Now I am caught up on my travels, but what about the rest of my life?

I suppose I should apologize again for my tardiness.
My regrets, dear Internet. You've longed for my tales of going to Nashville to accept an award. I am so sorry to have kept you waiting.

Less than eleven hours after landing from my Polish adventure, I was back at the airport (reportedly, my suitcase was there, too...but I was going to have to do without the amenities in it).

I got to Nashville early, even though my flight from Philadelphia was delayed taking off. On the short trip to Philadelphia I sat next to a flight attendant who pretty much thought that she was sitting next to greatness by talking to me because I do stuff with physics.

Anyway, I made it to Vanderbilt, after getting ripped off by a cab driver. Vanderbilt is beautiful. The only drawback is the ridiculous humidity of the region. It turns out that the only obligation on me was to have lunch with some administrators and two of the other finalists for the award. I had a free weekend in Nashville.

One of the other finalists was there with his brother, and they were kind enough to let me tag along on their adventures. They are from Kansas and seem to be really great guys.

We did various ridiculous things throughout the weekend. Friday night we went to drag races, which was beyond hysterical. Video:

We tried to visit every bad tourist attraction that we could find. This included the Pantheon (yes, in Nashville) and Grand Ole Opry (which was ridiculously expensive, and we just went in the gift shop). There was also a wax museum that we tried to infiltrate, but that was certainly not worth the cost either, especially since I've been in a wax museum this year.

It was a good trip. I met some nice people, made some good connections at Vanderbilt, and added another tally to the list of "Free Trips Due to Physics". It's a growing list.

Next post will include the beginning of reflections on graduate school.

By the way, if you know how to please feel free to subscribe to my RSS feed. I'm going to be more regular. I'm now taking fiber via Quaker oatmeal. No, really. I decided to keep this ol' blog 'round for a while. I hope to extol some witty remarks upon your screen that make it worth your while to read.