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We left Wednesday morning, April 11, at what felt like the unholy time of 6:45 a.m., just as snow was starting to hit the Twin Cities again. Whatever unhappiness anyone felt about getting up so early seemed outweighed by the thought that we were about to escape the onslaught of snow and slush that was beginning to pool around our feet as we climbed into the shuttle vans to the airport, vans accompanied by Hamline faculty members Marcela Kostihova, Mike Reynolds, Tim Polk, Stephen Kellert, and Brandon Lussier.

Despite Northwest’s assurance that we would all be able to check in individually at the airport, only a few of us made it through before we were herded to group check-in to receive our boarding passes as a party.

A few hours later, after proofreading presentation scripts, trying to sleep, and making fun of the contents of the SkyMall catalogue, we stretched our legs and found that San Francisco was pleasantly warm and sunny. Temperatures were by no means tropical, but the mid-50s breeze was a welcome change from the snow we had left behind that morning.

The rest of Wednesday was spent checking in to the Holiday Inn Fisherman’s Wharf, exploring the bay area, and making sure to get some dinner. The night afforded plenty of food opportunitiesčtraditional San Francisco seafood, sourdough bread, Indian food, Japantown and Chinatown were all nearby, and we made sure to take advantage of those opportunities. Several of us found a blues club a couple blocks from our hotel and took in some blues sung by Leah Tysse before heading to bed.

Thursday was the first day of the conference. Busloads of students chartered us from our hotel and the 22 others up the coast to Dominican University in Marin County, the most affluent county in the United States. The traces of fog surrounding the Golden Gate Bridge began to lessen as we crossed it, and disappeared by the time we were just a few miles out of San Franciso.

As we stepped off the bus and onto Dominican’s campus, some of us became immediately envious of the lush flowerbeds, green grass, and tropical-seeming trees that surrounded every inch of the campus.

Revelry in the campus’ beauty soon gave way to panic about presenting. Some people wanted to make final revisions to their papers, and the search was on for one of the library’s open computers to change sentences, rewrite conclusions, and print off the outlines and scripts we would all need. My presentation was Thursday afternoon, and in order to prevent the desire to frantically write and rewrite my presentation, I came armed with a printed copy and was determined to leave it as it was.

My presentation group happened to be composed of five Hamline students in the English department. At NCUR, there are two kinds of presentationsčgroup oral presentations, where each person speaks and then answers questions, and poster presentations, in which a room is filled with people whose research is summarized on large posters and they are free to talk to other students about what they’ve done.

I can’t speak for everyone who attended the session I was presenting in, but I was impressed with the research I saw from other Hamline students. Our topics were extremely varied-ranging from teaching Shakespeare in post-9/11 America to the role of sex and power in hard-boiled detective fiction. Everyone seemed a little nervous, but confident in their material and eager to answer questions at the end of their presentation time.

By the time the buses left Dominican, around 5 p.m., many of us were tired and ready for the day to end, but either relieved to have finished our presentations and eager to see more, or still preparing for and excited to present later in the weekend.

Once back at the hotel, my roommates and I grabbed a couple more people and caught a bus over to Chinatown. After wandering the streets, trying to choose a restaurant out of the dozens that exist there, we were kindly solicited by a woman from one restaurant and we entered the place, starving. Our hunger was more than satisfiedčhuge helpings of various entrees later, we were full and ready to hit the town for the rest of the night.

Friday’s schedule was similar to Thursday’sčsome of us had finished presenting and were on campus to watch friends or other presentations that sounded interesting, while others were preparing and practicing for their own presentation time. I attended one session containing incredibly varied topics in women’s studies, Caribbean studies, family studies, art philosophy, and gender studies while Hamline students elsewhere presented in the areas of economics, sociology, and international-global studies.

Later, I sat in on a history round to listen to a friend discuss the mental health problems faced by Norwegian immigrants in Minnesota, while the topics in her round ranged from horror films as potential sources of history to Poland’s Zegota council for the Jews during German occupation of Poland in World War II.

With every round I sat in on, I grew increasingly appreciative of the presentation Hamline students were giving. Everyone’s research seemed unique and valuable, and the size of our group was impressive. Hamline has been attending the conference for several years now, and each year the contingent seems to grow. Of the abstracts submitted to NCUR from Hamline, 92 percent of them were accepted, compared to a nation-wide average of 61 percent.

Of the many schools represented at NCUR, Hamline had one of the largest delegations and is starting to build a bit of a reputation at the conference for the quality of their research, which often comes out of summer collaborative reseach, honors theses, and independent study projects.

Friday night, almost all 47 of us trekked down the street to Tierney’s, an Irish pub, for a group dinner. Students mingled with the faculty members as we ate, talked about the experience we’d had at the conference thus far, and got into a heated debate about whether the carriage at the end of Shrek was meant to be garlic or onion (if anyone can prove one or the other, please see Kellert in the philosophy department).

Saturday morning saw the last two rounds of presentations, and while most people had presented, many of us caught the buses back to Dominican to see friends’ presentations, catch one last poster presentation, or sit in on another group of presenters.

It was never hard to find something that sounded interesting to listen to at the conference-rather, the toughest choices seemed to be which things sounded the most interesting, because there was no way to take in everything we wanted to hear about.

Saturday afternoon was ours to explore the city, and people did-doing everything from going to Amusing America, a huge exhibit of arcade games and machines from the last 100 years, to watching the Yankees take on the Oakland Athletics at McAfee Colesium. Despite the wealth of things to do in San Francisco, we seemed unable to stop ourselves from talking about what we’d seen and heard at the conference, whether it was presentations we found a little disappointing, the many we were impressed with, and our own feelings about our research and presentations.

Sunday morning broke sunny and warm, and we lamented the trip home, though we boarded the bus in a generally cheerful manner as we headed back to the airport. A few hours later, we again deplaned and stretchedča little sorry to be home, but ready for a good night’s sleep. I can’t speak for everyone at the conference, but I had an amazing time and can say that this was, unequivocally, one of the best academic experiences I’ve ever had.