Last meeting with Mohammed

            This was my final meeting of the semester with Mohammed. It was a bittersweet moment. Unfortunately I didn’t get to bond as well with him as some of my other classmates did with theirs given my unusual circumstances regarding my original partner. For the last meeting I wanted to learn more about his family because it was a topic we never really went into. I learned a lot about his family so lets see if I can remember it all.

            First off, I was shocked to hear that Mohammed has four brothers and four sisters! He more or less the middle child at 26 while his oldest sibling is 42 and the youngest is 18. I asked what they all do and a little bit about them and this is what he told me.

            I’ll start with his youngest sibling, which is his sister Sarra. She is eighteen years old and is currently studying engineering. He also has a sister who is 22 and currently studying dentistry. Her name is Wala. I don’t recall if he told me where they are going to school but I think they are studying somewhere in the United States.

            His youngest brother Hassan is next at 24. He didn’t finish college and is helping one of his older brothers run their late fathers company.

            Mohammed is the fourth youngest and is hoping to study supply chain management here at TCU next semester. His next oldest sister is Zainab. I feel like I would get along with her really well because she is a chemistry teacher back in Saudi Arabia. Zainab has been married for the last eight years.

            The next oldest sibling is his brother Firas who is thirty-three. He is a businessman that is the manager of their fathers company. He is the one that Hassan helps. He has been married for the last two years

            His brother Abdullah is 36. He is currently and engineer for a company back in the Middle East. He has been married for the last two years and graduated from American University in Dubai.

            Husain is 40 years old and is a math teacher. I forgot if he teaches in the States but I do know that he graduated from the University of Chicago. He has been married since 2001.

            Lastly his oldest sibling is Zahraa and she is forty-two years old. She is an English teacher that has been married since 1994. Her husband is a manager for Aramco, which is the largest petroleum company in the Middle East. She lived in the States for five years and in Canada for another four because of her husband’s job.

            Of course I then told Mohammed about both of my brothers. I have a twin brother who is studying molecular biology and cello performance at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. He is a junior (duh we’re twins) and looks absolutely nothing like me. I told him that we look related but because we are fraternal twins we don’t look exactly like each other. My little brother is 18 and his name is Cole. He is the quarterback for Hope and is studying applied mathematics.

            I thought that this discussion was a great note to end on. I was also surprised at how much I learned about Mohammed by learning about his family. It was also cool to hear what it was like to live in such a big family. I thought my family of five was on the large side but it isn’t anything compared to his!

Meeting with Mohammed #5

            Earlier this week I met with Mohammed for my fifth conversation partner meeting. We met at the usual spot outside of Union Grounds, and we got right into conversation when he arrived. I asked him if he was nervous for his finals (which were this week) and he seemed to be pretty confident. I could tell he had been studying hard because he had a few grammar textbooks with him that looked like they were pretty well loved.

            I asked him how his thanksgiving break was, which was a dumb question because he had finals this week, and as expected he said he spent most of the break studying. I told him that I was about to start studying for finals and how I’m not really looking forward to it. I explained that I don’t mind taking the tests; in fact I actually sort of enjoy taking the exams. He told me I was crazy and asked me why I was not looking forward to them. I clarified that I’m not looking forward to the studying part. Tests I can handle but the long, tedious eight-plus hour days in the library tend to drive me insane. I told him that it was worth it to me to put in that much effort. When I sit down to take a final and I know all (or at least most) of the material, I get the biggest sense of joy after I finish. I told him nothing quite compares to coming out of test knowing that you did really well.

            When he asked about my break we got on to the topic of food. Realizing that I haven’t ever asked him about American food, I asked him what his favorite American food was. He surprised me when he said steak. I don’t really think of steak as an American food but I can’t really argue with the fact that steak is awesome. Mohammed added that his favorite food back home is kabab and kabsa. So I think its safe to say that he likes meat.

            After a rather lengthy discussion about different foods and how it is hard to define American food due to the large number of cultures that live here, Mohammed asked me what I’m going to be doing over break. I told him that one of the first days back (December 16^th) is my twenty-first birthday.  I told him that I would be working the first and last weeks of break in the bike parts factory that I worked in over the summer. The weekend before Christmas my parents are taking my twin brother and I to stay at the Four Seasons hotel in Denver and go to the Capitol Grill to celebrate or birthday. Other than that I told him that I’ll probably just be relaxing, snowboarding and shooting guns.

