Children Under Five Should be Drugged to Fly

My journey began at 6:25 am to catch an 11:45 flight.  Already tired and grumpy, I got to spend 1.5 hours sitting on the tarmac in Atlanta because Newark had fog.  Thank goodness for a planned 5 hour layover.  An inconvenience was turned into annoyance by the 4 year old behind who thought my chair made a good soccer ball.  Once his mother noticed that I was getting pissed, she tried to control him but to no avail.  I even offered her Benadryl, but whatever.....  

Now that my rant is over, on to Barcelona.

What I have seen of the city is very nice.  The university area is well maintained with good shopping.  There is a five story department store 3 blocks away with all of the fancy European brands and other shops along the street.  Although it is not in the heart of the city, the university is right on the main street of Barcelona, called Diagonal, which runs... you guessed it... diagonally through the city.  This is nice in that it is convenient for getting around, but crossing the street can be quite epic as red lights are only suggestions.  Maybe Georgia should send all its dismantled red light cameras here.  The university is also a block from Camp Nou, the Barcelona soccer stadium. While I was trying to fall asleep last night I heard loud noises and looked out my window to see fireworks celebrating the team's arrival back from Rome. While it was really cool, it was also 11 pm and I had been up for 35 hours.

The lab itself is very modern.  The building is less than 10 years old and has everything I could ever need.  There is no bench space so all work must be done in the hood, which is safer, but moderately inconvenient.  The solvents are kegged and tapped and the chemical disposal is bordering on obsessive-compulsive.  In other words... this lab is the EPA's dream come true. The instrumentation is also state of the art.  The building has an aluminum room that houses an 800 MHz NMR (for comparison, Emory's biggest is 600 and the current record is 1000). The NMR machines have auto-samplers so that all the user has to do is walk downstairs, put their tube in and select a scan.  The results are then emailed.  I start work next Tuesday, as Monday is a holiday and no one is coming in.  When they told me that I was confused at first since chemistry grad students at Emory work most Saturdays, holidays, and even some Sundays.  I don't even think they work Saturdays here.

This weekend will be spent looking for an apartment and touring the city.  I might go on a dive as well.  Look for another post some time early next week.