Payday! Of course, the entire paycheck (and then some) is already spoken for, between rent and Enid’s preschool tuition. That sort of takes the fun out of it. But “peor es nada” as they say.

I spent most of the morning immersed in the study of cancer genomics. I’m starting to shift my emphasis from broad reading of background material to specific study of individual papers, trying to get a detailed understanding of the methods and experimental design elements that I want to emulate. I need to figure out ASAP what resources are missing from our lab and then either get them in the purchasing pipeline (if our budget allows) or start searching for other ways to get them (i.e. inter-institutional collaborations or extramural funding sources).

I spent the afternoon reviewing a paper I’m co-author on from my last job. I hated to spend work time on that, but it would be impossible to do at home with Enid around. The paper is pretty close to its final revision, and as it turned out I didn’t have many substantive comments to make. But as a co-author I still felt obligated to give it a thorough reading and make comments, even if they were just minor edits.

Enid finished her first week of school without any major problems, and is still reporting that she likes it. Unfortunately her preschool in Yountville is a tough act to follow. It was very well run with lots of good material resources, and the daily program included lots of free-play time and creative activities that were well suited to Enid’s skills and interests. Also she was something of a teachers pet there, owing to her advanced verbal abilities and adult-centric social tendencies. Here the educational approach seems to be quite different, with a more rigid structure, and of course Enid is no longer able to engage her teachers verbally the way she could in English. I worry that she may feel lonely and isolated in school, but she hasn’t complained. Anyway, it’s only the first week and presumably she will speak more Spanish as time goes by.

Lots of people have told us “Don’t worry! She’ll be speaking Spanish better than you in no time! They’re like sponges at that age”. But we aren’t convinced. Those people don’t know Enid. She is not all that sociable, especially with other kids, so she may not feel much incentive to speak Spanish. Plus she can be very stubborn about things she decides she DOESN’T want to do. If speaking Spanish ends up in that category than this whole learn-Spanish-in-Mexico project could end up as a spectacular failure. Only time will tell. The experiment continues on Monday…