been settling into our new home, getting to know our neighborhood, and exploring the surrounding...

Bienvenido a San Juan!!! This first week has been such a blast! The trip itself started off a little rough with our first flight being delayed causing us to have an 8-hour layover in Newark but we made the most of it and had a good travel day. We arrived in San Juan...

In our final week, I crossed the rest of the items off my Puerto Rico trip bucket list and said goodbye to the country in which I'd spent two months conducting research and learning to live in an apartment with roommates. I planned a Sunday outing to the Museo de Arte...

Our last week in San Juan was spent saying many goodbyes. After two months, you would not expect to become so integrated into a community, but el calor puertorriqueño makes it impossible not to. The friendly faces are truly what have made this experience so special,...

My seventh week in Puerto Rico was full of plenty of fun activities. Since Monday was Juneteenth, the university was closed so we could not schedule any participants, so I took a beach trip to Dorado instead! A friend and I stayed until sunset and then headed back to...

We did a lot more this week than in all previous weeks in terms of going out on new and different adventures. I was able to cross several trips off my Puerto Rico bucket list, which made me very happy! Our first two participants (during whose session we made a mistake...

Today, I had a participant in their 60s. The most time-consuming aspect of our research involved the participant typing out what they heard from the audio. Due to their age, the participant was slower at typing, which resulted in the study taking much longer than the...

Last night, I ran into the biggest spider I had ever seen. As I was killing it with bug spray, I couldn't stop thinking about how long it must have taken to reach that size. In just 10 seconds, I had taken its life. I understand the benefits of spiders, and I feel so...

Week 6 was full of lots of participants, delicious food, and beautiful sunsets!  On Sunday, Katherine and I went on a shopping spree at Plaza las Americas, a mall in our neighborhood that also happens to be the largest mall in the Caribbean! It felt very similar to a...

As mentioned in my previous post, we had three sessions back-to-back on Thursday. Compared to Monday (the same schedule but an hour earlier), the wind was very strong and with the windows open and fans on, we were much more comfortable. We had a fun bunch of...

Such a busy and amazing week. Worked a lot, and managed to get lots of participants. The week went by faster than expected which is great. I am starting to feel homesick and cannot wait to be back to PA. Today, I found out that we could be experience a storm...

This week like the previous one started slow, however, I have found some participants for the end of the week. I also had some also for net week. The project is finally moving along and I am excited to continue working.

This week was slow. We are still struggling to find participants. And not much has happened.