A Lesson for All GTL PhD Students
It all began about a week ago. Actually, it was exactly a week ago. It was Wednesday, and you know what happens on Wednesday: nothing. On a completely unrelated note, my friend Katherine was eagerly awaiting a birthday package. That day the package arrived, and it was sitting on my desk. Why on my desk? Simply because Katherine could not pick up the package before GTL closed for the day. So, I was going to stick around until she got back from work and then give it to her. She normally gets home around 6:30.
You can image the scene. I am sitting at my computer, reading news stories and Facebook profiles as the clock on my screen changes to 7:00. I am alone in the PhD room. Most of the other students have gone to play jorkyball (just don't ask, ok?). Man, is she ever taking her time. I am surprised to see one of the professors stick his head in the room. He glances around briefly and then asks if he could speak to me for a moment. Sure, why not? I jog slowly behind him up to his office. We talked for about 10 minutes about a grant proposal. At that point, I needed to print something for him, so I left his office and headed to the PhD room. As I bounded down the stairs, I reminded myself to grab my keys before heading back up.
I arrive at the PhD room and pull one of those run-into-the-door-and-open-at-the-same-time moves. You know, the ones where you're glad that the door actually opened, because had it not, you would have run into it face first. Well, my attempt at opening the door was far from successful. My hand pushed down on the handle as my shoulder pressed into the grey wooden door, which didn't budge. It appeared that the door was locked. How could this be? I quickly looked around for the cleaning ladies (who have keys to everything) but saw no one. I ran back upstairs; no one there had a key. The situation was getting worse by the minute. By this point, there were only two professors left in the building, and neither one had a key to the PhD room. I couldn't leave. I was trapped at GTL.
For those of you who have never been to France, there is an unusual sense of paranoia about security and buildings here. Let me explain. Until this past Fall, you not only needed a key to get in GTL, but you also needed a key to get out of GTL. Oh, that is not all. The typical student key only works between 8:00 am and 10:00 pm, Monday through Friday. So if, for example, you were working in the building on a project until say 11pm, you could not leave. You were stuck. However, being the creative engineers that my friends and I are, we found a way out, which I won't divulge for security reasons. But what if there had been a fire? Everyone would have died. In short, there is now a button inside by the door which one can press to unlock the door at any instance in time. This is an improvement that came about 15 years too late (the school was founded in 1991). But these are all ramblings, and not crucial to the story at hand.
So there I was, inside GTL with only the computer lab to help me. I quickly got online and sent messages to John and Katherine. They went something like this. "Help! I'm stuck at GTL. I can't leave without getting locked out of the building. And I'm getting hungry....Feeling...weak..." This went on for an hour or so. No reply at all. Some of the undergrads came in the lab. I talked to Susan (who was in the US getting her visa) a bit and played Text Twist. Eventually someone offered to lend me their cell phone to call someone. Thanks to Facebook, I found Fred's number and gave him a call. He wasn't there, so I left a message pleading for help. It wasn't a very coherent message. After all, there's not much he could do. Then a second undergrad piped up. "I have Wui's number," he said. Wow, that was awesome. I called Wui and explained the situation. He was going to let me borrow his keys. Success!
The rest of the story isn't very interesting. I walked with an undergrad to ALOES and got the keys from Wui, walked back to GTL, walked back to ALOES, and then headed to catch the late bus back downtown. By this time it was 10:30. That's right, folks, I was locked out for three and an half hours. By the time I got home it was 11:15. Blah. I never found out who locked the door. I supposed it was the cleaning ladies, but it doesn't really matter. And the moral of the story: never, NEVER, leave the PhD room without your keys.
You can image the scene. I am sitting at my computer, reading news stories and Facebook profiles as the clock on my screen changes to 7:00. I am alone in the PhD room. Most of the other students have gone to play jorkyball (just don't ask, ok?). Man, is she ever taking her time. I am surprised to see one of the professors stick his head in the room. He glances around briefly and then asks if he could speak to me for a moment. Sure, why not? I jog slowly behind him up to his office. We talked for about 10 minutes about a grant proposal. At that point, I needed to print something for him, so I left his office and headed to the PhD room. As I bounded down the stairs, I reminded myself to grab my keys before heading back up.
I arrive at the PhD room and pull one of those run-into-the-door-and-open-at-the-same-time moves. You know, the ones where you're glad that the door actually opened, because had it not, you would have run into it face first. Well, my attempt at opening the door was far from successful. My hand pushed down on the handle as my shoulder pressed into the grey wooden door, which didn't budge. It appeared that the door was locked. How could this be? I quickly looked around for the cleaning ladies (who have keys to everything) but saw no one. I ran back upstairs; no one there had a key. The situation was getting worse by the minute. By this point, there were only two professors left in the building, and neither one had a key to the PhD room. I couldn't leave. I was trapped at GTL.
For those of you who have never been to France, there is an unusual sense of paranoia about security and buildings here. Let me explain. Until this past Fall, you not only needed a key to get in GTL, but you also needed a key to get out of GTL. Oh, that is not all. The typical student key only works between 8:00 am and 10:00 pm, Monday through Friday. So if, for example, you were working in the building on a project until say 11pm, you could not leave. You were stuck. However, being the creative engineers that my friends and I are, we found a way out, which I won't divulge for security reasons. But what if there had been a fire? Everyone would have died. In short, there is now a button inside by the door which one can press to unlock the door at any instance in time. This is an improvement that came about 15 years too late (the school was founded in 1991). But these are all ramblings, and not crucial to the story at hand.
So there I was, inside GTL with only the computer lab to help me. I quickly got online and sent messages to John and Katherine. They went something like this. "Help! I'm stuck at GTL. I can't leave without getting locked out of the building. And I'm getting hungry....Feeling...weak..." This went on for an hour or so. No reply at all. Some of the undergrads came in the lab. I talked to Susan (who was in the US getting her visa) a bit and played Text Twist. Eventually someone offered to lend me their cell phone to call someone. Thanks to Facebook, I found Fred's number and gave him a call. He wasn't there, so I left a message pleading for help. It wasn't a very coherent message. After all, there's not much he could do. Then a second undergrad piped up. "I have Wui's number," he said. Wow, that was awesome. I called Wui and explained the situation. He was going to let me borrow his keys. Success!
The rest of the story isn't very interesting. I walked with an undergrad to ALOES and got the keys from Wui, walked back to GTL, walked back to ALOES, and then headed to catch the late bus back downtown. By this time it was 10:30. That's right, folks, I was locked out for three and an half hours. By the time I got home it was 11:15. Blah. I never found out who locked the door. I supposed it was the cleaning ladies, but it doesn't really matter. And the moral of the story: never, NEVER, leave the PhD room without your keys.
posted by David @ 10:08 PM
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