Life as a Physicist

My sister is here visiting me in Marseille for 18 hours. We went to a couscous restaurant. My sister sat down first and I pulled out my chair, which was next to hers. It was unusually heavy — because there was a very large cat sleeping on it (a cat of unusual size — as opposed to a rodent of unusual size). The cat, a bit annoyed that I’d disturbed him, got up and walked onto Viv’s lap - and there he stayed for the whole dinner.

He did get a bit of couscous in his fur, but didn’t seem to mind too much.

I’ve always liked trains. Perhaps it was caused by the train wall paper that my parents put in my room. I used to own O-gauge and HO-gauge train sets. My favorite magazine as a kid for a while was Model Railroad (can’t find a link to it now). One of my favorite trips was several day Amtrak trip from Chicago to Nevada with my Dad.

At any rate, there is something about the train stations in Europe. Perhaps it is the chance to go somewhere “far” away - I’ve been in train stations with signs for Russia, for example. As opposed to New York (while in a station in New Jersey). Perhaps it is the design of the places.

But the one that strikes me the most is the open area around master train departure board - the one in the Charles de Gaulle airport is shown here. I’ve been at similar places in America - like the one in Penn station in New York. But it isn’t the same. The people waiting around aren’t waiting for 30 minute rides to central Jersey. They are waiting to go somewhere. Suit cases, not brief cases.

And there is just no comparison with airports - especially now with all the security.

A recent IM conversation with a 20-month-old:

(9:31:51 AM) Paula: ,hhyy
(9:31:58 AM) Gordon: Hi Julia!!
(9:32:02 AM) Paula: cccxrres

I’m at Fermilab staying at a hotel out here in the suburbs. As usual, I eat a lot of Subway sandwiches, Panera sandwiches, and chain food/dinners. Not good, and probably not all that healthy. Paula is back in France, along her mother and with Julia. What are they eating really good cheese (like the Epoisses shown at left). I’m looking forward to my flight back on Saturday!

In 2007 there were several tragic incidents on college campuses around the USA. Sadly, University of Washington was one of them. As a result of this many campuses have instituted early warning systems of one kind or another. At UW one of the forms this takes is the campus police now send Warning Notifications of anything involving a dangerous situation around campus.

So, if someone is mugged late at night, or held up at gun point, or a person is attacked — anything that put a person in danger — these warnings are sent out. They contain a fairly complete description of the incident along with its status (caught the perpetrator or not), and then a helpful list of things to do to avoid getting yourself into a similar situation.

I appreciate these emails, and I don’t want them to stop. But I find them a bit spooky. I’ve been at the UW for over 7 years now. I’ve never thought of it as having crime. It must have, obviously - 35,000 students, and a large campus in an urban area. And these emails are thankfully rare. But it does make me realize my idilyic representation of the campus isn’t quite right.

that there is no spoon…

Niiice.

After spending a month in the States visiting family, working at Fermilab, attending conferences (well, my wife, at least), we will arrive back in France on the 24th.

What better way to re-integrate ourselves into France than to be at the wrong end of a strike! Yes, our timing is impeccable. The SNCF is on strike again in the continuing battle between Sarkosy, the French president, and workers over benefits, working hours, etc.

The last time I was returning from the Unexpected conference I also got caught. That wasn’t too bad — I did make it back in the end, just late. But I was on my own. This time it will be the two of us, a boat load of luggage and Julia. Wish us luck!

Dealing with Julia full time takes a lot of time! I’m one of the reviewers for an ATLAS CSC note (along with most of the collaboration). The paper I’m reading is 50 pages long. Normally, that is a solid afternoon’s work for me. Not this time — took me more than 2 days to get it done. During the day I have a few hours during her nap and the evenings I was often too worn out for the careful work that a review requires. And when she is awake she would drop by to play with me every 15 minutes even when she was playing on her own.

I love the girl, but I’m looking forward to getting back together with my wife and arriving in France where we have a nou-nou that will take care of Julia during the day!

Sometimes it seems like our (USA, suburban) shopping life is spent in big-box shopping stores like Walgreens, etc. While I don’t mind them, I don’t like what they have done to the smaller stores that used to exist. Living in Marseille really drives the point home: to collect ingredients for a home cooked meal we will often visit a butcher, a vegetable market, a bakery, and perhaps, also, a pastry shop - though that last one is often the same as the bakery. In the US we might just go to someplace like Whole Foods or other big-box retailer.

As a result, when here in the US, I usually try to go to the local place first, and only after that doesn’t work to the big-box chain store. Just outside of Fermilab, for example, is a grocery store called Family Foods. It has been there as long as I can remember. A Walgreen’s has just opened up across the street from it. It is a sad fact that 2 of the three times I walked into Family Foods I had to then walk across the street to Walgreens.

Today, here in New Jersey, Paula and I had to get a document notarized so that I could travel out of the country alone with Julia. We started with the local Metuchen Savings bank - which looks like it is doing great business, but ended up walking over to the Chase bank to get it done. The Metuchen Savings bank had us waiting for about 15 minutes before we walked over to Chase. Chase, actually, had less business going on inside it so was able to serve us right away - so perhaps that is a counter argument.

And you can see this starting to happen in France as well. There are big-box super markets all around Marseille — just none that are in the downtown area. I’ve been to them once or twice - they are cheaper and always filled with people. I hope there is always space for the small local shops in this day and age of globalization (which, btw, I am very much in favor of).

For the last two weeks Paula has been back at her mother’s taking care of Julia while I have been off having fun working at Fermilab. This weekend we exchanged places. For the next 1.5 weeks I’ll be taking care of Julia at my parent’s in New Jersey while she is off being a physicist.

It shouldn’t be all that hard, right?