I found out some interesting things about the student social last night. Apparently, the capacity of the Aquarium was 400 people, and after 800 of us were crammed in there, they started turning people away. And they did, in fact, run out of booze. The social tonight is also open bar, so I’m going to have to get my rum n’ cokes early.
Today was also my trip to Alcatraz. We took a boat over, and when you first arrive there’s a park guide there that tells you little facts about the prison.
For example, Capone hated the nickname “Scarface” and instead preferred to be called “Snorky” or some other word that – at the time – meant “well dressed.” Capone was a bit of a dandy, apparently. I think the guide said something about the Birdman of Alcatraz not having any actual birds, but I wasn’t really paying attention. After that, we had a guided naturalist tour that focused on the island’s bird populations. I didn’t pay too much attention to that, either. I was too busy taking millions of pictures of the ruins and the view from the island. It was so beautiful, with all these crumpled buildings, or shells of buildings, all over the place.
After the naturalist tour, we did the prison tour. The prison tour is set up as an audio tour. They give you a little mp3 player and send you on your way. The audio tour was really well done; it was narrated in part by past inmates and guards. There were sound effects (jail cell doors slamming shut, the howl of the ocean winds, the chaos of riots) and the directions about where to go next on the tour were very easy to follow. The tour took us through the regular cells, solitary cells, the library, warden’s office, visitor area, dining area, recreation yard, and the key locations in specific break-out attempts. In one place you could see the pock-marks on the floor that had been made by grenades during one of the riots. It was pretty awesome. The tour contained personal anecdotes from the inmates and guards, about what life was like for them, or their memories of specific events.
{cell} 
I had thought the place would feel creepy, but it didn’t. There was one moment, when I was in a 5x9-foot cell and I the most fleeting sense of what it might be like to be locked in there. But I could never really know. I think the worst thing about that prison would be the view of San Francisco (only 1.25 miles away). It would be psychological torture to have freedom held in front of you like that every day. Alcatraz replaces the Aquarium as the highlight of my trip. I highly recommend it to anyone who comes here. It’s totally worth whatever the hell they are charging for it.
The social Wednesday night was a the Hyde St. Pier, which is part of a National Historic Site. It was open bar, again (seriously, who is paying for all this?). And one of the tall ships was open for us to walk around on and view. I love tall ships. Whenever I step on board one, I never want to leave. I didn’t bring my camera to this event, so I’ll just have to add some links to websites instead. There was also a bit of excitement at the social: an ambulance was called. I don’t know for what, I was on the tall ship at the time and people I asked afterwards don’t know. It arrived with lights flashing, but it didn’t leave right away, and when it did, it didn’t take anyone with it (I don’t think). If I ever find out what happened, I’ll let ya’ll know. I wouldn’t want you to lose sleep over it.
Thursday is the last day of the conference. I leave Friday morning. I’m going to try and squeeze some more sight seeing in tomorrow if I can. There’s some talks in the morning that I’m looking forward to, so it’ll have to be after those.
Addendum: I found out that someone had an insulin attack, and they called the ambulance for them.
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