Hello everyone, back to the story!
Sunday afternoon Christian drove us home from church. The minute the car started moving I started praying we would even get home safely. I was holding onto the door – I have never gone so fast on streets that aren’t high ways before. Verena was also in the back and holding on. To my infinite relief we did not meet a police man and got back to the house in one piece. Brother and Sister Helzer were in the
It seemed like we had made to much food – there were 4 pieces of turkey, a piece of chicken, and 5 sausages left when Verena and I were full. We both sat there and stared in disbelief as we watched Tim consume 4 additional pieces of turkey, 4 of the sausages and the remaining piece of chicken. Christian ate the other sausage and a piece of turkey. When they were finally done Verena and I cleaned up, then resumed talking. After 2 hours we ate some ice cream and Brother and Sis. Helzer came home. The time came for me to leave – I said goodbye to the family, then got in the car with Verena, who was going to drive me home. We made a quick stop at Münstner Brückenpark… they put a lot of money and time into it and it looks really nice now. When we got to the Northrups we said goodbye, and I waved to Verena until she disappeared around a corner.
Isn’t Monday morning a slap in the face? 5:30am came much to early today. I dragged myself out o bed to begin my routine. At work I got to set up my 1st reactor, which was pretty cool. Mr. Weick showed me some handling techniques for glass, and I finished the setup without mishap. Mr. Weick quickly explained the different apertures and showed me how to grease the ends so that we would get a good seal on the reactor. We then took down the “dry” setup, and transported the glass “mixing bowl” part to the chemical storage room. He allowed me to measure out some polyester into the bowl, which was a little tricky because it had the consistency of half granulated honey. I was careful not to drip or get any of it on the edges of the bowl. Mr. Weick added some powder and the solvent and carried the bowl back to the reactor. The bowl is situated in a “heating mushroom” that heats the bowl through impulses. After setting the impulse rate and the temperature it was time for the breakfast break.
I munched an apple and skimmed the paper. Upon my return I finished the Festkörperzahl calculations I had begun on Friday, then wrote my report for the day. There still wasn’t much to do, so I worte a short German article for Wide World, our school’s foreign language newspaper, about my senior project. I went back to the chemistry theory books, but wasn’t really concentrating. Mr. Weick saved me by giving me resin WE1057 to get the Festkörperzahl. I think I really have it down now - my results were good again.
My stomach was complaining so I went to lunch – rice and some kind of meat paddy with sauce was piled on my plate. For the 1st time I actually took my time eating, and to my surprise I finished most of my food and had a few min. To spare! When I got back I got out the theory book again, but I kept falling asleep as I was trying to read. After about 1 ½ hrs. Mr. Weick told me I should do my “dry” reactor set up for tomorrow. I remembered how to do almost everything myself, except how to screw on the mixer part. I tried and tried to no avail. I finally got Mr. Weick and showed hem what I was trying to do. He chuckled and showed me I had been trying to attach it upside down. After I had finished the setup he let me cut some filters to filter a resin that he had just finished.
I left at 3:30 and met Nathan at Oberbarmen Bahnhof. WE rode the 608 and I asked how Giovanna was doing. She had gone to get a mouth operation done this morning and I fell for everyone who gets a mouth operation done after my wisdom teeth. Apparently, she wasn’t doing that well. We stopped by Aldi and got some ice cream for her. Giovanna shocked me – I have never seen her looking so sick and exhausted. She ate some ice cream and some soup; her lower cheeks were very swollen. The kids climbed all over her, despite her protests of pain. I tried to keep them off, but didn’t really succeed. She couldn’t even get up for family home evening.
After FHE I cleaned up the kitchen, which was a complete disaster area, I told the kids a story and sent last night’s email and fell into bed. When I woke up I got myself some cereal and set the table. The day promised to be warm again. On the 646 we had a ticket check – was I ever glad I had a ticket – a girl a little younger that me didn’t have one, and the Kontrolleur wrote her a ticket for 40 Euros. That’s one expensive bus ride. First thing I do when I get in is to start weighing ingredients for my first synthesis. It got pretty exciting at one point - I worked with Allymethacrylat which is an extremely dangerous poisonous chemical – I got to wear a gas mask. It kind of made me nervous... my hands shook a little as I weighed the next ingredients.
The whole day consisted of weighing ingredients and adding them properly to the reactor. No details – if you want more you can ask. I came back from lunch and added the last ingredient for the 1 synthesis stage, but I dint’ have the initiator ready for the 2nd stage. Mr. Weick was busy so I just waited until he was done. Well, he said since we had a break between the ingredients that we wouldn’t be abele to do the 2nd synthesis stage, but that it wasn’t bad. I just had to let it cook for an hour and then cool it down. I watched another inversion reaction in my neighbor’s reactor and that was pretty much it.
Love and miss you all, can’t wait to hear from you!
Margaret
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