Pop!

There is so much to talk about and no time with which to talk about it right now. Here, in fact, is a list. I'll talk briefly about some things in this post, and may expound on some in later posts; leave a comment if you want to hear more about anything in particular.

• Friday was the Barnstormers' trip out to Edwards Air Force Base.
• Saturday Proctor Elaine set up a trip for a bunch of us to go to some hot springs.
• Sunday I went to USC for the Intercollegiate Swing Dance Challenge my sister organized.
• Clinic:
• Code Freeze was on Tuesday
• Final report rough draft is due Friday
• Next Presentation is on next Tuesday
• Graduation is in less than a month.

First, the Edwards trip. I have a difficult time expressing how cool last Friday was. We got to fly the F-16 simulator, then at the end of the day we got to walk around the F-16 flightline and see the real F-16s up close and personal. Our guide, Nate Cook (HMC class of '95), told us what each new thing on the F-16 was and then took us into the hangar and showed us some dummy bombs that they have for testing. He talked to us about the difference between dumb bombs, which are purely ballistic, and smart bombs, which guide themselves in to their target. We got to see the Global Hawks in their hangar. One of them was fueled and it's impressive how much droop the weight of the fuel causes in the wings.

The trip to the hot springs was quite lovely; the springs themselves are at the end of a mile-and-a-half hike. I was getting nervous hiking all that way through weather somewhere in the 90s, but the springs are right on the bank of a creek that was flowing with frigid water, and we actually had to cross the creek to get to the hot water. That was a nice, refreshing end to the hike before we went to relax in the springs. I now have a lovely peeling sunburn across my upper back. It has a hand-print on the back of my left shoulder, where I could reach.

My sister called me to find out if anyone from Claremont was coming to her Swing Challenge at USC (she's the president of their swing club and has been working on making this happen for several months). I asked some of the dancers here and then told her that no, the Claremont Colleges Ballroom Dance Company (CCBDC) had not heard. She asked if they were the right people. After all, this was a swing competition. At Claremont, I assured her, "Ballroom" means "Dancing with Partners" instead of "Waltz, etc." (those five are more properly the "Standard Dances").

It ended up that most of the company members had practice that night, but one girl and I were able to make it, so the two of us represented Claremont in the Jack and Jill challenge. A Jack and Jill is a swing competition in which each person dances with another, chosen mostly at random (leads and follows dance with a partner of the opposite type). I didn't get through the first round (11 leads, and all of them way outclassed me) but I had a great time anyway. Our other Claremont rep took 5th place, though!

For now, that's it. I'll talk more about clinic when I don't have to be doing it quite as much.

~KMarsh