Livin' and Learnin'

Dearest readers, My sincerest apologies on taking a while to tell you just how awesome my trip to Geneva was. I know you have been losing sleep over this so here I am to tell you all about how it went! 


My whirlwind weekend in Geneva was fantastic. The first thing I noticed was the warm weather! I walked around with only a t-shirt on. I couldn't believe it! It was so much warmer than Stockholm! I was excited to say the least. Our first adventure after finding our hostel was to see the United Nations building! They let us in to go on a guided tour. The interesting thing was that they let in two people per one passport. It was so strange, but Kelsey and I were just happy to get in! 


The tour was so cool. We learned so much about the UN and got to see most of the rooms where they have big conference meetings. I even got to learn some Swedish history. One of the first conflicts ever successfully resolved by the League of Nations was a dispute between Sweden and Finland over the Aland Islands. The islands now belong to Finland and a war was avoided between two neighboring states. There was a picture of this hanging in the UN which is what we got to see. My favorite thing about the UN was that I felt like I could solve all of the world's problems by cooperation. It was a cool feeling! 

The next day was the day we had both been waiting for: CERN TOUR!! We woke up early and got some delicious breakfast at the cafe near by. I had a nutella crepe, a delicious croissant, and fresh squeezed OJ! YUM! Then we got on the tram and then the bus to take us to CERN. We couldn't believe we were actually there! Our tour started at 10:30 and we watched a video about 50 years at CERN. CERN was built in 1954 as a big particle physics lab and has been making big discoveries in particle physics ever since. The W and Z particles were discovered there. If you want more info on those you could either go to CERN's website or google it! :) Of course, the biggest thing to come to CERN since then has been the LHC, the large hadron collider. This was started in 2008 after some difficulties with the magnets and today they are looking to make some big discoveries. The guy who gave our tour, Bill Murray, is one of the leaders on the ATLAS project which is looking for the Higgs Boson particle. If found, this particle will confirm the presence of the Higgs field and will tell particle physicists why some subatomic particles have mass. It would be a big find. That is why they are running a lot of experiments now. They were running experiments when we were there so we didn't get to see the LHC up close and personal but we learned a whole lot about the ATLAS project! I bought a book about the LHC to bring home with me so I could learn all about the projects. It should be some pretty nice leisure reading. :) After spending all day at CERN and learning lots about particle physics, we were pooped so we bough some groceries and made dinner in our hostel and ended the night with a game of yahtzee! I love that groceries stores are so close so we can easily buy groceries and have a delicious dinner in our hostel kitchen! I will miss that a lot when I go home. 

The ATlAS project building. This was a painting of their detector. Way complicated!

Bill Murray, our tour guide, showing off the particle detector he spent 6 months developing!

LHC woo woo! 

A model of the LHC

Dinner! :) Yum!

Our last day in Geneva was full of more sightseeing. We saw the St. Pierre Cathedral which is in the heart of the old town. It was beautiful. There was an archeological site below the church where we learned a lot about  how the church used to look. Kelsey and I were just surprised at how archeologists knew what they were looking at...it all looked like rock to me! We saw other big Geneva sights like the Reformation Wall and the world's longest bench! We ended our day by going up to the top of the tower and had a great view of the town! 

the world's largest bench. it just keeps going...

The view from the top! 

It was a fantastic trip. I got to enjoy nice weather, see the coolest and biggest particle physics lab in the world, hang out with a great friend, and eat some yummy food. Successful? I think so! :) If you want to see more pictures go here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=275858&id=575993715&l=d1acf72a07. 


Since getting back to Stockholm, I have been busy planning some other trips and hanging out with friends and my host family. I had some reading to do (of course) but I also had time to bake the most delicious rhubarb recipes with a friend from church and go shopping at the mall with my host siblings! It has been fun just chillin in Stockholm! I'm excited that the weather is getting warmer and I can not wear my big poofy coat anymore! :) hooray! 


I'm really excited because this weekend I am going to London! I am going to see Sherlock Holmes' home and Stonehenge! it is gonna be awesome! I've also been planning the trip that mom and I are going to take. She gets here in 3 weeks! woo! 


The last thing I should mention is that on Friday I get to go on a tour of the biochemistry labs here. I have a full day there and I have no idea what to expect but I imagine I get to see the labs and find out what they are doing. It should be awesome! :) 


That's all for now. I'm gonna do some homework before class today!