Maria Santos

This morning my friend Oskar contacted me on Skype, and asked me if I was going to Cal Day events. Why yes, I said. This is the one day of the year that the public is invited into all the building on campus, and portions of the collections of the natural history museum are put on display. Many of the departments have special presentations and events, to try to show the public what it is we do here. Palmer was excited to go, especially when I told him about the band playing. Oskar said he figured a Cal gal like me would be going, and that he had a favor to ask: to give his friend Maria Santos a big hug. He said, "It is OK in California to give a random stranger a hug. It is not OK in Iceland."

I let Palmer do the honors, when we finally found Ms. Santos, standing around a bunch of stuffed birds and lizards in jars.

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