Author: Wendy Mussoline
You gotta love Europe...wake up Monday AM is Wachenbuchen (a small village near Frankfurt Germany)...hop on the ICE high-speed train and I'm back in Delft in time for work! Amazing! I do love the weekend adventures...I was able to rekindle a friendship with a dear friend that I met in high school when she came to the big town of Palatka (FL) as an exchange student...I spent a couple summers with her several years ago in Germany and met many of her family members, one of which now lives at my parents house in Palatka...I was able to share a toast with he and his new fiancee (Martin and Esther)...and continue to meet new faces and make new friends so the beautiful cycle of foreign exchange can continue to grow...it was so refreshing!
My time at IHE is flying by...My days in the lab are so busy that I never realize it is 6:00PM until I run into the janitors...then I realize that everyone (except the USF students) have gone home for the day...I am growing more confident with the lab instruments, methods and procedures that are pertinent to the anaerobic digestion process. I'm able to process the data that we've been generating for the last few weeks and begin to make some sense of it...Seeing the big picture of how it relates to the research that's been done in the past and how it contributes to studies in the future is rewarding. I feel prepared to head back to USF and initiate my dissertation work.
Outside of work and travel, there is of course the routine adventures to the grocery store...I've learned to go often and purchase small portions at a time...thus, I don't have all the groceries spilling all over the sidewalk on my bike ride home...my new rule is only buy what can fit in a small bag strapped to my luggage rack and the sling backpack I carry everywhere. This helps me to blend in with the localsl...otherwise, I look like a clumsy american who thinks that you must have a car to grocery shop...I'm actually trying to figure out how to shed my car in the US and just bike everywhere...the problem is that amtrak would significantly limit my weekend excursions...how could I get to a gator game in two hours...hmmm...it's not gonna work.
wendy,
ReplyDeletei don't know if you remember me...you and i were in a phd seminar class a few semesters ago. i was googling 'duckweed in tampa' because i am interested in its ability to clear various toxins from contaminated water supplies and this blog popped up. serendipitous...
in any event, enjoy your time in europe and good luck with your project:)
marie bourgeois
mbourgeo@health.usf.edu