June 28

Today I did a reaction with Barbara.  Whenever that happens, I always learn more about the little things that I am doing wrong.  That is very much a good thing.  She does it differently than Dirk does, little stronger perhaps, but I appreciate it a little more I think.  It went very well, and everything turned out like it was supposed to.  It was probably one of the craziest reactions that I have done so far, because it was a surface reaction, where the powder stays as a suspension, and reacts with the liquid being dropped in, to form another suspension.  That was cool, and it evolved a lot of gas, which is always cool.  I talked with Dr. Heckmann about my little project that will be starting soon.  It should be fun, but certainly a challenge.  It involves making a side product that a reaction produces, as a reference substance so that it can be characterized; that will be tomorrow, as well as a German lesson.  I also found out that I was paid for my time in May.  I'm not sure why I didn't expect to be, but for some reason I was just assuming that I would be getting three months of wages no matter how long I worked.  So yeah, nice surprise there, and a good explanation for why there was extra money in my bank account when I checked it on Friday.  So, I spent it all right away, on a telescope that does not fit into my apartment because it is too big, and doesn't give a good view of anything.  Actually, I did walk over to the book store.  I bought two books and got one for free.  Two of them were children's books, or at least Encyclopedia Brown, or Boxcar children level, and the third was the Hobbit.  I hope to make it through the first two, and then attempt the Hobbit.  I looked through the first two for a bit, and it looks like reading in German is going to be a bit of a challenge.  I also had the wonderful chance to talk to my parents this evening.  The rate here is like €1.00-1.50 per minute, but that kind of looks like the way it is going to be.  At this point, communication can be done through e-mail, but it is just wonderful to hear voices.  I also tried to use my microphone today to create a voice recording.  It picks up voices poorly, but I just remembered that I have a camera with video capabilities, so that will probably be better.  Oh, and also, I got a wonderful e-mail from Cam today, in which he gave me a wonderfully written and engaging look at his experience in Cincinnati this year.  Cam, you are awesome!