As hopefully everyone reading this blog knows, I flew out to Ames, Iowa for our yearly Black Belt Reunion and Marital Arts Banquet this past weekend. This entry will be mostly a travelogue of my trip for people who wanted to go this year but couldn't make it (ie, Mom and Dad...hi mom and dad). All of the "people" pictures are on facebook, but I'll include one below so that you can see my dress.



Me, Irene and Irene’s new boyfriend Journey.




The new side of Coover. This is looking west, where there used to be a parking lot. The new part of Coover is…interesting. There are a lot more labs and much better equipment, but the overall effect is cold, comprised of glass and concrete. Plus they made no attempt to marry the old part with the new, so that going from one to the other is extremely startling. I entered from the old part, the east entrance, and it looked (and smelled) exactly the same.



The inside of the new part, looking East towards the old part.




The key code was not 1-2-3-4-5-*, I tried.




Shiny, but empty on a Friday afternoon.






This is a new Bioenergies building coming up on what used to be the marching band practice field between Howe and Design. This was also where we launched the weather balloons for our senior design project, so I’m a little sad to see it developed. Ah well--progress.






I just happened to be wandering around the library, reminiscing about all the hours spent studying there, when I wandered past the shelves with thesises (thesi?).









The new Morrill hall, no longer decrepit and condemned. Unfortunately this was taken on Saturday and it was locked up, so I could not go inside. It looked nice though.







This was taken in the Memorial Union, where they have made many changes. This is the only one I like. Specifically, this is in the Gold Star Hall, where the names of Iowa State servicemen and women who died in the line of duty are carved into the walls. World War I and II soldiers are carved into the stone prominently on the main walls, Vietnam and Korean soldiers are in smaller text, and this has been squeezed into the corner. One would hope this is a temporary measure before these names are permanently added to the walls. We’re running out of space though.