The Mojave Desert

Most of our group spent the weekend saying goodbye to Los Angeles. Six of us (Bram, Ester, Ludo, Oliver, William and Jeremy) however had to say goodbye on friday, since we had plans to go to the Joshua Tree National Park. 

Joshua Tree National Park is located directly east of Los Angeles and it takes about 3 hours to drive there. It is located on the border between the Mojave and Colorado deserts and we decided to go to the Mojave desert part.

We arrived around 16:30 and parked at the P on the map to the right and started distributing everything we had to carry with us to be able to camp in the wild in the park. We were armed with two tents (a 3-person tent and a 1,5-person tent), 24 liters of water, 48 power bars, bread with peanut butter and jam, some rope, three sleeping mats, two sleeping bags and one small pocket knife. 

We headed south towards the abandoned Lost Horse Mine which turned out to be quite a hike already. On the way we encountered lots of Joshua Trees after which the park was named, and a lot of small bushes and cacti. We also spotted a couple of lizards, quite a big hare and two other people (of the 3 we would see in total during our visit) on the way to the mine.

The mine itself was fenced off, because the ground underneath was unstable and could sink or slide at any time. Fortunately there was a hole in the fence and we could check it out up close. The wood felt quite old and cracked a lot when walking over it. Most of it was loose and we decided it was best not to climb on it too far. The actual mine shaft was blocked off with rocks and filled up so there was no chance to get in. 

As the sun was starting to set we quickly realized we had to stray off the trail for at least a mile before we were allowed to set up camp. We decided to go down the mountain (about 300 meters high) on the other side of the mine and find a spot in the valley beneath. The mountain was a bit steeper than we had anticipated and it started to get dark. Bram navigated us down the mountain and it became completely dark right before we were all the way at the bottom. We noticed the temperature dropping rapidly as well and a very harsh wind started to act up in the valley. We used a gps to determine if we were far enough away from the trail but at some point we just gave up. It was getting too dark and too windy for us to keep walking towards a safe spot. We decided to find a relatively safe spot between some rocks (at the S on the map above) to set up camp. The harsh wind made it very hard to build up our tents, but eventually we got all our stuff inside the two tents and they seemed to hold. We ate some dinner at 22:00 with all 6 of us inside the 3-person tent (the left picture underneath) after which we immediately tried to fall asleep (4 in the big tent, 2 in the small). 

Because of the extreme cold and winds no one really got any good sleep and some of us decided to go out at around 3:30 to look at the stars instead. Sharing body heat gave us a little bit of warmth and in turn helped us get at least an hour of sleep before the morning sun woke us again.

We got up around 7:30 (the right picture above is our small encampment) and ate some breakfast. At 8:30 we had everything packed up and were on our way again. We decided to hike up to the Malapai Hills through the desert shrub land and debated whether we should climb it. We noticed it was steeper than the mountain we climbed the day before, but it was also a bit less high. We climbed it, enjoyed the views on top and went down very carefully, all within an hour. 

We then had to hike back to the car which was at least 6 miles through sandy trails. At the last resting spot we took before reaching the parking lot, we found a small cave which was blocked off with another fence. Again we could creep through to check inside, but it was just a dark corridor leading to a dead end after a couple of meters. Everyone was quite relieved when we reached the car at 13:30 and we quickly made our way back to L.A. because we were going to eat with the whole group at 17:30.

This weekend has probably been the toughest hike I've ever done but also the most beautiful. I'm glad we got to camp in the wild and am glad there were 5 other people crazy enough to do this with me.

Jeremy

Surfing and day off

In my opinion and estimation, today is the day we had the most fun as we don’t have any more institutions to visit. However, a few people (10 people) had prearranged to take a few surfing lessons at the famous Venice beach. As usual, we all woke up early to get ourselves ready for the beach. A midst a few delays we finally left the house at 10:30 AM and got to the beach a few minutes to 12 noon. To our disappointment, the sea tides were very low; a situation that does not allow for surfing.

Looking at the prevailing situation at the time, people like myself were quite sure the surfing wasn’t going to take place. Like an answer to our secret prayers, the high tides began to form. After a few minutes of instruction from the surfing instructor, the fun began for the surfers. Like a child learning to walk for the first time, they make loads of mistakes; fell off the surfing boards lots of time. But I must admit, they are quick learners and so they improved greatly after a short while. I think Ester was the surfing hero. I know people like Sten will disagree with me but I still maintain my position.(Hahaahahaha, that’s just a joke)

The other group of people who were not surfing were either sitting around and watching the surfers surf ( I was part of this group for a while) or taking a stroll on the beach. Lest I forget, today coincides with the Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican festival and so there was quite a crowd at the beach. On the far sides of the Venice beach are the Santa Monica beach to one side and the Muscle beach on the other side. Eventually, every other person apart from surfers made a sojourn at the Muscle beach. As you can expect, the Muscle beach has a gym where very muscular men like no other I have ever seen in my life(hahahhahaha) go to gym. If you are reading this now and you haven’t been in any of these beaches, I definitely recommend you visiting them.

