Small but Interesting Thoughts

Various thoughts from this week:

"I just keep waiting for the tour with the 18 year old girls from Miami, but it's just not going to happen," says Rory. Living with men is an interesting experience. I've never been outnumbered before. This is new. Testosterone abounds. You should see when we watch the Bachelor. It's sickening... but then, that just might be the Bachelor making me ill.

It's funny how you end up talking to people in their own language. If someone addresses me with a southern twang, I answer them right back with a special "well, thank you very much". That is way too long a phrase for a Northeastern-er. "thanks" would suffice for my people, but for the southerners I add the extra layer of politeness. Works like a charm. Tonight at the event a woman asked me if I was from Kentucky, then British, but definitely not New York. It's all about being flexible, I said, and talking in other people's language.

The mosquitoes aren't so bad, it's the sand fleas that are the bane of my existence. Saw the best Green Flash tonight - the sun clearly turned emerald green just before it dipped below the surface. If it weren't for the sand fleas, it would have been a great view.

Tonight we had the Fort George artifacts on display for the public. 16 people were ohhing and ahhing over the chemistry involved in the process. It was great, but slightly odd that they were interested for so long. Were they just the interested type? Over Chemistry? For an hour?! Would I be able to keep people interested for that long over HCl and electrolysis? I'd better find out, because I have the last seminar in the series. Big shoes to fill. It was a great event though. The wine flowed and there was lots of laughter. Did you know it was the plantation owners, worried about the uproar in Haiti, who demanded troops be placed in the country. That sugar water is used to replace the waterlogged wood's cellulose? That we have pieces of a slave ship wreckage in the lab? Bits of a ship that actually held human cargo! I eavesdropped like crazy and soaked up all these facts and more. This is truly a one of a kind experience.

image from: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/hrc.ARCHIVE/2006/2006031.000000-2006031.240000/SpaceWeather/swpod2006/31jan06/zinkova_strip.jpg