Soakin' in Savannah!

Ever time I sat down to start a post all ideas fled from my head until I was thoroughly convinced that I had nothing to say. Luckily I have something easily concrete to write about-- my first time going to the American Physical Society!

Last weekend was the April 2014 meeting of the American Physical Society. Seven students, I, and one professor headed down to Savannah, Georgia for the weekend.

To get to Savannah we had to fly through Atlanta, where our group broke up to take two different flights to Savannah. I was with the early group, after a quick layover we boarded a plane and landed in Savannah. It was just before eight and we hadn't had time to grab dinner; we thought we could easily grab some food at the airport.

Think again. Every store in the entire airport (all three of them) were closed. It's hard to explain how excited we were when we stumbled upon a vending machine hidden away in some dark corner of the airport.

We had to wait a couple of hours for the rest of the group to get to Savannah and we took a bus to our hotel on the river. It was easily midnight by the time we, still hungry, finally arrived at our rooms. The hotel had given away our room, so the other three girls and I were put in a room with a king bed and a cot. Suffice to say, there was a lot of togetherness going on.

The professor we were with suggested we order pizza-- which sounded immensely better than our previous plans to walk downtown and hope a bar was open and serving food.

When I was abroad the idea of ordering pizza and having it delivered to your door sounded like the coolest idea everrrrr. I don't even know why-- they did deliver, as far as I could tell, in my town. Still, the mere idea of trying to order pizza over the phone in French convinced me I really did need the exercise to go out and get food.




After maybe four hours of sleep we got up the next morning in order to get to the convention center in time for the opening session. My usual crutch of caffeine was mercilessly gone as our coffee maker was broken; somehow we all managed to drag ourselves out the door.

 Sunrise on the river! Our hotel, and the downtown restaurant area was on one side of the river, while the convention center, where almost all of the activities were held, was on the other side of the river.

But have no fear! Ferries came to the rescue.They were like free public buses and ran from the two main hotels to the convention center.They were awfully cute.

There was a cute little candy shop on the riverfront that we ogled every time we passed. I got some truffles-- their flavors ranged from Irish coffee to Strawberry Cheesecake.

Sadly they all just tasted like chocolate, but it was a delicious taste so I couldn't complain.

Savannah is a gorgeous town, filled to the brim with lovely live oaks. Sunday morning, after the undergraduate awards brunch-- where four Hendrix students took home awards--we meandered downtown, jumping from green square to green square. The entire area was pocketed with little gardens.

Monday morning, before we ran to catch our flight, we caught Neil DeGrasse Tyson's talk. Now whenever I tell people about this I automatically assume they know who he is, which is a bad assumption to make. Suffice to say, he's one of the only celebrity astrophysicists. Anyway, we were all pretty pumped to see his talk but all left feeling a bit disappointed. His talk was mainly a collection of science memes, which means it was funny but it lacked substance. 

Two flights and one car ride later we arrived at Hendrix just in time to miss housing selection. Luckily my friend was present and we snagged the triple we had been eying for next year!

I promise that I will make myself write another post within a reasonable time frame. Even if I feel I have nothing to write. I know that I'll always have one reader!(yes, I'm looking at you) 

Thanks for reading :)