by JosephOn our second day in Geneva, we started the day off by going to Lac Leman to do SUP (stand up paddle boarding) at a place called Tropical Geneva. SUP, for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, is a sport where a person stands on a board and then propels themselves with a long oar. At Tropical Paradise, our enthusiastic coach, whose name was Aurelio, showed us how to use the oar to gain momentum and to steer. He also demonstrated the correct stance when standing on the board. After his introduction, we started to row our paddle boards into the lake. It was quite challenging to maintain balance, and Tim fell off the SUP twice. Fortunately, my luck held and I managed to stay upright. The conditions were quite choppy and there was a slight wind which made it difficult for beginners. After an hour of hard paddling, we returned to home base. It was quite hot, so Andre and I decided to have a swim in the lake. Our SUP activity was followed by a meal in a pizza restaurant, after which we traveled to CERN by tram.At CERN, we joined a school group from England for our educational program. Our lecturer and guide, Dr. Flavio, an Italian physicist, started with a lesson about particle physics. He also explained what it is like to be a scientist at CERN. After the lesson, Dr. Flavio led us around the CERN facility. The first place he took us to was the Synchrocyclotron, a massive detector which was used in the 1950's to investigate the existence and properties of elementary particles. After explaining this massive machine to us with the help of a cool-looking light show, he took us to Atlas, the biggest and most famous detector at CERN. In the building directly above Atlas, which is buried 100 meters underground, we watched a 3D video about particle collisions. Then, we visited the control room where the scientists who work on the Atlas experiment monitor systems and make observations. The tour was very educational and I learned many new facts - that new particles can be created by colliding hadrons at near light speed, and that the entire universe before the big bang was concentrated in a space the size of a small dot.After our exhausting visit to CERN, we went to a Thai restaurant to have dinner. All of us had a very nice meal, but in the end we paid a total of 241 CHF (NT8600). It was a very expensive supper!
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