Monday March 13, 2006
On Monday morning, we met President Bush. The trip through
security involved being forced to stand still and in alphabetical
order for about fifteen minutes... and then being asked
to turn around and run to get to the Indian Treaty Room,
at which point we spent around forty-five minutes getting
in place for photos before the President showed up.
It was very, very odd to see someone that famous walk in--I
guess deep down inside I thought he might have to be rolled
in inside a TV or something, since that's the only place
I've seen him speak. I won't say anything rude about his
remarks, because it's an honor to meet the office of the
President, regardless of its current holder. He fielded
a few friendly (but not screened!) questions afterward,
which was amusing if a bit frustrating--his clear and unhesitant
``no'' when asked if there was any science class he'd particularly
enjoyed in school, for instance, left us all in awkward
silence after a brief chuckle. It turns out that he did,
in fact, enjoy one geology class at Yale, and that he likes
trees on his ranch.
After lunch, we headed back to NAS for one last session
of public exhibition. A lot of parents showed up to visit
at this point, and I got to introduce some new friends to
my mom and dad. The thing I remember best about this day
was that two nine-year-old girls stopped at my poster and
learned to play EF games. I was doing all I could to keep
from jumping up and down--they kept playing against each
other; they understood the ideas and strategy perfectly
and actually thought it was fun! My blocks had succeeded.
Plus, kids playing model theory games are really cute.
I was so excited that these two girls enjoyed playing EF
games! (Photo by Adam Solomon)
When it was less crowded, most of us expended a great deal
of energy trying to present one another's projects. Often
this actually worked pretty well, although the Science Service
folks were less than pleased.
We sadly packed our projects up that afternoon; this was
the first real "end." (Well, there was the end
of judging interviews, but that was in no way sad.) But
as we left, there was a surprise--out on the front steps
was Nobel laureate in chemistry Dudley Herschbach! We gathered
around for a discussion. It didn't even feel like that unusual
of an occurrence by that point in the week.
After a rehearsal of the awards banquet (``How not to trip
on stage 101''), we headed out to the Melting Pot, a fondue
restaurant, for dinner. I missed a lot of the excitement
due to being pretty dizzy (it was hard to get across the
idea that vegan does not mean vegetables only, and thus
to get enough to eat), but excitement there certainly was.
Apparently dropping a bit of water, or more daringly an
ice cube, into a vat of hot fondue oil leads to a pretty
display of fizz and splatter. Being a true experimentalist,
one student heard the commotion at another table and decided
to see what would happen if he dumped his entire glass of
ice water into the oil. In short, bad things happen. But
no one got a QTH.
Mmm... chocolate fondue. (Photo by Adam Solomon)