Obamarama!

I'm still trying to get all my San Diego photos sorted through, but in the meantime I wanted to share with you all an awesome experience I had today: I got to shake hands with Barack Obama!

Obama was making stops in Indiana today on a campaign bus tour, but didn't have a scheduled stop in Bloomington. There was speculation he might visit the women's Little 500 bike race, and it turned out to be true!

When my friend Sarah and I first got to the race, Obama was in the infield flanked by about 50 secret service men and media people. It seriously looked like a moving sea of black! He then went over to the bleachers on the opposite side of the track from us and shook hands with people. When he got near the end of the bleachers, Sarah and I walked over, thinking Obama would probably reach the end and leave.

Thankfully, this didn't happen. Instead, the sea of black turned the corner and started walking towards where Sarah and I were standing. A few secret service men told us to stand behind a rail. A crowd began to form very quickly and Obama started moving down the line shaking hands. Sarah and I were right up front and got to shake the senator's hand.

And I know what you must be wondering what Obama's handshake is like. It turns out that it's pretty firm for a guy who probably shakes thousands of people's hands every day. It's not sweaty or gross either, fortunately!

Anyways, I just wanted to share experience with you all. It's not every day a Presidential candidate comes to Bloomington!

Boston photos!

Hey everyone-
Sorry it took so long to get these photos up. Just to keep things legit, none of the pictures that actually have me in them were taken with my camera. Some of the other stipend winners took those (and if any of you are reading this and want to be credited for them, let me know!).


View from my hotel room. The Prudential Center's in the background.


The obligatory group photo. Only seven of the 10 stipend winners are in it, though.


You probably can't even tell where I'm at in this picture, but this is just proof that I've been to Fenway! The New England chapter of the National Association of Science Writers had a party here for all the press at the meeting.


Trinity Church.


Tomb of William Dawes with some really old tombstones in the background. This guy was one of the messengers to bring the news about the British on the night of Paul Revere's ride.


John Winthrop's grave. Winthrop was governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and is known for his famous "City upon a Hill" sermon. Apparently he is also the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather of Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.


Statue of Benjamin Franklin in front of Boston's Old City Hall.


My attempt at 'photographic artistry.'


Statue of Josiah Quincy III. Quincy was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, mayor of Boston and president of Harvard. Not too shabby!


Old South Meeting Hall. Benjamin Franklin was baptized here!


I think a lot of people came into this graveyard thinking Ben Franklin was buried here. Turns out it's his parents instead.


Massachusetts State House. This building sits on a hill atop Boston Common.


Boston Common.


A horse standing in Boston Common. There was a sign next to the horse saying not to disturb it because it was 'on break,' which I thought was pretty funny.


Me and a few of the other stipend winners eating dinner at Legal Seafoods. The food here was great!


A few of us hanging out the last night of the trip.

Welcome!

Since it's hard to keep in touch with everyone at once, I thought it would be fun to take the Steve-and-Sara route and start a blog. As a budding journalist, it's almost my duty to as well :-).

As many of you have probably heard, I went to the annual meeting for the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston last weekend. The National Association of Science Writers gave me and nine other students across the country a travel stipend, so luckily the trip was basically free!

It was a little daunting to go to such a big conference with all these adults, but I ended up having a great time. The other students in the stipend program were great, and it's always nice to know I'm not the only future science writer, since it seems like I'm the only one at IU. The conference itself was really well organized, and I got to sit in on press conferences, lectures and even a live NPR broadcast. One of the most interesting lectures was about communicating science in a religious America. I think it's hard to make the intersection of science and religion not interesting, but the three speakers I saw were great. One was an astronomer-turned-Jesuit priest, so had a really unique perspective on the issue.

I also got to spend time with the fabulous Aunt Jann, who was also attending the conference. Despite a long wait, we had a great dinner at Legal Seafoods, a popular seafood restaurant in Boston. Good seafood is one thing I REALLY miss when I'm in Indiana. We also went to see a funny presentation on the Ig Nobel Awards (which celebrates silly science research). One of the panelists worked behind the scenes at the Ig Nobel Awards. Turns out he's a good friend of my roommate, Alana. What a small world!

I was disappointed I didn't have time to do much sightseeing, but I still got a little touristy stuff in. Saturday night the New England chapter of the National Association of Science Writers hosted a party at Fenway Park. The place the party was in overlooked home plate, so I finally got my first view of the Green Monster! The park itself looked pretty monstrous. They're doing a lot of construction on it to build new bleachers, so a lot of things were torn up. Sunday I also had some time to walk the Freedom Trail, which was great. It brought me back to the days of 7th grade history class!

I'll make sure to post some photos from my Boston trip soon!