Settling in

Carolina, the woman renting the apartment with the awesome view, had to do some repairs on the apartment and told me she would need a week. Since I absolutely had to move on Monday and didn't want to move back to the hostel for a couple days before moving to an apartment, I settled for a slightly smaller, less central place. But it's mine!! And I love the young couple who rented it to me. Federico spent 30 minutes reading over the contract with me to make sure I understood everything (it was in Spanish). I spent Monday evening preparing my nest--unpacking bags, putting groceries in the cabinets and refrigerator, moving around the furniture, and looking around the neighborhood for the closest washing service, restaurant, etc.

The past two days, I have removed two litters of mouse pups to a surrogate mother who has adopted the pups as her own (she keeps them warm and cleans them) but since her mammary glands have been removed, she cannot nurse. So, these 16 little guys (by little I mean 2-3 grams each) are relying entirely on me for their daily calories and nutrients. They only eat about 0.6 g of milk/day, but they can't take it all at once. I spent most of my day in the mouse room feeding them with a pipette, running out every 30 minutes to warm the formula. They're all pink and hairless, and they get cold if they're out of the cage for too long. As I sat and watched "Sex in the City" I last night at the movie theater, caught myself thinking about them and hoping that they had gotten enough food during the day to last through the night. I woke up at 5 am having dreamt about them and wondering if it was time to feed them. I can't get into the lab until 9 am, so I eventually got back to sleep. This mothering is stressful!

The theater for Sex in the City was almost full, and fortunately they just put subtitles on English-language movies here rather than dubbing it in Spanish (except for kids' movies). The assigned seats in the theater through me for a loop.