Penultimate Presentations

Yesterday, about 3 and a half weeks too late, I found out that the bagel place at Houston Market takes our Penn ID conference dollars.  I headed over there with Mariko around 8:15 and bought an extensive breakfast, trying to use up the money left on my card.  My breakfast was delicious, and I think I'll eat at the Einstein Bro's Bagels for the rest of the trip- one day.  

For most of the morning, Bill lectured on thermodynamics.  Although most of his lecture was covered in my high school course, he approached it in a completely different way, and included many demos. To finish up the morning, we were joined by Professor Phil Nelson.  He spoke about light and our eyes, combining technical biophysics and information on new medical technology.  We only really see three colors that combine to create the rest of them.  Chickens, on the other hand, see four and therefore have a larger scope of color vision.  Work done to expand our spectrum correlates with advances in genetics and neurology. 

After lunch, where I attempted to spend even more money, we all presented about our interest groups.  No matter how interesting everyone's presentations were, I still felt confident that Quantum Mechanics was a great choice for me and, most likely, the best group (though I may be a little biased).  I felt that our presentation went well and I hope we were moderately clear in explaining our very confusing topic.

I spent most of my afternoon packing, and I;m almost positive my suitcase shrunk over the past month.  It will be a miracle if I can get all my stuff in it, and an even greater achievement if it ends up under 50 pounds.  To finish my day, I caught the tail end of the Harry Potter marathon.  As we started the final movie, a huge lightning storm raged across the sky, it was very poetic.  I think I have seen more lightning on this trip than any other time in my life. Tomorrow, we present our roller coaster projects, and then we will be released for the rest of the day.  I can't believe our class is wrapping up.  There will be many good-byes tomorrow.