Monday, September 29, 2008
Results, Somewhat.
So, I go to the hospital this morning, only to find out that the receptionist last week stuffed up and forgot to put my appointment into the computer. This meant that I had to wait ages to see the doctor and then when I did see her, she only had a couple of minutes to talk to me in between her other patients. And in these three minutes, the only thing I really get is that they couldn't discount the possibility that some of the cells are malignant, and so the whole area will need to be removed and they want to perform the operation as soon as possible. I will be back on Thursday for a consulation with the surgeon.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Bike Path!
Last weekend, while we were walking from Satigny to Vernier, somebody pointed out the bike path that runs from Vernier to CERN, so I've been taking this instead of the road this week and it's great. It's a little longer than the road and it's not all bike path, but it's so much better not having to stop and start all the time and being worried about when to go at roundabouts. If you are interested in the route, I have it up here.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Overseas Birthday
It was my 25th birthday yesterday, the first birthday I've had overseas for a while, despite all the recent travelling. And it wasn't too bad. The day before I received a delivery from my supervisor from my boyfriend, which was really sweet, since it must have been quite awkward for him to go and meet her. Thanks so much dearest!
Then yesterday, though I had to work all day to prepare a presentation for the afternoon, I went out for Chinese dumplings with all the Australians at CERN, which was nice. The guys were late and we were getting hungry, but they were forgiven when they came bearing a gift. Thanks guys!
And today, while I was preparing dinner, my housemates and a neighbour accosted me with yet another present! That was really generous of them, since we've only known each other for a couple of weeks. Thanks heaps!
Stay tuned for the party on Saturday night...
Then yesterday, though I had to work all day to prepare a presentation for the afternoon, I went out for Chinese dumplings with all the Australians at CERN, which was nice. The guys were late and we were getting hungry, but they were forgiven when they came bearing a gift. Thanks guys!
And today, while I was preparing dinner, my housemates and a neighbour accosted me with yet another present! That was really generous of them, since we've only known each other for a couple of weeks. Thanks heaps!
Stay tuned for the party on Saturday night...
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
French Class
Today I went to an evening French class at the University of Geneva. It was a bit of a disaster really. As part of my scholarship, I am able to attend French courses at the university for free. However, since I am based at CERN, I can only go to the evening ones. They only run evening classes on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the level is too high for me, at Intermediate 2. I think I am in between a Beginner and Intermediate 1 thanks to all my previous classes. It was an oral class, aimed at practising speaking French, however I don't know enough French to practise speaking it, so I was fairly lost, which was very unfair to my group. I might have to try a different class next week, or do some self learning at home. I get a fair bit of practise with my housemates, but I need to learn some more words, and more complicated grammar. I have realised that I can only speak in the present tense, which isn't very useful in everyday conversation.
Monday, September 22, 2008
No Results
So I went back to the hospital this morning all eager to find out the results of my biopsy, only for the appointment to be a post-operation check up, to change the wrappings and check that it wasn't infected. I will be going back next Monday for the results. I asked them this time what the appointment was for instead of assuming.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Party!
Last night, our neighbour held a welcome party for all the students in the building. He invited everybody by putting invites into all the mailboxes, which I thought was pretty brave. It was a pretty fun party, though again my language skills were tested. The difference between this party and the recent ones I've been to is the dancing, there isn't usually much of that at a party hosted by physicists. Like here is a random congo line! There was also many bad attempts at the zorba.
This photo below is of me and my two housemates who went. On the left is the girl from Argentina and the guy in the middle is the one from Madagascar. So now you all have faces to put to names if I mention them again. The guy from Madagascar is also on the same scholarhip as me, which is why he is also in the photos from my previous post.
This photo below is of me and my two housemates who went. On the left is the girl from Argentina and the guy in the middle is the one from Madagascar. So now you all have faces to put to names if I mention them again. The guy from Madagascar is also on the same scholarhip as me, which is why he is also in the photos from my previous post.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Excursion!
Today I went on a excursion around the Swiss countryside organised by the University of Geneva for Swiss Government Scholarship holders.
