From atoms to blogs

I have tried my hand at almost every major under the sun. I've endured the biology and chemistry labs, sat through the mildly interesting lectures in psychology, learned a little more about nature while I was giving geology a shot, and marveled about infinity through my physics and astronomy classes. I finally seem to have settled with english, which works because I like books and obviously, I seem to enjoy writing. How did I make my way here, you ask? It started last summer, (when I was still a physics major), and one of my professors asked me (for some wild reason) to apply for an internship at one of our nation's famous physics research facilities, Jefferson Lab. I had nothing else to do that summer, so I thought, "Why not?" I applied, and before I knew it I was packing up the department's computers and some of my own daily necessities, and I was on my way.

The Jefferson Lab is located in Newport News, Virginia, a city very similar to Wilmington but larger, which basically just means more Wal-Marts and McDonalds. The ocean was also close by, and only a few minutes from my place was the James River, where some of the first colonies were settled. My place, a sweet apartment complex right across the street from the lab, was not too shabby since it had a swimming pool and a huge shopping center nearby. And before we began work, we had a few days to settle in, so we drank beer in the sun, sang songs and played guitar on the patio, and got to know each other a bit by discussing theoretical physics and how we each thought the universe works. All in all, things got off to a good start.

Before we could start working we had to take safety classes for the highly radioactive areas of the site, which of course we would never actually be in, but protocol was protocol. A nice little Frenchman took us through the huge chambers where the actual experiments were conducted, showing us where all the gas masks and emergency exits were, just in case the accelerator decided to explode and leak fatal amounts of radiation all over us. It was fun and scary at the same time, seeing all of the ugly wires and huge metal devices that were used to figure out how the smallest particles that make up our world work.

After we completed the safety classes and received our badges, my roommate and I were shown to the small cubicle where we would be working everyday. We were also each assigned to an advisor who was part of the research team; my roommate got the shy and nerdy Russian guy who always wore white socks with sandals and had the thickest glasses I've ever seen, while I got the crazy Polish guy who liked to talk back to the group leader and always came in late. This was a stroke of luck for me, since I'm Polish as well, and he and I seemed to share some of the same characteristics. Unfortunately, I soon learned from him that my job would require major computer skills...I have never once in my life thought about being a computer science major, if that tells you anything. Consequently, I quickly lost interest in my actual job, and decided to focus on other things instead, like the Jefferson Lab employees themselves.

Sometimes researchers and students would gather together to drink beer and wine, eat good food, and argue about silly things like the World Cup and the spins of quarks. These parties were rather like anthropology classes for me. I met Russians and Armenians, and was surprised to find out that they both spoke the same language. One of my favorite guys from these parties was Mahbub from Bangladesh, from whom I learned a little Bengali and some other very valuable things; he often went on tangents, such as these: "Who cares about physics? If you walk up to anyone on the street and ask them about pions, they will smack you! We should not be wasting our precious time in stupid meetings." (He, of course, was always caught nodding off in those stupid meetings.) I also got to meet his saree-wearing wife and their two little daughters, who were also wearing traditional Bengali threads. As I played with their non-English speaking children, she and I traded stories about living between two cultures.

And of course, my favorite international man was Andziej, my advisor, who often brought me traditional Polish treats that his mother-in-law sent him from Poland, like krowki and paczki. (Krowki are soft-caramel candies, and paczki are like donuts, but without the hole and ten times better.) Through him, I got a chance to step back into my own culture for a little while.

As I grew progressively more bored with my actual duties regarding the experiment, I began to delve into my creative energies. I would go around the town and take pictures of the river, of my neighborhood, and anything else I deemed slightly interesting. I would go to Barnes and Noble and read non-science related books and magazines. I began to write about my experience at the lab and what I had learned from all the wacky scientists I got to know. By the end of my internship as a physics researcher, I had learned that I actually wanted to be an english major. I was thankful to leave the lab and go back home, where I immediately made "major" changes to my school schedule.

Although I may have taken the wayward road to get to the point where I am now, I don't regret my time at the Jefferson Lab at all. While I was supposed to be learning about quantum mechanics and how they work, I took Mahbub's advice instead, and I learned a little bit more about how I work.