Seven of us went to Gilbraltar this weekend, which was 99th on my list of 100 things I want to do while I'm in Spain. 98th is to riot after a soccer game and 100th is to be thrown into a Spanish prison. I'm just kidding, though.
Gilbraltar was nice, I got to swim in the Mediterranean Sea and take a tour of the rock. I know Gilbraltar is a British territory, but it surprised me how proud the British are about how they own Gibraltar and not Spain. The British there seemed proud that they had taken Gilbraltar from Spain and had not given it back, despite numerous protests and requests from Spain. Anyway, here is a picture of the Spanish countryside and another picture of Randy and me in the Mediterranean.
The Confederations Cup has been going on for the last week or so, and the U.S. played Spain last night in the semi-final game to see who would go to the championship game. The Confederations cup is a tournament for the six teams who win an intercontinental tournament, and then also Italy, because they are the World Cup champions, and South Africa, because they hosted the tournament. The U.S. has not made an international championship game of any kind since 1916. But the U.S. played a great game last night and shocked Spain 2-0 to make the final.
Even I picked Spain to win in the pool we had going in our lab. People here in Spain were very upset, one Spanish guy I know told me that the U.S. beating Spain in soccer would be similar to Spain beating the U.S. Dream Team in basketball. I am very excited that the U.S. gets to play Brazil in the championship game Sunday.
Yesterday in lab I used the Kjeldahl Method, which determines the amount of nitrogen in a sample, and through a titration and a few simple calculations you can determine the percent of protein in a sample.
I know you are thinking, "But don't other compounds contain nitrogen besides proteins?" Yes they do, but the majority of nitrogen comes from proteins and that's why you use a formula to determine percent protein. I am determining percent protein for the Ramalina terebrata lichens that ran through the hexane extraction in order to remove all the fatty acids/cholesterols and such.
I still have trouble with the fact that in Spain they use commas for decimal points. 1,000 mL looks like 1 L and not like 1.000 mL. Picture of the Kjeldahl set-up follows.
