It's officially half way through the program and I am making significant progress on my project. I feel like every couple days I'm taught a new technique or tool to add to those that I'm already using. I've been very busy the past couple of days and it's great because it makes the day go by a lot quicker. Being busy also helps me make it to lunch, which doesn't come until about 2:30 or 3 in Spain. My stomach is used to it now, but I can't wait to eat lunch at noon again. Anyhow, in lab I now run TLC plates, use the HPLC, and today I used the NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) for the first time.

This past Sunday, the University of Cadiz organized a trip to go to Bolonia for the day and to get a semi-behind-the-scenes tour of the old Roman city of Baelo Claudia. In the morning, the archaeologist who was directing the current excavation going on at Baelo Claudia gave us a tour of the ruins, but also showed us the excavation he was overseeing. This tour was all in Spanish like the bodega tour, but this time the only group getting the tour was our small group and, thankfully, Juan Carlos translated what the archaeologist said.

This week is the final week of lab for research in Spain. With the approaching deadline, things are beginning to get hectic and more and more projects are pushed in the already long days. This week, my lab is conducting bioassays on two previously purified molecules -- xiloidone and lapachol. Since we know the exact structures from these molecules (from extensive study of carbon and hydrogen NMR) we were able to make concentrations of various molar concentrations of the molecule. After 24 hours, the bioassay is complete and results can be measured (thats what we are doing tomorrow).

On another note, the eight of us as well as Joanne and Micheal went on our last trip with the University of Cadiz. We got picked up by a minibus early on Sunday morning and spent the day in Ronda. The city was beautiful and we got to wander around and explore on our own.

The last major objective our mentors set for Ruth and me this summer was conducting a bioassay. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we carried out the assay and analyzed the results. From past research in this lab and our work this summer, we had three pure compounds with known molecular weights and structures. With this information, we carried out serial dilutions to make seven different molar concentrations of the compound in buffer.

It has been awhile since I wrote on the blog last, mainly because I haven't been able to log in to the website for the last two weeks ... AAnyway, two weekends ago I went to Cordoba with Randy, Ashley and Rachel. We got to see La Mezquita, which today is a huge beautiful cathedral built inside a huge mosque. Quick history: at first it was a small cathedral, and then the Moors conquered Spain and in the spirit of tolerance, tore down the cathedral and built a huge mosque in its place. And then when Spain retook the country, continuing in the spirit of tolerance, they tore down part of the mosque to build a huge cathedral in the middle of the mosque. It is very beautiful and its huge pillar fields make it unique.

Picking up from where I left off the last time ... My girlfriend, Kim, came to visit me in Spain on the 15th, and on Friday and Saturday we were in Sevilla and on Sunday we went with a trip sponsored by the university to Ronda. Sevilla is the capital of Andalucia, which is the province of Spain in which I am living. evilla was the largest city I have been in so far in Spain and it is too big to take in everything in 24 hours. But we certainly tried.