At The Foot of Olympus

Veteran readers of my blog will know that many years ago, as but a wee freshman chemistry minor, I had a dream . This dream was to go to CERN, to intern there, and to somehow be involved in the great going's on at this mecca of particle physics and modern science. I was soon crushed, of course, to learn that CERN would only accept Engineering, Physics, and Computer Science majors in their summer programs; and it seemed that that was the end of it.

Or so I thought. As a sophomore-gone-Chemistry double major, I started looking into Junior Year Abroad programs, and found myself, of all places, in Geneva, Switzerland. By chance, I even managed be in the right place at the right time to get a tour of CERN, and go see Stephen Hawking. A mere public transportation ride to the realm of the Gods, I had to give this a second chance. So I applied for both an administrative and technical internship, and explained in my letter how I felt that a physical chemist might also be a useful addition to the CERN staff, even if they traditionally don't take people from the field at all.

I got a call back for the administrative interview, and so of course the night before I found myself stalking the website. And what was this? Low and behold, the summer program I originally wanted was now advertising availability to physical chemists. When I mentioned it in the interview just out of curiosity, the woman responded "Oh yes, we just threw that on there last week because we didn't want to dissuade physical chemists from applying." You have got to be shitting me.

Long story short, I did not get the administrative internship, nor did I really want it once I heard about the details. I probabaly won't get into the summer program either, seeing as I'm turning in my application late (well, on time according to one website, late according to another two. They really should work on that), but oh well. At least I'll always be able know that I can TOTALLY take credit for this: