Hi, I am Antonella Gonçalves from Benin and I study Telecommunications in Senegal.

Few months ago, one of our professor told us about the Summer Student  Program of CERN, and said it would be a great opportunity to apply.
Apart from the development of the World Wide Web, I didn't know many things about CERN and I couldn't thing of any connection betweeen my fields of study and telecommunications. I wasn't even sure why our professor mentioned CERN's summer students programme.

Since, I love travelling, I decided to apply for the program. A few weeks later, on the 10th of April, I received my welcoming letter.

Two months letter i was footing in Geneva. I was so happy to be here. The first week was a discovering week for me. People from differents parts of the world, a beautiful country, with a beautiful weather, and my work project which was about network programming; which was close to what I already knew from my course in Telecommunications. 

My first impression was: Heaven on Earth. May i stay here forever :). 

While writing these few words , I still have the same impression. Unfortunately , my contract ends in two months and I will have to leave this heaven :(.

During my stay I learnt many things, concerning particle physics, data acquisition etc.....and also some bribes of many langages from all over the world. I wish I could stay more but good things never last forever. I am thankful to all the CERN staff, especially, the summer student team, my supervisor and all the summer students, to have  made of this summer one of the best!
Thanks, Merci, Gracias, Danke, Choukrane, Saha, Blagodaria, xiexie, Gratzie, Efharisto, Obrigado, takk, Arigato, Kam sah hamnida, Misaotra, Spacibo, umesc, shukriya.........

From my time as a summer student at CERN I will remember, the diversity of people.

To End

La nécessité de préserver la diversité des cultures dans un monde menacé par la monotonie et l'uniformité n'a certes pas échappé aux institutions internationales. Elles comprennent aussi qu'il ne suffira pas, pour atteindre ce but, de choyer des traditions locales et d'accorder un répit aux temps révolus. C'est le fait de la diversité qui doit être sauvé, non le contenu historique que chaque époque lui a donné et qu'aucune ne saurait perpétuer au-delà d'elle-même.

Race et histoire de Claude Lévi-Strauss