The morning was cold and cloudy when we started out at the Quai des Moulins in the centre of Geneva. We went on a boat ride west along The Rhone river, which flows out of Lake Geneva. It was a strange trip. The boat was a closed boat, so I got a little headachey on it, with the noise and lack of fresh air. It was also hard to see the scenery, which was pretty, with high river banks, covered with trees and glimpses of wildlife. We saw a couple of cool birds (which I couldn't identify at all) and... a wild boar! It looked just like one of the boars in Asterix!
The boat trip ended in Peney, from which we walked north to Satigny, through a forest, along a creek. It was a little muddy and cold because of the trees, though the sun had come out by then. It was also a little strange, since the organiser didn't stay up front to direct us at the various intersections, so there were times when we would have to wait for the whole group since we couldn't tell which way to go. The walk was pretty, but without a proper guide, I don't think any of us got much out of it. Personally, I took it easy and hung around people who spoke English well, as I did not feel like socialising in my very broken French. This narrowed the group of people I could communicate with to very few of the people there, but at least now I feel as though I've made some new friends.
In Satigny, we had lunch at that looked like a country club restaurant, as it was fairly posh and overlooked a very nice soccer field. We were served a three course meal, along with matching wines. Something which none of us were expecting since we didn't have to pay for the day at all. The starter was a salmon pastry, which wasn't too bad, except that the fish wasn't fresh, so it smelt. It was served with a white wine. I didn't catch a look at the bottle, but I'm sure it was from the region, which is Switzerland's largest wine-producing area. The main was roast duck with mash and vegetables, which was really tender and tasty. This was served with a Gamay which was definitely from the area. The dessert was I think a chocolate panna cotta, which was served with coffee, which definitely suited it much better than a dessert wine, since the bitterness really set off the sweetness of the chocolate.
I then decided that since it was such a nice day and we had passed my village on the boat trip, that I was going to walk back instead of taking the train then the bus. It ended up being a really nice easy walk, sunny, but with a cool breeze, on flat small country roads with views of both sets of mountains around Geneva. I also convinced a couple of other people to go with me who also lived in the same apartment building as me.
The morning was cold and cloudy when we started out at the Quai des Moulins in the centre of Geneva. We went on a boat ride west along The Rhone river, which flows out of Lake Geneva. It was a strange trip. The boat was a closed boat, so I got a little headachey on it, with the noise and lack of fresh air. It was also hard to see the scenery, which was pretty, with high river banks, covered with trees and glimpses of wildlife. We saw a couple of cool birds (which I couldn't identify at all) and... a wild boar! It looked just like one of the boars in Asterix!
The boat trip ended in Peney, from which we walked north to Satigny, through a forest, along a creek. It was a little muddy and cold because of the trees, though the sun had come out by then. It was also a little strange, since the organiser didn't stay up front to direct us at the various intersections, so there were times when we would have to wait for the whole group since we couldn't tell which way to go. The walk was pretty, but without a proper guide, I don't think any of us got much out of it. Personally, I took it easy and hung around people who spoke English well, as I did not feel like socialising in my very broken French. This narrowed the group of people I could communicate with to very few of the people there, but at least now I feel as though I've made some new friends.
In Satigny, we had lunch at that looked like a country club restaurant, as it was fairly posh and overlooked a very nice soccer field. We were served a three course meal, along with matching wines. Something which none of us were expecting since we didn't have to pay for the day at all. The starter was a salmon pastry, which wasn't too bad, except that the fish wasn't fresh, so it smelt. It was served with a white wine. I didn't catch a look at the bottle, but I'm sure it was from the region, which is Switzerland's largest wine-producing area. The main was roast duck with mash and vegetables, which was really tender and tasty. This was served with a Gamay which was definitely from the area. The dessert was I think a chocolate panna cotta, which was served with coffee, which definitely suited it much better than a dessert wine, since the bitterness really set off the sweetness of the chocolate.
