Jordan's Lemma

My physics teacher thinks this is fun...

I like to refer to it in more affectionate terms: torture, pain, frustration, confusion, absolute stress? Those all work quite nicely, really.

Hahaha on a separate note, I had pineapple and ice cream for dinner. More pineapple than ice cream, but I'm not sure that cancels out the extra calories. And I played the piano for about an hour today.... it's a lovely way to de-stress after all this studying and finals.

My parents were in town this weekend and we went condo searching. I think that our real estate agent fell in love with us too. He said that we were amusing, and crazy funny, and he liked how we all tag teamed each other. I, of course, relayed this amusing tidbit to my father, who proceeded to mention it at dinner during his prayer. But it's true.. what he said... God has blessed us with a family that loves each other enough that other people notice how well we get along and are vocal about it.

I miss my doggie already. I'm sad that she had to go back to Florida with my parents.

Bon soir et bonne nuit, mes amis.

Fais de beaux reves.

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I did some research on Wikipedia.org, the site that saves me every time I can't figure out my homework, and came up this stunning image for Lodz, Poland. Looking at this, I'm really excited about staying here for two months. The street below is called Piotrkowska, and it's the main street running through the city. Hours can be spent looking in shops, getting a drink at a "canteen", and mingling with the local people and culture. On the other hand, pronouncing the street names does NOT look like it is going to be an easy feat. 

And this is the house of the director of the University where we are going to be researching. I thought it was pretty.

The Blue Monkey awaits.

The exciting new addition to my ever-expanding camera family!

It's blue, if you can tell from the picture. And it should serve me well in Poland.

Ethanol showers

I know this may not look like much, but I spent many hours slaving away in the lab to produce these results... and begged a random physics professor in the hall to first let me borrow his USB memory stick, and then trust me to locate him and bring in back within five minutes. It was quite the impossible task considering how large these picture files were and how many of them I had to transfer onto my laptop. Oh yes, and I spilled a large beaker of ethanol all over myself right before Stanishevsky walked in the room. Very classy, if I do say so myself.

Ahem. The results:

Basically it's two pictures of silver/carbon colloidal nanoparticles, deposited onto a titanium substrate. We're trying to find the set of conditions that helps the particles deposit best, testing specifically the concentration in solution, voltage across the cathodes, and deposition time. It all sounds very fancy, but the job is not glamourous. The cool part is analyzing the samples and using the microscope to take pictures... which is what we have above. If you'll look closely, the picture on bottom is composed of tiny little circles. Each of those is a sphere about 10-15 nanometers across, which is a meter to the -9th power.

The first picture is the same procedure, but the conditions allowed the particles to deposit too quickly... and when the system dried, it cracked to relieve the stress. It's incredible to think about because the stress is in microjoules... the amount a pressure a fly exerts on a counter top when it lands... but it's still too much for the arrangement to handle and fault lines appear.

Anyway, enough babbling in a foreign language.

I have to go back to writing this paper. :(

Heritage Hall, Lecture Room 102

I'm currently at the "Study Away @ UAB" pre-departure orientation lecture and the most exciting thing we've talked about so far is what kind of insurance you should buy in case you die. And they need to bring your body back. Hahahah thrilling.

I somehow have to write 8 pages of a research paper today and turn it in by five. Seems like another assignment that will be late...

BUT I do have an amusing anecdote:

I went to the hospital last night because Courtney's grandpa had two stints put in his heart. We had to find out where his room was and Court asked a lady in the lobby how to get to the fourth floor... to which she quickly replied, dead serious... "You get in the elevator and press the button with the 4." Honestly?

Bonjour tout le monde

I wanted to start a blog about my journey - somewhere that I can update on my adventures and research - and keep everyone informed about my life for the next THREE long months.

For those of you who don't know, a group of three other girls and I are going to Poland and the Czech Republic for three months this summer to do research with the Technical University of Lodz in Lodz, and also TUL in the Czech Republic. I'm not exactly sure what kind of research we'll be doing, except that it's in the general area of chemistry and physics - probably with an emphasis on nanoparticles and synthetic bone. I hope that we get Friday's off, along with weekends, because Courtney and I plan on seeing the rest of Europe in our time off.

Hahah I think our list includes

1. Greece!

2. Rome, Italy

3. Ireland

4. The French countryside

5. Paris

5. Amsterdam and the surrounding Netherlands

6. Switzerland to go sky-diving

7. Prague (although it certainly doesn't belong at the bottom of our "priority" list.)

8. .... and Germany, to get some normal food when we can't stand bagettes and ham any longer.

On a side note, I need to stop dreaming about my travels right now because I have a lot of stuff left to do in the two remaining weeks. Big/Little reveal is tomorrow and I MUST go make a bear for my little.. which means a trip to the mall. I have to fill out a leave of absence for work. Return some clothes at Target and buy "NEW MOON"... the most amazing book ever (that I'm going to try my hardest to not read until we board the plan for Chicago). Review session for Math methods today. GREY'S ANATOMY tomorrow. And then finals all next week that desperately need to be studying for. Trip to Washington, DC on May 2-4th, with a visit from my little brother, hopefully.

Sorry... my english skills suddenly deteriorated in that last paragraph. I get stressed out when I think about all of the stuff I have to do. But.. only two more weeks!