My Travels

Fantastic Friday

This morning we met for work like yesterday, only we were told we weren't needed until the calibration runs which were going to be later that afternoon. We were given the instructions to do whatever we wanted so long as we could check our e-mail every so often to know when to get back to work... sweet!

So the three of us, the undergrads, decided go explore the campus. Fortunately, I remembered to take my camera with me! Here is a photo tour of my morning!

Football Stadium
Our first stop was at the main football stadium. It was huge! It could definitely seat more people than Ivor Wynne because in some places it had another full section or layer of seating above the one you can see in this picture! The one thing I did notice, though, was that the field seemed a lot shorter. It practically ends after the post... odd. I have lots more pictures of the stadium but I won't post them here.

After that stadium we saw another stadium with a full track, with stands and a soccer field in the middle. It was quite impressive. We also saw the swimming pool. It was outdoors and only 25m long, so I'm assuming they also have one that they use for swim meets, and for swimming throughout the year... Michigan really isn't any more south than Southern Ontario... they definitely get snow!

Spartan Statue
I'd heard that the Spartan Statue was something to see so we visited it. Here's the picture looking out from behind it. Yes, I took pictures from the front but there's people who wouldn't appreciate me putting their picture on the web in them :P

This also shows the scenery around MSU, there are trees everywhere. It's quite incredible!

Botanical Garden
Next we visited the botanical garden. It was absolutely beautiful. The whole campus is gorgeous, there's tons of space between buildings and it's filled with grass and trees and wonderful scenery, but the garden was even more spectacular. They had so many different plants and flowers (with name plates). We sat there for awhile, it was so gorgeous.

Then we found this little pond in the middle of the garden. The reflection of the trees in the pond was mesmerizing. I definitely took pictures of it! There are many more pictures of the garden on my computer!

Library
We decided to head to the library to check our e-mail for when we had to work and we saw this amazing painting (or picture of a painting). If you can see the bigger version you can see all the really cool details in the picture.

The guy's shirt is actually signs, most of the picture is made up of people, his entire face, behind him... it's really cool, the picture I took doesn't do it justice.

We found out we didn't have to work so we continued touring the University.

Museum
Ok, well this isn't actually a picture of the museum but a picture of the tower close to the museum. In the museum there were some really neat exhibits. There was an exhibit on quilts and textiles made about war. It was really shocking and moving. I don't have any pictures of them, but they were really amazing. There was also an exhibit about Aids and Art in South Africa. Again, everything was really moving. There were also the typical animal, dinosaur, and history of Michigan exhibits, but they weren't as interesting.

We then had lunch, met up with Dr. Chen and then when back to the lab and started the calibration runs. It was really neat! We got to set up the sources (several times) and start the runs. It really helped me to learn how to use the DAQ and other software so I think I'm better prepared for my shifts! I'm really looking forward to helping run the experiment!!!

After work we all went out to a Thai restaurant. I thought I'd never had Thai food, but it turns out it's actually some of my favourite stuff. I had Mongolian Beef... so tasty. Alex, if you do learn how to make that you will never be able to get rid of me!

Well, we're done work until Sunday (maybe Monday). We're meeting tomorrow, and maybe we'll go exploring around Lansing Michigan. We asked one of the guys who works at NSCL and he couldn't really suggest much to do... so we'll see! I'll make sure to take lots of picures!

Labels: Michigan

posted by Jenn @ 5:15 PM