Michael's Graduation

Last week, Michael and I flew out to Utah for his graduation. For those who didn't know, when we got engaged, he just had a few classes to finish up, and they had to be taken over two semesters, which would have been a realllly long long-distance engagement. Very very fortunately, he was able to work it out with his professors so that he could take the classes from a distance while living in Ohio with me. He had to work triple hard since he couldn't attend lectures or ask the TA questions (and his dad the physics professor was extremely helpful throughout both semesters), but he finally finished and I'm very proud of him!


It was a really fun trip. We stayed in the downtown Marriott, which is really nice. My mom's in the loyalty program for the Marriott, so she got us access to a fancy, previously-unknown-to-me concierge lounge where they serve free breakfast, lunch, and all-day-long snacks and drinks to people with the special access card. That was a pretty sweet perk.

I wish I had more to say about the graduation ceremonies themselves. I forgot how...long...they are. And it's even longer when you're not in them yourselves. At least when it's your own ceremony, you get to be in the little procession thing instead of just watching 45 minutes of caps and gowns filing in. But they were fun, and I was really glad Michael got to actually attend his graduation ceremonies.

It was also fun having a mini-family reunion with Michael's family. His parents and grandma came out to see him graduate, and his sister Michelle (who sang in Women's Chorus for one of the ceremonies, as evidenced by her fancy outfit :) ) was still in Provo during graduation. We also got to spend some time with some extended family who live in Utah. Many of them I had already met a year ago, while Michael and I were still dating, so it was fun to see them again.

Unfortunately, I don't have any good pictures of Michael actually walking across  the stage and receiving his diploma—it happened so fast and I couldn't get very close, so the only ones I have are blurry and weird. I do have a picture of him standing in line to have his name read, though!

Another fun thing we did: Michael's cousin William is getting a graduate engineering degree at BYU and he has special access to some of the physics labs in the basement of the ESC. So after the convocation ceremony, he gave us a little tour of some of the cool areas. There was a hyperechoic chamber, which didn't look like anything special, but was set up such that you could do some neat things with standing waves of sound. It was cool. We also checked out the anechoic chamber, which is built to completely absorb all echoes. That one was a bit more visually impressive.

All those wedges are built of metal mesh, not foam as I initially thought. And can you see what we were standing on?

Some very taut wires, suspending us about five feet over more of the sound-absorbing wedges. I had heard about the anechoic chamber, but it was pretty cool to actually go in and see what it was like.

Also, because the physics department is apparently much classier than the nutrition department, they threw a nice luncheon for the graduates and their families afterwards. I think they had like big slabs of turkey and baked potatoes and stuff, but I have no idea why anyone would be interested in that when there was a delicious vegetable and fruit spread, not to mention half a dozen dessert choices...

Is there a better lunch than a plate full of colorful vegetables and cheese and a bowl full of colorful fruits? I submit that there is not. Especially when that lunch is followed by Girl Scout cookies and an individually-sized cheesecake or two...

Congratulations, Michael!!!

Best picture of us everrr!!!