Lab Life Continues July 18-22

This week was full of continued learning from my coworkers and successful 3D printing. 

Apparently either PhD life and dating don’t mix well, or my coworkers were just having a “venting sort of day”. When the main topic of lunch conversation was about “every woman should watch and truly listen to the messages in ‘He’s Just Not That Into You’ and ‘How to be Single’.” Then the conversation progressed to Polish Tinder, which apparently is a legitimate dating platform here where people actually use Tinder to find a husband/wife. Well, I guess I'm glad I'm not currently planning on a PhD? 

Over the weeks I've improved my Polish vocabulary to also include the things below: 

Polish: ‘Nei’ = no ; ‘no’ = yes; ‘przepraszam’ (psheh-prasham)= sorry/excuse me; ‘na zdrowie’ (naz-dro-v-yeh)= to health (cheers)

Then my Italian coworker decided to also teach me more Italian this week. The Italian I know includes ciao (chow)= hello/goodbye but I was taught how to say F* you and F* it, which I won’t include the Italian on those… So I’m not really sure how useful of an Italian lesson I had from my coworker, but oh well it was a funny conversation nonetheless. 

This week we also finished our printing with the current hydrogel I was working with to create better images for a future publication. The problem with the gel we are printing is that it is reverse temperature responsive which means high room temperatures make the gel stiff (too stiff to get through the printing head). Our lab where the 3D printer is generally a non-AC room because there is also cell studies and chemical hoods in the room which prevent the AC from being on during those experiments. Thus the outside temperature has a large affect on our printing abilities so using the same parameters on two different days can unfortunately yield different results. Ultimately Wednesday was one particularly difficult day because it was extremely hot compared to the rest of the week. So we had quite the “humpday” filled with engineering and problem-solving to find parameters that would print given the changes in the room. Once I got working parameters I showed my supervisor the pyramid that I managed to print in which she promptly (accidentally) dropped on the floor and SPLAT went our sample! So she wasn’t allowed to touch the samples the rest of the day lol I had to be more delicate with them ;) As the rest of the week progressed we continued to have good results and got a cube and a pyramid to print well with the gel. We still had fun in the lab though, you could tell by Thursday we were silly and ready for Friday after a long afternoon of printing. 

The 3D modeling software I use and then a half destroyed sample during optimizing stages

SPLAT goes my pyramid

Our cube :) 

Having fun again on Thursday :)

Friday was a big day for me— this was the day that we planned to print the Block M models I made for the 3D printer. We spent a couple hours disassembling the 3D polymer printer and changing the material so we would print the Block M in blue, but eventually we had it all set to go. Unfortunately nobody marked the material we were printing so we guessed (wrong) as the first time we printed an M it didn’t exactly work out so well. However, we went back on Monday and changed the printing parameters to the other material (lowering the printing temperature) which fixed our problems and allowed us to print a beautiful Block M as a souvenir for me and my 3D printing summer! Naturally this was the most important component of my summer internship- making sure to print a Block M :D 

GO BLUE! 

The last of Krakow 7/17

Sunday didn’t just continue to rain like on Saturday, but it decided to pour instead. As we planned on doing the Jewish quarters tour that morning, this wasn’t exactly “welcomed.” Thankfully one of the girlfriends I was traveling with was sweet enough to share her umbrella with me, so we both sacrificed an arm to the rain vs one of us being completely drenched. I can say, after the day outside in the rain, nothing was as welcomed as going back to the hostel for an hour or so to warm up, dry off, and have a cup of tea! 

Street performers sheltering from the rain...maybe they need to simply invest in waterproof makeup?

• What does Natalie Portman and the Warner Brothers have in common? 
• They are all Polish Jews (via linage at least)
• In fact, most Jews have Polish roots 

The famous backdrop of Shindler's List 

• Polish King (Henry III) even allowed the Jewish population to form their own Jewish Parliament within the general parliament to give them their own autonomy (~1574 I believe)
• This increased the population of Jews living in Poland as they were given many more rights here
• Up to 80% of Jews lived in Poland at one point
• 89% of the Polish Jews died in the Holocaust

Bema of Synagoga Izaaka, one of the seven synagogues in Krakow which is the larges concentration of synagogues in all of Europe

