June 21

I did another step of the little project I'm doing for Dirk today.  It went fine; definitely more on time and with fewer slip ups.  Today I had another German lesson with Oliver.  They are quite fun.  We usually just talk, or he'll answer my German grammar questions.  It's also really nice, because I learn more about spoken German from him.  Spoken German, like spoken English is quite a bit different from its written counterpart.  Knowing the differences is pretty key if you want to speak fluidly and have it sound correct as well as be correct.  Oliver is a very engaging person, and even manages to make grammar interesting.  He thought it was quite funny that the German book from dad includes the "current" abbreviation H.J. (Hitler Jugend).  The book is good, but it is OLD‼  You bought the book used right?  Anyway, I had lunch with Barbara, Claudia, Marc and Spencer today.  Well, actually Barbara and I ate together (carrots and onions with rice in a great curry sauce), then sat with the rest when they finally arrived.  Claudia and Barbara know each other from when they were in the same apprenticeship class.  Very different areas of study though (marketing and chemistry).  After lunch I went back to my reaction, which was warming to room temperature and took and HPLC, showing 99+% conversion.  I'll do the distillation tomorrow, and finish it up as well.  I also started looking up flights to Rome and Spain.  They are rather affordable; we may be making a trip to Rome.  I would be happy with that.  We will see though, Joe and Marc don't have quite the vacation day freedom that I do.  After work today I went to the bank and finally got my PIN number for my account.  I can actually use the silly thing now!  I get paid soon too, so that will be nice.  I managed to inquire and get everything taken care of in German.  Terrible German, but German nonetheless.  By the way, I wish I could have seen the Portugal-North Korea match; that must have been quite embarrassing…this week is a big one for a lot of teams.  Our last match is on Wednesday, as is Germany's.  I sure hope they air the U.S.-Algeria match and not the England-Slovenia one.  I'm pretty confident they'll be airing Germany.  I believe we have a 16:00 match, so I won't have to leave work too early.