Almost halfway done...what???

Hey fellow Europeans and other world travelers!

I was having trouble logging onto the IRES blog but thank you Kathy for helping me fix the problem! (though I am still not exaclty sure what the problem originally was). So last week I went to Venice with Megan as youve probably read by her last post...probably one of the most unique cities Ive ever been in! For one, boats are the primary form of transportation..and by primary I acutally mean the ONLY form of transporation.
Venice in a nutshell:

Meet the Gondolas...such a shame they were so expensive to actually ride but we can at least pretend?

St. Marks Basilica...I wouldn't mind living here :)

Quaint lil' alleyway

I ate real Italian pizza for the first time in my life, and learned at least 5 Italian words...so practically fluent I guess. It was a short week in lab because the DAAD-RISE program hosts an annual conference in Heidelberg that all the interns attend from Thursday to Saturday. It was a blast meeting other Americans, Brits, and Canadians but it was also a relief to finally speak fast English without fear of being misunderstood. The conference itself was relatively short. We went to a few meetings, which informed us of the laundry list of opportunities available to American interns in Germany (who knows, I might be coming back!) and listened to a few student presentations. The rest of the time was meant to meet other students who we can later travel with! We stayed in a hostel literally five minutes from where I live. (Important note: one advantage of having the conference in Heidelberg is that I received 160 Euro to "travel" to the conference..this will be put to good use with my upcoming travels! Also I was basically the official tour guide of the trip.)

Funny side note: A German friend of mine told me that I have been using the German word "komisch" incorrectly for the past month. I thought it stemmed from the word comical. It actually means "weird"...I might have been offending a few Germans along the way. OOPS!

This week in lab I will continue testing my NHC catalysts..I currently have 6 to test. The NMRs show pure results so far. Also, I am getting signifcantly better at recrystallizing my products, so my yields have improved significantly. Chemistry note: recrystallizing means applying a certain combination of ether and/or pentane to precipitate the product...the problem is that I never seem to use the right combination :/

More updates coming your way!

Kristen