An Ode to Waffles

Oh Waffles, of the Belgian Kind

In Brussels, what a find!

So fluffy and light

Made just right

It's delicious redefined.

I went to Brussels this weekend and had an amazing time - mainly eating. Waffles, chocolate, beer. All things the Belgians are quite famous for. The five hour train ride from Nancy was well worth it. We arrived in the afternoon and before checking into our hostel, we went to a small, family-owned brewery for a tour. They don't produce normal beers that one would think of but rather lambics, which are spontaneously fermenting drinks. That means that no yeast is added to the drink and instead whatever yeast around in the brewery will naturally ferment the beverage. We ended up getting back to the hostel rather late and simply went out for dinner before returning and passing out for the evening.

The next morning, the sun was shining (the first weekend here when both days were sunny!) and we explored the city. We arrived at the Grand Place around noon and stopped by a small eatery for Belgian Waffles. They were absolutely amazing. And what better way to follow up than to wander the streets lined with chocolate shops and sample the goods? Anyways, we left early in the afternoon, and returned home later that evening, happy and full.

First Days of Research

This week marked the beginning of actual lab work for me. But instead of working on the biodegradalbe polymers project as I had previously thought, I am actually working with another advisor on characterising and comparing various oil-water emulsions and the effect various surfactants have on the physicsl properties of said emulsions. On Monday, I met my new advisor, Emmanuelle Marie and was shown around the labs where I would be working. I met a number of grad students, some just starting their PhD and Masters and some who are on their last year. Instead of working in groups like most MQP's completed abroad, I will be working alone. which is both exciting and just a little bit terrifying at the same time.

In the afternoon, I was shown how to use one of the pieces of equipment I'll be using over the next two months - the tensiometer. The tensiometer is used to measure the surface tension of various liquids and it also has the capacity to determine the interfacial tension forces that is present at the interface between two immiscible (non-mixable) liquids.

The next morning (Tuesday), I arrived early in the morning - a few of us had gotten up at the break of down in order to trek down to the train station and book our train tickets for our weekend trips. In the lab, I began to prepare an emulsion of aqueous modified dextran (a glucose based polysaccharide) and dodecane and learned how to use the high performance particle sizer.  The machine uses light refraction and particle movement to determine the size of the emulsion droplet sizes.  In the afternoon, I prepared some solutions for surface and interfacial tension testing that I'll be doing tomorrow.  I haven't done wet lab work in ages, since organic chemistry lab so things started out a little bumpy and slow but I'm really enjoying the work.  To top it all off, I prepared a cleaning solution referred to as Piranha solution.  It's a mixture of sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide (both very caustic) that's used to remove ANY and ALL organic compounds.  My advisor showed me one of her lab coats which she had spilled some of the solution on and it looked much like swiss cheese.

Tomorrow, my advisor is gone but I've got a list of things I need to do.  It'll be my first day working solo and I'm quite excited!

Weekend in Strasbourg

For our first weekend in France, all seven of us decided to take a trip to Strasbourg, a city east of Nancy.  We took the train early in the morning from Nancy Gare (Nancy Station) and got to Strasbourg an hour and a half later.  Thanks to my rail pass, the trip by train was completely free.

Strasbourg is located in the Alsace province of France.  This region has many German influences due to it's proximity to Germany and because until the end of the first World War, this region belonged to Germany.  Presently, it is a very important location as it is the hub of the European Union.  The European Union Parliament as well as the European Court of Human Rights are located here.

We arrived at early in the morning and checked into our hostel.  We then set out to explore the old part of the city.  We had planned to visit some museums but apparently they were closed so instead, we wandered the streets for the day. To be honest, I much preferred wandering the streets as it really gave a better sense of the city and the people.  The old part of the city is pretty much an island.  It's surrounded on all sides by canals and the only way to get there is across on of countless bridges.  We saw the Strasbourg Cathedral. It was massive! Unbelievably so! Anyways, after wandering around for the day, we were quite hungry so we decided to try out a specialty of Alsace, Choucroute.  It's probably 

better known as sauerkraut  in the States.  Of course, it's not eaten alone, typically it comes with some sort of meat be it sausage or pork (ours came with both!) and is best paired with a glass of beer (Kronenbourg is the local favourite).  The meal was probably the best meal I've had in a long time, the choucroute was better than any I've had.  To finish it off, I ordered a bowl of chocolate mousse which was to die for.  Like any proper french meal, this one lasted far into the night and by the time we left the restaurant, it was quite late.

The next day, the weather had taken a turn for the worse 

and it started to drizzle.  We ended up taking a walk to the European Parliament and then to Petit France, but because of the terrible weather, we ended up leaving early in the afternoon to return to Nancy.  Tomorrow, start my actual lab work (my project changed and I'll actually be working alone now - more on this later) and I'm really excited.

But for now, a bientôt!

Première Inscription (First Entry)

It's day four in Nancy, France and I've finally found time to blog.  I flew out of Bradley on the 10th just before the snow began to fall and I thought that I was home free, but unsurprisingly, I was delayed in Detroit while waiting for my connection to Paris.  Not only did the plane arrive late, but we were forced to wait an hour or so in the plane while they hosed down the plane with some sort of defrosting substance.  So instead of leaving at 21.25, we left somewhere around 23.00.  What a wonderful start right?

I arrived in Paris only an hour late and met up with Julie and Jenn at the aeroport.  We made our way to Gare de L'est (East Station) to get the TGV (Train Grande Vitesse - the high speed train) to Nancy.  Jenn managed to get her bag stuck when passing through one of the metro entrances; the door caught her bag as it closed and had it not been for some strange, we would have been there for hours.  The rest of the trip was pretty smooth and we arrived at our homes for the next two months later that evening.  Having slept a total of three hours in the past 24, I was pretty tired so after grabbing some food from the nearby kebab shop (which was an adventure in itself, me using my broken french trying to order food), I promptly passed out

We've had French lessons all week and I'm surprised at how much I still remember from my high school lessons.  We got our awesome ENSIC (Ecole National Supérieure des Industries Chimiques - the school where we will be working) school ID's and our tram passes earlier this week.

So I should probably explain why I'm in France in the first place.  Every student, typically as a senior, must complete a Major Qualifying Project or MQP in order to graduate.  This project  serves as the culmination to your studies in your major.  As a chemical engineering major, I was given the option of completing my project in Nancy, France.  I'm working with another WPI student, Andy on a project concerning biodegradable plastics.  Along with Sarah, a PhD student at the school, we will be characterising the mechanical properties of plastics made from a mixture of starch based polymers and other organically derived polymers.  We won't actually begin lab work until next week so we've been reading loads and loads of journal articles to familiarise ourselves with the project.

All in all, the first few days have been pretty good; the project looks very exciting and I've become more and more accustomed to speaking french.  Hopefully by the end of my two-month stay, I'll be able to speak it without feeling awkward.

This weekend, a group of us are taking the train to nearby Strasbourg and spending our weekend there seeing the sites.  I'll be sure to post about our adventures come the weekend.

A bientôt!