I then decided that since it was such a nice day and we had passed my village on the boat trip, that I was going to walk back instead of taking the train then the bus. It ended up being a really nice easy walk, sunny, but with a cool breeze, on flat small country roads with views of both sets of mountains around Geneva. I also convinced a couple of other people to go with me who also lived in the same apartment building as me.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Biopsy
So, as I mentioned back in July, I went to the Hospital to get my swollen face and my dark nail checked out. Today was nail biopsy day. It went fine, my finger is now all numb and wrapped up. I am going back on Monday for the post operation findings. It was a little unnerving going to a hospital in country where you don't know the language. It was also a teaching hospital, so the girl who was performing the operation was an intern and was being supervised, with a couple of other interns watching, just well as two nurses. Making six people in the operating theatre. They would speak in French amongst themselves then decide whether to tell me something in English or not. The whole intern thing meant that it took longer than usual, and I got injected more times than I needed to as she didn't do it right the first time. I also had to wear a hospital gown, which I wasn't expecting, but should have realised, since obviously it would be performed in a clean room. Stayed tuned for the results...
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Work and Presentations
Last week, I finally got my sliding window algorithm working. Which means I had just enough time to run it over piles of data and modify some analysis code to create some results to present this morning. At two meetings actually. I presented my own work in our weekly internal Australian analysis meeting between the Melbourne and Sydney experimental particle physics groups and any people at institutions overseas. And one of the conveners of the ATLAS Egamma Trigger group presented a condensed version at the Egamma workshop in Hamburg. Here are her slides for your interest:
Supposedly people were quite interested, and I have a fair bit of validation work to do. Which I don't mind as it's much better than chasing segmentation faults. My supervisor also wants me to present the work in more detail at another meeting sometime, so I'll need to understand the results better by then, so I'll have something new to say... and also run more code so I'll have more results to show...
Supposedly people were quite interested, and I have a fair bit of validation work to do. Which I don't mind as it's much better than chasing segmentation faults. My supervisor also wants me to present the work in more detail at another meeting sometime, so I'll need to understand the results better by then, so I'll have something new to say... and also run more code so I'll have more results to show...
Monday, September 15, 2008
Full House...
Coming home this evening, I met our last housemate. Guess I haven't really talked much about my new apartment yet. It's a four bedroom place, two smaller bedrooms and two larger ones. I luckily have one of the larger ones. It's right next to the entrance to the place, the kitchen and lounge/dining area, so it's lucky that I'm a heavy sleeper. It's a little annoying though, since the kitchen has no ventilation, we have to cook with that door open, which means I have to close my door so everything doesn't smell. I don't want to be antisocial, I just have to be. I also am afraid that my music and singing to it will annoy other people.
So yeah, from the entrance, you can see three doors and the living/dining area. One of the those doors is my room, another is the kitchen, where I have two cupboard shelves and one and a half fridge shelves and half a freezer shelf. The third door leads to a hallways, off which the toilet, bathroom, and the three other bedrooms. Oh, and two hallway cupboards which are for the people in the smaller rooms.
People wise in the place, there's me in the first room. You know about me. The next room along belongs to the guy from Madagascar, who has lived here for a year already. He is on the same scholarship as me, but has a year extension. He is currently during a masters in information systems. The third bedroom belongs to the guy who moved in today, from Bern, who is doing a bachelors in international relations. He is in the room where the Canadian guy I mentioned earlier moved out of last week. And the last room belongs to a girl from Argentina, doing a masters in development. We get along quite well, which is really nice. I think the fact that her English is almost fluent helps with that.
It is nice living with non-physics people. And people who I can learn French from. It makes me feel like I'm getting more out of this stay than work.
Oh, speaking of learning French, I went to an information session for the French courses I can take at the university for free during the semester due to my scholarship. So the good thing is that I understood most of the session, even though it was in French. But the bad thing is that the only classes in the evenings are Intermediate 2 level. I'll try them out next week and see how lost I am... I am thinking of going to them anyway though, since they are free.
So yeah, from the entrance, you can see three doors and the living/dining area. One of the those doors is my room, another is the kitchen, where I have two cupboard shelves and one and a half fridge shelves and half a freezer shelf. The third door leads to a hallways, off which the toilet, bathroom, and the three other bedrooms. Oh, and two hallway cupboards which are for the people in the smaller rooms.
