Rolle, Diffraction Patterns, and the Montreux Jazz Festival
Exams were difficult, and in French. After the last one, on Tuesday, I was exhausted and so happy to be finished that I came back and went straight to sleep.
I woke up on a train to Rolle, which is another town on Lake Geneva.
Rolle is stunning -- dreamy, even. It's smaller and less developed than Geneva, and the water is getting warmer and more inviting every day.
When I got off the train, Marie and Marlon were there to meet me.
We went to a beautiful beach park and swam in the lake.
What a gorgeous day.
Marlon is a talented guy. He's a fluent in English and French, he runs like a gazelle, he's a surfer, he makes beautiful videos, and he's smart too.
We swam to an island that had a rope swing, and jumped into the water. Marlon made a video about it that you can see on his instagram below.
We also visited a beautiful architecture office downtown that had a cat and a dog.
It was great to see the two of them.
This week was the last week with the whole physics squad together. Five of us are continuing at CERN until school starts again, and the rest are leaving Geneva to do other cool stuff like work in an Italian hostel, study for the GRE, work at SLAC, etc.
I'm really going to miss these guys. We had a lot of fun together and are already planning on doing something back in the US.
There are so many Hobie Cats on this lake... I must be in heaven.
Miscellaneous News
A cat came to the Muzy courtyard to hang out for a couple hours. His name is Dude. We know this because that's what his collar said. He would pretend that he wanted to be pet, but then he would try to scratch the crap out of you. Sneaky.
Michael and I have been thinking about diffraction patterns and Fourier transforms a lot. If that sounds nerdy to you, it's because it is.
If you take the Fourier transform of a function that describes the intensity of light coming through a small hole, you get a function that describes the diffraction pattern you would see on a wall behind the hole.
Using this idea, and python, I made some cool images.
It also works with two holes.
Also, my avocado has finally sprouted.
And I moved from my room on the top floor to one on the 4th floor. It's at least twice as big and is usually a triple, so I have no idea what to do with all the space. I could switch beds every third night if I wanted to.
Montreux Jazz Festival
should be called the Montreux music festival. I didn't hear jazz a single time. On Saturday, Ben, Cadin, and I took the train from Geneva to Montreux.
We intended to leave at 8 am, but rolled out at around noon. It's about a 1 h 10 min train ride. We ate snacks and played 'never have I ever done ____ on a train.'
This festival is famous. If you look at the lineup (here), you will certainly see names you recognize.
Elton John played on Saturday while we were there.
It was an incredible atmosphere, and the crowd came from everywhere. We met a very talented musician named Ladji. He told us how the Blues in America came from Mali, which is where he is from. Ladji kept us company until we got on the train back to Geneva, and he facebook video chatted me on Sunday morning to say hello.
And of course we swam!
I don't know how I get so lucky.
We always see this steamboat in Geneva, and apparently is comes all the way to Montreux too.
You already know what it is.
I love boats.
Montreux is the most beautiful place I have been. Last time we were here it was hazy, but today it was so clear.
I'm happy that Cadin is staying for the summer.
As a reminder, I am still working on implementing a more efficient method of calculating scattering parameters for large radio frequency structures -- like the 200 MHz cavities -- which are the traveling wave accelerating cavities of the SPS. I have pretty much finished developing the algorithm, so now I'm making sure it's working correctly.
I'm testing it with computer simulations, using various combinations of lengths and shapes that are similar to the 200 MHz cavity, like the one below ⇩.
I'm having an issue right now that is too technical to describe here, but I'm making a page just about this project, so check that out when it's finished, if you want to learn more.
I swear I'm going into the tunnels this week, and I'm excited to fully dive into CERN
and the lake, every day.