• 23% of Nobel prize winners are Jewish
• Many attribute this to a lifetime of learning to overcome opposition and others point out the Jewish value of learning. For hundreds of years when Jewish quarters acted independently (Jews and non-jews couldn’t mix for business, leisure, or education), Jews had an extremely high literacy rate as it was mandatory for men to study the torah. In other words, the practice of having "schools" and the importance of a lifetime of learning seems to have dated back in the Jewish religion for much longer than in many other groups around the world. 
• According to our guide: The 5 books of Moses is “a better version of the Games of Thrones and actually has more killings” 

Another story from our guide: "Lovers lock bridge- lovers put a lock on the bridge and throw away the key into the river. Thus eternal love will ensue. But apparently, some lovers should have invested in a COMBINATION LOCK as a safer bet. (Note the forceful removal of the wire that probably contained a love lock for a former lover...)"

Zapiekanka (traditional Polish)- way too big for 1! Baguette with cheese and mushrooms and ketchup on top. Literally paid a total of 4.5 zloty (1.5 each) for this giant, filling lunch! (~4 zloty to 1 USD)

This pretty much sums up my weekend. Beyond this was a little souvenir shopping and then the train back to Warsaw! These were the cutest passengers on the train back though :) 

Auschwitz-Birkenau and Krakow Salt Mine 7/16

Saturday was an all day excursion to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps and then the Krakow salt mine. We did a guided tour package which included direct transportation to each stop which was good because they picked us up from our hostel and Auschwitz is just over an hour away. We started the tour by watching a 50 minute documentary to give us some background, numbers and photos/video from Auschwitz before it was liberated. 

If you read nothing else but this, please read this post I shared with my friends. 

Today I toured Auschwitz. I left with a heavier heart and a deeper understanding of the atrocities committed under Nazi regime. One of the saddest realizations I had today was that I'm not convinced we have learned from history. There is so much hostility and intolerance spreading like wildfire through the world to this day. I read this quote in Auschwitz today, "Those who do not remember the past are condemn to repeat it." Please remember the past, and with it evaluate your actions and what they may mean for our future.

Warning- description of the camp and pictures highlight the good and bad that happened under the Nazis regime. 

• The iconic gate of Auschwitz (pictured above) is the first sight you have on entering and it says “work sets you free” 

Hitler planned the final solution to kill over 11 million Jews which ended with killing approximately 6 million. 

• In Auschwitz the average life of a woman was 3-4 months and for a man 8 months

• Prisoners were exposed to the extreme temperatures in Auschwitz as they were not sheltered by much with this minimum clothing, no shoes, and little to know heating in living quarters. Temperatures ranged from -20C to 30C (-4 F to 86 F) air temp alone. 
• 9.5 million Jews lived in Europe in 1933, with the largest concentration of Jews in Poland at ~3 million. (One reason for this was because Poland was one of the few places that Jews were welcomed and in Poland the King was fine with the Jews staying on his land, giving many rights offered in few other places) 

Zyklon B, a pesticide that was used in the gas chambers to internally suffocate it’s victims. This is how Nazis could kill 2,000 people in 20 minutes with 10 canisters a total of 10 kg of cyanide. The victims were further striped from valuables including golden teeth and their heads were shaved to reuse gold and sell the hair (50 pfennig [today ~2500 euro) per kg of hair] before the bodies were sent to the crematorium. 

The ruins of the crematorium and gas chambers of Birkenau

• The places in the camp that the work was less bad and gave prisoners the best chance of living were known as “Canada” because Canada was associated with a good place to live, full of opportunity and wealth. 
• Auschwitz was the only camp that tattooed its prisoners
• Companies you may not have known were part of this history
• Allianz insured for fire and property damage to slave-labor production sites at the Auschwitz, Dachau and Buchenwald death camps
• Coca Cola collaborated with Nazi Germany in order to create the new drink Fanta for German soldiers because ingredients for Coke were scarce. Fanta came from the German word for “fantastic” and was shortened to Fanta. 

5 thousand were executed at the "death wall" outside block 11 in Auschwitz I. 

The prisoner saved actually survived the Holocaust

Birkenau entrance from the tracks

Birkenau- the end of the tracks . . . 

