So my supervisor has been in the control room for ATLAS for the last few days, meaning she has been very hard to get a hold of. It also means that work has been VERY slow for the last few days, hence why I've been slacking a little on the whole blogging front...my apologies.
The biggest thing that I've done this last week is install a whole new operating system on my laptop, which actually happened just this morning. For those who don't know, Windows is nearly impossible to do any kind of research with, which is why half of physicists own Mac computers and the other half do what is known as "dual-booting," i.e. install another operating system alongside Windows. The most popular choice for dual-booting is known as Ubuntu, a version of Linux. Linux is what all physics research I have ever done has used because it is very intuitive and easy to work with (unlike Windows). It is very very very hard to install the Mac operating system on a Windows computer (the people at Apple did that on purpose), but I believe there have been a couple people who have done it successfully. But again, Linux is the operating system of choice for many researchers.
Now to recap the week...on Monday, most of my REU group and I took a walking trip to St. Genis, about a half-hour walk, just to explore and check out a really cheap kabob place we had been told about. 5 Euros is REALLY cheap for a meal here, and I've found myself being a little stingy with my food expenses. I will usually pick the cheapest thing in the cafeteria and I bring my lunch every day instead of buying. But it is all to save up for my traveling expenses. Traveling around Europe is more expensive than I thought, and I thought it was expensive to begin with! But anyway, we found the kabob place, and it was very very good. I definitely want to go back there at some point.
Tuesday was the day we decided on our travel plans for this weekend (which starts today actually). You all will get to read all about my trip to Zermatt on Monday :) Wednesday was extremely slow for work. I think my supervisor was even busier in the control room than she was on Tuesday, so I really didn't have much to work on. I was relieved when 5:30 came around and I could leave to go for a run with a fellow intern. We took a 4 mile loop (well, we think it was 4 miles...) into France and St. Genis, and ran along the river that goes through town. It was a very pleasant and beautiful run. I am so used to having water everywhere, being from Michigan, and it was nice to be reminded that there are bodies of water here too.
Yesterday, I got to see my supervisor at Michigan State, who will be staying at CERN for the next month. It was nice to catch up with him. After work, a group of us went to the train station to get tickets for this weekend, only to find out that they were no longer taking people for the kind of pass they wanted. It's known as the Eurail pass, and is a great option for anyone looking to travel in Europe. I purchased one prior to coming here, but recently decided not to use it because I will be going more places that are farther away and don't make sense to take a train to. But if you are traveling primarily by train, it is an excellent option! We decided just to head back to CERN and try again the next day. We ate dinner with our usual group, which has now somehow expanded to at least 25 people. We take up six whole tables! Half of us are the U of M REU group, but half are Europeans or people from other countries that we've managed to meet and make friends with. It's turning out to be a pretty fun group!
Well, I have to go prepare for an amazing weekend. Keep checking back for a blog update after the weekend!
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