Heading home

Where did the summer go? I remember thinking I couldn't believe that it was time to pack for Switzerland, and now it's hard to believe it's time to board a flight home.

My first glimpse of Geneva in June

I am more sad to leave than I thought I would be, but I feel like I have really lived the past two summers to the fullest with all of my traveling. Plus, I have a lot to look forward to. When I get home I will immediately start a new semester: the first semester of my senior year, my last semester with Fariss as my last name.

Since I started this blog to cover my summer adventures in Europe, this will be my last post. It has, however, rekindled my love of blogging, and I am going to return to my other blog that I regrettably haven't used since 2012. I might have to do a few "Throw Back Thursday" posts to catch up over the last few years! ;)

Thank you for reading along and following my adventures for these two summers!

Working at CERN

I've been so busy writing about my adventures traveling, that I haven't said much about working at CERN. Last year, before the summer really started, I wrote a post about CERN and details about my experiment. I am working again this summer with the experiment group NA62. During my time at CERN, the experiment has been revamping for its run in October.

My project goal for the past two summers is to update NA62's electronic logbook, called ELOG. ELOG is a weblog that allows information to be cataloged in chronological order, with entries that can be accessed through a Web interface. The purpose of my project was to extend the NA62 ELOG in two ways: first, to implement an electronic checklist that experimenters can complete during their shift, and second, to create a way for people who are offsite to view screenshots of important information regarding NA62. This allows NA62 to monitor information from the Control Room remotely. I have done this using a software called PVSS, which allows users to view create programs that can visually represent the state of the experiment.

You might be wondering what NA62 looks like. I have spent a few days in "the pit" (where the experiment is being built) working on odd jobs updating hardware parts. I took a few pictures so you can see the work in progress.

A little background info (more in my post from last year): NA62 is a fixed target accelerator, that is, it accelerates particles in a straight line towards a target instead of around a ring. You can clearly see where the particle beam is that the particles would travel down. There are also various detectors along the line that, you guessed it, detect particles.

The origin of the beam

I feel like I've been pretty successful in my project, although there is always more that can be added to the remote monitoring program. This summer has been especially frustrating because I have run into a lot of problems with using the program on my own laptop. As a result, I wish I could have had more time to finish everything I wanted to. Oh well, isn't the process the most important part of learning? I am still happy that I was able to have the experience of learning a new software and using it to create a project. 

I am also happy for the opportunity to be somewhere as amazing as CERN. It has been eye opening to be with so many physicists and engineers working on experiments from all over the world, and I am grateful that I have been able to spend two summers here! 

Napoli: full of sunshine, history, and good food

My last full weekend in Europe was full of family and fun. On Friday I traveled to Naples, where my sister Rebekah lives, for a getaway. Rebekah and Grace picked me up from the airport and we headed straight for the Amalfi coast! This was my second time visiting the Amalfi coast, but this time was a little different than last year. Rebekah, Grace and I spent two nights at hotel resort outside of Salerno. As soon as we got there, we went straight out to the pool to relax and bask in the Italian sunshine. After we had our fill of Vitamin D, we took a bus into Salerno and walked around a little to sightsee. Then we headed back to have pizza (so good!) for dinner at the hotel.

Walking around Salerno

About this church: we were wandering and saw a church door that looked like a hole in the wall...it was marvelous!

Grace and I being silly before dinner

"Now let's do a mad face"

"Now let's do a sad face"

The next morning, we had breakfast (crepes, anyone?) and took the bus back to Salerno. Our destination for the day was Positano, another beautiful city on the Amalfi coast. We took a ferry from Salerno and spend a few hours wandering around Positano, including hiking up to see the amazing view of the city built into the hills. We had lunch (a ham, mozzarella, and tomato panini for me) before heading back to the pool at the hotel for the rest of the day.

Grace LOVED the ferry ride

Positano

We don't look like we're dying of sweat, but we are.

Probably my favorite picture of the weekend!

On Sunday, we had another yummy breakfast before checking out of the hotel and heading to the famous ruins of Pompeii. It was surreal walking around the narrow streets of the city that housed 11,000 people, which was much bigger than I expected! I saw the ruins of the temple, the forum, bathhouses, the gymnasium, theatre, and the amphitheater, along with houses lining all of the streets.The ruins allowed me to easily imagine life as it would have been in 79 AD, before Vesuvius erupted and buried the city for 1,500 years. From Rebekah's recommendation, I recently watched the movie Pompeii (which was depressing, but I enjoyed it, especially because it helped me imagine the city as a real, bustling center). The movie correctly portrayed Pompeii as a large port city passionate about gladiators, which I understood from seeing the huge amphitheater where the gladiators fought. It was even bigger than the Olympic stadium I visited in Germany, which gave me a good idea of the size of the city. Walking through the city, I couldn't help but think about the people who lived there and the tragedy that destroyed them.

The gymnasium

The gymnasium. I really love this picture.

Jupiter's temple. If you look closely, right in the middle on the floor of the temple is Jupiter's head

Vesuvius in the background

Where houses used to stamd

The theater for performing arts

Perfectly preserved tile counter tops

Inside the amphitheater 

The outside of the amphitheater

Our next stop was the Cantina del Vesuvio, a winery on top of Vesuvius. They served us lunch and paired wine with each course. It was my first time at a winery and it was a lot of fun and very beautiful.

After lunch, we stopped at Villa Poppaea, another ruins site that was the home of Emperor Nero's wife, Poppaea Sabina. This villa was also destroyed at the same time as Pompeii, but is preserved in much better condition and was only discovered in the 1800s. However, only part of the villa is excavated, and the other half is still buried under the modern city. The half of the villa that we saw were the sitting rooms, kitchen, a few guest bedrooms, gardens, mosaic floors, doors, and a huge pool. I'm guessing the other half includes where Poppaea Sabina stayed, because we didn't see any large bedrooms. The walls were covered in huge frescoes. The villa would have originally been right on the water, but Vesuvius has added land and pushed the coastline outward. Again, I marveled at the history preserved under our footsteps.

Looking out where the water used to be

Look at that ancient tree stump!

Beautiful ancient mosaic floors

On the way to Rebekah's house, we stopped at Capodimonte, an art museum that used to be a palace. I think I liked the architecture and decorations more than the art!

View from the bathroom. I am not kidding.

This palace had pink walls.

After relaxing for a while at the Cole's house, we went out again for a final trip to an overlook at Lago di Averno. We even drove to Julius Caesar's holday villa in Baia.

Lago di Averno, and in the distance is Julius Caesar's holiday home

Another look at Caesar's vacation spot

The view from Caesar's villa. If I were Caesar, I'd vacation here too.

Finally, we ended the night with a beautiful sunset and moonrise from Rebekah's roof.

It was sad to say goodbye, but not too sad, because I will get to see Rebekah and Grace in December for my wedding! Thank goodness, or else I would have been bawling! ;)  And now, I only have one week of work left before leaving CERN for the summer. Where has the time gone?