Episode 95: Nate Bell, Thomas Jones, and Bailey Ratzburg

In May, Vanderbilt assistant athletic director Nate Bell helped lead a group of Vanderbilt student-athletes to Iceland for an immersive week of sightseeing, learning, and team-building. Bell, along with Thomas Jones of the Vanderbilt football team and Bailey Ratzburg of the women’s swimming team, join the show to discuss the highlights and meaning of the trip.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Okay, welcome back to On the Ball, the podcast from the Vanderbilt Sports and Society Initiative. I'm Manager Marinist, and today I'm really excited to have three guests joining us. Nate Bell from here at Vanderbilt Athletics. Nate is uh assistant athletic director for student services in the Ingram Center for Student Athlete Success. Then we've got Thomas Jones from the Vanderbilt football team from right here in Smyrna, Tennessee. And he is a double major in econ and kinesiology. And then we have Bailey Ratzburg from Janesville, Wisconsin. I'm from Madison, Wisconsin. So we were just sharing a bit of uh Milwaukee Brewers talk before we got started here. She's on the swimming team here at Vandy and majoring in medicine, health, and society. Um, so Nate, Thomas, Bailey, thank you so much for joining the show.

SPEAKER_03 0:52

Thanks for having us. Thank you for having us.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

All right, Nate. So you guys now it's been two months. We've been talking about uh scheduling this interview for a while, but um had an opportunity to travel uh to Iceland as part of a trip that Vanderbilt Athletics put together. Um, not just the three of you, but a group uh of uh staff and faculty and and student athletes, um, which I thought was uh a pretty incredible opportunity and just wanted to learn more about it. So, Nate, um I think people out there may be familiar with maybe that you know the basketball team's gonna go as a team to uh Europe and play against some uh you know other teams in France or Italy. We've seen that. What was different about this trip um bringing together athletes from multiple sports and how did it come together?

SPEAKER_03 1:40

Yeah, it it it's funny, it was bought up probably about a year ago, is when this all started, like the planning stages and whatnot. We've the Ingram Center has has is always very invested in student athlete experience and wanting to provide opportunities outside of sport, even outside of the academic side of things. And so we've we've done trips in the past that have been maybe more service-oriented. We've we've partnered with organizations like Souls for Souls, we've gone to places like Guatemala, Jamaica, Morocco, Costa Rica have been some places we've gone to. Um and those have all been really great experiences. And a few a few years ago, Vanderbilt um created kind of a new uh graduation requirement through uh immersion Vanderbilt on campus, where students um kind of pursue some other type of uh experience or opportunity to complement their academic journey and their educational path. And so what I was thinking about when I was when I was looking at this trip, I wanted to have this trip be a part of student athletes immersion uh experience, immersion project so they could complete that graduation component um through the different steps that we create for this for this trip and this opportunity. So, and also I wanted to have a diverse group of student athletes from a variety of sports. We had eight student athletes um attend six different sports, which I thought was really cool. Um Bailey and Thomas might talk about this a little bit, but just you know, they they most of them didn't know each other that well before going on this trip, and and I think they they bought you know quite well. And um, yeah, my partner on this trip was Dr. Jamie Bruce, she's a faculty member in the uh medicine health and society uh department here at Vanderbilt. She's also um a faculty fellow through the emergent office, so we added that connection. Um, she's very involved in the emergent experience here too, and so it seemed like a great, a great fit for her to be have a partner in crime as we kind of created this experience. And I in terms of places to go, I was I was I was thinking all over the place. And I I wanted to be something that was that was intriguing um for student athletes, a place that likely student athletes haven't been before. Um just one where you can really immerse yourself in the in the culture and the the geological elements. We've got we had some sport elements we we we weaved in there. It wasn't certainly a competition type trip. We didn't we didn't compete like some of our other team trips. Those are focused on on competition, but also sightseeing. We wanted this to be kind of as fully immersive as possible for the week that we were there. And I feel like we we did a lot of really fun things, uh at least I'm a little bit biased uh as the one that kind of created the the schedule, but um, I think it was a really great experience um for all. So that's a little bit of the context around where it started. And um it was about it's funny, about a year ago, I think we had our first meeting just to like brainstorm places to go. And and one year later, it's kind of crazy to see how it all it all came together.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

Oh, that's awesome. And Thomas and Bailey, I got some questions for you. One more for Nate. Um when you mentioned you know, this was helped fulfill the immersion requirement, you had Jamie Bruce from Immersion with you. Did that mean that there were certain prerequisites to come on the trip or expectations of a project to be completed either on the trip or afterwards?