People wise in the place, there's me in the first room. You know about me. The next room along belongs to the guy from Madagascar, who has lived here for a year already. He is on the same scholarship as me, but has a year extension. He is currently during a masters in information systems. The third bedroom belongs to the guy who moved in today, from Bern, who is doing a bachelors in international relations. He is in the room where the Canadian guy I mentioned earlier moved out of last week. And the last room belongs to a girl from Argentina, doing a masters in development. We get along quite well, which is really nice. I think the fact that her English is almost fluent helps with that.
It is nice living with non-physics people. And people who I can learn French from. It makes me feel like I'm getting more out of this stay than work.
Oh, speaking of learning French, I went to an information session for the French courses I can take at the university for free during the semester due to my scholarship. So the good thing is that I understood most of the session, even though it was in French. But the bad thing is that the only classes in the evenings are Intermediate 2 level. I'll try them out next week and see how lost I am... I am thinking of going to them anyway though, since they are free.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Studious Me!
So here I am in this photo in the FermiLab Today accommpanying an article about the summer school I went to there last month. I got interviewed for the article as well, but obviously I didn't say what they wanted me to say, and so wasn't quoted. I'm just glad that the photo was taken early during the school, when I was still all studious and didn't have my laptop open during talks. *relieved sigh*
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
First Beam!!
Today really exceeded my expectations. So like I said yesterday I said that "if we are lucky, we'll get one beam going one way and after they dump that, they'll try the other beam" However they were able to do both today, and both beams were circulated around their respective beam pipes, both within an hour of them starting, and the first under extreme media scrutiny.
So what I do today while these historic events were unfolding? So at 9am, the LHC project leader, Lyn Evans gave a talk from the LHC control room about what was going to happen, however, I was unable to connect to the webcast due to the limited number of available connections. But this didn't phase me, as at 10am we had a link up to Melbourne, where we would be on a panel, answering questions from an audience of students at the Museum. So we go to the ATLAS media centre at 9:30am, and watch the broadcast from there until it is time to call Australia. Here we are setting up:
It wasn't too bad, we just answered questions while watching the webcast in the background without sound and keeping them updated on what was going on as they weren't able to connect to the webcast. And the first beam went all around the ring an hour after they started, while we were connected, which was quite exciting. The organisers brought cups of champagne for us to drink during the link, which was nice.
After we disconnected, we hung around the media centre until they told everybody who wasn't supposed to be there to leave, and we went down to the ATLAS control room to observe the hordes of people there, disturbing the people on shift, which you see above. Since ATLAS is the closest experiment to the main CERN site and the Globe, where all the press were congregating, they had a lot of media groups come in to record stories and interview physicists from their country. By this stage, the visualisation people had a decent picture of an event to project onto the wall for all the reporters, which you can see on the rightmost projectors. We also went upstairs to visit one of the guys in there, but they looked really busy, so we left.
And that's as close to the action I got. After that, I just did work and watched the webcast from the Main Auditorium, where we watched them get the second beam around. So these next photos aren't mine, but are official LHC/ATLAS pictures.
This first is of some of the LHC monitoring screens at the LHC control centre. I wish that was closer to the mean CERN site so I could have snuck in there. It looked quite exciting with all the clapping and champagne bottles being opened.
These two pictures are exactly what they say they are, visualisations of first two events in ATLAS. These two events are the spray seen when the beam hits the collimators in front of ATLAS. If you look closely at the energy deposits, you can see that they are asymmetric, and this is because there is only one beam and one side of the detector gets splashed first. The line in the first event we think is a cosmic muon which just happened to be at the same time.
If you want more details of what happened, CMS did a very nice commentary of the day, which can be found here
So what I do today while these historic events were unfolding? So at 9am, the LHC project leader, Lyn Evans gave a talk from the LHC control room about what was going to happen, however, I was unable to connect to the webcast due to the limited number of available connections. But this didn't phase me, as at 10am we had a link up to Melbourne, where we would be on a panel, answering questions from an audience of students at the Museum. So we go to the ATLAS media centre at 9:30am, and watch the broadcast from there until it is time to call Australia. Here we are setting up:
It wasn't too bad, we just answered questions while watching the webcast in the background without sound and keeping them updated on what was going on as they weren't able to connect to the webcast. And the first beam went all around the ring an hour after they started, while we were connected, which was quite exciting. The organisers brought cups of champagne for us to drink during the link, which was nice.
