Paying it back again

 Last week I received an email from the woman at the University that I've worked with on several studies regarding the interface between cochlear implants and their users.  She wanted to refer me to another team at the U - in a different department, but doing somewhat related work.

So I said yes.  As I said to the team at the U today, I will always say yes, unless I absolutely cannot.  I'll go to the University, and I'll spend the time, because anything I can do to help make cochlear implants work better will be a tiny  - not a repayment, really, but a paying forward, for the incredibly beneficial impact these devices have had on my life.  

So I drive to the University campus -- which is no longer a small thing - the best case is that the drive will be an hour and a half in each direction, and in this case, the team I was going to work with was in Elliot Hall, the Psych department, which doesn't have a parking lot.  I, a 1981 of the University, flinched when I heard that, but as it turned out, they've built some parking ramps on campus in the last forty-five years, and getting a parking spot is no longer the difficult thing it was.  

Unfortunately, the campus has also changed somewhat in forty-five years, and I was relying on my phone to tell me how to get from the East River Rd ramp to Elliot Hall, and unfortunately my phone apparently didn't know.  First it had me to up to East River Rd and turn left, which was, unfortunately, incorrect.  If I'd turned right I'd have been at least going in the right direction.  But I walked up to Church St and took a left there, and saw Amundson Hall, Lind Hall, Mechanical Engineering Bldg, nope nope nope.  Stopped some undergraduates who were able to point me in the right direction and I arrived only fifteen minutes or so late.

We spent about two and a half hours doing the testing, and then the grad student who was doing the computer bits was also ready to leave for the day and said he was walking the same direction, and walked me there, which was really very nice of him.  

The score: when I arrived at the parking garage, I had 500 steps on my tracker, just from getting up, making coffee, getting dressed, all that.  When I arrived at Elliot Hall, I was up to 4500, so I walked about 4000 steps taking the scenic route.  With my grad student to guide me it took us 1500 steps to get back to the garage.

Honestly, Google Maps.  We won't be doing that again.  

I mean, yes, I'll go back to the University and do whatever studies they have to help advance our collective knowledge about how we interact with our CIs.  But I'll find another way to navigate, because given how much everything has changed, I am not counting on just finding things on my own.  Though I did get to walk by Walter Library - man, a LOT of hours were spent there.  And Coffman Union!  Lots more.

I did love my time at Minnesota.  It's a great University, and I'm glad to be able to continue to part of its continued contributions.