From the 10th of July to the 3rd of August I went to Switzerland to join the Mu2e test run at PSI. The story goes like this..
When I arrived at the airport I bought the tickets for my train that was going to Brugg. I wanted to get the direct train that was leaving in 5 minutes so I started asking people were to go to in order to get the correct train. I find the train (that was ready to depart at that very second) but as I wanted to make sure I was getting the correct one, I asked the ticket collector “Does this go to Brugg?”..with my accent and all it sounded like I was asking for “Prague” and he pointed me at a totally different direction (thank God I realized he couldn’t understand me, I showed him the ticket and he said “Aaaa Brugg, yes this is the train”..Ok, got the correct train...Now what about the bus (and the wrong accent? And the French and German I don’t speak?)... Well, lucky for me, people at Brugg are very friendly and very helpful. This village is small and everyone is very calm and polite (the bus driver doesn’t have a glass that separates him from the passengers-wao!!). I get the right bus, I go to PSI, and I call Peter Winter (the post-doc of UIUC) to tell him that everything is ok etc. A “Peter” answers, he tells me they are just going to get dinner and where should I meet them. When I met him and we introduced, I realized he was Peter Kammel (the head of the experiment and not the post-doc) I was talking on the phone with... Anyway, we get to the dinner place, the nice restaurant of PSI called “OASE” (I still don’t know if it’s initials for something or if it’s from oasis..), I meet the UIUC group I was going to work with: Justine, Chris, Michael, Alex, Greg. They let me know that tomorrow they are going to the supermarket (only one in the area) to get some food for the barbeque they will be having. The barbeque was great, we chopped woods (I liked that a lot :P ), my radiation pad started beeping for no reason, we saw that if I really had that amount of radiation I was going to be dead. After that they started calling me “the source”:P They tell me that the day after they will go for hiking to the Alps. Peter K. turns to me and says “Enjoy these 2 days because not every day is like this, we usually have a lot of work every day”-that’s what they were telling me all the time-and guess what: they were honest..I will talk about it in a second).
Left: Chopping woods, Right: The Mu2e team
The hiking was great!!! Amazing!!! But my stamina was not! I had to follow them (literally, as they were climbing the mountains like it was a straight way... At that point I thought it will be a good idea to quit smoking-then of course I changed my mind).
From the left: Claud, Michael, Chris, me, Alex, Greg getting some minutes of rest
The day after I go to the area we were working at. I meet Haruo from Los Alamos and we started working on the Neutron detector... When they said there was a lot of work, they were not kidding. We were there every day, not only for our shift hours (8-9 hrs) but more than that. And not only because we had to, but because we also wanted to. Being present at a run of an experiment and watching it live, how everything works, is very fascinating! Working on the hardware is something I personally enjoyed: the targets, the detectors, the wires, using the drill. After finishing with the hardware, whenever there was a run, we were no longer allowed to be inside the area. The software begins.. I feel I learned a lot (A LOT!!) in a month just because I was working with these people. We were all in two offices and there was always someone that could help, with the questions, with the code. I liked the organization as well. We were all submitting what we did in an eLog and every day at 5 pm we were having a one hour meeting, saying what our next goal is. Everyone had a new task to do, and that was something I liked. You were doing something and as soon as you were done with it, someone else was using your results to do his work, then you had a new task to do and so on. Work, work, work, but in a very enthusiastic way!
Left: The Vacuum Chamber and the two Neutron Detectors, Right: Inside the Vacuum Chamber, the two Silicon detectors, and in the middle the Aluminum Stopping target.
The tent we used to cover the experimantal setup as the humidity could affect it.
After midnight I was going to get some sleep at the guest house. The best people ever can be found there! Physicists, engineers, chemists from all around the world that were at PSI for a short term as well, were sitting outside the guest house, relaxing next to the fire. Very nice people! The Spanish were cooking Spanish omelette, we drank French wine. Oh, I also met a Greek there with whom we started talking in English before realizing that we speak the same language :P
People from the guest house
One day before my leaving, I went to Geneva to meet my classmates: Ravi, Paul, Pavel, Alex were there and we all together enjoyed the Independence day of Switzerland! I drove Ravi’s car at CERN (hihihi) and they gave me a tour in Geneva. Amazing time!!!!
(From left) Asen, Ravi, me, Pavel and Paul at CERN
This was a very nice experience and I would recommend this to any student!
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