cerealjoe | CLICs and fill-in-the-blank-friday

As the questions in the fill-in-the-blank-friday are about school this week and as for me school pretty much equals with "mechanical engineering", here's some more mechanical engineering. Yes, when we go visit places, it's important to take photos of all the funky bolts and set-ups and discuss of the way they could have been done better. Actually just outside the office door there is an engine in the hallway and there is display case with ballbearings and other toys like that. But hey, if you ask me, it's much more interesting than just having potted plants.

And that marks the final photos from Geneva! It's a miniature model of a dome and by now I've completely forgotten what's inside there. And then on the right, it's part of (a model?) of the first CLIC set-up. CLIC is the straight collider they're building next to the existing circular one. And now for some fill in the blank Friday! 1. The best thing about being in school was/is learning new things in subjects which are not related to my "fields of study". That's why I really liked classes like history and geography and biology (to some extent), even though they only represented about 20% of what I studied in high school and 2% in uni-equivalent. 2. The worst thing about being in school was/is this obsessions teachers have with having students learn things by heart rather than understanding and applying. I'm really not good at memorising things and then just spewing them out again. 3. My favorite subject in school was/is ... Actually it really depended on the year and on the teacher. There are subjects which I really liked but the teacher/class made me hate them and vice versa. The latest one in date I really liked was probably German because trust me in uni-equivalent when you're specialising in mechanical engineering and system development, your third foreign language teacher knows you don't give a damn and ours was rather awesome. 4. One subject I wish I could have mastered/would like to master is the basics of mechanical engineering. Yes, I know I fail. But before specialising in mechanical engineering I was majoring in chemistry! I basically joined everyone after they'd been going over the basics for two years and I never really bothered with them. Heck, I still don't know just how much power is in "horse power". If I'm asked to calculate torque, I have to get out the "mechanical engineering for dummies" book... but I can do all the more advanced stuff because I spent three years on that. 5. I could never get tired of studying theology and history of religions. I'm rather open about the fact that I'm agnostic but I find the evolution of religions and humans' need for some kind of religion extremely fascinating. I loved history classes in my freshman year of high school because it was basically a year just learning about different religions. 6. The most memorable teacher I had was my maths teacher in senior year of high school. He was the teacher everyone feared and hated but I absolutely adored his classes! He really wasn't scary when you made an effort and he always called me "tristounette" because apparently I always look(ed) sad. I think he's really the first teacher who taught my sister before me and didn't make comparisons between us. 7. If I could choose between going to school for the rest of my life or working for the rest of my life, I'd choose academia and research, is that considered school? I suppose getting a PhD is kind of like going to school except that you don't have anyone breathing down your neck and sometimes you willingly spend week-ends working... sometimes it's not willingly, it's just that the work needs to be done. The more I think about it, the more I want to stay in research and maybe teaching. People keep on telling me I'd make a good uni teacher but I would only accept to teach post-grad students, but let's be honest, that's not quite possible.