I'm Betsy.
And this is my story.
I arrived here Sunday evening.
They misspelled my name-badge.
When I arrived at my dorm room, I discovered Evann 
was already there.
She had taken the bottom bunk.
Our phone jack didn't work.
My sheets didn't fit the bed.
I was annoyed.
Then we met Jonee 
and Brezina 
.
They explained I had put my phone in the wrong jack.
So we went downtown.
All the shops were closed.
So we found some icecream.
8:00 It
was time to go to our first meeting.
Too bad we hit construction.
8:30 Stupid
construction.
We made it back only to do icebreakers
with the rest of our crew.
We stood on a tarp, kept standing
on it, and turned it over.
Oh yeah. 
Check out that team spirit.
As a reward for submitting, we ordered pizza.
Evann and I crawled into bed around 1 am.
DAY 1
I woke up at 6:30.
Still tired, it took me several minutes to discover
how to get warm water for my shower.
Then we departed for breakfast at McNutt.
"Hi, we're from QuarkNet"
"Huh?"
"QuarkNet. We were told to eat here. Look, we have cards"
"Umm... okay... I think you guys are on the other side"
.
.
.
"Hi, we're from QuarkNet"
"Huh?"
"QuarkNet. Meal cards. Give us food."
The food was questionable.
Evann and I decided we'd stick to cereal.
And then, it was time to return to the dorm, pile
into a couple classy university-owned minivans, and go to Swain.
Could we stay awake? It was a challenge.
We introduced ourselves.
We were introduced to the standard model.
We were given large binders.
And then we toured Swain. 
Yup, here's me, enjoying the early morning.
With a new and improved name-badge.
It was time for lunch at Wright food court.
It was quite decent. I met friends of mine here
for music camp.
They don't know what they're missing.
Back in the minivan, back to Swain.
It was time to divide into groups and get to work.
After a brief squabble over the overpopulation of
theorists,
(none of whom wanted to to glue scintillator material
or work with high-voltage circuitry)
work was underway.
Here in the theory group, it was math time.
But no-one took pictures of math-time because no-one
really likes math time.
We spent monday afternoon calculating a solid angle
for our telescope.
With a lot of math, we discovered the window of the
sky the telescope covers, with error bounds of course.
If you want to see all that, be my guest:
Hey, here's my journal.
Anyways, after all this, research at the library suddenly
sounded like fun.
And after finding the right book, it was even awesome.
Cosmic Rays, by Millikan. Read it.
At 4:30 we wrapped it up and headed to Blair's for
a BBQ. There, we ate good food and played an amusing little game identified
only as "crocket"
Bedtime? No way.
Off to the Union to play pool and bowl.
Wearing my usual sandals, I was forced to purchase
a pair of pom-pom socks in order to put my feet inside those bowling shoes.
Then back to the dorm.
Bedtime? Not even.
A couple quick games of cards in the basement lounge.
Then bed.
(ONLY) DAY 2
I woke up at 6:15.
I then went through the inevitable hit the snooze
button repeatedly/take a shower/ walk to McNutt routine.
Back to the check-in line.
"You a swimmer?"
"QuarkNet."
-silence-
"Oh."
Breakfast seemed slightly more appetizing. I opted
for toast with my cereal.
Too bad no-one told us to be at the vans @ 8 rather
than 8:15.
Too bad no-one told Jonee and Brezina to wake up.
We were all a little late to Swain.
Halfway awake, I was further introduced to the standard
model.
Followed by the 5-minute webpage course.
[I'm not good at that stuff. Confused the heck out
of me]
Lunchtime.
We had tried earlier to submit orders for pickup so
we could eat at Swain.
They couldn't make head or tails of them, so it was
back in the vans and back to Wright.
After lunch, it was time to get back into our
favorite groups and work, work, work.
Unfortunately, I made a fatal area and volunteered
to help plateau a photo-multiplier-tube.
Instead of calculating the number of electrons that
might be released by the PMT as a result of a shower, I was standing in
a very busy room full of electronics trying to shove my way through other
people's work to do a menial task.
It was cool to watch the electronics people work.
It sucked to stand there and push buttons to time
PMT counts.
Suddenly, it was 4:30 and time once again to depart
to the dorm.
And then to dinner- at McNutt. Food wasn't so grand,
but certainly edible.
Tonight's activity: Wall climbing. For $13.
Jonee, Evann and I decided that with our limited funds,
Chicago spending money was more to our liking.
So we wandred Kirkwood that night.
Evann and I were kidnapped by several acquaintances
and taken (much against our will) to the Encore Cafe for dessert.
Then back to the dorms we went.
Bed time?
Heck yes.
I decided that sleep before midnight meant more to
me than more card games.
