<p>It was a beautiful sunny day! </p>
<p>The all UR graduation is in the Eastman Quad at 9AM. Takes something over an hour for the kids to file in up the steps from the lower lawn, to present some teaching awards and honorary degrees and to hear some short speeches plus the main speaker. (This year was Chris Matthews. He talked about "the pursuit of happiness" by describing how he joined the Peace Corps - in part to avoid Vietnam - and went to Swaziland.) </p>
<p>You then have a department ceremony where they give you the actual diploma. These are scattered around. Hajim - engineering school - uses Kodak Hall at Eastman, which is beautiful, but it's all college so engineers (of all kinds) have 3 ceremonies with their department one being symbolic. Ours was in the Interfaith Chapel. </p>
<p>Two pieces of advice:</p>
<ol>
<li>Try the dairy free chocolate sorbet at Hedonist in South Wedge (on South Street). It's insanely chocolately, like a truffle explosion.</li>
<li>Reservations in hotels for graduation go early. Directly across the river from school, connected by a footbridge, is Staybridge Suites. If you want to stay there, you must get on the wait list, which they start by hand sometime during the school year (like December). And you end up paying for the whole thing in advance. But it's really convenient and a nice place. By this fall, UR should have finished a new dorm next door - in what used to be part of the hotel parking lot. </li>
</ol>