After three hours of being on the beach, we decided to take the fun elsewhere. So we divided ourselves into three groups and these groups went their separate ways. My group, which was just 7 of us, went to Downtown Los Angeles to take part in the Cinco de Mayo festival. Just to give a brief account of the festival, there were lots of cultural events with different groups of young performers dancing to some local Spanish music. This was a sight to behold. Also there lots of commercial activities as lots of Mexican shops displayed their wares to the public. On our way back we went grocery shopping. After that we made a quick detour to the liquor shop to get some beers for the evening.

The other two groups went driving round the city of LA visiting iconic places like the Hollywood sign and Griffiths Observatory just to mention but a few before heading back home.

After our dinner, we had ‘some’ beer and the rest is history. Thanks for reading this blog and we will keep you posted on further developments

Godwin K. Krampah

(international student)

Quantum Computing and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Morning

Today we slept in! At the very generous time of 07:45 the alarms went off. At 08:45 we gathered at the cars to head for ISI, the Information Sciences Institute. This is the computer science department of the University of Southern California. In particular, we went to a location that looked like an abandoned shop in the neighborhood Marine del Rey. Inside this glorified garage, a balding electrical engineer awaited us. This rambling tour guide was going to show us around the D-Wave.

The D-Wave is a mythical machine that is supposed to be a precursor of what some day will be a so called quantum computer. Imagine a computer that, instead of having to do every computation one after another, can handle multiple computations as a single one. It is clear that such a computer would be way more powerful and quicker than a 'classical' computer. This is something that a quantum computer can do.

Teun and me, casually leaning against a quantum computer.

Now, this machine, the D-Wave, is truly mythical. In the sense that its existence has not yet been proven to us. For one, it was enclosed in a large black box, of which the door could not be opened because 'someone tripped over the doorstep' the last time it was. Also, when we started asking critical questions about its workings, it soon became clear that no-one really seemed to understand any of its workings. Basically, the engineers built something of which they:

1. did not understand how it works;
2. were not sure if it even works at all.

This is quite amazing since a machine like this is a huge investment, and this particular one is even payed for by Lockheed Martin. Needless to say we left a bit disappointed; non of our questions had been answered to our satisfaction.


Afternoon

After this unclarifying morning, we went for lunch. For Jeremy, Danielle, Roeland, Daan, some people I am forgetting and myself it was Chipotle this time. It turns out that Chipotle gives you huge burritos, which - if you leave out sauce and meat - do not even feel like they are bad for you. In an unexpected twist of events, Jeremy got his meal for free, and a bit extra too!

Manu again found the traditional motorized shopping cart on the parking lot, as you can see in this image.

Manu in his cart.

After lunch we gathered at the cars again and started our journey to Pasadena. Here, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL, is located. Behind this awesome sounding name, an even more awesome company resides. JPL started out in the 30's with a professor and a few students, 'the Suicide Squad', blowing up rockets in the backyard of CalTech. It soon was decided that such practices are better done at a more remote area, and they moved to the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, the same location where we stumbled upon them.

Nowadays, JPL mostly works for NASA. They are specialized in building unmanned spacecraft. In practice this means that they build every cool mission that NASA does which does not need astronauts. Prime examples are the Mars rovers Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity, and the bizarrely successful exoplanet space telescope Kepler.

We were shown around the JPL campus a bit, starting with a general talk about JPL. After this, we were shown the little JPL museum where they had models of the craft they built, and the classic over-the-top-so-American videos about Curiosity and a satellite called Cassini. The latter of which they are going to crash into Saturn for some reason. Next, we went to the Center of the Universe. This is really just the command center of JPL. Which is still quite cool actually. From there they monitor every operational satellite and rover they have ever launched into space. For dessert we were shown the place where they are building parts for the next planned Mars rover mission, temporarily called Mars 2020.

The Center of the Universe.

Evening

After all those marvels of space engineering, it was decided by a group of people that is only known by the name of  'The Drivers' that we should go to Santa Monica Pier. It was about 50 degrees C in the shadow when we left, and the sun was crisping up our skin, so we were hoping on swimming a bit and looking at topless dudes at Muscle Beach. Super anticlimactically, when we stepped out of the car in Santa Monica, clouds had appeared out of nothing, and the temperature had dropped by at least 30 degrees. This meant no swimming, no topless dudes and a really boring pier. However, I did not mind. I bought a Hot Dog on a Stick. It was amazing.

Then, more food happened! With a small group of six people, Ester, Marijn, Jeremy, Daan and Daniëlle, I went to Hollywood. Because Jeremy couldn't shut up about Johnny Rockets, we went to Johnny Rockets. Pricey but very nicey! We looked around at Hollywood Boulevard for a bit more, looking at the stars of all the famous people, looking for restrooms, and I may or may not have bought a gift for my little sister. (You will have to find out next time you're in the Netherlands..)

All in all, it was a nice, disappointing, nice again, fun, great, disappointing again, greater and greatest day, in that order.

