A Day in the Life of a Summer Student from the Far East - Part 2 -

After getting fuelled up with coffee-power that would last for another few hours, people once again absorbed themselves in exploring physics, mostly by means of coding. In that sense, our lifestyle more or less resembled that of a tech start-up, rather than a layman's imagination of physicists spending their time in a lab full of mysterious devices, although it might have been different during the developmental stage of the detectors and the electronics. (Toby, a PhD student who is actually building something called Gabor Lens, might have been the closest to a layman's physicist while I was there.)

Toby's cool Gabor Lens!

My research project was almost 100% computer work, predominantly C/C++ and ROOT. I could see how complicated the experiments and analyses nowadays have become, and accordingly I could understand why we can't help relying on computers as we probe deeper into physics. After spending two months at a HEP research group, I've come to admire computers as super-smart masochists who would do any sort of complex numerical calculation for just a little charge on electricity bill, but at the same time I've come to despise those arseholes with zero flexibility for causing all the unwanted troubles, despite the upsetting fact that most of the times I'm the one who is solely responsible for those troubles.

Computer ridiculing human stupidity.

Probably at least twice in every week, we went outside to play Frisbee around 5-6 in the afternoon when people ran out of patience to sit still in the office. Clarence the coffee-loving Swede was usually the initiator in this case, and he had developed a sort of conditioned reflex inside me so that I just couldn't resist associating a joy of running all over the grass to catch a saucer with him holding a Frisbee and making a suggestive facial expression. We usually played Frisbee at Hyde Park or at Queen's Lawn, but my favourite place to play Frisbee was Prince's Gardens where there's a university-run pub nearby so that we could enjoy Frisbee with a cup of beer in one hand. My supervisor Morgan once dropped by the pub and bought a pint for all of us playing Frisbee. That was awesome, but the best part of playing outside was always watching physicists helplessly throwing things to take down a Frisbee stuck on a tree.

Summer students taking a video of physicists being desperate with a Frisbee.

We played Frisbee for hours and then went to a pub to quench our thirst and grab a bite. Anyone ordering food like nachos and chips to share with everyone was always welcomed, although one time during the final week of my stay, people got so generous that we ended up having three big plates of pure nachos (which could easily be shared by 3-4) for just three people, as well as other miscellaneous food which were not as intimidating as nachos. Besides that experience of nachophobia, my experience in English pubs had been always very delightful, and I was always looking forward to trying out all different sorts of draft beer whenever we went to a pub. Enjoying a pint of unacquainted beer sitting on a garden table outside the union pub while feeling the English evening breeze was always a great reward after a day's work. 

I usually headed straight to dorm after work, but sometimes I went out to explore the cultural side of London for which I got several recommendations. One of my favourites was the Proms, even though I had no prior knowledge or interest in classical music. At the Proms, I could experience 3 hours of complete eargasm for just £6, which is an unimaginable price in the Far East. What was even better was that I could go see it everyday by just crossing the road, during my whole stay in London! What a perfect location and timing.

Royal Albert Hall is just around the corner!

Another favourite cultural event that I enjoyed was Championship football, which was recommended by Yoshi, who is a passionate Palace supporter himself and also the one who encouraged me to write this post. On the way from Bermondsey station to the Den, the home of Millwall F.C., I could see a whole different side of London which was in stark contrast to the Exhibition Road in South Kensington, which I believed to be what London would be like throughout the entire city. Evidently I was wrong.

When I arrived at the Den, at first I was quite intimidated by the number of white, muscular, short-haired males with beards. At the moment, I could only hope they would be nice. Some stared at me while I was passing through, as if I was an unwanted corgi in a bulldog family. That’s why I had to buy a Millwall shirt, to camouflage myself as much as I could.

My first experience of Championship football.

I'm not sure if that really worked, but it definitely helped to practise some of their chants on YouTube beforehand, because I could feel like home as I sang along those derogatory chants together with all the supporters around me. Whenever the referee blew the whistle against our team, or whenever our player made a mistake, everyone stood up from their seats and just went MAD. I could hear all sorts of creative British cursing and I thought it was actually a good way of learning natural English. The language of Millwall supporters was far from my image of English gentlemen and they behaved so differently from many people I know at Imperial or people I met at the Proms, but they were good people. When we scored, we danced and hugged each other and jumped and shouted "bbooooohhh" together. I felt like I was in a huge loving family. It was also interesting to see a little Millwall fan, seemingly terrified by all the swearing and noises by the adults, bravely stand up to shout "Go Millwall!" when the team was in danger. Yoshi was right. I could feel the unique charm of English, working-class football that I couldn't experience at a fancy stadium like Wembley.

  

Weekly dose of salted caramel.

After all the work and excursions, my typical day as a summer student ended with having a scoop of Jude's salted caramel ice cream before going to bed. It was indeed great British ice cream as advertised, and I bought it at Sainsbury's every week on the way home.

I miss you, T2K office!

So this is the end of my day-in-the-life story! Now I bet all of you understand how awesome my days were. I've learned a lot of things during my stay there, but the greatest lesson I've learned from my daily life at Imperial T2K was that, enjoying is the priority! 

I'm enjoying a week's holiday back in the Far East now, and some weird-looking birds are chirping in the backyard as I'm writing this blog post. I feel like everything was just a part of a summer night's dream, but I'm very sure that these dream-like days I had with this amazing group will stay longer in my memory than any other dream that I've had in my life.