Bystander Effect-Day 56- March 6th, 2018

I woke around 10 AM today since my first class was at 1:30. We had finished our three physics lectures and now we’re only doing labs on Tuesdays. The lab was four hours long, but I figured it would be better than three hours of lecture.

I spent some of the morning reviewing the lab procedure and questions, then watched an episode of the Sopranos. A little before I left, I ate a sandwich for lunch from the day before. The type of ham I bought was a bit too strong of a taste, but wasn’t bad overall.

Our lab was in a building I had never been in before. I left a little earlier than needed knowing I might have trouble finding it. It was a little tough to find, but I had success using the paper map my professor gave us.

If you want to look cool on campus, I definitely would not recommend navigating around with a paper map. Sometimes you need to play up the confused international student a bit though.

I found my class and our professor took us to the rooms with lab equipment. Similar to my experience with circuits lab, I was surprised to see how nice the lab facilities were. This is a stark contrast to the somewhat run-down classrooms.

My partner Greg and I were doing an experiment on electron diffraction today. Essentially we were using a device that shoots electrons through a graphite polycrystal causing the electrons to scatter in a pattern on the screen it was hitting. The screen was treated with something that gave off photons when the electrons hit it. This made the areas where electrons hit look green and show a clear pattern of circles.

Here’s a picture of the device and pattern

This is probably confusing without some physics knowledge, but essentially these circles prove that electrons act as waves. A big concept in physics is that light can act as both light and a waves. We recorded the voltage to the device and the resulting circle diameters. This allowed us to calculate the wavelength of the light.

The lab took the whole four hours, mostly because the graphing was tedious and we had to wait 30 minutes before we could actually take measurements. On top of that, the printer stopped working. I was mentally exhausted by the end, but I was really happy with my partner Greg and enjoyed working with him. I felt like we really contributed equally.

After lab, I went home and realized I wouldn’t have time for the gym which was disappointing. I hung out for about 45 minutes until it was time for dinner. I really needed to chill out for a bit after my lab.

Dinner was pretty typical, we had a pizza like appetizer, then mashed potatoes with beef for the main course. It was pretty good. The meal was followed with the usual bread and cheese.

In an attempt to practice my French, I hung out at the dinner table for a bit afterwards with Jessica and Anne-Marie. A-M asked me a bunch of questions about my friends coming from Boston, my sister’s trip to Grenoble, and some other stuff. I struggled a bit, but it was nice to get some practice. After dinner, Jessica told me my French was improving a ton and this made me feel pretty good. She was there for my first couple dinners and really got to see my lack of French in the beginning.

After dinner, I sat down and did some studying for math. Our professor gave us old midterms that I was using to study. I studied for about 45 minutes, but it was time for beer pong! I left the house and headed to Bukana Pub. During my walk there, Nick texted me saying the tournament got cancelled. All of us wanted to go out still, so we met up at a new bar called Le Tord Bouyard.

This was our first time here and we will definitely be returning. It had a great atmosphere, good music and dancing, and most importantly, cheap Jaegerbombs. I hadn’t gone out with this BU group in a while, so it was a nice change of pace. The DJ was playing a ton of good throwbacks and we were having a great time.

A little before 12, I left the bar since I had to be up early for skiing tomorrow. I walked home with Sydney and Aleks since they live in a similar area to me. It also happened to be raining pretty hard, but fortunately I had my patagonia shell with me. We walked for a bit trying to find the nearest tram stop, then arrived at the Hubert Dubedout stop.

This is where the night took a very dark turn. While we were waiting for the tram, we saw some rowdy group of four guys by the corner. They seemed a bit drunk and were shoving each other a bit. I didn’t really think much of it, but it soon took a violent turn. One of the guys got pushed to the ground and I realized the three were fighting him. While he was on the ground, they kicked and punched him pretty hard.

I was frozen. I wanted to do something, but I knew me intervening would one hundred percent lead to me getting beaten up. There was about six or seven other people at my tram stop watching in fear as well.

Fortunately, right when the fighting started an ambulance happened to drive by. They pulled a U-Turn at the corner and sped over with their lights on. The three guys were still beating up the other guy for a good twenty seconds before this.

Once two of the medical guys hopped out the ambulance, the three dudes ran away. The guy on the ground wasn’t moving at all. It was really scary. I am glad the ambulance happened to be nearby, because they ended up carting him off on the stretcher.

Safe to say this shook me up a bit. Not that it makes me feel particularly unsafe in Grenoble, but that there really wasn’t anything I could do in this situation. I like to think I would have helped him if the ambulance didn’t come so quickly, but who knows. I just felt so frozen the entire time, like all I could do was watch. The bystander effect is definitely real.

After a bit, our tram finally came and we got on. I could tell Sydney and Aleks were both a little shaken. This was not the type of thing we expected to see in Grenoble. I made sure both Sydney and Aleks got to the tram stop near their houses, and told them to text me when they got back. I walked home for a little bit.

I didn’t really feel nervous walking home alone because the guy getting beaten up wasn’t a random act of violence. It was group of presumably drunk guys where an argument went way too far. I don’t believe this could happen randomly to me. Still, it doesn’t hurt to be vigilant and smart when out at night.

I contemplated including this in my blog, but its something that I witnessed and I didn’t want to leave it out. I hope my mom doesn’t worry too much about me after reading this,  because don’t forget that I’m a large male over six foot and pretty unlikely to be messed with.

I am glad I have skiing tomorrow to take my mind off this, it has been a weird night.