Today I found that not at all to my surprise, I had no crystals, just like last time. Nevertheless I continued, knowing that I would get some terrible, irascible and oily substance. Then, Dirk said hey, why don't we try to recrystallize it? The first solvent only went so-so, but man did the second one work well. Instead of a mess there were some marginally nice crystals coming out of solution. So I did that with the batch, and it turned out much better. Not amazing, but better. The yield wasn't very great yet, so I still have more work to do tomorrow to try and coax some more substance out. I had lunch with Nadine today, which was nice. She is leaving for a three week vacation starting tomorrow, so it was the last chance I had to see her. Also during lunch they were giving away a lot of paraphernalia for a drug like bags, pens and USB drives, so there was a massive rummaging fest going on. I managed to cache in on some stuff to bring back, but didn't go crazy like some people I saw, because I actually have to be able to bring stuff back in a suitcase. Since I have been sitting at a computer in a different part of the offices here, I have been able to talk with Thomas more, which has been helpful both for my German and his English. He always claims that his English is so terrible, but really, only the people that have never learned English before have terrible English. That is not many people. There is only one person in the lab that knows English and does not speak it with me. I guess everyone realizes that practice makes perfect. Lately I've been getting a little overwhelmed by trying to speak German all of the time, because I will have a thought that I want to express, but my vocabulary is quite filled with holes, which is frustrating. I can write in English all day about what I want to say, but when you don't have the words at your disposal, and the structure is still a new construct for your mind to utilize, it can take more time. Luckily for me, most people here are very patient with me. After work I organized my room a bit, putting unneeded things in my suitcase already. Wow, time to consider leaving already, pretty crazy. We are currently planning with Petra about what we are going to do. I had a plan of what I wanted to do, but it turns out that due to some other work circumstances, we have to do something completely different. I suppose that there is nothing to be done about it though. We will still be able to see cool stuff and have a good time in the Netherlands.
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