After we disconnected, we hung around the media centre until they told everybody who wasn't supposed to be there to leave, and we went down to the ATLAS control room to observe the hordes of people there, disturbing the people on shift, which you see above. Since ATLAS is the closest experiment to the main CERN site and the Globe, where all the press were congregating, they had a lot of media groups come in to record stories and interview physicists from their country. By this stage, the visualisation people had a decent picture of an event to project onto the wall for all the reporters, which you can see on the rightmost projectors. We also went upstairs to visit one of the guys in there, but they looked really busy, so we left.
And that's as close to the action I got. After that, I just did work and watched the webcast from the Main Auditorium, where we watched them get the second beam around. So these next photos aren't mine, but are official LHC/ATLAS pictures.
This first is of some of the LHC monitoring screens at the LHC control centre. I wish that was closer to the mean CERN site so I could have snuck in there. It looked quite exciting with all the clapping and champagne bottles being opened.
These two pictures are exactly what they say they are, visualisations of first two events in ATLAS. These two events are the spray seen when the beam hits the collimators in front of ATLAS. If you look closely at the energy deposits, you can see that they are asymmetric, and this is because there is only one beam and one side of the detector gets splashed first. The line in the first event we think is a cosmic muon which just happened to be at the same time.
If you want more details of what happened, CMS did a very nice commentary of the day, which can be found here
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
LHC Start Up...
If you haven't heard that the LHC is starting up tomorrow, you haven't been keeping up with the news. It's been in all the newspapers I know of. For a fairly comprehensive listing www.interactions.org archives articles about particle physics and it has been flooded in the past couple of weeks.
I thought I'd also add my two cents and write an entry about it. I would like to start off by emphasising that the world will not end tomorrow. And seriously if you are reading this blog because you know me and and you believe that load of rubbish, well, I might just have to disown you as a friend, or you better have a good excuse, like you've never studied science.
What is happening tomorrow is the first circulation of particles around the entire LHC ring at already studied energies. If we are lucky, we'll get one beam going one way and after they dump that, they'll try the other beam. They will not bringing the particles up in energy or colliding them. So of course the answer to Are we all going to die on Wednesday? is a resounding no, see www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com.
While is business as usual for me, since I don't work on the very first data, it is exciting that something is finally going to happen. Actually, it's not entirely business as usual, I am going to be part of panel linked back to Melbourne to do a very short presentation and field questions from high school and university students. And I'm going to have the webcast playing on my laptop while I work.
I'm already wasting a fair bit of time looking up the live status of the LHC, and I would do the same with ATLAS as well, if I knew the website. Parts of ATLAS have been turned on to track cosmic particles traveling through the detector taking data sporadically over the year, so this won't be the first time the detector will be turned on, but it will be the first time it sees beam.
And in the months after this, we'll get to see more and more energetic beam particles, and collisions. We will be using this data to calibrate and understand the detector. I don't really think anybody will really trust any physics results that are found that soon after turn on, unless it is the rediscovery of what we know exists. So it'll be a while before we will be claiming anything extraordinary...
I thought I'd also add my two cents and write an entry about it. I would like to start off by emphasising that the world will not end tomorrow. And seriously if you are reading this blog because you know me and and you believe that load of rubbish, well, I might just have to disown you as a friend, or you better have a good excuse, like you've never studied science.
What is happening tomorrow is the first circulation of particles around the entire LHC ring at already studied energies. If we are lucky, we'll get one beam going one way and after they dump that, they'll try the other beam. They will not bringing the particles up in energy or colliding them. So of course the answer to Are we all going to die on Wednesday? is a resounding no, see www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com.
While is business as usual for me, since I don't work on the very first data, it is exciting that something is finally going to happen. Actually, it's not entirely business as usual, I am going to be part of panel linked back to Melbourne to do a very short presentation and field questions from high school and university students. And I'm going to have the webcast playing on my laptop while I work.
I'm already wasting a fair bit of time looking up the live status of the LHC, and I would do the same with ATLAS as well, if I knew the website. Parts of ATLAS have been turned on to track cosmic particles traveling through the detector taking data sporadically over the year, so this won't be the first time the detector will be turned on, but it will be the first time it sees beam.