SPEAKER_03 4:51

Yeah, so the the immersion variable like graduation requirement is kind of twofold. So there's one, there's there's a uh an experience that you're doing, and then the second part is a culminating project. So like everyone can kind of do a culminating project in whatever uh interest they have, but we want at least this to be at the experience part of it. And we even had like we we we tried to partner across all of campus in a variety of ways. We had four separate um, I guess, group meetings before the trip where we brought in um global health and safety office to talk just about just um preparing us for going to a new country and maybe some some cultural differences to to get um acquainted to before we go, versus like you just experiencing this when you're stepping into the country, which may not be the greatest timing for some of those things. Um we have Dr. Brian Kissle from Peabody come over to our to he zoomed in with our group. Um he's been to Iceland, so just kind of giving us an experience on that. And then Kate Devine came to talk with us. Kate was a former soccer player here at Vanderbilt, and she was um a professional soccer player in Iceland for a year, and so she came to talk with our group just about the experiences that she had. And so we we have these kind of lead up like learning sessions too, which are also important from an immersion standpoint that there's some learning sessions. It's not just the trip. And then the culminating project standpoint is kind of where the students take it from here in terms of what they want to kind of create, and that can be wide-ranging um in terms of what they want to do and use this as a as the project element to complete that graduation.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

All right. Okay, Thomas, coming to you. Um, this is a trip that takes you leave in early May, so I guess you're just coming off of spring football practice. Um, how did you hear about this trip? And why did you decide to go?

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Uh, I was actually set to graduate in May, but I hadn't completed my culminating project. I was having some issues from a summer internship, trying to get that to apply, and I was like, I might as well just do another semester. And Dr. Nick or Nate came to me and he was telling me about this opportunity and how it would fulfill the culminating project, and I figured it was a great opportunity, and I was a little bit worried about coming straight out of Springball, like that being maybe in our only break. I was a little worried up until the trip about not having any free time, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I felt like it was a like perfect timing almost.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

Yeah. Had you done any um international traveling before? Like, what were your expectations of what Iceland would be like before you went on the trip? And how did that either meet or meet those expectations or or surprise you?

SPEAKER_01 7:31

Uh I haven't that was my first time out of the country. So I was having, I was trying to rush to get the passport and everything. I didn't know how all that stuff worked. But once the you know, the requirements to travel out of the country, once that was finished with the stress kind of went away and it was more excitement for the trip. And then out of nowhere, I started getting a lot of stuff on my social media feeds about Iceland and I was looking up food in Iceland, all that. I was really excited for the food. And the food was a little underwhelming because I was seeing the all the touristy stuff online. Um, a lot of the videos I also saw, it was like very gloomy and dark. But when we were there, it was it was like that a little bit, but it was a lot. The weather was a lot more bipolar than I had expected it to be. It was more on and off, sunny, a little bit of drizzle, cloudy. It was, it was, it wasn't as cold as I expected it to be, but it was it was cold.

SPEAKER_02 8:25

Okay. Bailey, how about you? How did you learn about this opportunity and why was it something that you wanted to take advantage of?

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Um, I learned about this opportunity um just kind of through Nate and just like some of the stuff they had sent out through um just our student resources. I also had um friends in Dr. Jamie Bruce's class. So it kind of like twofold. Um kind of being an MHS student and a student athlete, it kind of like aligned perfectly. And I thought this would be like just with our season, our season's from August to March, and it's a hard, it's a hard season to do a lot of traveling in. And um, this is just like it kind of worked out perfectly, and that's kind of how I started getting involved in the trip. And I mean, I it Nate did a great job advertising and implanting it of what he wanted, and um, I could just see the fashion from both of him and Jamie's perspective, and it just kind of made me want to get involved and be excited for it.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Yeah, has the swim team done any international trip since you've been on the team? Or no, you go maybe not internationally, but like uh have your training camp in different parts of the country. How did how did this trip differ maybe from some other trips you've been on in athletics?