DAY 3
I woke up at 6:45. (yes, that's right. Evann and I
had become increasingly smarter and now knew just how late we could wake
up)
Breakfast. More toast.
Then Swain.
Where I once again encountered my old nemisis... The
Standard Model.
It would have been time for the one presentation I'd
been looking forward to all week... except the astrophysics presenter was
stuck on a late plane flight and couldn't make it.
So, on with electronics.
I really did try not to fall asleep.
And once again, Lunchtime it was.
The Wok was open!!!!!! Quality food!!!! Oh yeah!!!
After lunch, it was time to get down to some serious
business.
Here in the theory group, it was time to formulate
some experiments for our telescopes.
We had some good ideas.
We just needed some more math.
Here I am, hard at work. Excel is tough stuff. 
What was I doing?
Well, take
a look.
I was calculating the math necessary to interpret
the minimum energy of a cosmic ray shower, using two telescopes with a
variable R, the radius between them.
Besides some more webpage and journal work, that about
sums it up for Wednesday at Swain.
It was now time for a little horror devised for us
called "Ladies' Night"
This consisted of the females in the group (whose number
was 4, as Jonee had to leave for home, and Elizabeth 
was at a job interview) leaving before 5 to grab dinner at Wright.
Then, we were off to Wonderlab.
They had graciously offered to speak to the females
about being a female in science, in return for dinner and the price of
admission to the museum of course.
Beleive me, there is is nothing worse that the "females
in science" talk.
"You will not have the same experience as men.
You will be outnumbered, excluded, and glared at."
Basically, we were told all of the horrors and none
of the rewards.
And as if that wasn't enough, they managed to make
it demeaning as well:
"Isn't it AMAZING you've already taken physics in
highschool and now you're part of this project that can show you that physics
is ACTUALLY FUN!!!"
The museum part, of course, was wacky fun.
Finally, it was back to the dorm, to recover our spirits
in time to go play LASER TAG!!!
It was fun.
I was confused.
I was repeatedly shot/repeatedly shot my teammates.
But it was fun.
And in case I feel like further embarassing myself
in public, I now have a membership there.
Yet again, we got back in those vans and went back
to that dorm.
Where yet again I attempted to call my boyfriend who
was not home.
And yet again, I went to bed.
DAY 4
Woke up at 6:45, as tired as ever.
Too bad nobody woke Isaac 
up....
We were destined again to be late to Swain.
But before that, back to McNutt for a charming breakfast.
"One swimmer.. two swimmers... three swimmers?"
"Quarknet"
"...Okay..."
-pause-
"So youre from Quark....net....quarnet... whatever..."
"Yup."
Pancake day again. Toast for me day again.
When we (finally) arrived at Swain, I recalled that
it was presentation day for the theory group. Yay!
Before that, we got to see the astrophysics demonstration,
courtesy of Rick who used the powerpoint file of the original presenter.
Strangely enough, there was no mention of the standard
model.
Then, hey, presentation time!
Strangely enough, none of our experiments particularly
infuriated the electronic or mechanical groups.
Maybe it's just that afterTuesday when we told them
we needed an extra scintillator plate for each telescope, they aren't speaking
to us.
Lunch, lunch, lunch.
After lunch, work, work, work.
After working, a dinner that destroyed appetites.
Turkey... mushy vegetables... some sort of meat with
gravy and mushrooms... gristly chicken sandwiches... partially frozen cookies
After that, some people went swimming.
Other people went to go see two and a half hours worth
of Heath Ledger.
Really, the movie wasn't that impressive, but it was
nevertheless (barely) redeemed by the... umm... charm of Heath Ledger.
Then came pizza, and an opportunity to talk with my
boyfriend who was strangely enough home when I called.
DAY 5
6:45 and I did not want to get up.
But I somehow managed, and struggled to shower and
walk to McNutt.
There, I was harassed by several cafeteria workers
who didn't understand why I only wanted one piece of toast.
"Come on, toast isn't that fattening"
"Do you think if I told her I'd pay her two dollars, she'd take the toast?"
It was a bizarre morning.
Then we stuffed ourselves and luggage into our faithful
minivans, and went to Swain.
No lecture this morning.
Much frenzied work.
And an awesome tour of the Cyclotron.
The best part being coming out of a door with a sign
saying:
Danger: Radiation Hazard
Do not enter without detector badge
Lunchtime again.
Finally, back for the last time to Swain to prepare
ourselves and present to everyone all that we've accomplished this week.
And what a week it was.
Around 5, we'll all leave for a final dinner at Wright,
and then head up to Fermilab.
What a wonderful weekend it will be.
Hey, howz about some links?
One of the few quality sites about my favorite show, Invader Zim!!!!
