Time-out

I didn’t mean to imply I’m not happy with my studies, I’m just being shocked by the dichotomy of the academic year and holiday for the second time.

Different environment, different lifestyle. The time indeed does flow differently during the semester – everything moves to the fast rhythm of deadlines and hand-ins. Social life occurs mainly at the lab bench, the omnipresent omen of exams haunts every moment of rest. Careful maintenance of the foundations of the Maslow pyramid and being on first-name basis with the school’s coffee machine renders the workload manageable, however, the accumulated fatigue comes back with vengeance immediately after the last exam ends. At least the beginning of the summer break is therefore spent in quite a relaxing manner.

As a consequence of the environment change after coming home and a sudden lack of duties, the nature of everyday life changes beyond recognition. Sunny weather, a stack of good books, seeing old friends and a four-figure setting on the alarm clock bring about a peaceful, leisurely atmosphere. After converting the Czech prices to pounds sterling, nothing else stands in the way to transforming oneself into a coffee-house layabout.

I am, of course, exaggerating a bit. Relaxation, however pleasant after a busy semester, does get boring after a while. I have therefore, after a couple weeks’ holiday, began to read the theory for my summer placement, which begins in July. It is an 8-week project in the chemical physics division of our School, concerned with the mechanism of nanoparticle desorption from metallic substrates using short laser pulses. It would probably be classified as fundamental research, however, in the case of promising results, the desorption technique could be used to perfect the analysis of the electron structure of molecules (especially fullerenes) which the research group is concerned with.

I also spend some of the free time by learning to program. I first tried some hands-on code writing in the physics curriculum in the last semester, and I’ve grown fond of it very quickly. The combination of strictly logical structure of the code and, to a certain extent, the creative nature of the work fascinates me, not to mention the numerous scientific applications.

The rest of my summer break will therefore be spent by work, but balanced by rest as well. I am looking forward to the International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary. Also, I will at last see the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, during which the city centre becomes a stage for hundreds of plays, stand-ups, concerts and various street art performances.

After that, the third year (the first of the so-called Honours years) awaits me and I expect every spare hour to be precious then. However, the most pressing trouble of every academic year – finding a flat – has already been solved (ironically with the same flat for the third time in a row, after months of negotiation) with the best outcome possible.

The last thing to say is a thank you to The Kellner Family Foundation for their support in the upcoming academic year and a wish of a great holiday to everyone.