Some folks working at CERN—I’m not going to single anyone out, but American taxpayers may be assured that it’s not anyone whose salary you cover—like to vacation for the entire month of August. Personally I’d rather be here working at this very exciting time, but now and then I do like to get out of town and enjoy all the places that are (relatively) easy to get to while I’m living in Europe. So I take a day or two off for long weekend trips now and then.
For example, this past weekend I was in Copenhagen, enjoying the lovely weather. (If you click for the large version of the image, you can see the raindrops!) I had a good time, but in order to get a flight I could afford, I had to (a) fly out of Zurich, and (b) return on Monday morning rather than Sunday night. That meant my commute to work on Monday looked like this:
5:00 am – Wake up
5:45 am – Catch subway to airport
8:15 am – Take off from Copenhagen
9:55 am – Land in Zurich
10:13 am – Catch train to Geneva (I had to run, but still, try getting out of an American airport that fast!)
1:15 pm – Arrive in Geneva, buy lunch at a pizza stand, and take the usual tram and bus to work
2:00 pm – Sit down at my desk at CERN
I stayed at work until almost ten to put in as full a day’s work as I could. (One of the great things about being a physicist in general, and a physics student in particular, is that you can put in whatever hours you like as long as the work gets done.) Of course, I was pretty tired, but what can I say? I like to work hard and play hard.
Tags: personal, student life, travel
