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Journal: Hong Wei: Busy, busy week
June 4, 2007
 night view of Rouen city |
It was a busy week for me. I was doing a lot of tests and completing my mid-internship report. Differential mechanical analysis (DMA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) are the main parts in my project. The former test is observing the mechanical properties of polycarbonate. I heated a small compressed sample and observed the dimension change. DSC is measuring the heat flow of a material by maintaining the heating rate. DMA was a long test; it took about an hour to complete, and another half-hour to cool the furnace. Therefore, I had to maximize the number of tests since I could use the machine for only three days. I enjoyed the time when I was busy, keeping my hands and my brain working a lot.
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Even though I was busy with research, I caught up with my French learning since I had stopped last week. When I started learning French, my friends always helped teach me the pronunciation. We had a good time when I started reading some sentences in French because my pronunciation was too comical. Learning French is a good way to communicate with the people here because it creates more interaction between me and my colleagues.
I was stressed with the matter of visa extension in Schengen countries. Finally, I received the answer from the Malaysian Embassy in Paris. The answer was what I expected: I have to go back to America when I finish my internship and travels in France. I was calmer than I thought I would be because I felt so lucky and blessed to have a chance to experience my life in France. I am satisfied with all of this.
Under the assistance of Chase's adviser, we visited another building at this university. It consisted of different laboratories. We visited the laser and optic laboratory. One of the guys working in the lab explained how the experiment works and its objectives. It was complicated for me. I could understand only part of his explanation.
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This weekend Chase and I went downtown to take some videos and the night view of Rouen city. We walked through the same roads back and forth countless times. I can almost draw out the map of Rouen city now. In Rouen, the day started to turn dark at 10 p.m. To take a night view, we had to wait until 10:30 p.m., and the last train that could take us back to the dorms left at 11 p.m. Within a half-hour we had to take as much video as we could.
We stood by the bridge waiting for the lights to turn on. At 10:27 p.m., the lights on the other bridge turned on, changing the bridge to a blue color and turning the river into a dazzling sapphire. It was so amazing! I remembered that Mr. Jean-Marc told me blue is the theme of Rouen city. Blue, blue Rouen ....