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Yeah, I've never traveled internationally with the swim team before. Um just something we have 30 girls, something kind of hard to do and travel with. Um, but uh we we've traveled around the country. We've gone from, you know, California and San Diego all the way down to all over in Florida um just for our training trips. And I think it was very I think it was cool to see um just different sports being there. I think that that perspective and like talking with other people. And then like one night we had sat over dinner and talking about all these different things that were happening all over in athletics that we would never know about. We were comparing our locker rooms and talking about different um, you know, schedules and things like that. I would never have known, you know, with our our team's very close, but we all follow the same schedule and kind of stay in the same circle. So it was kind of cool to see that and it kind of differed in that.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

Thomas, how that aspect of the trip, you know, I notice even just working here, oftentimes if I go eat lunch in Hendrick's room, the teams kind of stick together, you know, and you hope as uh an older person, like I wish that you know the student athletes would get to know each other from different sports a little bit more. Um, how was that aspect of the trip for you? And has that been your experience as a member of the football team that you really get to know the football players, but it's harder to get to know student athletes from other sports? How did this trip uh maybe change that opportunity for you?

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Uh it was actually a a great opportunity for that because I feel like we, especially from the different aspects of sports that we play, I feel like we never would have connected on the same level if we never went on this trip together. Like even if we did sit in Hendrix and talk with each other, I feel like we wouldn't have as deep of a connection that we all established throughout the trip, especially being overseas, where we all relate in one way. And it went from all we're venerable athletes to we have personal things that we all share with each other.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

Have you stayed in touch with some of the people that you went on the trip with that you might not have been friends with otherwise?

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Yes, I have. Uh I know Aliyah from the basketball team. She went, I had a class with her and Dr. Jamie Bruce this sum last summer. And we we get we get connected in that class, but we had never really talked after that. And then after the trip, we've we've continued to talk from there. That's great. How about you, Bailey?

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Yeah, I um I stay connected with a couple of a couple of the people and we sit in weekly meetings together now. Like now we kind of connect me. I like I've never talked to Macy. Uh she's on the she's on the golf team. I've never golf is on their own schedule compared to swim, and it's very different. And now weekly we sit together and we talk about our weeks. So it's kind of something expect a friendship I never would have expected.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

Now, Nate, I know you worked really hard on the itinerary, uh, but you shared. I saw Thomas the video that you uh put together for the university. You guys saw lava and horses and black sand beaches. Um uh Nate, and thinking about what you hoped the student athletes would experience on this trip versus how it actually panned out, like what were some of the highlights from just the uh seeing the sites, seeing something that's completely different that we wouldn't see here? Uh what were those highlights for you?

