Love On Top

This morning I woke up at 9:30 AM, to shower and get ready in time for a light breakfast with Jenny and the rest of the cohort. We all met downstairs in the lobby at 10:30 and proceeded to walk towards Pancake Pantry since Jenny found a bakery near it. I took us on a shortcut instead of the way that we took last week, since I had learned of a quicker route from our class trip to Sweet Cece's (earlier in the week). The bakery that we went to is called Provence and I ordered the Lavender Lemonade, eclair, and split the french toast with Arnold. We ate there until it was time for the shuttle to pick us up and bring us back to Hank Ingram by 11:50 to meet at our proctors' doors. 

When everyone was at Lizzy's door, she dismissed us to walk to lunch altogether. I ate lightly at lunch too, with a few popcorn chicken pieces and sweet potato fries. Lunch ended a bit earlier than usual because of the activities that will be going on, so everyone had to disperse into their given groups with a proctor in order to get on the correct bus for our respective locations. Just before leaving the Commons, I realized that the cohort had taken a picture a while ago (from our brunch) and the majority of us were wearing the same clothes as that day, so I suggested a retake. You can see the comparison of us now (at the bottom) and from a long, long, time ago (at the top). There were a few buses for the mall, and the people who were going to attend the Adventure Science Center or zoo shared one bus. The bus ride to the science center took approximately 10 minutes or less and right when I took my first step inside, I knew that this place was going to be a blast.

The Adventure Science Center is much like the Exploratorium in the Bay Area, a family-friendly orientation, with plenty of things to look at. The first place that I went to look at was on the same floor, at the Identity exhibit. There were many little stations with screens that surveyed you, for example, what you might look like in 50 years or so by taking a picture of yourself or rating a group of pictures to figure out if you are an introvert or extrovert. In the center of the exhibit was a large model of a brain with labels that showed which area of the brain controlled what in the body.

After checking out the Identity exhibit, I went into the play structure (that escalates all the way to the top of the building) to explore a bit. The playground was filled with kids and had two continuous paths to get to the top of the building (inside of a dome) to view all of Nashville. The first continuous way would be easier for all of the adults, which are the stairs. The second way was used more by kids, and that was to climb through, across, and up things. For example, I had to climb up a vertebrae model in order to get to the next floor. It took me a while, but my primary mission was to get up to the top and get a glimpse of the view of the whole city. 

I settled for the title, Love On Top, because when I climbed to the top of the building, I had thought about how much
appreciation and love that I have for the city of Nashville, Music City. All the time that I have spent here so far has been
nothing but a great one.

After I completed my goal, I went back onto the second floor to look at the other things that I had missed. There was a whole exhibit on the brain. One of the popular activities was Mind Ball, where two people would sit on opposite ends of the table and put on a headband to control a ball with their mind. I watched Gwennie and Hummd go against each other for this one. I played on Move It!, which is similar to Dance Dance Revolution, where you would have to step on certain tiles on the ground while tapping on them according to the screen. Then, I went around to the space exhibit, called "Wonders of the Universe". It included a star walk, so when you would step inside, everything was pitch black except for the small bright lights that were in that room (a.k.a. the stars). There was also a very large scale model of all of the planets lined up next to each other with little descriptions and fun facts about each one. There is also a Planetarium inside, but I did not go because there would not be enough time to look around because there was only 15 minutes left before leaving.

A picture of me and this incredibly
galaxy-painted wall. (I love astronomy
so much!)

The bus came to pick everyone up at 4 PM, and the ride back to Hank Ingram was a lot faster than on the way to the Adventure Science Center. We had free time until 6, which was dinner. After dinner would be Trivia (something that everyone is obligated to go to, but also has the option to stay in a quiet room while there). I did not expect to participate in Trivia because my proctor had warned me that the whole room would be filled with noisy people trying to yell out the answers all at once. My proctor group was only left with 6 (including me) since the others had went to the quiet room instead, so I knew that I could not let them down by missing out. Besides, I am only going to be here for 4 more days so I might as well stay for moral support and experience. It turns out that I liked the game way more than I should have! There were several different categories, like music, geography, history, residential staff, science, and literature. For one of the science questions, it was asking about a book that I have for my summer assignment called, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," so my team used it to fill in the blanks (what a great coincidence)! Our team got really competitive, but unfortunately, we did not place, however, house-wise, A-House placed 2nd! Not as good as first, but we will soon have our chance to shine. The game passed by quicker than I thought, and we were back on our floors by 8:30. There was a proctor meeting right after we got back on our floors, to review the schedule for tomorrow (which is all free time after class and study hall, with the exception of dinner in between).