Bram

Irvine

An early LA morning at 07:30, we took off for a one hour drive to Irvine. We were heading for the University of California that is located there (UCI). Arriving around 08:30, we were early. I don’t know what most of our group did, but I for sure took this time to get me some well-deserved coffee at the local Starbucks. This morning started off well. We had some talks about their solid state physics department, specifically their scanning tunneling microscope (STM). A Dutch man (een Groninger) that worked there told us they attached a carbon-mono-oxide to their STM, using it’s spin interactions to get a great 2D view of the bonds of a molecule. It seemed to work quite well, which was really cool! He also talked about their Ig. Nobel price; deboiling an egg (yes really, look it up!). It apparently works for many kinds of proteins, so it’s a truly useful technique. After the talks, we got split in two groups and got to see some of their equipment.

After we were done, it was time for lunch at the campus.

The groups split up in the afternoon. Most went straight to the beach, but not my group. We went back home for a nice siesta. It wasn’t until 17:00 that we headed to the Santa Monica beach. Have you ever played GTA 5? If you know the beach with the pier that has as huge Ferris wheel, this was that beach. It was warm, not crowded, and huge waves. It was amazing. Once too many people had enough of the beach we left again and headed home. On the way we stopped and grabbed a burger at Johnny Rockets. It’s better than McDonalds, but it’s still fast-food. Finally, the night came to an end playing poker. That Olivér Boersma is one lucky guy… I lost many pennies that night.

Marlon van Berkum

Our first day in LA

Today was our first day in LA. We first went to visit Caltech. Afterward we split in two groups: one went shopping and the other visited the mount Wilson and Hollywood.
During the whole day the sun was very bright and it was very hot. We also had to travel by car because LA is very big.
The most notable property of Caltech is that it is a fancy private university. The university is mainly sponsored by donations from rich ex students, many of which are or become very rich. It is also very selective in its application process, only 8% of the students applying for an undergraduate position got one. This large budged mainly results in small classes and large research budgets.
We visited two astronomical groups. First we visited a group that creates astronomical instruments. We saw some detectors used to search for changes in the sky. Here we learned more about the practical aspects of astronomical research. Afterward we went over to the second group, where we visited a (working) scale model of LIGO (the gravitational wave detector). This scale model was used to test potential changes to LIGO. This is done because the costs when accidentally damaging LIGO is very high.
At the mount Wilson the view was very nice, because the mountain was so high it looked like we viewed the city from an airplane. When we were at the top we met an old man who had walked there. Because he couldn't get an Uber back (there was no cell reception) he drove with us. There he told us the reason there are so meany homeless people in San Francisco: many homeless people from all over the US come to San Francisco. This is both because it doesn't freeze in the winter and because the city has good programs to support homeless people.

Marijn Man

The last hurdle

After eleven engrossing days, our studytrip has come to its final chapter: Los Angeles. We have exchanged the touristic, sunny and especially relaxing Monterey for the City of Angels.
The morning started off with finally the first free (Dutch roots) breakfast of our studytrip, including the well-known fat American version of the crepe. Some of us, the early birds, took their chance to run in the Californian paradise in the morning, whereas others choose to relax and enjoy Sjors' piano skills as well as the Tom and Jerry cartoon. At 10:30 everyone gathered in the lounge to commence our trip to LA 30 minutes later.

The appointments were made and the trip was on. This time we choose to drive along the ocean instead of taking the faster way land inwards, on to the next meeting point. Because of the little amount of restaurants, the Cie decided to go to a different location a few miles further. The new location, 'the holiday park-ish' area offered some great moments for us physics students. Roeland tried to defy gravity as he was climbing on top of the climbing frame whereas Mees and Marlon experienced some heavy torques in their wrestling match. The others were enjoying themselves by enjoying the nice weathers and some tasty sandwiches.

By the time we left this meeting point, some of us still hadn't have lunch yet, so another stop was inevitable. At this stop choices had to be made: do we choose for the American 'Buffalo Wings', or do we choose for the healthy life alternative: 'Panera Breads'. Two of us decided to go for the first option which included a 50 minute waiting time and by the time we arrived at our next meeting point, the others were already gone. I blame Mees and Marlon.

Eventually we made it to the City of Angels. With the sun going down and the skyscrapers emerging from the horizon, we felt the last minutes of today's trip were coming to an end and after 20 more minutes this became a reality. We have three houses in the area of 'Inglewood'. When we arrived, the area felt a bit like the hood for us, but when we came into the houses, it felt like a fortress. The host gave us a tour through all houses and the rooms were divided. Some of us went out to get some groceries whereas others went to the traditional American 'In and Out Burger'. I am waiting at this very moment for Godwin to finish his mothers speciality: pasta. After that, I make sure to go to bed soon and have enough energy for our trip to Caltech and JPL.
Thank you for reading, and enjoy your day folks!
Sten Hermanussen

Traveling to Monterey

Today it's the day of the Lord, 30th of April. Our stay in San Francisco has officially come to an end. We have to say goodbye to the dirty carpet and the unfortunate (homeless) souls that appeared to stay indefinitely in the "European Hostel". Roeland, Teun, Sjors and me also have to say goodbye to the two random French dudes in our room that have been sleeping and watching French television shows almost the entire time. I am not going to miss the shower that was robbed of its head, or the people stealing my food. However, we could definitely say we have seen a glimpse of the real SF. The atmosphere was true to the neighborhood, instead of being a touristic safe haven protected from the homeless people. The craziness of the city was definitely encapsulated by the hostel and its guests, and in a way I'm content with that. 