The afternoon in the salt-mines doesn’t have pictures at the moment because we had to purchase a “photo license” to take pictures officially in the salt mines. Therefore I didn’t take pictures but we split a license cost and one of my friends who brought a nice camera took some of us and the mines. When I get them I’ll share a few. To be perfectly honest, I was a little disappointed by this tour because the mine was so crowded that I felt we spent sooo long in transit on the stairs down the mine or waiting for the lift up because of the other groups that it was silly. Plus I was expecting to see more of the real mine vs what had be manufactured for tourism. Most of what we saw was various sculptures (from salt) which were cool but wasn’t THAT cool and our guide virtually didn’t give us any information beyond “this is a salt sculpture…” so… not planning on revisiting the Krakow salt mine any time soon. Literally the only facts I have from those 3hrs include: we went 135m below the surface, 1 million tourist come a year (over hyped in my opinion), in 1638 the first chapel mass was held in the mine, a total of 40 chapels were built but only 3 were used actively, the mine goes a total of 327m below ground.

Salt sculpture

Entrance hall and prayer area (chandeliers and wall paintings are made of salt too)

Artwork engraved and looking 3D for "The Last Supper"

Krakow WOO!

My supervisor said I could have Friday off so that I could take an earlier train and meet up with some girlfriends I met from Łódź during the Wroclaw weekend. This is the 3rd weekend we’ve gotten to spend together, we are really exploring all around Poland together! 

Friday I participated in the International Programs in Engineering Around the World in a Snap takeover. I featured a bunch of images from Krakow and cheesy encouragement to future international travelers. Here are a few favorites.

Then we started our stay in Krakow with a free walking tour of Old Town. Some interesting stories below:

Theater Mimika was the only place for Polish to be spoken during performances under foreign regime. The building architecture is also a combination of Neoclassical, Renaissance, and Baroque styles. This was once of many buildings with contrasting architecture in the old town of Krakow.

-19th Century Poland disappeared from the map because Germany, Austria, and Russia attached simultaneously and split up the territory. At this time, Krakow was part of Austria. 

-Defense trail= Barbakan, pronounced “Barbie-ken” (because Barbie and Ken, put husband and wife’s names together and you have the name of the defense fort). Only country ever to penetrate was Sweden.

-The city wall stayed over parts of old town because the engineers knew how to give a “scientific” argument. “You know how we have that horrible northern wind every winter? If you don’t want your women to have their skirts up all winter (think Marilyn Monroe style), then we should keep the wall.” 

-Torture and executions = premium entertainment, you know because Facebook and twitter didn’t exist yet, so you’d simply bring the family and some popcorn to enjoy the execution! 

Modern art = many interpretations. Some say this statue of a bandaged face without eyes shows “love makes you blind” or “love is blind.” A recent tour participant offered this interpretation “the bandages and no eyes is clearly a 50 shades of grey advertisement” lol

Street performer

The crew having dinner :) 

3D Printing is Pretty Cool July 12-14

So currently I am running experiments with two different hydrogel/polymer mixtures that can be 3D printed. The current applications for the main hydrogel I’m working with include pesticides and there is a potential skin care application because the cool thing about the hydrogel is that it is what we call “reverse temperature responsive” this is essentially that when the hydrogel is exposed to warm temperatures (body temp is enough) it stiffens while it becomes very fluid when exposed to cold temperatures (not sure the range, 4-17 C is still fluid). This is counter to the normal because most hydrogels are stiff at cold temp and fluid at high temp. 

"3D printing makes Becca happy" 

"Crap hands" with the hand motions is how we talk about this structure in lab lol

A quick video of printing

Surprise! July 11/12

The beautiful rainbow-lighted Palace of Culture and Science that welcomed me home Sunday night.

This morning I had a pleasant surprise after I had breakfast —> I got a message from my supervisor that she had a lot of paperwork to do today, so it was unlikely for us to be in the lab today and I was therefore welcomed to have the day off. While this was a tough choice and all (sit on my computer in the non-AC office, or go wherever/do whatever I wanted to do for a day), I did take the offer and did not go into the office. 

