Day 4 - Chips and...

Today I had to get up sort of early to get in to work by 9 so we could be on the TEM by 9:30. XiaoMeng operated it, and Petro came along again, but the samples were ones XiaoMeng and I made yesterday. OH! I forgot to mention that in my post yesterday about my morning. Oops.

< .science >

So we examined single-walled, double-walled, and multi-walled carbon nanotubes. Turns out the single-walled ones clumped together too much for us to be able to see much of anything, the double-walled ones were really triple-walled or more, and the multi-walled ones were beautiful. XiaoMeng is also really good, so we got some great images for me to process. Yay!

< / science >

I had thought I would be able to take a class to learn to use the TEM, but it turns out it doens't start till too late, so I will be consulting with the TEM expert/person who teaches the class and is the TEM god as he operates it and takes images for me. That was slightly disappointing, but it does cost like millions of dollars so I understand the rules.

After the TEM work we went to lunch, at another cafeteria on campus. They had schnitzel, which was delicious. And there were plum trees outside, from which we plucked (with great effort and lots of help from Asof, our tallest friend) tasty yet cherry-sized plums. The rest of the afternoon was spent reading again; I didn't even finish!

Upon leaving work, I decided to go on a postcard quest, but was unsuccessful and got a number of quizzical looks from shopkeepers. I got home and began cooking. I made chicken with soy sauce and peanut butter (Rebecca, it totally worked and was delicious!) and cooked rice, in a pressure cooker. Has anyone ever used one of those? It was scary, but I made rice successfully for the first time in my life.

Anyways, I ate and drank pomegranate juice and then changed, and we went salsa dancing! Our new friend Ran drove us to the place; Baila Salsa. The first half hour was warm-up, then there was an hour of lessons. I was in the beginner group with the two other summer students who came with us, but Ran was off with the moderate/advanced people. After that it was mostly free dancing but there were a few line dances, which were more fun. I wasn't bad; of the two friends who came as well, one was the same and the other was from Columbia. She was very popular :) After a few hours we finally pulled her away and came back here.

Pictures today: enjoy some views of my dorm! This includes, in order, the lobby, my room (which is one floor below, in the basement), the communal kitchen, and the refrigerator room (a technical term, of course). I have a picture of the aforementioned plums, which you will see tomorrow maybe. Also notice that although my room seems spacious, the photo was taken from the hall, and to enter my room I have to open the door completely or take small steps, as the door path passes very close to my dresser (not pictured).