This bridge is on the University of Minnesota campus. It's pretty cool - well, it was actually pretty hot, since it's enclosed and it was hot out! But it's cool because lots of student organizations from the university paint advertisements on the bridge walls, beneath the windows. I found myself musing about the different experiences of going to a small college, like I did, and a huge university, like this one.
I loved going to college at Bryn Mawr, and I wouldn't trade my experiences there for the world, but there are likely more, and different, clubs and organizations at a big school. Like the opportunity for weekly torch juggling.
Lots of activist and political societies; the "swingers" club (for tennis players); the hurling club (no, not for people getting sick after frat parties!); and clubs for students from various countries around the world, like Cambodia, Sudan, and Peru. I don't even know if there was one student from any one of those countries in my college class, let alone enough to form a club!
There weren't a lot of students around, but one very friendly one saw me looking confused, staring at a map I'd printed from google maps, and not only did he give me better direction but he gave me his own campus map! Very nice. I concluded that Minneapolis is a very friendly place - how could I not? The graffiti on the bathroom stall I used at the Bell Museum said "Hug Harder" and "Love Life".
The conference itself was excellent, and I learned a lot. We did an exercise about phylogenetic trees, which are tricky for novices and seasoned veterans alike, which was great. I got to see my friend/colleague Louise, and meet her adorable two(ish) year old daughter, Maggie. I also got to see, briefly, the "Science in the Serengeti" exhibit on lions. That was especially neat since one of the two people who created and starred in the exhibit, Peyton, had visited the camp at Olduvai one of the summers I did research there, for the annual Zinj celebration. This is a party the OLAPP project has in celebration of the July anniversary of the discovery of a famous Paranthropus boisei skull, originally named Zinjanthropus boisei, by the Leakeys (Mary and Louis) who were working there at the time, in 1959. Anyway, Peyton was doing her lion research in the Serengeti, heard about the party, and joined in. It was fun seeing someone I'd met before, even just once, featured in a museum exhibit!
I also ran into a friend of a friend from U Chicago who had sublet my apartment when I was in Kenya last summer, Annat; I'd never met her, so that was cool. I saw lots of Tevas and Birkenstocks, which was cool, too - such weareth many members of the Society for the Study of Evolution, even to conferences. I overheard conversations at the first night reception that began with questions like "so, what organism do you study?". Evolutionary biologist pick-up lines. :) I was surprised to see lots of leftover food at the end of the reception - that hardly ever happens at the meetings I usually go to (ahem!). Perhaps we know more about our scavenging prehistory?
Anyway, two more photos of buildings on campus before I turn to Kenya: the modern art museum, and more "classic" univerisity architecture.
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