Monday, May 9 - mid afternoon

The kids are slower to appear this morning, but appear they do. We start off with breakfast in the hotel lobby again. They have a pretty good selection of juice, cereal, dried fruit, eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, rice, muffins and pastries. It’s all a la carte, and the prices are reasonable.

The kids are really starting to mix together and just enjoy each others company.

So today is one of those “madly off in all directions” sort of days. Three of the students have media interviews scheduled throughout the morning, two are writing exams, a number want to work on their projects or hang out at the e-lounge, and some, well some are feeling less cerebral, and really just want to go shopping!

Leanne, Ray, Dustin and Spencer decide to take a large group on the train down to Hollywood Boulevard. The girls want to window shop on Rodeo Drive, or just see someone famous!

Caroline and I stay back to play “traffic cop” and get all the rest where they need to go when they need to be there. We take turns being stationed in the hotel lobby, and convention centre lobby and sending groups of students back and forth between the two places. The Marriott across the street has free wifi in the lobby, so it’s become another popular collection place. And, most importantly, there’s a Starbucks on the second floor of the convention centre, and another one beside the Marriott, so Caroline and I are both very happy. Happy chaperones makes for a good week!!!

I often get asked about the nature of the projects that these students do. So here’s a sample of the Canadian project titles – you can see why by the end of each Fair, I’m even better than before at Trivial Pursuit:

Inhibition of the ATPase Activity of the Hepatitis C Virus NS3 Protein by Human Lactoferrin; Identification of Ezrin as a Colonic Substrate for Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase Sigma; Indoor Ground Manifold Tracking through Low-Cost Stereoscopy; Traffic Lights Fuzzy Controller; Simplifying SODIS: Recution of UV-Impeding Turbidity through Macroscopic Filtration; Plants Purify Pee

The goal is for everyone to arrive back at the hotel circa 2:30 to do another round of presentations before we head over to dinner and the Opening ceremonies this evening. I’ll let you know later on how well that actually executed!!