SPEAKER_03 12:55

I mean, yeah, I have high expectations you put it together. And I I mean I I feel like from what I hoped for and expected, I feel like it met those expectations in terms of I mean, we did so much in those seven days and and saw so many things. And I mean, just the the geographical elements to it. Like I just remember standing in one space and I was like just looking at it in one direction. It's like there are waterfalls cascading off the rocks, the mountains. There's to the right, there's black sand beaches. I'm looking left, and there are thermal hot pools, just smoke just radiating out of the ground. Um you've got lava caves over here, and this is just in one location. I'm not even moving and seeing all of this in one spot. So it's one of those places that um I think is just unique. I'm not sure how many places in the world would would be similar to um to Iceland, and I think it's just a special, special experience from that standpoint. I mean, we we hiked a glacier, like one of my meaningful moments is just kind of standing on top of a nice glacier with this group and just like looking down, like this is this is just crazy that we're here, right? Right, like it's just like very few people have this opportunity ever. And I feel like we were stacking those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities like from each day on. And it's it each day was different in its own way. And it it was I don't know if there was one thing that was like this is the greatest thing we did, but just like communally looking at it. Um we also had some great opportunities for alumni connections, which was which was something I I didn't think about when I when I created this trip. Like, oh, let's let's make sure we're maybe connecting with Vanderbilt you know alums in Iceland. One, I didn't know how many Banderville alums would exist in Iceland. We do have a handful, believe it or not, and reached out to a number of them. Um, two of them, former uh Vanderbilt Soccer student athletes who just graduated this past December. Um, Macy Tier and Hannah McLaughlin are were our professional uh soccer players in Iceland. And in digging into it, all the stars kind of aligned and they had a match in Reykjavik while we were there. And the the playing of the stadium that was about you know 15, 20 minute walk from our hotel. And so we took advantage of going to see them play, watch that match, kind of get to hang out out with them at the end of the game, kind of you know, have that kind of kind of natable connection between you know Kerner Van Roswell athletes and them who who are you know didn't graduate too long ago, but you could just tell it was meaningful to them just to see kind of like uh an aspect of of an old life, or maybe a maybe not too old life, the one where they they stayed connected, and you know, Sydney Watts, one of their former teammates, is on the trip too, so that was kind of a natural connection. So I mean we it I it was just so great to see you know student athletes. We had football, swim, golf, volleyball, women's basketball, soccer all on this trip. And it was it it was just it was a lot of fun to see them all interact and and and kind of me washed from the back as they were experiencing all these things too. And I everyone everyone experiences new new opportunities in different ways. And it was just fun to watch each of these aspects that we were able to see and kind of how they interacted in that moment as well.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Thomas, Nate mentioned there were moments where he's like, I can't believe this is me like experiencing this right now. Um, were there any moments like that for you where you're looking at something or experiencing something and thinking, like, I can't believe that this is uh my life that I'm experiencing this right at this moment?

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Yeah, mine was mine would be very similar to Nate's. It was like breathtaking to me that everywhere we went, it was something like that. It was always some type of uh natural geographic kind of excursion that we were going on. That it was it's all right next to each other. We've never it was a 10-15 minute drive, and then we're at the next spot. Like the longest drive we have without seeing something was an hour. And even when you're driving, it's uh just scenic views the entire way. And it was very, it was very surreal to be in the moment.

SPEAKER_02 17:24

It must have been surreal for those two alumni playing professional soccer in Iceland to all of a sudden have this cheering section from Vanderbilt. So what was the soccer game like for you? What did you feel like it meant to those two uh young women?

SPEAKER_01 17:38

The soccer game was it was very interesting. It was really one of the first times I I've been that close to a soccer match. You could hear everybody on the field communicating, and it was at the end of the game, whenever the alumni came up to us, it was very uh almost you could see their excitement, and it kind of filled our excitement because we were out there, it's cold. I know they're cold, they're in shorts and t-shirts, and it was just like almost a warmth that came over the crowd. And the fans also, the fans were very energetic about their team, so that was also pretty cool to see.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

Yeah, which help they won the game. Oh, they won. All right, they didn't know.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Yeah, they were the opposing team. It was not a very there was a lot of yelling going on the whole game.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

Oh wow. Those home fans must have been like, how did these visitors get all these fans? What were the special moments for you from just a sites perspective, Bailey?

SPEAKER_00 18:42

Um, I think one of my favorite things were all the waterfalls we saw. I feel like so many waterfalls the whole week everywhere went. There was like a new waterfall to go to, and or a black sand beach, or these beautiful like cliffs. And I think that was like my favorite part, and like how they incorporated their you know, nature into their architecture was really cool to kind of see and hear the history of. And like, I guess I didn't understand the history of Iceland, and we took a walking tour of the Viking, he kind of explained how everything's in these pillars, and it's like, and then you go out the next day and we go on a tour, and we'd be like, Oh, now I understand why everything in Reykjavik looks like this because it's exactly what it looks like out of nature. And I was like, this is just kind of cool. And like we would tell like Thomas was saying, we would just drive. And I think one of my favorite things we'd be driving, and everyone's exhausted from walking, and you would look to the left, and there was like baby lambs, or there's baby sheep, and then and then you look to your right, and there's horses in the water and the beaches, and then you look back to your left, and there's now a waterfall. And so I feel like everywhere, like just driving, like you can't get that anywhere here. You just drive and you waterfall and waterfall, and it was just I feel like that was my kind of surreal moment of like this is kind of crazy. I'm sitting in a bus getting like a tour people would pay for, but like I'm just sitting here.

SPEAKER_02 19:59

So did any of you have any um what's up?

