August 20

LAST DAY OF WORK!  It was a good last day too.  In the morning I had to run around a little bit to take care of getting paid for August, but got everything taken care of just fine, and in German.  Luckily my last reaction only had a couple of non-messy steps for me to take care of, which was a nice way to finish.  My protocols were mostly all in order, so now it is just a matter of Dirk getting the results, appending them, then finalizing the reports.  Quite a simple process.  I am glad that I gave my cards to everyone yesterday, because a lot of people were gone early today.  I got to say my goodbyes to the people that I wanted to, and got some email addresses and such as well.  It really was a nice last day.  On the way out, I talked to a guy that I had known very peripherally in one of the neighboring labs.  He will have worked at Boehringer for 40 years on September 1.  I was happy that I could hold a decent conversation with him, because sometimes Germans who are a little older (maybe like in the States too), are harder to understand; he was not the rule though.  All I had to do at the gate was then turn in my card, and that was it.  Now I just have to pack up, hang out with Dirk on Sunday, then be ready to head to the Netherlands on Monday morning.  Oh, and I gave running a try tonight.  I made it a good ways before it felt like I had done enough.