            Mohammed told me that he was jealous. I then asked him what he was doing and quickly found the source of his jealousy. He said that he would be studying even more English for the IELTS. This is the test that foreign students have to pass in order to attend and American university. He said that it insures that he is competent reading, writing and understanding lectures in order to be successful in school. This is when I remembered that I would also be studying a little over break for the LSAT. I told him this in an attempt to sympathize with him.

            The meeting had to abruptly end because he had to go study for a final he had the next day. We set up the time for our last meeting and went on our separate ways.

Learning #4

            The end of the semester is now upon us. Two more days of classes remain and I still can’t believe how fast it has all gone by. I have learned so many things this semester it is really hard to fit them all into four two-page responses.

            I know most of you aren’t well versed in the realm of physical chemistry and thermodynamics. It’s probably not a topic that most would find “fun.” Words like torturous and excruciating probably come to mind. The reason I am talking about this is because it’s a perfect example and summation of what I wrote in my first learning response. In that entry I wrote about how I was learning new ways to learn as well as putting the pieces of the puzzle together. In the last lecture of physical chemistry this afternoon we finally derived an equation that brought the class full circle. It was an equation that we used almost all the time in general chemistry and never knew what it was for.

            After years of just accepting it, an entire semester of deriving and working up to it we finally saw where the equation came from. I am talking, of course, about the equilibrium constants of a reaction and how they relate to concentrations of the various reactants and products present in the solution. We also explained why you never take the solvent into account when calculating the equilibrium constant.

            This is only true for dilute solutions, which is a pretty good approximation when talking about a solute in a solvent. Unless the solution is very concentrated, the solvent will be the majority of the solution. As it turns out this number as a function of reaction extent (or how far the reaction has proceeded) is RTln(conc solvent+reaction extent/conc solvent). The reaction extent has to be between zero and one therefore it becomes approximately RTln(1), which, of course, is zero because the natural log of one is always zero. This value therefore drops out of the equation and no longer needs to be accounted for. This is why the solvent never shows up in the equilibrium constant expression.

            Another part of this derivation yielded a huge mess of partial derivatives with respect to the reaction extent that were a result of taking the derivative of the Gibbs free energy per mole as a function of reaction extent. As complicated as it may sound or may look the derivative of that whole mess ends up summing to zero. That leaves the classic equation .

            It may not seem like much but it was a lot of time waiting and wondering where it actually came from. This is a prime example why I love taking my upper-level major courses. I’m finally learning why and where things come from as opposed to just learning how to plug numbers into these magical equations that give you the right answers on tests.

            I have also learned that understanding where things come from and deriving them from scratch has increased my knowledge on the subject immensely. I can now answer questions about thermodynamic equilibrium that I wouldn’t even have known how to start previously. I cannot only explain that the equation works but how it works. Call me crazy but I find that incredibly exciting and fascinating.

            Seeing my learning experiences this semester come full circle is one of the most satisfying feelings. I may have not learned as much material this semester as I have in previous ones, but the depth that I’ve been able to learn in incredible.

Convo Partner 4th meeting

            Yesterday was the fourth conversation partner meeting of the semester. It started off as all of the other meetings have with the typical how’s it going. However, I was surprised that this initial awkward meeting up period where we are both trying to settle in and get comfortable was significantly shorter than it had been in the past. I guess we are to the point where we are comfortable enough with each other that there isn’t a need to work into a comfortable place, we just start at one.

            With Thanksgiving only a few days away I began to talk about how excited I was to go home to my roommate’s house and finally get some real food. I haven’t been eating very well lately so a nice home cooked meal is going to be amazing. Mohammed said that he hopes I will be able to relax because he will be studying all break for finals because the intensive English programs last week is the one right after break.

            I asked him how he was doing and he seemed a little sick, and it turned out he was. The stress of moving into a new apartment, along with preparing for finals and the cold weather got to him. I told him I’m the same way. The last time this semester when I was super busy and stressed out I ended up getting sick the night before two big tests. This was most likely due to the fact that I ran myself down worrying/preparing for them.

