work, trains, and maybe some bears

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My job is finally in full swing. After my first week of work I have a fairly good idea of what I'll be doing. I am programing in ROOT, the same language I used last year at D0, which is making for a fairly smooth transition. I will be working on calibrating a photomultiplier tube at ATLAS. If you are interested on what that is, I think wikipedia has a fairly decent description. I have passed my safety courses to go down into the pit, so I will probably start going to take measurements, etc. with my main advisor next week. So far I really like both of my advisors. They have asked me multiple times whether or not I am bored, like the project, etc. I have written three different macros to run over data so far, and made some plots.
Cern is located on the Switzerland/France border. The other day I walked to France to get a key for my office. It was actually rather uneventful, but I still feel pretty cool being able to say "So, I walked to France..."
Yesterday we decided to go out dancing. We went to a club that we thought would have electro music, but instead it was speedcor. Apparently, that means really heavy metal turned into electro music. Needless to say, we left shortly there after. We finally did find a place to go dancing at a site of the Geneva music festival that is happening this weekend. It was lots of fun, but kept us out too late. When we made it back to the train station, which we had been told by the REU coordinator ran all night, we found that after 3 a.m. trains quit running. So, I ended up paying for part of a cab ride home. The grand total for the 15 minute ride from Geneva to CERN: 42 francs. Split four ways it wasn't that bad, but I plan on reading the train schedule next time. Ah, life lessons.
Today I will be going to a beach on lake Geneva, followed by exploring oldtown and going to the music festival tonight. Tomorrow we will be traveling to Bern, to visit Einstein's apartment and see a bear pit they have in the middle of town. I'll try to take some pictures!

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