First day at the Genie Chimique department

Today started off in the morning at 0850 after pressing snooze on my phone alarm twice. I got up and had cereal, apple, and two bananas for breakfast. I was to meet Professor Favre at his office at 1030 after his meeting. I got there early at 1010 hoping to get quickly situated in the research lab and to start doing some work! I was sorely disappointed since his meeting went far past time and I didn’t get to meet with him until 1130. By then, it was already lunch time so we went out to “Made in France” to grab a sandwich. I had a blanc de villaille, which is chicken, with brie. We didn’t get back to the laboratory until around 1430. He introduced me to more staff, I got my key and found my workspace. I share a room with four other PhD students studying here at the university.

I will be shadowing a girl who is making PTMSP [acronym for poly(1-trimethylsilyl-1-propyne)] films. Hopefully tomorrow I can start watching her make films and then make some of my own. Eventually I’ll be stirring in nanoparticles with the films. At the moment, I understand that our research group at HMC is having a hard time getting a homogeneous film. After looking at their membranes under a powerful microscope, they found foreign particles in their films whose origins they do not know. I’m not sure how researching here in Nancy will solve that problem, it probably won’t, but hopefully I can bring back an idea or two on how to advance our project at HMC.

After lunch and meeting/greeting everybody, I went out to buy an adaptateur for my American laptop plug (prise de courant). I knew what I wanted to say and practiced it about ten times in my head before actually stepping foot in a store! The delivery was great and the shopkeep knew exactly what I needed. Luckily they had a couple so I bought one and brought it back to the laboratory with me so that I could plug my laptop in.

I did not do much for the rest of the day since the girl that I was supposed to shadow didn’t turn up. Having my laptop back was really nice so I started writing this journal. Tonight’s dinner will be the same as last night. Still no internet access. I am told that tomorrow I can take my laptop into the department for computers and they will give me internet access.

When I got back to the apartment, the first thing I did was to charge my camera’s battery. I tried out my camera after an hour of charging and VOILA!!! it worked! I was very happy and relieved that I wouldn’t have to get it fixed/buy another camera. So now I will take pictures and send them to you all once I get a chance. I won’t have internet in the apartment because it costs 39 euros/month and I don’t think it is absolutely necessary.

Tomorrow I will wake up at 0730 to get to work at 0800 and hopefully find the girl that I am to shadow. Bye all!