The Six Million Dollar Man

Name: Surname Kalevi,  Jope

It is crucial for me to have a place to stay in one of the UC3M residence halls because I'm not a proficient Spanish speaker and it would be very difficult for me to find and live in any other apartment. Not being able to communicate affects almost every aspect of life, making everything seem difficult. I suspect that I'd be able to focus on my studies better if I didn't have to worry about where and how to buy food and do my laundry, for example. On top of that, I have the same problems that all other exchange students face: I don't have any furniture or other necessities available nor do I have any acquaintances in Spain. Living in close proximity of other students might help me adapt to life in Madrid.

My goodness, what a load of bull! (And, I know: it's not the most coherent text either...) Why didn't I just write like this?

Yeap, I'd like to live there with you guys. That would be a blast. 
And no: I don't do drugs. Or guys.

So much more to the point, eh? Well, I'll remember this the next time I'm writing a letter to an administration office of a student dorm, I guess...

Super-Cool Wonder-Ponder-Machine for Precision Pipetting

I spent three days at Micronova this week and I finally got some real laboratory experience. Thus far all I've done at my office is studying and reading. (Clayden, Greeves, Warren & Wothers: Organic Chemistry - I know this sounds stupid to most of you but I can really recommend this book for anyone interested in organic chemistry. It's a wonderful basic text-book. And it even fits most bookshelves with ease as it's only about 1400 pages long.)

So, now I got to spend some time in a lab. I was tutored by a senior researcher, of course. We studied the aggregation of chlorophylls in THF with different mass ratios by absorption spectroscopy. (The results were inconclusive at best.) The spectrometer was an exciting piece of equipment, sure. But the most fabulous gadget in the lab was the Super-Cool Wonder-Ponder-Machine for Precision Pipetting! (SCWPMPP for short.) I really feel bad for writing this because I am basically an electronics engineer and the gizmo in question operates 100% mechanically. (Compare with the spectrometer, for instance...) But I mean, really: I've never felt that kind of pleasure just by pushing a button with my right thumb. Or any other finger, for that matter. How cool is it to be able to transfer exactly 0,0234 ml of a liquid from a bottle to another? It's mind-boggling!
And now I'll be able to help my brother with his pharmacy excercises. (For a fee, naturally.) Right, eh?

Ok. Now that I've finished writing this post I find myself a bit baffled. Why the f..... should ANYONE be interested? I guess no-one really has a real reason, to tell you the truth. But hey! So what?!? It's MY blog after all.