And in the months after this, we'll get to see more and more energetic beam particles, and collisions. We will be using this data to calibrate and understand the detector. I don't really think anybody will really trust any physics results that are found that soon after turn on, unless it is the rediscovery of what we know exists. So it'll be a while before we will be claiming anything extraordinary...
Monday, September 8, 2008
A Busy Weekend...
This weekend was definitely not as restful as last weekend, but I don't mind, because it was due to my Dad visiting. *smiles*
He was in Monaco for a week for work and decided to drop by for a couple of days on the way home. Luckily for me, he didn't get in until late Saturday afternoon so I had time to clean up, call home, and a bit of work before going and picking up up from the airport. It was nice to see him again, I don't think I've seen him since May, since he had been in Houston for a couple of months when I left for Geneva in July.
After stopping by my new apartment to drop some stuff off and show him where I'll be living for the rest of the year, we went back to the Australian apartment where I'm staying now as there's nowhere for a visitor to sleep in my new place. This visit I actually met two of my housemates and had very basic French conversations with them. One of them is from Madagascar, and the other is Canadian. Unfortunately, I just used up all my whole French sentences in those conversations, so I hope they know some English and are willing to help me learn French.
Back at my place, he checked his email to see if any of his friends in the area were free. He's subscribed to a forum with people from his high school back in Vietnam and gets heaps of emails a day from this. It also means he knows heaps of people all over the world, predominantly in French or English speaking areas. It turns out that one of his old school friends was in Geneva visiting CERN for a couple of days, as he is a theoretical physicist in at University of Virginia. So we met up with him for dinner. It was a little strange to witness this reunion of school acquaintances who hadn't met up in over twenty years.
Then on Sunday, it actually cleared up, so I could take him properly sight-seeing. We when into town, walked around the university district and the old town area, then went down to the lake, went on a cruise, then walked around the lake. And then I ran out of things to show him since he wasn't interested in going to museums or United Nations. Geneva is a very small city, with only a couple of notable landmarks or pretty neighbourhoods. Luckily I had another idea, which was to go take the cable car up the closest mountain for a walk and the view. I was hoping that from up there, it'll be possible to see the Alps, which were obscured by clouds.
Unfortunately, the Alps were still obscured, but there was an amazing view of Geneva and the Lake. We were also lucky as there are a festival or something at the top, so the cable car was half price. They had some craft and food stalls up there, and these three guys. I'd seen alpine horns last year, but only caught them as they were finishing. I'm actually quite impressed, since there were three of them, harmonising quite well, they can't be that easy to play, though they don't sound all that fantastic, because they don't have holes, so the notes are made by mouth shape.
After we came down again, we went in search of dinner and ended up finding a Vietnamese restaurant, which was not to expensive by Geneva standards, though al course more expensive than at home. It wasn't too bad, so I know where to go when I get craving for things I can't be bothered cooking.
Today, he came in with me to CERN, and I took him around the public exhibition and the main ATLAS research building, which is all I think I have access to. He then sat in my office, reading stories on the internet, while I worked. This was a reverse of the situation of many years ago now, when I would amuse myself in his office. So, he saw both places where I will live while I'm here and where I work and the people I work with and can report back to my mum about it.
Then this evening I moved into my new apartment, since another student from Australia had arrived and needed the room I was staying in. The room really does look better with a little more colour in it. There are a few more decorative things I would like though, a couple of floor cushions, a mirror, maybe a rug and something else for my wall. And a few practical things as well, such as hangars and hooks for my clothes and stuff. It'll slowly become home...
He was in Monaco for a week for work and decided to drop by for a couple of days on the way home. Luckily for me, he didn't get in until late Saturday afternoon so I had time to clean up, call home, and a bit of work before going and picking up up from the airport. It was nice to see him again, I don't think I've seen him since May, since he had been in Houston for a couple of months when I left for Geneva in July.