SPEAKER_03 20:03

Oh, go ahead, Nate. I was like, we tried to to interwork because we we were based out of Reykjavik for the entire trip, but we we tried to rotate one day where we would we would go out into the country to view the nature and experience that with staying in the city and experiencing what Reykjavik had to offer. So I think it was a good balance of experiencing the city with with the nature, and I think that kind of helped you know with the longevity of the trip too. Because when we went out, like we were we were out for about 12 straight hours, and we would drive to a place and then we're getting out and experience it, and then we're getting back in the bus and drive a little bit farther, and like each spot was just was just more incredible than the next. But they were they were long days, so I it kind of helped to kind of stack uh an out-of-the-city day with with an in-the-city day. And we did try to provide some free time, and as as much as I love to structure trips and things like that, I understood that the benefit of having some some free time. Because honestly, and and Bailey Thomas may talk more into this. I think the unstructured time can often turn into maybe some even the most memorable times, too, when it's it's more of an informal getting together. You're randomly walking the streets and walking to you know a shop that's just like the coolest shop you've ever seen. Or you kind of have those more informal experiences. I want to make sure those could happen organically on a trip like this. Um, I think though a lot of those happened within those, those, those city guys.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

Did any of the three of you have any interactions with not with Vanderbilt alumni that you ran into, but just you know, residents of Iceland that were curious about who are these athletes? What is Vanderbilt? Did they uh ask you any questions? I know college sports is very different in other parts of the world. Um, what were interactions with the people like over there?

SPEAKER_01 21:45

Uh I know I had one at the the soccer match. It was these kids working the booth. It was um, I think they were part of the same league, but for the boys. And they were in there working the booth and they saw, I think. either mine or Brian's hat and when we were up there ordering and then we were standing right outside of the concessions and they called us over and then they kept asking us if we're in the college football game and we were shocked because we didn't even know that they knew we were football players or that but I didn't even know that they knew the college football game so it it definitely threw me off and it was a it was very exciting actually yeah they were talking about like the EA sports college football video game are you yeah that's great yeah I wouldn't have imagined that they would play that there that's cool.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

How about you Bailey any interactions with with people that stand out?

SPEAKER_00 22:38

I think it was just more like people would ask us why we were traveling and they would be like you can tell your guys are athletes. We got a lot of like what sports do you guys play and so I think it's you know as a sport of eight athletes you walk around and you can kind of just tell that there's a a presence of athletes but um I think there was just kind of a lot of people were like interested in like how our school gives us this opportunity and like kind of like how we were even able to be there. They were like oh you're competing and we're like no like we're just like kind of here immersing ourselves in this like other culture while like being with other athletes and I think that was something that like we had a lot of questions about and a lot of looks of like I think it was a lot there was a lot of um weird side glances we were walking down the roads.

SPEAKER_02 23:22

I think a lot of people were like who are these group of eight athletes walking down the road when I travel one of the um I mean obviously the trip itself usually is pretty awesome but I come back with like a different perspective on my own life back home, you know, like motivated to do certain things or just a fresh perspective on not taking certain things for granted or wanting to change things in a certain way. Like Bailey did did you come back with any sort of change of mindset or perspective or priorities?

SPEAKER_00 24:04

I've only been out of the country one other time into a small island and so I'd never kind of seen life outside of the US and I think that maybe not like a big life lesson but like I was just kind of like really intrigued to see how their culture was and how like they were very slow, like very there's no crime like it's very relaxed. Like we were in Reykjavik we were based out of Reykjavik and I mean two thirds of their country's population lives in the greater Reykjavik area or something like that at something upwards of 60 something percent and we were walking around and there was like nobody like it was such a different culture like to kind of put myself in too I was like you know Nashville's two times the size of Iceland. It's you know so so different. And I think that it kind of made me like sit there and be like I like to see how their country was working and kind of be like hmm like America's different so I think that was kind of maybe something I brought back was just like a different perspective of how fast paced we are here and like maybe slow down and just like because we like when we were there for like example me and Madeline my room one of our roommates she's also on the same team we went and we would visit a Greek donut shop. We went there like three or four times the whole week and we became like friends with the owner we'd walk down the street and he'd be like hey girls and we're like hey like he's like it was sad to see us leave just like small things like that like I I don't know how many people in Nashville would slow down and talk and he like explained his whole history to us and was just you know kind of super welcoming and I think that kind of gave me this perspective of like wow like I'm grateful I was able to experience that and kind of change my perspective and living here.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

