Week 4

This week was a little more eventful than last week. I continued doing reactions in my lab. My reactions have worked so far, which is good and bad. It is nice that I am getting the expected product but this also means more work. Since I am getting the correct products, I get the opportunity to scale my reaction up. This means that I will get a lot more product, which means I have to spend more time on the reaction and purifying the product. So now my reactions take a lot longer.

I decided to go with some people from the program to Qingdao which is a coastal city known for its famous beer. The night before I left, I got a very unpleasant surprise. I was doing my reactions, when my graduate student came in and told me that he had spilled a chemical on his hand and he had to go to the hospital. Well I was expecting him to leave, but then he started explaining to me the things that I needed to do. I told him I knew what I had to do, but he seriously needed to get to the hospital. It was funny that he was going to take the time to explain things to me, while he has this chemical on his hand. I knew what I needed to do and I was just worried about him getting to the hospital. So he left and I was by myself again, which is not too troubling because nearly done for the day and I normally have some sort of autonomy while I work.

After I was done cleaning, I went to go to the student room to grab my stuff. It was locked, which is not so good. I had my things in the student room, but I do not have a key for it. So now I am pretty sure that I am alone without anybody that has a key. I go back to the lab and contemplate my options. I really did not want to leave without my stuff and I also did not want to leave the lab because it would be unlocked. While I was pondering, another student that I had seen before came into the lab. He asked me where was my graduate student. I told him what happened and then I asked if he had a key. But he did not. Well back to square one I guess, but then he said he could call one of the graduate students. I thought they all went home, but lucky one was downstairs doing analysis of compounds. She came and I told her what happened and she came and unlocked the door to the student room and I was able to get my stuff. This is a long post so I will stop here and the next update will have the details on my trip to Qingdao.