Kali Fall Break

Hello!
I hope everyone's fall break went super well and we are ready to get on with the second quarter!

I was able to go on the physics field trip to drive all the way to Madison, Wisconsin to find out some information on graduate programs and life as a graduate student from a 2016 graduate of the physics department! This was my first trip with them so I wasn't completely sure what to expect. Happily enough though, it was a lot of good food and company. In fact, our first stop was Mario's Italian Restaurant. A small location, roughly two hours away, with really friendly people who had a good humor.

Ordering food with Doc is something that I have to admit is a little different, but positively so. Rather than us all order our own dishes, he believes that it is much better to order several dishes that many of us want to try out and we pass them along the table, similarly to a family dinner at home. This worked amazingly well. Not only were we saving a little bit of money by not ordering a dish per person, we also were able to try out several things and have just enough to avoid leftovers that would have been ruined in the microwave.

A picture I took while in Mario's
They were starting to bring out the
appetizers!

At the end of every meal with the physics department, I was introduced to the bill tradition. Rather than just paying and leaving like most do, the department plays a game to guess the bill. Everyone puts in a dollar and then writes a guess of how much the bill is on a piece of paper or napkin and passes it to a designated person who is the referee of the game. They will organize everyone's guesses and look at the bill to see who was the closest. It is always a fun time and especially to hear some of the guesses. For this round, someone had guessed around 500 dollars. (That just goes to show how much food we had at our table.)

After our meal, we discussed where our next destination was and we set off for another two hour drive.

The college we went to was the University of Madison-Wisconsin, where we met up with one of Dr.Feller's past students. He was a glass researcher on campus and was really happy to show us his college. The campus was huge compared to Coe and the overall culture was completely different. I had honestly forgotten what if felt like to be on such a large campus.

We got a tour of a couple of their research facilities, the first being the biology area since they had done a cooperation with them. This tour didn't last very long since it was restricted access and we had such a large group. The next facility was where they kept most of their machinery. We got to see first hand how some of the students gathered data with a gigantic microscope, which was so sensitive that if you shut a door from the floor above, it would shake the image.

After looking around their campus, we all drove to get dinner at an amazing Mediterranean restaurant. This meal was a little more hectic than the last since we had a bit of car trouble. The Alumnae that toured us around the campus were invited to come with us but on their way to dinner their car broke down and no one had a working cell phone. While we waited we talked with the others in our group and listened to Doc tell stories about his experiences with students in other field trips.

After a bit of time passed, Doc decided that we shouldn't wait too long and starve everyone else that was present, so he began to order food, making sure to include enough for the group that got lost for when they got here. Shortly after we finished eating, which meant we were already there for a couple of hours or so, the lost car had showed up and was delighted to have the leftovers after their stressful drive.

Now it was time to drive another hour to our hotel.

I don't mind night driving, but it did make me a little nervous since the route we were taking took us down twisty roads, down hill, and pitch black since there were no street lights. Once we arrived, we were separated into our rooms until morning for breakfast and to head to our next destination.

Around lunch we were guided to a small building by a fast moving river. When we moved inside, we found a gift shop with many different pieces of art and decorated goods like coasters, pens, umbrellas, pictures, statues, and even different kinds of coffee mugs! Doc would announce soon that we would be going on a tour about Frank Lloyd Wright, an American architect, interior designer, writer, and educator who believed in designing structures that were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. 

Our tour guide was an older man who had retired from teaching world history. While admittedly I wasn't too interested in architecture, he did a wonderful job of keeping us all interested. With subtle jokes slipped in here and there, as well as the occasional Star Wars reference, he was able to make all of us laugh at least once along the hour long tour. 

After this trip, it was time to get food one last time and then head home. 

We traveled another 2 hours to our destination, stopping to get gas and snacks since we had already missed lunch, and found ourselves in the town of Galena. It is a wonderful place stopped in time of WWII, various kinds of shopping down the main street, and is home to the national historic landmark of  Ulysses S. Grant. Our group split up and we all headed out to get food before doing a bit of sight seeing. I absolutely adore "touristing" places: a term I use for getting excited about walking around a place you've not been before and just letting curiosity roam. I found that I really enjoyed the culture of the town and many of the shops contained things that I would gladly come back for. 

I bought a few chocolates at "Chocolat' 229" which were gourmet chocolates that I am still savoring a week later. After a quick walk around the rest of the town, we met up with our passengers and began the drive back home. We were all having a really good time on the way back, talking about what we did in the town and it seemed that we had all opened up a little bit more.

The trip was probably one of the better ones that I have been on and I can't wait to go on another adventure with the famous physics professor Doc Feller.