Although we had to gather around at 9:00, we left only at 9:45. But that was OK, today was going to be a slow day. There was a two hour drive on the schedule to Monterey, a touristic beach town on about 1/4th of the way to LA. 

After leaving the skyscrapers of SF behind us, the sea appeared rapidly through the car windows. The combination of the sea at our right and a green, hilly landscape at our left created quite a view. At a viewpoint by the roadside we stopped for a second to enjoy the view a bit more thoroughly. And if all that wasn't nice and dandy enough already, a pod of whales greeted us from a distance. This moment ties in terms of coolness with the bear we spotted in Yosemite. 

Some stomachs began to rumble, and Jeremy, our driver, decided to make a stop in Santa Cruz, most famous for the iconic boardwalk amusement park. We got a pizza and enjoyed the view (beach volleyball makes women beautiful and vice versa). We were not in a hurry, but decided to get in the car anyways in order to arrive at Monterey somewhat on time. 

At about three o' clock we arrived at our hostel. It became immediately clear that this was quite the upgrade from our previous stay. The rooms looked neat and there was also a big common room. The interior was decorated very homely. Because there was a marathon in the neighborhood, a lot of food was prepared. To our surprise we were free to get any food we liked: pasta salad, sausages, green salad and home-made brownies to top it off. We couldn't have asked for a better welcome. Sjors played on the piano in the common room, receiving great applause from us and some other guests.

There was time for a bit of studying (this is a STUDY trip after all..!), other chose to read a book or listen to some music. Around dinner time I gathered with a small group to find a place to eat. We really tried not to, but it was inevitable: we ended up at a touristic place. The live music made it quite nice however. While they played Otis Redding, we finished our burgers and beer. Although some senior women tried to make Godwin stay on the dance floor, we decided to head home to play some poker and eventually go to bed. The seagulls would lullaby me to sleep.

Manu

Saturday, free time

We had the whole day off! I got up at 10, which felt really great after all those days getting up between 6 and 7. Roeland, Manu, Sten, Danielle and I went to grab some breakfast at the All Star Café, just around the corner of our hostel. I ordered ‘the stack house’ which consisted of scrambled eggs with bacon and pancakes. Talking of pancakes: apparently, the things we call pannenkoeken in Dutch are called crepes in English; and the things we call American pancakes are called pancakes in English.

The next thing we had planned was to go to Twin Peaks. These are two neighboring hills in the geographic center of San Francisco where one would have an amazing view over the city, we had heard. But on the way we came by Amoeba Music, a well known record store, and we had a look inside. First I had a look at the classical music, but all the while nice songs were played in the store and I had already Shazam-ed like 3 songs in a row (but with no internet connection, so I got no results yet) till I decided that I really needed to know what artists and what album this was. So I went to the guy at the desk and he showed me the CD. It was Thievery Corporation – The Temple of I and I. Then I reckoned, why not buy it? So I did.

After the record store the group split up. Danielle, Sten and Manu did not feel like traveling all the way to Twin Peaks and so they went to Golden Gate Park. Roeland and I did go to Twin Peaks. After the beautiful view from up there we decided to walk back to Golden Gate Park and meet up with the other guys. At some point though, we were walking through Ashbury street, and found out that this neighborhood was actually the place where the Hippie culture has had its origin and where famous artists like Jimmy Hendrix, Janet Jackson and the Grateful Dead had lived. We went in some guitar shop and fiddled around for a bit with some guitars. Then it was time to have dinner.

We had diner with the whole group at Pork Store Cafe. I ordered a salad, which was a welcome variation on all the fast food here in America. After diner, Manu, Roeland and I grabbed some beers in the neighborhood, where some skater guy asked us if we wanted to buy his weed. We said no, of course, as it is still illegal in California to buy weed for recreational (non-medical) purposes, but he looked like a nice guy and we started a fun conversation. He told us the legal status of Marihuana. Apparently one cannot buy or sell weed, but one is allowed to give it as a gift. And it is also allowed to smoke it. So the situation is almost as weird as in the Netherlands. As of 2018 the use and trade of Marihuana will be totally legal in California.

At last, as a dedication to all the homeless people in San Francisco (and there are a lot of those), we bought some beer of the brand `Hobo Beer’ and we went back to the Hostel.

Sjors

NIF & Yosemite

On Thursday we had to gather at 7:00 before the hostel because we were heading to the National Ignition Facility (NIF) located 50 miles to the east of San Francisco.

We arrived at a gate where we encountered armed guards for the first time on our trip. This is due to the fact that the NIF is part of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory which is a federal funded research and development center. The NIF is a nuclear fusion facility that tries to achieve deuterium-tritium fusion by means of a high energy laser. It should be noted that solving the energy problem is not the only purpose of this facility. NIF is also part of the U. S stockpile stewardship program that does reliability testing and maintenance of nuclear weapons.