After stopping by my new apartment to drop some stuff off and show him where I'll be living for the rest of the year, we went back to the Australian apartment where I'm staying now as there's nowhere for a visitor to sleep in my new place. This visit I actually met two of my housemates and had very basic French conversations with them. One of them is from Madagascar, and the other is Canadian. Unfortunately, I just used up all my whole French sentences in those conversations, so I hope they know some English and are willing to help me learn French.
Back at my place, he checked his email to see if any of his friends in the area were free. He's subscribed to a forum with people from his high school back in Vietnam and gets heaps of emails a day from this. It also means he knows heaps of people all over the world, predominantly in French or English speaking areas. It turns out that one of his old school friends was in Geneva visiting CERN for a couple of days, as he is a theoretical physicist in at University of Virginia. So we met up with him for dinner. It was a little strange to witness this reunion of school acquaintances who hadn't met up in over twenty years.
Then on Sunday, it actually cleared up, so I could take him properly sight-seeing. We when into town, walked around the university district and the old town area, then went down to the lake, went on a cruise, then walked around the lake. And then I ran out of things to show him since he wasn't interested in going to museums or United Nations. Geneva is a very small city, with only a couple of notable landmarks or pretty neighbourhoods. Luckily I had another idea, which was to go take the cable car up the closest mountain for a walk and the view. I was hoping that from up there, it'll be possible to see the Alps, which were obscured by clouds.
Unfortunately, the Alps were still obscured, but there was an amazing view of Geneva and the Lake. We were also lucky as there are a festival or something at the top, so the cable car was half price. They had some craft and food stalls up there, and these three guys. I'd seen alpine horns last year, but only caught them as they were finishing. I'm actually quite impressed, since there were three of them, harmonising quite well, they can't be that easy to play, though they don't sound all that fantastic, because they don't have holes, so the notes are made by mouth shape.
After we came down again, we went in search of dinner and ended up finding a Vietnamese restaurant, which was not to expensive by Geneva standards, though al course more expensive than at home. It wasn't too bad, so I know where to go when I get craving for things I can't be bothered cooking.
Today, he came in with me to CERN, and I took him around the public exhibition and the main ATLAS research building, which is all I think I have access to. He then sat in my office, reading stories on the internet, while I worked. This was a reverse of the situation of many years ago now, when I would amuse myself in his office. So, he saw both places where I will live while I'm here and where I work and the people I work with and can report back to my mum about it.
Then this evening I moved into my new apartment, since another student from Australia had arrived and needed the room I was staying in. The room really does look better with a little more colour in it. There are a few more decorative things I would like though, a couple of floor cushions, a mirror, maybe a rug and something else for my wall. And a few practical things as well, such as hangars and hooks for my clothes and stuff. It'll slowly become home...
Friday, September 5, 2008
Information, in French
is kind of hard to understand if you don't know the language...
This morning I dropped by my new apartment to do the inventory, which I promised the lady I would do this week, since it says within five days of signing the lease. It is a student apartment, four students, two male and two female, with one bathroom, one toilet, a kitchen and a lounge/dining area. It's not too bad, it's fairly new and fairly neat. The furniture provided will do, but doesn't look very comfortable, being all plastic or wood. It is also fairly stark and utilitarian, not very homely, but that'll slowly change when I move and settle in. My room is L-shaped and contains all you'd expect in a student apartment, a bed, desk, bookcase and wardrobe. It's a decent size and has a wall of windows, which is nice, though they look out to a car park. But I'm going to complain about natural light. I didn't meet any of my flatmates, I guess it was too early for them to be up considering it's their holidays at the moment. I kind of wish one of them was though. I was having issues remembering what all the French words for furniture, fittings and trimmings were.
After this, I took the bus down to uni to attend an information session for international students on scholarships. Which was in French. *sigh* I really need to learn the language. Everybody else there seemed to know it. I wonder how many of them were offered the free French lessons as part of the scholarship. I wasn't because I don't need French to work here. I think I'll need French to live here though. *sigh* Luckily I had done most of the administration he was telling us on Monday, so it wasn't too bad, and I understood most of the other stuff, since he had slides, and what I didn't understand I asked him to translate into English for me afterwards. Oh, and he told us about French lessons offered at the university that we could take for free, which I will definitely be taking up... I feel so helpless only knowing English in a French speaking city.