            I asked Mohammed if he was excited for the semester to be over. He said that he was and wasn’t all at the same time. He said he would be happy that he is finally done with the extensive English program but worried about the testing he will have to do in January. He said that in order to study at an English speaking university he has to pass this test that makes sure that he is competent in reading, writing and understanding the language. Mohammed voiced his concern about the American version of the test saying that he likes the format and the style of the British one much better. I reassured him that his English was exceptional and that he surprised me when we first met. I was impressed at the size of his vocabulary and that I only had to explain a few words to him. His conversational English is very good which was initially surprising to me because usually in English classes you learn the traditional language much like how you’d right a formal paper or letter. When I brought this up he made the excellent point that the only way you can truly learn a language is to be forced to read it and speak it. He said reading helps his vocabulary and writing style while speaking it helps with the flow and slang words that are typically only used in conversation.

            Once he passes the English exam Mohammed told me that he will be very excited to start school in the spring semester and especially his supply chain management courses. This came up in our first conversation I believe, but he wants to learn supply chain so he can go back to Saudi Arabia with the knowledge to combine with his skills, that he had obtained growing up, to run his late fathers business with his brothers. I told him that his English was very good for someone who just started learning at the beginning of the semester. It seems like he has his head on straight and is very goal oriented. I told him that if he keeps up his hard word that he is going to go a long way with his fathers business or anywhere else life decides to take him.

            

Laughter 2

            Last Sunday night, which was no different than any other Sunday night, I was working Froggy 5-0. It was a decent night but was a little chilly and I hadn’t gotten very much sleep the last two previous nights because of work and I actually decided to be social and hang out with some people. Shocking right? I thought so too but I digress. Like I was saying, slightly chilly Sunday night. When we aren’t busy, like that night, it is usually pretty painful especially this time of the year. We start driving whenever it gets dark out which mean we have to be at work by five thirty and stay until one am. By my count that is seven and a half hours and after spending six hours in the library previous to this the shift, when slow, can drag on. It felt like it was literally lasting forever and at the rate that it was creeping by, hours felt like days. When it’s cold out its even worse. We have to stay out on our carts incase someone walks by us and asks for a ride or so we can respond faster if dispatched to a building where someone has called in.

            When we aren’t receiving calls from the dispatcher we as drivers can pretty much do whatever we want: drive around aimlessly, listen to music, do homework (ha this one is funny) really anything that involves us on our carts in earshot of our radios. What usually happens on these long, slow, painful nights is that all of the drivers congregate outside of Foster and we sit and talk.

            Our conversations in these “pow-wows”, if you will, consist of anything from complaining about the evening to how many hot girls we have driven. This night was no different and we sat around complaining, jabbing each other playfully with insults and telling each other about funny stories that have happened to us on the job.

            The real “fit of laughter” that this whole supposed post is about didn’t occur until the last few minutes of the shift. Usually as soon as twelve forty-five hits we drive back to the station and stop taking calls. On the rare occasion that someone is watching the time and decides to call in right at twelve forty-five, while we are still required to answer the phone, one unlucky driver gets stuck with the last call of the night while everyone else gets to head back to the station.

            Usually this isn’t a big deal. For instance one night I lucked out and got stuck with a last call that was from 38 to 90. For those of you that don’t speak Froggy, that means from Colby to the Grand Marc. This is perfect because I was right outside of Colby that night and the Grand Marc is on the way back to the station.

            Last Sunday night, however, didn’t go as smooth. It was twelve forty and no body had been dispatched in the past hour or so. I had only given around 25 rides that night, which for a Sunday night is painfully slow, especially spread over a seven and a half our shift. I was talking to Matt, one of my fellow drivers, how I was probably just going to head back to the station now and just wait until twelve forty-five to head into the station and finish up the required paperwork. He convinced me to stay and chat for a minute or two. As soon as we decided to head back to the station the dispatcher comes over the radio with my call number. I froze and glanced over to Matt and said, “This better not be out to the Greek or I am gonna lose it.”

            Sure enough when I responded I got stuck with one from 01 to 38 and one from 01 to 99. Again, let me translate. That is two from the library one going to Colby and one going all the way down to the Greek.

            As soon as this came over the radio he busted out in uncontrollable laughter. Once I got over the initial shock and frustration, I too busted out into one of the biggest fits of laughter I have all semester. I laughed for the fact that of course me of all people after getting hardly any calls all night would have to go practically across campus to the library to take people all the way to the Greek then turn around and come back. This of course while all of my fellow drivers meandered their way back to the station.

            It was uncontrolled due to my lack of sleep and the sheer hilarity that it was of course to the one place I didn’t want to drive. It was a weird funny but at the same time disappointing laugh but uncontrollable nonetheless!