Big in Europe

Monday mornings, first thing, I ask for volunteers to share their weekend stories as they relate to physics or science or school activity or anything really, that might be of interest to the class.  Seated at the same table in my second period AP Physics class, two students shared their weekend stories spent out of the country.

The first student, RK, had just returned from London after an admission interview at Cambridge (his second choice; first choice, The Imperial College of London.)  A fellow student upon hearing Cambridge, asked, “What college?”

“Pembroke,” RK said, “I’m interested in medicine.”  RK said the interview was awful. “I was not prepared at all for what they asked.”

“Paint the scene, RK,” I said.  “Were you alone, seated across from a long table of five sour-faced, stuffy taskmasters in a dank, echoing room?”

“Almost as bad.  Only two people at a time, but two interviews, and yeah, the room smelled bad.  The building was beautiful but it was built before the U.S. even existed as a sovereign country.  So yeah, old.”

“Didn’t you google the most likely asked interview questions at Cambridge?”

“As a matter of fact, I did.  They only asked one question regarding my prep.  Instead, they showed me a graph, dated 1910-1920, which showed a decline in infant deaths and asked me why.  I answered, ‘immunizations’. The answer was sanitation. My first answer was water, and thinking back, the interviewer even tried to lead me to it, but I still blew it.”

RK said there were other questions, like,

• Are you aware of any recent viral outbreaks in the UK?
• Can you list three viruses responsible for transmitting disease from animals to humans?
• What treatments exist?
• The source of HIV?
• How did the first HIV transmission occur?

Two chairs to the left of RK, my other student, TC, shared her trip to Brussels, Belgium.  Her mom works in quality control, apparently addressing international product complaints, and brought her daughter along on a business trip as a birthday gift.

Another student commented, “On my birthday, my mom takes me to Olive Garden.”

“I met the Belgian Santa Claus,” TC said.

“Did you ask for Belgian toys?”

“No, candy.  Their Santa is really skinny and wears a red and gold-crossed bishop’s hat.

TC had purchased a gift-shop keychain with an image of a larger-than-life atomic iron crystal (constructed of stainless steel), or as Belgians know it to be, The Atomium, a science museum first built in 1958.  The Atomic spheres are large enough to walk inside and hold exhibits. Near The Atomium, TC took a picture of a brightly lit, miniature Eiffel tower at mini-Europe, a miniature park.

TC also attended a Smurf Experience Expo in Brussels.

Apparently, viruses and atoms and Smurfs and mini-parks are really big in Europe.