Final stage.

It is ten past five on Tuesday afternoon. People are starting to leave and I am still sitting in front of this computer, revising (By the way, I am back in London and in the lab).
The guys here keep coming to ask when is the big day, if I am stressed, if I feel ready, if there is going to be drinking after the thing finishes (of course there will be drinking, I will need a triple shot of tequila to recover!, or to knock myself down!).

Oh, yeah, "the thing" is my PhD oral dissertation...

To be honest, I am not even stressed (at least, not yet). My feeling is that it is only Tuesday and I wish it was Friday, so that I could finally close this period of my life. This has been hanging over my neck for the past four years and I can't wait to take it off me.

Don't get me wrong, it is not only complaints I have about it. In fact, after these years not only my brain and my knowledge have developed/grown, but also my personality. Plus, it gave me the opportunity to meet nice and very bright people (Pilar, Michy, just to give examples). It is just the time to close an era, and start a new one (wonder if life as a post-doc is more fun!).

How do I feel for the exam?... well, I think I know my subject, so I should be fine. I have made good and bad decisions during this project, but I feel I am able to justify them. And after it is written, what else can you do if not sticking to your guns?.

Now that I got it off my chest, let's go back to work!. Three days to go!.

La abuela.

I suppose sooner or later, we all reach a moment in life when it is necessary to stop and question whether you are following the right path or not. A moment of crisis when things are not in order anymore, and this brings up a feeling of uncertainty... I guess you are not always capable of finding the way out yourself and need a bit of help.
Some weeks ago I met "la abuela ayahuasca". Basically, a brew from two different plants that contains the alkaloid DMT, a psychedelic, and is administered in shamanic rites. The use of ayahuasca is a practice among the natives in Brazil and Peru for religious and medicinal purposes. The pharmacological effects of the brew have been studied and there is a paper published that I am intending to read and comment here, in the near future (yeah, to remind me I am a Pharmaceutical Chemist after all...).
A psychedelic is a component capable of bringing up signals originating from your senses, emotions, memories and the subconcious to your conscious mind. The effect is kind of an "enlightment"; it can help you to process past experiences and see clearly things that seemed obscure before.
The experience, I guess, can be the start of a never-ending trip of self-knowledge. With of without ayahuasca, something in the list to do before you are thirty...

and Happy New Year.

I am back from the beach!. I went with my friend Marina, Ray (a friend of hers) and Hortensia the dog.
We went by car to the beaches close the resort Ixtapa, in the state of Guerrero. We decided to avoid the big resort because it is peak season and it was full of people. Since we had low budget (mainly because of me, I have to say), we camped five out of seven nights. I had never done it before (camping) and I enjoyed it!; you can watch the stars above your tent and sleep with the sound of the waves... although sleeping on the floor is not always comfortable... specially if Hortensia de dog decides to cuddle against you... Nevertheless, I would do it again.
I enjoyed our New Year's Eve quite a lot!; my friend Marina has this rite for New Year's Eve that consists of going to the beach at sunset and writing down on the sand those feelings/experiences you want to go away with the year, so that the waves erase them. Then, at sunrise on 1st January, you go again and write down the feelings/things you want to happen during the new year. For me, the exercise was soothing and felt more positive after it.
We had our New Year's dinner at a place called "The Present Moment Retreat", basically a small place run by two Americans built around the idea of keeping a healthy lifestyle: you can do meditation and take yoga lessons first thing in the morning, facing the sea. I felt everybody really positive, so I was at ease. We ate lobster and drank champagne!.
Now I am back and preparing to go to London again!.