This morning I dropped by my new apartment to do the inventory, which I promised the lady I would do this week, since it says within five days of signing the lease. It is a student apartment, four students, two male and two female, with one bathroom, one toilet, a kitchen and a lounge/dining area. It's not too bad, it's fairly new and fairly neat. The furniture provided will do, but doesn't look very comfortable, being all plastic or wood. It is also fairly stark and utilitarian, not very homely, but that'll slowly change when I move and settle in. My room is L-shaped and contains all you'd expect in a student apartment, a bed, desk, bookcase and wardrobe. It's a decent size and has a wall of windows, which is nice, though they look out to a car park. But I'm going to complain about natural light. I didn't meet any of my flatmates, I guess it was too early for them to be up considering it's their holidays at the moment. I kind of wish one of them was though. I was having issues remembering what all the French words for furniture, fittings and trimmings were.
After this, I took the bus down to uni to attend an information session for international students on scholarships. Which was in French. *sigh* I really need to learn the language. Everybody else there seemed to know it. I wonder how many of them were offered the free French lessons as part of the scholarship. I wasn't because I don't need French to work here. I think I'll need French to live here though. *sigh* Luckily I had done most of the administration he was telling us on Monday, so it wasn't too bad, and I understood most of the other stuff, since he had slides, and what I didn't understand I asked him to translate into English for me afterwards. Oh, and he told us about French lessons offered at the university that we could take for free, which I will definitely be taking up... I feel so helpless only knowing English in a French speaking city.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Work, Work, Work and More Work...
There is an ATLAS Egamma workshop on in Hamburg in 10 or so days, and I want to have some results to show by then, so the week has basically consisted of: go to work, work, go home, eat and cook, and continue work. Even today, Friday. Well, it also has been raining almost nonstop for the past couple of days, so there really isn't anything more exciting to do in the evenings.
It's quite frustrating work really, developing an algorithm within the ATLAS trigger framework. It's taken me quite a while to understand who it all works, and I still don't really fully get it. If I did, I would be able to track down the memory problem I have at the moment, which doesn't happen in my code, but is caused by my changed, because it doesn't occur when I revert the code back to the original version. *sigh*
It's quite frustrating work really, developing an algorithm within the ATLAS trigger framework. It's taken me quite a while to understand who it all works, and I still don't really fully get it. If I did, I would be able to track down the memory problem I have at the moment, which doesn't happen in my code, but is caused by my changed, because it doesn't occur when I revert the code back to the original version. *sigh*
Monday, September 1, 2008
Administration, the Swiss way...
involves lots of waiting and paperwork. Today the first day I could go and do all my University of Geneva stuff. So I started at 10am, and didn't finish until 4pm. First up was the International Relations Office at the University, where I picked up my scholarship money order for the month, and some forms. The next stop was the University cashier to cash the money order in. Then I had enough money to go to the Student Residence Office sign my lease, pay my bond and pick up me keys. Unfortunately I needed to wait about an hour before seeing the person who was in charge of new students renters. Fortunately, she had so many students waiting for her, she let me have my keys before going to the bank with the form to pay my guarantee, as long as I promised to do it the same day and fax and mail the forms back to her as soon as possible. It was a little strange signing a contract in French. I will have to go to the apartment sometime this week to do an inventory check and maybe meet my new flatmates. After that I headed to the population office, 20 minutes bus ride away to hand in my forms for a residency permit. Where I had to stand in line for quarter of an hour to get a ticket to wait in another line. Love that efficiency. It was very quick and painless once I got to a counter about an hour later. I didn't even have to pay the fee due to the scholarship. Then I headed back to CERN, about an hour by public transport, so I could open a bank account there. I figure that would be easiest since that's where I'll be spending most of my time while I'm over here. I had to convince the lady to give me a bank account though, my CERN contract didn't have a high enough percentage of time spent here and I didn't have my residency permit yet and forgot to pay a temporary one. Luckily having the paper work from the my scholarship and my apartment was enough to convince her that I really needed an account. So now I have a Swiss bank account. *grins* Not one of those cool ones though. *sigh* I still have a more administration to do next week. Fun times.
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