Fortunately the guards did not open fire but instead gave us some friendly directions to the check in point, where we would obtain our visitor passes. We arrived a bit too early so we were told to wait in the lobby, where we were shown a video that gave a short introduction about the world’s largest and highest-energy laser (it’s really great). Our tour guides were a financial manager and an electrical engineer, who both retired from the NIF. A small but noticeable shock emerged in one of the tour guides’ faces when we mentioned that we were physicists. We were split in two groups and the tour was on its way.

I cannot speak for the other group but let’s just say that the retired financial manager was not completely up to speed with (laser-) physics. It became obvious fairly early in the tour that he had rehearsed a story about all the stuff we were going to see, along with some statistics about the laser. About halfway through the tour he started apologizing for not being able to answer all the questions. This was a bit disappointing but the we were shown pretty much all of the different parts of the laser system, which was pretty neat. Unfortunatey we were not allowed to take pictures, so here is a shot of the Star Trek: Into Darkness movies, which was shot at the NIF.

Now we had the afternoon off which we took as an opportunity to visit one of America’s most treasured national parks: Yosemite Park. Since the park is massive we only drove through Yosemite Valley and got out a few times to go for small walks. The weather was beautiful and the panorama of the valley with El Capitan from the Tunnel View point was astounding.

Again we split up in two groups: one group was going to attempt to find a camping spot in the park, while the others would head back to the hostel after sunset. I was not prepared for a camping trip so decided to go home. I was not really prepared to go camping so decided to go with the group that would explore the valley. We got out after a 10 minute drive from the entrance, enjoying some refreshing mountain air on the green meadows near a tiny lake.

Our next stop was near the bottom of one of the massive cascades in the park. Since this entire area was in the shade of the mountain, we noticed a quick temperature drop as the sun was setting. It got even cooler when we got to the bottom of the cascade poured into the remnants of an ancient glacier. The water vapor arising from the water crashing on the rocks was freezing cold and meant taking photos and selfies was out of the question. This made the entire trip there useless because now it did not happen and we could not get internet points for being there.

But then to our avail we met this fellow:

An American black bear, chilling just 50 meters from the road. A nice ending to a beautiful trip through Yosemite National Park.
Roeland

NASA Ames and USGS

On Thursday we had again a long day of visits. We started off at NASA Ames with a somewhat disappointing talk about radioactivity in space and afterwards a lab tour in a refurbished McDonald's with a "lunatic", because he is a big fan of the moon. This man looked a bit like the homeless people near our hostel, but looked a lot more sober and was really enthousiastic about documenting and archiving all of his artifacts. They picked an old McDonald's building as lab, because it was just standing there empty, which was kind of fun (their 'lab' was also appropiatly nicknamed McMoon).

Afterwards we finally had a long lunch break for the first time in days at the Google campus and afterwards we went to another part of Silicon Valley to learn more about earthquakes at the US Geological Survey. Everybody enjoyed this visit very much, although one of our questions still isn't completely answered: why are there so many sensitive and expansive machines in such a dangerous area as California? I'm afraid this is something we will never really understand.

In the evening, Jeremy, Danielle, Daan, Oli, Bram, Teun and I went driving through the city and tried to follow the sightseeing route, unfortunately, we did it the wrong way around (which is a bit of a heckle with all the one-way traffic in San Francisco), but still had some nice views.

As you probably noticed, we are a bit delayed with updating the blog. This is due to the long past few days. Most people came home after 12 and went straight to bed, but from now on we will be posting the blog again on almost every day!

Ester

Verily and free time

Wednesday started with a trip to Verily, the former google health company. Now operating mostly on its own it researches a variety of ways to tackle multiple health problems.
We were welcomed into the building by Emily who was very helpful but also very American. I've never heard the word cool used so many times before in my life. Everything was awesome as well, oh well.
After some presentations about the company and what they were doing we got a tour of their lab. The lesson we learned is that nothing is off limits if you have enough money. They had all the expensive machines and more were being bought daily.
That google-money was still shining through. Although the employees all told us how great a company it really was, we all left a bit sceptical (but of course in a totally awesome state as Emily would put it).
Having the afternoon off gave us the opportunity to explore the city a bit! I personally first slept for an hour. After that well deserved mid-day siesta we continued on to the local Chinese. Apparently the Asian cuisine is the only nice and affordable one in San Fransisco.
We left with our wallets just a bit lighter and our stomachs a lot fuller. The fun wasn't over yet for the day. A couple of us young lads decided it would be the perfect time to do some laundry. Where do you do laundry in SF you may (or probably not) think; at the chinese lady of course!
She even had a dryer. Overall another great experience. Next up, the baseball game! We did not have any tickets but were confident we could by some at the stadium. It turned out that they were almost sold out and really expensive through the official channels. Our shining knight in armor was some random bloke on the street who sold second-hand tickets for a very cheap price. After some good ol' haggling we managed to get the price down to 10 bucks a pop, not bad eh? Even the view surpassed our expectations. After an hour of some very boring baseball (good atmosphere however), some of us decided they needed cheap beer and live music. So we went on our merry way again to the saloon bar. The bar was filled with normal Americans, crazy Americans and a band: a perfect combination. They also had cheap beer which was the cherry on top. A few beers and an hour of some questionable live folk music later we went back to the hostel and finally made our way onto our beds, what a day!
Oliver

