La Grève!

My Friday at work went pretty well.  I looked at the spectral line width dependence on the position of the pump laser on the cavity (i.e. in the middle, at the top, etc) and concluded tentatively that there wasn't any.  The standard error in the line width of a single spectrum is significantly less than the difference between mean line width for two spectra that I tried to position identically.  I'm not sure whether that means I'm doing something terribly wrong with the alignment, or that the cavities are very fickle, or the laser fairies are messing with the experiment...

After lunch I started looking at line width and pump energy - I've got some data that I have to analyze more thoroughly, but I am not too optimistic about finding a clear trend, which is worrisome.  Let's hope Monday brings clarity.

As I was sitting in the student desk room, busily running my lovely line width function, I overheard students saying something about the RER, which is the train I take to and from Cachan every day.  I managed to ask for information in French, and I learned that the RER workers are on strike!  Now I know I really am in France.  The graduate students were very helpful and pointed me towards the bus stop, so I avoided the traffic jam of commuters trying to take half as many trains as usual.

When I got back to the Cité Universitaire, I boldly ventured forth to the Carrefour supermarket in the mall, a journey which took rather longer than I expected.  Then Josh and Mir and I wandered around Paris for a few hours.  We wanted to go to the Luxembourg Gardens again, and did indeed manage to get there:

But the gardens closed a few minutes after we arrived.

That didn't stop us from adventuring!  We wandered around that part of Paris for an hour or so, walking through quiet streets, then streets with neon signs and what can only be described as "nightlife."  Josh got food at a Parisian McDonalds!  It was very expensive.  It seems to me that the good, fresh, tasty food is quite cheap here, but that the icky fast food is much more expensive than at home.

And then we took the metro and tram home.  Oh, Kierstin and I took rumors into our own hands last evening and explored the Champs Elysees.  It was quite an experience.  I saw the Arc de Triomph!  That's one major life goal checked off right there.