Prospective week ends

The prospective student staying with me ended up being around for only a couple of days. It turns out that he'd visited Harvard the previous week, and was off to Princeton right after he was done here, and it occurred to me that I have ex-classmates doing PhDs in philosophy at both of those places. I asked my guest if he'd met/heard of either of them, and apparently he was (probably) going to stay with the one at Princeton while visiting there. Small world.

This also brings an element of personal competition into the picture. Which university will be selected? Which of us was the better host? (If apartment tidiness is a factor, I've definitely lost that one.)

Prospective-student-campus-visit-week came to a magically delicious end last night with a hastily planned outing to the Pontiac, which is where I first discovered Live Band Karaoke last year. Was Live Band Karaoke on last night? Oh, it was on, though only two of us actually sang. Nate sang an amazing rendition of Snow's "Informer" to the tune of Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion". I took a shot at Blur's "Song 2" (the "woo hoo" song). It was pretty awesome until this 30-something guy who was probably way too lonely for his own good decided to make friends with us (where "us" does not include any of the guys).

After that we went to a hip hop club, and people spilled beer on us. That was also not so fun.

Overall, though, great fun. And it was all free, paid for by the Philosophy Department as part of the budget set aside for entertaining the prospectives. They should visit more often.