Stanford and SLAC

Tuesday morning, at the brink of daylight (OK, maybe not that early) we left San Francisco for Stanford. After a short drive filled with some good music (in our car, at least) we arrived at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Centre, SLAC. Here we were greeted by an American physicist who was surprisingly capable in pronouncing ``Nijmegen". It all made sense when we found out that he had worked in the group of Theo Rasing at the Radboud University before he came to SLAC. He took us to a conference room, which unfortunately lacked the necessary amount of coffee, and gave us a short intro on the facility. About halfway through his introduction a German physicist entered, his head was sweaty, he must have been in a hurry, or not well adapted to the California weather. At any rate, he was introduced as the guy knowing much more about the accelerator and the history of SLAC than our American friend. Besides his extensive knowledge on the lab, we also took notice of his dry sense of humour. The way he smiled after making a joke vaguely reminded me of one of our lecturers back in Nijmegen, but maybe that was just me. After our intro, our guides took us to the accelerator beam (it was switched off, for maintenance). A few kilometres of beam, chopped up in various sections for various experiments. Our German guide expressed his boredom with the beam, as it was the same for hundreds of meters, so we swiftly moved on. We were brought to one of the experimental halls. Our American guide said some words about the experiments done on that location, Giel (our scientific guide) recognized a lot of it. We are also getting quite familiar with pump probe experiments by now, it seems a recurring theme of our trip.

At about 11 o'clock we left the facility and went on our way to Stanford University. We had lunch at a mall with free parking and went on by foot. After about half an hour we reached a conference room at Stanford, where we met our next host. Daniel Palankers group worked on technologies for vision restoration. He gave us a presentation on eye implants to replace damaged rod cells in the retina, after that he showed us movies about cataract operations. I must admit that I was not entirely prepared for the sudden sight of a scalpel in an eye, luckily, we were able to cope.

Our next appointment was at the Stanford Nano Fabrication lab. We were given a tour around the clean rooms and some of us were given a chance to put on a body suit (lovely pictures were made). Next we were taken to another nano facility, the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities. After these nano tours we went for a bite (and some great ice cream) at Tresidder student union, a conglomeration of various restaurants and coffee bars at the Stanford campus. We ended up sitting in the Californian sun, while students behind us were preparing for a manifestation against sexual violence. All in all, Stanford was a pretty fancy place. The campus was very spacious and green. It would be great if Nijmegen could achieve some of that atmosphere.

The last stop on our day was the Wall Mart near Stanford. For many of us, it was the first time in a large American store. It was quite a sight to behold, some members of our group got to enjoy the ride in motorized shopping carts (which are actually meant for disabled people). After this slight culture shock, we returned back to the hostel, our minds filled with new experiences, and our bags filled with (relatively) cheap beer.

Daan

Berkeley University and ALS

Laying on my warm bed, nice and cosy, I am wondering what we did yesterday. After everyone was done showering, eating breakfast and preparing for the trip, Esther kicked everyone out because we needed to be on time. Just outside the hostel, Ludo, Jeremy and I gave a small talk about the institutes we were about to visit. I don't remember much of the car ride from our hostel to Berkeley because I was asleep, but once there we walked over the campus towards the Fleming and Leone group. While walking to there, we noticed how green the campus of the University was. It could have been right out of a Bob Ross episode, and we even noticed a happy little squirrel. Once we arrived we met prof. Fleming himself and some of his graduates. They gave a short presentation about what they do over there, looking at photosynthesis and using a technique called "quantum quenching". An important application of their study is to improve the biomass of plants.

After that we met some of the graduates and they showed us what they did and we could ask questions. Once we were done we were going to visit the SETI department. We arrived a bit late, but our supervisor didn't mind. He showed us how and at what frequencies they were measuring extraterrestrial radiation.
All the talks went on a bit too long, so by the time we were done we only had 10 minutes to get ourselves lunch before the bus drove away. So hurrying to the nearest lunch shop I got the tastiest grilled cheese/bacon burger I have ever known. To get to the ALS we had to get a bit away from the Berkeley campus, since it is in the hills. A special bus drove us to the institute, where we were guided through the synchrotron. The storage ring was absolutely massive, with a diameter of 200 m. Today was a maintenance day, so the synchrotron was turned off, but this gave us the opportunity to look up close. Normally the radiation emitted would kill you, so it was quite special to look so close.

By the time we were done, we were all completely exhausted. We saw so much that day, that everyone was happy to be at the hostel, especially since we have to be ready at 7.15 the next day. I'm not really known as being a morning person, so I am happy to get some sleep. We still had to get some food though, so we went out to find an affordable restaurant. Turns out most of the restaurants around here minus fastfood is super expensive if you don't know where to look, so we were smart enough to ask were to eat to the hostel manager. We eventually ended up at a Mexican restaurant were we ate till our heart's content. To show our gratitude, we gave the waitress a tip of 17 pennies (keep in mind that we already had to pay taxes and mandatory tips). After that we went to the hostel and went to sleep.

Yesterday, all my sleep seemed so far away, but now it's looking like its here to stay.

Tom

Update on cycling

Yesterday, when other people were exploring the city by foot, I went cycling with a small group of people. It sounded like a great idea to explore the city in a fast and easy way by bike and at the start, this also turned out to be true.

