Das Tuff (Dec 11)

Here's what a "Das Tuff" day looks like in my book: I slowly got out of the warm bed to a cold room, knowing with great unease what I would have to do. The shower heads had this machine with wires hooked up to it, but I had no idea if it was to make the shower water warm or not. As soon as the stinging, ice-cold water hit my head, I found it hard to breathe and my body began shivering. I realized, after hopping out of the shower, that I couldn't feel my head. I felt very light-headed. This felt like one of those times I was borderline about to hit the ground, unconscious. I chuckled like: "yep you signed up for this Mo, enjoy it!"

The breakfast was delicious tho.

Next, I decided to follow through on my humble offer of sitting in the middle backseat of the small car. I was immediately squished on both sides and off to the loopy, bumpy, narrow roads we went. On top of that, there was a suitcase in my lap that I had to hold down the entire ride because it threatened to knock my face off every time the car hit a bump. One speed bump caused everyone in the car to float in the air momentarily, I didn't. My head bounced off the top of the car to knock me right back into my seat. At least I was prepared for the head knockin' because my seat had no head-rest, and my neck was already growing stiff .

The city life in San Jose kept my eyes busy tho.

On arriving to the Las Cruces station, we were welcomed warmly and showed the basics. During dinner, I overheard a lady say something like: at seven-thirty, there'll be formal introductions... well, not formal formal, but y'know..introduce ourselves and share something about ourselves. I felt a ping of panic inside and carried that with me all the way until introductions were over with. The introductions were interesting because it was made clear that everyone in the room was from a different part of the world. The beginning of the day, you could say, was a good introduction to what I could expect from CRIRE.

The exotic plants at the station were cool to look at tho.