I got up at around 7:30am and drove down route 20 to Corvalis and OSU arrving there at about 9:15. OSU immediately reminded me of Bowdoin although there are about 16,000 more students at OSU. The faculty I met with were great and even walked me to each of my appointments. They bought me lunch and a cup of tea later in the day. I had a terrific chat with Professor Anne Trehu about our mutual interest in skiing and learned that there was a large group of skiers heading out that weekend for a ski trip to Mt. Baker.
I ate lunch with two of Professor Holman's graduate students - Liz and Meg - at a Thai food place on campus. Both girls were really nice and told me a lot about the university although they both conduct coastal geological studies which isn't really the direction I would like to go in my graduate studies. I really like the fact that everyone at OSU is very outdoorsy. I noticed that there seems to be an ugly stigma about Scripps at other Oceanography schools. Everyone seems to agree with what I experienced there - they are the best and they act like it.... At OSU there is tons of collaboration between professors and departments which I think is great. I also met with two of Professor Goldfingers students and his research assistant who all had wonderful things to say about him (I really hope to work with him there). By the time I left the school at the end of the day I felt the same warmth that I felt when I first visited Bowdoin. It was a good feeling.
Lori Hartline, the angel coordinator that set up my appointments, set me up to stay with Meg and her husband at their house in Albany (Ironic right?) down the road. Before we left campus Meg asked if I wanted to go with them to a G-Love concert in Eugene. I know of G-Love and my roomate Ethan Bullard at Bowdoin was a huge fan but I didn't know much of his music so I debated it but eventually said yes. We picked up her husband and drove to their very nice home they are remodeling and I was set up in the guest apartment on the side of the house. Her husband walked me over and told me to be careful of the lock on the bathroom door because if shut all the way it could lock a person in. Well, guess what I did as soon as he left... yup, shut the door all the way and locked myself in! After 10 minutes of gradually knocking louder and growing embarassment they heard me and he let me out... how embarassing.
After I was freed from the bathoom we took off in their Honda Element (I love that car now) to Eugene for dinner at the 6th Street Grill and the concert. I got a turkey sandwich with avacado in it 
that was amazing. I love avacados! Thank God I went! I ended up nearly front row and it was one of the best concerts I've ever been to. I'm a huge G-Love fan now. His rock, hip-hop, funk style is awesome and it's so much better to see him live in concert. All of their friends we met at the concert were super nice as well.
I passed out from exhaustion in the car on the way back to their place at 1:30am. Meg gave me a hug before I went off to sleep which meant a lot to me. My entire experience at OSU was very similar to my experience at GSO and really hope to be accepted there next fall.
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