We had some great views of the waterfall in Golden Gate Park and also walked a bit on the ocean shore. From there we tried to get to the Golden Gate Bridge and bike to Muir Woods and we could choose between a longer road that was advised by the rental shop, or we could bike close to the coast, which was the shorter way (on the map at least) but also only for advanced bikers. Luckily we are Dutch and we know how to ride a bike, so of course we chose the advanced road.
Soon this turned out to be a real struggle due to the steep hills, but the views we got at the end were definitely worth it.

From there on we 'only' had to cross the Golden Gate Bridge and get to Muir Woods, but this was still a ride of 2 hours. We drove through a beautiful coast city and from there on we went uphill again. "Luckily" the sun was shining, which made the views more beautiful, but as we didn't expect it, most of us are burned really badly.
On the way back we got a ferry to the city center, as most of us were to tired to get over the hills again and it was a good choice. We came close to Alcatraz and had a nice view on the sunset.

Afterwards we were all so tired that we got a burger at Carl's Jr and went straight to bed. This morning, the red faces of those who were tough enough to conquer the mountains of San Francisco showed.

Finally, a plot of the profile we biked from the Golden Gate Bridge.

Ester

Exploring San Francisco and the Majestic Redwood Giants

Today we had a free morning in San Francisco. In the afternoon we would go to Muir Woods, a redwood forest near the city.

Of course, every morning should start with a nice breakfast. So the first thing Bram, Ludo, Tom, Sten, William, Ester and me did after leaving the hostel was looking for something to eat that wasn't too expensive. Unfortunately, this turned out to be quite the struggle. All the healthy food in the supermarkets is rather expensive here and there isn't nice bread everywhere like we're used to at home. Eventually I had to survive the day on three huge croissants and a bottle of water.

After finding our food we went for a walk around the city center, where we passed through China Town. We also went to take a look inside the Apple Store. You may know the electricity sockets in the Huygens building that you can pull out of the table. Well, they had them too in the Apple Store, but you had to stroke the table and the sockets would emerge automatically. How useful!

As I already mentioned, in the afternoon we drove to Muir Woods National Monument to admire the extremely large redwood trees. We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and took a quick stop to take some nice photos.

When we finally got to the forest, we weren't disappointed. The giant redwood trees were very impressive and there were lots of nice walking/hiking trails. So we walked around for a bit and again took some nice photos. It was busy in the forest, but there was a path that was a little steep so there weren't that many people walking there. At some point I really had to take a break because I'm not that athletic when it comes to walking steep slopes, but the rest kept going. That was actually a really nice moment, because despite of the many  people visiting the park it felt like I was completely alone there. I couldn't hear or see anyone for a while and it was a big and nice contrast to the busy life in the city.

After that we gathered to drive to San Fransisco again. On the way back we stopped again to take some nice photos, this time on a hill where we had a tremendous view on the Golden Gate Bridge and the city.

In the evening, we started our next quest for food. Again this wasn't easy and we ended up in Carl's Jr., a fast food restaurant. They served a "breakfast burger" there which contained a hamburger, egg, bacon and another mysterious ingredient which I think were chicken nuggets. I wonder how many people would actually eat that for breakfast..

The part of the day that I haven't yet mentioned is that there was a group of diehards who didn't drive to Muir Woods but got there by bike. I am really glad I didn't join them because it was a long ride with a lot of hills. Mad respect for you guys! We will tell you more about the biking trip later.

Janet

Freewayin' to SF

Today the road trip towards SF was the subject of the day; a good eight hour drive lay ahead of us, with two short breaks scheduled. Afterwards we would have (Chinese) dinner together in San Francisco.

Replenishment Morning
Me and my roommates woke up 'instantly' at around 7:00 a.m. After a normal day I generally have little less motivation to get out of bed, my roommates thought the same. Probably the Jetlag told us it was 4 p.m. back home, so we were not allowed to sleep anymore.

At least it made us show up early at the first American breakfast: scrambled egg with bacon, artificial juices, DIY waffles, and american local news shouting over the breakfast hall. A warm welcome to the continent, and very helpful in the replenishment process.

Yesterday we had troubles with fitting in all suitcases in the cars, such that there was enough comfortable space to travel around. Luckily our fresh minds that morning quickly discovered an extra hidden space in the boot. Enough space for everyone was the result.

Leaving LA
LA is surrounded by hills. In my opinion very rough terrain that resembles the dry and rocky hills in Greece. The view was, at first, dominated by these hills. Soon we entered a huge valley. A sudden change in landscape, and the curly roads of the hills were replaced by a simple linear free way.

A quick stop at one of the mid-deserts compounds left us with more gasoline, water and food.

Pushing on
The journey on the linear way was quickly continued. Cruising over the freeway is convenient. Most people stay in their own lane with a constant cruising speed. Also, big cars make the road trip more comfortable, because there is more space for your legs.

Entering SF
The freeway continued seamlessly into San Francisco. We passed Silicon Valley and entered our cute hostel dowtown. The hostel is called European Hostel. Why? I don't know, but the hallways are small as well as the rooms and facilities.

