Simon Says to Read the Blog

Us at the Nashville Airport

Jackie and I became lightning. We rushed as fast as possible to pack everything well for Nashville. The flight there was quick and all five of us sat next to each other, taking up an entire row. We ended up having too much luggage to fit into one car and so we had to split up into two taxis. Our taxi driver used to live in San Jose, California and he told us all the comparisons between both places. He talked about how much calmer and friendlier Tennessee is in comparison to the Bay Area.

We set our luggage in the office of Hampton Inn, since we had arrived super early and they were not ready with our rooms. We went out to eat lunch, and then attended the Vanderbilt tour. In the Admissions Office, Zeb spoke to us all about

Me, the celebrity Zeb, and Jackie

what is unique about Vanderbilt, and gave us numbers to show how to get accepted, and how beautiful the campus is. He was an amazing speaker, and explained everything in great detail. He made me start thinking that maybe liberal arts could be something I could do well in. (I know I said I didn't want to lean towards that area yesterday. But hey, 24 hours could change a lot). One of my favorite things about Vanderbilt is that a student can easily choose to do classes from different colleges. They encourage students to do a little bit of everything. I also loved their system of ten houses who have fun and compete together. 

We then split up into tour groups, and our leader was Simon Silverberg, an upcoming junior at Vanderbilt. We walked around the green campus full of tall trees and brick walls. Simon showed us

The second celebrity Simon between us

the library, which had a convenient cafe inside. He walked us through the Hank Ingram dorms, a cafeteria near it, and then the Jacobs Believed in Me Engineering Building. It was made by a man who became a very successful engineer after his professor stopped him from quitting engineering, and helped him pass with honors in all his classes. Simon also spoke about how upper classmen helped him move in, and didn't let him and his family have to carry a single thing to the dorm room. I thought this was such a nice way to reach out to intimidated freshman and let lazy people like me get away from having to haul luggage somewhere. 

After the tour, we went to the Barnes & Nobles to buy Vandy merchandise. Luckily, I fit the hoodies in the kids section and I was able to buy one for a cheaper price. After shopping for a while, we returned to the hotel, and decided to go grab pizza from Papa John's. We had a small pizza party in the hotel's lobby and filled our stomach with more than necessary pizza. 

Jackie and I have super powers