Nobel day 5

Things have picked up over here in Stockholm. The rest of the troops have arrived, filling up the Grand Hotel to the best of our ability. My father’s been running around to press conferences, interviews, and various preparations. The rest of us only have one or two events each day to keep track of. Thankfully, my father has a personal attendant to make sure he doesn’t miss a thing, not that my mom would ever allow such a thing to happen.

On the 6th, there was a small reception at the Nobel museum. They used the opportunity to show an “instructional” video to make sure we all knew how to behave during the ceremony and the reception. My father even signed one of the cafeteria chairs, apparently a tradition at the museum:

It was a real treat to arrive in a limo with dozens of cheering children peering through the windows and waiting to see who got out. My father has even met his adoring fans outside the hotel:

The whole experience is rather surreal. The next day we had a reception for all the science (physics, chemistry, and economics) laureates and their families at the Royal Academy of Science. Besides having the chance to get our whole family together in once place, it was interesting to talk with other families in the same boat. There were a few amusing moments when we were standing with Bob Grubbs and his children, who are all above 6’3″ tall (including his daughter Katy), as my father, brother, and myself are all 6’3″ or taller. The 7 of us are able to make almost anyone feel incredibly short.

Today was the day of lectures. Besides being hung over from some ill-advised late night wine via room service, these lectures were definitely intended for colleagues, not family members. I’d like to say that I understood my father’s lecture, but when you can’t pronounce half the words coming out of his mouth, it makes it rather difficult to keep up. At least there were some molecular diagrams that I could pretend to understand, though even those were quite a bit more complex than the ones I learned in high school chemistry.

Of course, Stockholm is a beautiful city. Lots of time is spent walking around the streets and poking our heads in the little shops. Tomorrow we’ll try to hit up a few more museums in the little spare time we have.