i neglected to mention this last night, but....

reason #867 this year's REU kids are awesome.

as me and the 6 undergrads were loading the bus to take us to the airport on sunday, all the other students came out of the dorm to say goodbye. the students were all hugging each other, some crying, etc., all sad to start to have to break up the awesome group of 30 they've been all summer.

i stood off to the side out of the way. luke was the first one to offer to give me a hug, after everyone else was just about done with each other... then marla realized "you guys, none of us have been saying goodbye to lara, she needs in too!" and then they all (all 30 of them) surrounded me in the middle of a giant pile-on group hug. it was rather cool.

now, i'm much better rested than yesterday, i've listened to the first REU seminar talk (on cycles in graphs for the past 1.5 hours), and am about to spend a quality afternoon wandering the streets of prague with my students. spending the morning in a european classroom listening to math brings back good warm fuzzy memories. :) (yes, i'm weird... )

in non-my students' news. with 7 of us here, the 4 girls were assigned a 4 person suite, the 2 guys were assigned a 2 person suite, and i have half of a suite to myself... the other half seems to be quite well occupied like someone's been living there for the past year, with winter coats, etc. still hanging up... but i haven't met the other occupant... we'll see if i acquire mystery suite-mate during my stay here, or if i just get to coexist with some other girl's things for 2 weeks... mystery indeed. :P

done rmabling... i'm off... a great day to all y'all!