Fridays

Undoubtedly, Fridays are always something to look forward to after a long week. For me, this is especially true for Fridays evenings at 5 when I finish my last class of week, a four hour long chemistry lab.

Normally, we leave when we finish our experiments, but today's lab for me was unusually ridiculous. Part of our experiment involved mixing an iodide solution with n-heptane to dissolve some of the iodine in the n-heptane so we get an aqueous layer containing the original solution containing iodide, diatomic iodine, and triiodide, and an organic n-heptane layer that contained just iodine. My lab partner and I had to start our experiments over twice.

The first time, we ran out of our aqueous solution because some technical difficulties with a volumetric pipette so we couldn't do the third trial of the titration. As a result, we had to start over. However, when our second mixture separated into the aqueous and organic layers, there was this mysterious layer of an unknown substance floating between the two (which was probably because of contamination because I saw a mysterious crust under the cap of the bottle of n-heptane). When we showed our TA, he commented that our separation funnel looked like a parfait and told us to start over again. We ended up getting out of lab at around 5 while most other people got out at around 3:30.



I digress. Anyway, as I walking down Prospect Street from Science Hill, I noticed that bright red, orange, and yellow were already popping up among the trees in the distance. The pathway between Sterling Memorial Library and Berkeley College was especially stunning. When I got back to Saybrook, I noticed a tree outside my entryway that was amazingly red. Yes, autumn is really starting to make its dramatic presence.



I need to make a note to remind myself to embark on a photo tour of campus. Last year I unfortunately put this off and missed all the beautiful fall colors. I'll be sure to try to get some great shots this year of the fall colors, especially in a few weeks when New Haven is in full autumn glory.



I had dinner in Trumbull. Apparently, Trumbull College now has what's called "Romantic Fridays" where they supposedly make the lights slightly dimmer, have someone dress up and play the piano in the dining hall, and introduce these alcohol lamps on the tables (which I thought were candles at first but found they were alcohol lamps after lifting up the glass cover).

In any case, I will enjoy this weekend for now, a weekend prelude to the last week of my midterms. However, I will definitely be looking forward to next Friday when all the fun begins again.

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