My Travels

Michigan: Day One

Day one on my trip to Michigan State University, and NSCL (the National Superconductor Cyclotron Laboratory).

Today we met at 7:30 to drive to East Lansing, where MSU is. It took us 2 hours to get to Sarnia, then another hour to cross the border waiting in the customs line. Fortunately the very nice 2007 Toyota Camry we were driving had wonderful air conditioning. After getting to the United States we missed our turn and instead of heading towards Lansing we headed to Detroit. Fortunately, we realised this part way down the road. It all worked out, we drove just around the edge of Detroit and then back up to Lansing, and we were on time for our 2pm meeting (which we then found was bumped back to 4pm). The car ride was really nice as I drifted in and out of sleep the entire time.

Since our meeting was pushed back we decided to check into our rooms. Andrew and I are in Owen Hall, and Benji and Jun are in McDowell. These residences are huge and the weirdest shapes I've ever seen. They look like space ships when you look at them on the map. I guess the size should surprise me because this university is huge. There are apparently 80,000 students attending MSU, and the campus is gianormous. There are 4 lane roads (2 lanes each direction) running throughout it, and stop lights and crosswalks. My home town has a population of just over 7000 so this is well over 11 times bigger! Here's a link to a map of the University if you're interested.

Once we were moved in Benji, Andrew, and I went for a walk. It was incredibly hot and we were melting, but the campus was so beautiful. We walked behind our residences and into the forested area on campus. It really is wonderful! I thought MAC was pretty, and it is, but MAC just can't compare to the size of MSU.

After recovering from our walk we went to the experiment meeting, where they went over a brief purpose of the experiment, and what we were doing. This made absolutely no sense to me. The physics and terminology was way over my head. Then we went over duties on a shift, and we signed up for shifts. I'm working next Wednesday 8am-4pm, and next Friday midnight-8am. Yeah, I know... two shifts. I feel so useful, especially since I can't really do anything on these shifts because I don't understand all the physics, or the technology. Oh well, I'm not complaining, this is a great learning experience not to mention an all expense paid trip to Michigan State. We also found out that we get $48 (USD) a day for food... sounds good to me!

After the meeting we were given a tour of the programs used to collect the data, and were briefly shown what we should be doing on a shift. Again, this made almomst no sense to me. I was soooo confused. But I don't think that really matters because Dr. Chen looked confused too, and he told the guy that he'd need to explain it to him again. *Whew* I'm not the only person who finds all of this confusing!

Finally, it was dinner time! We decided to go to this nice restaurant called the "Beggar's Banquet". It was really neat. It consisted of three rooms. One was a bar, and very casual. The second was a dining room, yet still casual, and the third was a more formal dining room. The food was delicious! After dinner we went to "Cold Stone" ice cream shop. It's a really neat idea where you take delicious ice cream and then they will mix it with whatever toppings you want on this cold stone tablet. Oh my goodness I have never eaten so much icecream. Dr. Chen warned us we should get the smallest size, so I did, but I was seriously wondering why. I mean, the cup was tiny. Little did I know there would be more ice cream piled over the cup edge than could fit in it. I was full by the time the ice cream was level with the top edge of the cup, but I managed to finish it (and surprisingly my stomach isn't killing me too much). I can't believe that was a small... Americans have very weird portion sizes.

Now I'm just relaxing. I'm in the lobby of the residence which has wireless internet access. There's an internet connection in my room, but it requires an MSU ID, which I don't have. It's also a million and two degrees in my room. Fortunately, we were able to locate a fan, so I should be able to cool down a little. Plus, it just rained (and is still rainign a bit) so hopefully it will cool down outside. That would be nice for everyone.

I should mention that there's one thing I've definitely noticed: there aren't many girls in physics. Coming from MAC where half my class is girls I found myself in a meeting with 15 people where I'm the only girl. Honestly, walking through NSCL I only saw 1 female who seemed to be doing research related work. There were secretaries, etc. but very few women involved in the physics. It's also odd because out of the 7 McMaster people dropping in to help with the experiment, I'm the only girl... odd. I'm definitely not used to it, but I'd better adjust, there's over a week more at "Oktoberfest".

Labels: Michigan

posted by Jenn @ 6:16 PM