Yeah so you went to Iceland to make friends with the owner of a Greek donut shop. That's a pretty cool story.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

All right Thomas how about you did you come back with any sort of uh change of perspective on your life um something that meant a lot to you there that you carried back with you uh definitely trying to basically piggybacking off what Bailey said it was I had never been out of the country and I had never really desired to be out of the country but I was always open to the opportunity and of course you hear in history there are the history books and from other people's experiences or on the news what what it's like in other countries but going from American culture to the Icelandic culture is extremely different. It's almost like two different worlds like the people the people there of course are different but just how they treat each other and like they're they're very big on like personal space and other things like that just uh all around respect for each other. And yeah like she said people would just stop and talk to you if they had a genuine question they would they would stop you and ask you or they would sit there and stare but uh like Brian had his foot was broken so he was on a scooter and they had never seen that before so we were getting a lot of stares and a lot of people were asking us like what it is because apparently whenever they get hurt or something like that they just stay at home they don't go out. So it was a very uh yeah very big culture shock and it definitely opened my eyes to the broader nation outside of the United States and what how different lives can be on a day-to-day basis especially when it comes to like just going to work or something like that like if you see a lot of people walking around with like like headphones in just staring down with like no care in the world which of course you see that here but at the same time those people that would be looking out their phone you see them constantly looking up being aware of their surroundings and you you didn't really see that there it was more like people in their own world just enjoying themselves you mentioned prior to the trip you didn't necessarily have a desire to visit other countries did it has that changed now that you've been on this trip and have you talked to some of your friends or teammates about wanting to travel a hundred percent uh I'll tell them as anytime it comes up I'll tell them if they get a chance with rentable to to take it no matter when it is if they have the opportunity it's 100% go especially if it's out of the country because it's the school's paying for it and you might as well do it and it's like a once in a lifetime opportunity.

SPEAKER_02 28:17

Nate uh from your standpoint in uh the area of athletics that you're in is the fact that Vanderbilt provides this opportunity for student athletes unique in any way? Is it something that you know you see across the country and like everybody's doing it. And uh just as we wrap this up like what other types of opportunities might there be in the future is this something that that you're that will continue or maybe you're already planning uh for next year.

SPEAKER_03 28:49

I think this is a a unique yeah I don't think every school invests in student ethics in in in this type of way across the country. I I do think you know there are you you see sports teams taking trips like this more of a competitive level and whatnot but I think this is a this is definitely a unique experience that you know my goal is to to continue and I'm already starting to think about what it's gonna look like next year and just some feedback from the students student athletes that went this year. Especially in this day and age of college athletics I think the student athlete experience can be pushed the wayside I think one thing we do at Vanderbilt is make sure that's still an emphasis and I think trips like this show that just show the emphasis that you know we're we're we're cheering we want to make sure student athletes are successful in their competition fields um and obviously I I oversee our academic support resources here so we want to make sure student athletes are doing well in the classroom and and reaching the potential academically and I think experiences like this show that we are invested in the full holistic development of student athletes. I think trips like this really puts you you're kind of in you're outside of your comfort zone in a lot of ways. I think outside your comfort zone in a good way with other people that are still feeling the same thing so you kind of have that unique bond when you are you know when you're experiencing these things. And I think it creates what I call the kind of memory defense. So like these are things that you're gonna be thinking about for the rest of your life and telling these stories to you know these and your family and your friends and those stories will continue to grow it's one of those things that you're not you're not gonna forget. I think those are important and that's why travel is important to me and why I try to incorporate as much as I can in my life because those things and and the memories continue to grow and get more exciting as the years go on.

SPEAKER_02 30:40

That's awesome. Well Nate Thomas Bailey thank you so much uh for joining the show I know you uh sounds like you had an amazing time I wish you uh more experiences like this in the future and uh did an incredible job representing uh not only yourselves but Vanderbilt you know in other parts of the world that's pretty special so thanks again