Yesterday I presented what I did for the past 10 weeks in the lab along with all the rest of the UPCRO students who did the same program that I did. There was 12 of us, so it ended up being pretty much a full day of presentations that lasted roughly 20 minutes each. We had a crowd of 25 people or so (including all of the students). My talk went pretty well, I think. Afterwards they gave us some free food, after which we cleaned out our desks, gave back our swipe cards, and left.
After taking the free food that we were given, we all went our separate ways, walking home from work for the last time with plans to meet up to celebrate finishing our presentations and say goodbye. While I'm not leaving Cork until (very very early) Monday morning, most of the non-Irish students are going home earlier, today or tomorrow. The end of the program leaves me running around to finish off the last few things that I need to do before I fly back to the States on Monday wondering if I'll ever see any of these people again.
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Showing posts with label lab. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lab. Show all posts
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Saturday, August 16, 2008
A work-filled weekend and nearing the end
This weekend will be the first weekend in at least a month where I will not do any substantial traveling/tourist activities. I've got a rather long report to write (supposed to be 30 pages) and then a 5 page summary of that report and then a 20 minute presentation to prepare. It isn't an overwhelming amount of work, I just don't think I'll have quite enough time in the coming week to do it all in time for my last day on Friday.
On the plus side, the weather today is nice. The English Premier League kicked off this weekend, with the first game of the season at 1pm. It was pretty cool to be able to watch it on a fairly basic television channel without having to either pay a ton for cable or go to a pub, as I do in the States. It was also nice that it was on at a fairly normal time for a sporting event.
In any case, this weekend will be one for report writing and taking care of a few things that i need to do before I head back to America a week from Monday.
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On the plus side, the weather today is nice. The English Premier League kicked off this weekend, with the first game of the season at 1pm. It was pretty cool to be able to watch it on a fairly basic television channel without having to either pay a ton for cable or go to a pub, as I do in the States. It was also nice that it was on at a fairly normal time for a sporting event.
In any case, this weekend will be one for report writing and taking care of a few things that i need to do before I head back to America a week from Monday.
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Thursday, July 24, 2008
Moving
On Tuesday everyone who works on my floor went to a meeting in which we were told that we were moving (effective immediately, pretty much) to various other places on campus so that they could renovate the floor. This was expected, but the extreme short notice rather surprised me. As a result I have done absolutely no chemistry since that meeting and have spent my time at work between then and now cleaning, packing, moving, and cleaning some more.
Unfortunately I found a ton of mystery sample vials under my bench. I do not know who they belong to or what they are which means I get to clean out and dispose of about 200 sample vials. Not so much fun. It also means that for the next week or so I will not be able to get any work done because we will still be unpacking and settling in to the new lab. Such is life, i suppose.
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Unfortunately I found a ton of mystery sample vials under my bench. I do not know who they belong to or what they are which means I get to clean out and dispose of about 200 sample vials. Not so much fun. It also means that for the next week or so I will not be able to get any work done because we will still be unpacking and settling in to the new lab. Such is life, i suppose.
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Saturday, July 19, 2008
Failure
The past few days can be summed up very well by this picture. On Friday I figured out that the compound that I have been working on for the past week or so degraded so it is now useless. Today I attempted to go up to Thurles to watch Cork play Galway in hurling but we were not able to get train or bus tickets that included a return journey so we gave up. Both disappointing, but these things happen.
It was a gorgeous day in Cork today and walking back from the bus station after realizing that going to see the match wasn't feasible we saw some people doing a bizarre sort of martial art seeming thing except it was not any recognizable martial art I have ever heard of. In any case we returned home and watched the match on TV. It was an incredible match that ended up as a Cork victory by a mere two points after battling back from being behind at halftime and playing a man down for the entire second half. It is disappointing to have missed it but the match itself was still very exciting on television and there was no real way that we could have made it to Thurles in time once we realized what was going on with the train and bus.
The past couple days have remained sunny (for the most part). It has been over a week since it last rained harder than a 20 minute drizzle. It's almost spooky.
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It was a gorgeous day in Cork today and walking back from the bus station after realizing that going to see the match wasn't feasible we saw some people doing a bizarre sort of martial art seeming thing except it was not any recognizable martial art I have ever heard of. In any case we returned home and watched the match on TV. It was an incredible match that ended up as a Cork victory by a mere two points after battling back from being behind at halftime and playing a man down for the entire second half. It is disappointing to have missed it but the match itself was still very exciting on television and there was no real way that we could have made it to Thurles in time once we realized what was going on with the train and bus.
The past couple days have remained sunny (for the most part). It has been over a week since it last rained harder than a 20 minute drizzle. It's almost spooky.
