UMN - Day 2

I was completely puckered out last night.. so I'm gonna cheat by typing this whole entry up and doctoring the post time to make it look like I diligently kept everything up to date.

Today was the official first day of University of Minnesota's prospective student weekend. I got up bright and early at 6:40 AM and sauntered down to 215 for breakfast. It wasn't exactly the greatest continental breakfast I've ever seen (not a single waffle maker in sight!), but eh.. food is food. The basic assortment was there: donuts, crumpets, oatmeal, cereal, OJ, and coffee. My meal of the morning was simply coffee and a toasted crumpet w/jelly.

The hotel shuttle brought a bunch of students to campus (ChemE had their recruitment weekend at the same time). It could only seat 15 people at once, so not everyone made the first trip over. After a little introduction by Dr. Barocas (w/fruit munchies!), lab tours began. There were about 14 recruits there, so we all went in one big group. The BME labs and offices all seem to be on the 7th floor of the building, which is a bit like Sewell Hall b/c the entrance floor is the 3rd floor and two are apparently underground.

Once those were over, the onslaught of meetings w/professors began, running form 10 AM all the way to 4:30 PM w/lunch and one break in between. I met up w/a variety of professors. It was fascinating to hear about their work in neuroscience, especially deep brain stimulation. Check it out right here.

Oh, so for lunch we all branched out to separate restaurants around the area w/a few graduate students. I ended up eating at Annie's, a burger joint. Ordered a root beer float. They're paying the tab, so why not?

Anyhow, once all the meetings were over and done with, there was a meet and greet w/grad students and professors in the atrium. They had an open bar; grab all you want beer and wine. I stuck to bottled water. Dinner was back up in the 7th floor conference room. They ordered Jimmy John's subs/sandwiches based off our personal requests. Mine? Tuna, of course! Wasn't really hungry then, though, so I wrapped it up for later. Once dinner was done with, we were shuttled back to the hotel at 6:30 and that was it for the day. Well, the grad students took people out to bars afterwards, but I stuck to the hotel.

SOMEone cancelled on me for the evening and decided a movie w/the friends he sees everyday have priority over visiting me. I was dead tired by then and just rested up. He showed up around 10 PM & watched How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days with me on TV b/c that was his punishment. Another movie came on afterwards, but I fell asleep...