The day ended with an all-member dinner. Where a Chinese pancake house declined our reservation, we were nicely redirected towards a neighborly enterprise. By coincidence this place offered Chinese food. This was a pure asian experience, not only because of the real chinese food. The menu was presented in Chine characters and we were the only non-asian customers. A nice welcome in the second higher population density of the US.

As an update, the lost suitcase found his way to San Francisco. Hopefully we can retrieve it soon at the airport. In every case, the 100 dollars are collected.

Mees

The Outward Journey

Friday 01:30 Huygens Building (Nijmegen)

The last moment at our base, the Huygens Building. We should meet at 01:45 in front of our faculty and fortunately, everyone was there. Even the president of the U.S.A. traveled over the Atlantic ocean to tell us about the great country we are going to visit (I actually think it wasn't Donald, but the president of Marie Curie, Jeffrey van der Gucht, but I am not entirely sure..). The also were a few people to wave us goodbye. At 02:10 we could finally get into the warm bus to drive to Schiphol Airport.

Friday 03:30 Schiphol Airport (Amsterdam)

At Schiphol we meet the last three participants for the trip (Sten, Mees and Olivier). As seen in the picture above, William went from very excited to very tired in just 2 hours. Actually, he wasn't just tired, he was a little ill. At 05:50 we could finally make our way through the customs. The extensive search was a little intimate for some people, but also this could be overseen. Just 40 more minutes until leaving to Zurich!

Friday 08:40 Zürich Airport (Zurich)

Almost 5 hours of free time, we agreed to meet at 12:30 to board on the plane to America. So everyone split up to go and walk through the airport. Many expensive shops like Gucci and Burberry, but also expensive whiskeys are fun to search. One of the most expensive ones was 4500 Swiss francs (which is about 4500 euros)! Now follows a very short interview with Bram Bekker:

Have you been able to sleep a little?

Before we met at the Huygens Building I slept for 30 minutes. In the bus I didn't anymore. The hour we just flew from Amsterdam to Zurich I fully spent sleaping.

Aren't you very tired now?

I am, actually, I am kneiter tired (kneiter tired is a synonym for: "please just leave me alone tired"). I think I will start hallucinating really soon.

Janet also wants me to mention that she spot Marcel Kittel, a German cyclist she had a crush on in secondary school. I got to admit, if I didn't have a girlfriend, I knew what to do.

Friday 13:30 Plane from Zurich - Los Angeles

Many of us haven't eaten anything this morning, so we were very hungry when going on the plane. After about 15 minutes a little cart with drinks already came by to satisfy our thirst. We also got a little bag of salty crisps, but we were still pretty hungry. Not long after we got lunch, we would pick chicken or vegan Thai curry. Everyone around seemed to like it very much! I picked the Thai curry, there was a little pepper on top, so I decided to cut it in smaller pieces and put it in the curry. It tasted great but the pepper was really really spicy. After cutting it up and eating my meal I thought it was a good idea to rub in my eyes for a while.... Now.... I regret this decision very much.

Everyone is enjoying him or herself with the touchscreens attached to the seat in front of you. The most recent movies were on there and you could also play Battleships with someone else in the plane!

Saturday 01:50 L.A. Airport (Los Angeles), 16:50 local time
We finally arrived at our destination L.A. after travelling for 12 hours. Here the first setback occurred. The suitcase of Giel Berden (our scientific supervisor) went on holiday to Mauritius, a small island near Madagascar. He got $100 for this mistake, but we are still waiting for the return of the suitcase, to be continued...

Saturday 09:30 Best Western Markland Hotel (Los Angeles), 00:30 local time

From the airport we took a shuttle to the car rental station. Here there was a lot of trouble at renting the cars, but in he end we got the 3 beasts. While the drivers and committee members were arranging this, the others went to Denny's to eat the first burger of the trip. At this point everyone was already collapsing and everyone wanted to go to the hotel. We arrived here at about 09:00 dutch time, 00:00 local time. As seen in the picture above, Tom collapsed literally while I was typing this blog.

by: Ludo van Alst

Welcome to the Blog of the California Study Trip of 2017.

Like every year, the SMCR organizes a study trip. This time its destination is the ever-sunny California, where we will spend two and a half weeks cruising the coast.

The first half of our journey will be centered around “The Golden City”, San Francisco and the next half will take place in “The City of Angels”, Los Angeles after a short stop in Monterey which is in between the two. We will visit the state’s most prestigious universities and institutes. We will get to see the labs and workplaces of the physicists there, while learning about their research.

Even though we have managed to fit 13 of these visits in our schedule, they are definitely NOT the only thing that are going to keep us busy. If our brave students still have energy after visiting the gigantic Redwood trees, the unparalleled beauty of Yosemite and celebrating the Mexican-American culture during Cinco de Mayo, they will have plenty of free time to roam around and get to know these great cities on their own.

We will depart from the Huygens building this friday at 2 AM (yes, that early) and it would delight us to see you send us off, even though it is kind of understandable if you are too busy sleeping around that time.

We will try to keep you up to date with some new experiences and photos every day.

Wish us good luck,

Teun Maas, secretary of the Californicacie