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Thursday, July 3, 2008
Lawyers, Guns , Money?
Predictably, the day after I write about the sluggishness of the PPS number saga, the numbers arrive. We've given our paymasters the numbers and will hopefully be paid sometime in the next week or so. If all goes well there will be money in my Bank of Ireland account by the end of the week, which would be ideal because the current plan is to visit Dublin on Saturday and a working Irish ATM card that doesn't charge me any fee would be a godsend.
I've been watching a good deal of Wimbledon, which isn't difficult because its on when I get home from work. On Monday night we got to see Andy Murray come back from down 2 sets and a break to beat Gasquet in five sets, and earlier today we saw Nadal completely destroy him in less than two hours (I think). Evidently John McEnroe's commentary is also played in Ireland. His tennis commentary empire extends beyond the United States and to the BBC. I had no idea. I also didn't realize the extent of the pro-Murray hysteria among Wimbledon fans. Quite entertaining, in any case.
Speaking of Wimbledon, I discovered yesterday that the Brookfield complex (where I am staying) has two grass tennis courts. This is, of course, AWESOME. It's been raining ever since I discovered the courts themselves, but once it stops I'm heading down to play on the surface that inspired serving and volleying.
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I've been watching a good deal of Wimbledon, which isn't difficult because its on when I get home from work. On Monday night we got to see Andy Murray come back from down 2 sets and a break to beat Gasquet in five sets, and earlier today we saw Nadal completely destroy him in less than two hours (I think). Evidently John McEnroe's commentary is also played in Ireland. His tennis commentary empire extends beyond the United States and to the BBC. I had no idea. I also didn't realize the extent of the pro-Murray hysteria among Wimbledon fans. Quite entertaining, in any case.
Speaking of Wimbledon, I discovered yesterday that the Brookfield complex (where I am staying) has two grass tennis courts. This is, of course, AWESOME. It's been raining ever since I discovered the courts themselves, but once it stops I'm heading down to play on the surface that inspired serving and volleying.
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Rain, Tea, and Surfing
It rained pretty much all day today, varying from a steady light drizzle to a rather steady downpour from when I woke up until 6 or 6.30. As the French postdoc in my lab put it, "welcome to Ireland". The view from the window of my lab is rather incredible. It looks out over the attractive part of the UCC campus and on to the town itself, including the City Centre Center and Cathedral. the portion of the window directly next to the desk that my mentor and I share has a number of haikus written on it, many of them relating to rain. Go figure.
As luck would have it, the rain was hardest as I was walking home. The rain actually made me decide to put off my planned trip to the bank to finalize my bank account, which is turning into much more of an ordeal than I expected it to be. To open an account at the Bank of Ireland you need to have a letter confirming an Irish address and two forms of photo ID. Evidently you must live in Ireland to hold a bank account here. I personally find this absolutely bizarre, I don't know why a bank would care about where you live. The other thing I found strange about the process was that when I gave them my California Driver's License as my first form of ID they said it was no good because it had my American address and not my Irish one on it. The lady who helped me then asked to see my passport. She either didn't understand my explanation that my passport would have the same address because it is my permanent address or didn't get that because I'm living here for 10 weeks I'm not going to have any ID with my address here on it. Either way, I thought it was strange.
Today was the first day I was asked to come into work at a relatively normal time. They decided to ease me into it by asking me to get there at 12 on Monday and 11 on Tuesday. Today I got in at 9.30 and did a bit of preparation with my mentor for the day's experiments. Then at right around 10 or 10.15 everyone in the lab went off for tea. My mentor and I were among the first people in the lab, so most people were at work for 15-20 minutes or so before tea, which lasted until about 10.45 or 11. Then most people worked until 12ish, when they went off for lunch for roughly an hour. Not me, though. Mixing and stirring chemicals until 12.30 and then a lecture at 1, lunch in between. I'm not sure when most people leave though, my mentor and I left early because of a screwy reaction that we ended up leaving overnight. Not having anything else to do we left around 4 or 4.15. In any case though, the pace of work and mentality is far more relaxed than in America.
During some down time in the lab today I was talking to one of the grad student and it turns out that she surfs. I was rather shocked, I suppose I knew that there were surfers in Ireland but I had always assumed that they were transplanted Americans making the best of a gorgeous, if not stereotypically surf-friendly, coastline. Evidently I was wrong though, my coworker is from somewhere in County Kerry and her accent demonstrates that she's lived in Ireland for a long time. It does seem like it would be rather cold though.
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As luck would have it, the rain was hardest as I was walking home. The rain actually made me decide to put off my planned trip to the bank to finalize my bank account, which is turning into much more of an ordeal than I expected it to be. To open an account at the Bank of Ireland you need to have a letter confirming an Irish address and two forms of photo ID. Evidently you must live in Ireland to hold a bank account here. I personally find this absolutely bizarre, I don't know why a bank would care about where you live. The other thing I found strange about the process was that when I gave them my California Driver's License as my first form of ID they said it was no good because it had my American address and not my Irish one on it. The lady who helped me then asked to see my passport. She either didn't understand my explanation that my passport would have the same address because it is my permanent address or didn't get that because I'm living here for 10 weeks I'm not going to have any ID with my address here on it. Either way, I thought it was strange.
Today was the first day I was asked to come into work at a relatively normal time. They decided to ease me into it by asking me to get there at 12 on Monday and 11 on Tuesday. Today I got in at 9.30 and did a bit of preparation with my mentor for the day's experiments. Then at right around 10 or 10.15 everyone in the lab went off for tea. My mentor and I were among the first people in the lab, so most people were at work for 15-20 minutes or so before tea, which lasted until about 10.45 or 11. Then most people worked until 12ish, when they went off for lunch for roughly an hour. Not me, though. Mixing and stirring chemicals until 12.30 and then a lecture at 1, lunch in between. I'm not sure when most people leave though, my mentor and I left early because of a screwy reaction that we ended up leaving overnight. Not having anything else to do we left around 4 or 4.15. In any case though, the pace of work and mentality is far more relaxed than in America.
During some down time in the lab today I was talking to one of the grad student and it turns out that she surfs. I was rather shocked, I suppose I knew that there were surfers in Ireland but I had always assumed that they were transplanted Americans making the best of a gorgeous, if not stereotypically surf-friendly, coastline. Evidently I was wrong though, my coworker is from somewhere in County Kerry and her accent demonstrates that she's lived in Ireland for a long time. It does seem like it would be rather cold though.
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Tuesday, June 17, 2008
MINSTRELS! and pub
Today I went to the big supermarket after work to pick up some food. I expected it to be a rather uneventful experience but little did I know that a rather surprising find would turn the experience awesome. As I was going through the isles grabbing bread, salami, and other various simple food items I saw a packet of Minstrels, which I rushed over to and grabbed immediately. For those of you who don't know, Minstrels are an Irish candy made by Galaxy. They're rather similar to M&Ms except they are slightly larger, don't have varying coating colors, and are made with better chocolate. They are quite possibly the best mass-produced candy I have ever eaten. My day got exponentially better after I found them. Coincidentally, today has been the worst weather so far since I arrived. Wet and gray much as I expected it to be like all the time.
Yesterday night we had an introductory dinner for the internship program I'm doing here. We sat through a brief introductory lecture earlier in the day and then they sent the six international students off to get some sort of government tax number. After we finished that we had a few hours break and then met at a restaurant in the CityCentre Center for a sort of social dinner so that we could meet everyone involved with the program. The meal was excellent (and free!), although the portions were so enormous that I almost felt like I was in Texas. Afterwards the group headed over to a nearby pub, which made it much easier to intermingle and meet everyone than it was sitting at a long skinny dinner table.
Today was my first real day on the job. I met my French student supervisor for the first time and was walked through an outline of what my project for the next 10 weeks will be. My supervisor, Guillaume, will actually only work here for another two weeks which he will spend primarily training me how to do the synthesis he's working on up to the point where he is now so that I can continue it after he is gone. Since Guillaume is the only one currently working on this particular project, once he leaves it will become my project and I'll report directly to my PI, not a grad student, which I thought was sorta cool. I'll even get my own desk. It turns out that I have an access card that Guillaume does not have for reasons I do not understand. In any case, my actual training starts tomorrow, I only did some reading today, so there isn't too much to explain, only Minstrels that need eating.
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Yesterday night we had an introductory dinner for the internship program I'm doing here. We sat through a brief introductory lecture earlier in the day and then they sent the six international students off to get some sort of government tax number. After we finished that we had a few hours break and then met at a restaurant in the City
Today was my first real day on the job. I met my French student supervisor for the first time and was walked through an outline of what my project for the next 10 weeks will be. My supervisor, Guillaume, will actually only work here for another two weeks which he will spend primarily training me how to do the synthesis he's working on up to the point where he is now so that I can continue it after he is gone. Since Guillaume is the only one currently working on this particular project, once he leaves it will become my project and I'll report directly to my PI, not a grad student, which I thought was sorta cool. I'll even get my own desk. It turns out that I have an access card that Guillaume does not have for reasons I do not understand. In any case, my actual training starts tomorrow, I only did some reading today, so there isn't too much to explain, only Minstrels that need eating.
Read more
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