Caltech means 1500 professors and 1800 students

It was a bit ironic as I already had virtually everything arranged with Stanford Psychology Department and on the last moment the Dean's Office came up with this rule. This sometimes happens and one shouldn't get discouraged in such situations. I was already in contact with professor O'Doherty from California Institute of Technology (Caltech), who reviewed my recommendations, skype-interviewed me and on that basis accepted me to his lab as a research assistant. This decision was confirmed by local Dean's Office towards the end of September and so I was finally free to start preparations for the journey and stay in California.

Caltech is located in Pasadena, city of 150 000, circa 20 km northwards from Los Angeles. It was a bit strange that after I arrived to LA International Airport and drove by shuttle through LA virtually anything didn't seem novel or unusual to me (while it did when I first came to UK). Perhaps I've seen too many US movies, many of which were shot here. Even the white writing HOLLYWOOD shining above the city didn't excite me that much. However, when I arrived to Caltech campus I was shocked. Everything looked beautiful, organized, well taken care of. 'Am I still on the same planet?', I thought. I am visiting a university in UK for two years now and I though that everything will be somehow similar. Straight upon my arrival I met with two of my flatmates, who ensured me that my stay at Caltech will be quite different experience. When I asked them whether they want to go out they replied that they can't because they will be discussing an important question from theoretical economics (math and biology students). So, I understood pretty quickly that my existing experience about studying at university will be quite useless here. Caltech soon proved to be very specific institution where studying is sort of secondary, the most important thing is research. Recently, the whole institute is quite excited about a major success of one of local laboratories (NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory) - the Curiosity rover, which finds itself on the surface of Mars as I write this.

Social life during the week is very weak, societies meet mostly only during weekends (and still there is like 10 times less of them here). Everybody spends circa 10-12 hours daily in his lab, whole-night work isn't any exception. However, the university is ready for this and makes the life much easier outside of the laboratory. With Caltech ID is a lot of things, such as sport areas, printing, laundry and some entrances are for free. 'Research and don't worry about every day issues.'

The laboratory where I work is focused on reward systems and decision making. Apart from professor O'Doherty the lab has about 10 other members (PhD's, postdoc's, research assistants). The company is very friendly, with many discussions from neural science every day. My place is to act as help during research, which means that I prepare experiments, recruit participants, I learn to operate fMRI, TMS and other equipment. In total, it is even more than I expected. In one week I learned about research more than during the two previous years all together, so I am very happy I made this decision.

So far I am enjoying my stay at Caltech. My huger for new knowledge is growing with every day. During some of the upcoming weekends I am planning to visit some of the local national parks or perhaps Los Angeles. So, about that next time.