Hello dear readers, this is my third and last weekend in Minneapolis but it was a great one! Not heaps to say. I had some failures in the lab but at the end my efforts paid off and I successfully deformed one of my long rock specimens. It’s a beauty! See the photo below. You cannot see the rock directly because it is enclosed in the metal but the metal (and hence the rock) is nicely twisted in the middle. The experiment occurred at 1250C and took most of the day until 8pm.


This weekend an old friend of mine from ACAT, the international school of Turin, Italy came to visit me here in Minneapolis. He and his pal Nick came driving all the way from Kansas City, Missouri which is about 7 hours from here. They drove through the night and arrived here early Saturday morning. After a short powernap, we strolled into the city and had a look around at the famous Guthrie Theater. We then went back to Dinky Town, had lunch and I showed them around the university campus and the lab i work in. We then took the train to America’s (and possibly the world’s) largest shopping centre, the Mall of America. Is was… huuuge. There is a whole theme park inside it with rollercoasters and everything. Legoland was the highlight of the mall for sure. We also went to see a truly great movie called District 9 directed by Peter Jackson. You must see it.

Today we had brunch at an Irish pub in Dinky Town and then Adam and Nick said farewell and left. We had heaps of fun. Until next time.

This week I will carry out one more experiment and on Tuesday I will give a seminar of my research in front of the group. My days of tourism are over here. I will catch a flight on Saturday morning back to NYC and on Sunday a train to Boston to briefly catch up with one of my advisors. Busy schedule ahead so I will be a while until I can post another update.

Photos:
– Picasa
– Photobucket