I spent the morning enjoying a cup of tea and catching up on my emails and other logistics that I had neglected since Friday (had a nice technology break this weekend as I didn’t have wifi nor data for 95% of the weekend). Then I remembered that I had tickets to see the Okopowa Street Jewish Cemetery and one of the Jewish Synagogue (Nożyk Synagogue) because back when I went to the Jewish History museum about a month ago I purchased the “Jewish Experience” pages essentially which was a set of four tickets to the museum, cemetery, synagogue, and a historical center. Shortly after going to the history museum I began to think I might not be ever able to use the extra tickets because the open hours of everything tends to be 10-5 or 10-6pm which are generally my working hours too. As luck would have it, I got a day off and took advantage of it by seeing these two sites. 

My first stop was the Jewish Cemetery— this place was HUGE- founded in 1806, its 82 acres, with around 250,000 graves. I was lucky to get this day off because it was sunny and 85-90degrees out. Really is was so beautiful! But almost too hot to be outside because it was humid too. Thankfully there was a decent breeze and most of the cemetery was in basically straight forest. While this cemetery was nowhere as crowded as the Prague Jewish cemetery it was very interesting still to see. There was a lot of beauty in the simple graves as well as the elaborate ones. Following the holocaust there were a couple memorials erected in remembrance. The children’s memorial was one of the hardest things to think of the shear number of children that were killed because of nothing they could help but a religion they were born into. This poem [English translation: below] was very tough to read as I know it was true for far too many families. 

“The Little Smuggler”

Through a hole, through a crack of a cranny

        Starving yet stubborn and canny

        sneaky and speedy like a cat

        I daily risk my youthful neck

        

        And if fate will turn against me

In that game of life and bread

Do not weep for my mother; 

do not cry 

Are we not all marked to die?

Only one worry besets me

Lying in agony; so nearly dead

Who’ll care for you tomorrow

Who’ll bring you, dear Mom,

a slice of bread

The original gate to the Okopowa cemetery

Map of the cemetery marking notable people and/or monuments

The classical tombs dating back to the 19th century 

One of the modern graves

"In memory of the Jewish soldiers who served in the Polish armies the fighters of the ghetto and the partizans who fell in the fight against nazism during the second world war and their place of burial is unknown"

Monument to the children victims of the Holocaust

Close-up of the stones and pictures on the memorial- "In memory of the one million Jewish children murdered by Nazi German barbarians 1939-1945" 

The cemetery immersed in forest

Following my trip to the cemetery I made my was back through the Jewish district and then went to the Nożyk Synagogue. Honestly, I’m lucky to have found it! I went through a seemingly random parking lot and at the end of it around a bend was the synagogue tucked away. The synagogue was the only one in Warsaw that survived the flames of WWII. By no means did it resemble the grand synagogues of the Spanish Synagogue in Prague or the Great Synagogue in Budapest, but it has its own history and charm. 

Beautiful opening to the torah ark

Up close to the embroidery of the ark cover

The history to the synagogue

Cool artwork in the synagogue

On my walk back home it was finally after 5pm and starting to cool down some. I enjoyed some time in the park across from my dorm where I sat by the water fountain enjoying the nature. I even decided to bring my postcards with me so I could write back to some of you. Incase you didn’t realize this - I’m a snail-mail fan. I still think there is something special about receiving post from friends containing a hand-written note. Much much better than the typical junk mail advertisements or bills that take up most of the space in a mailbox. 

My view at the fountain by me :)

I guess you could say it was a day to catch-up with family and friends back home. After dinner I was able to make multiple phone calls home to check in with family/friends. Here’s a quick map of time-zone difference to bear in mind when setting up a call time with me (I’m usually free between 6-11pm Warsaw time). If you are in Eastern time- I’m 6 hours ahead of you. If you are in Central time, I am 7 hours ahead. If you are in Mountain time, I am 8 hours ahead. Lastly, if you are in Pacific time, I am 9 hours ahead. Gotta love time-zones making calls difficult. Couldn’t fall asleep on my uncomfortable bed tonight and ended up being up until after my conference call with the states which ended at 5:30am my time. Lets just say Tuesday was a rough morning when you’re working on 3 hrs 17 minutes of sleep despite not working nor partying the day/night before. . . 

On the upside, Tuesday evening was GLORIOUS! I got back from work by 6:45pm and by 6:55pm I was out-cold and didn’t wake up until 8:30am the next morning. You could say I needed the sleep I suppose. Maybe someday I’ll learn how to have a regular sleep schedule, perhaps a goal for when I’m in the real world after college is over ;)