After 5 straight days of the Neuroscience Meeting, my brain felt a bit drained and needed recharging. A short break was what I needed! My first day of holiday was about shopping. The prices of many goods in the US are lower to start with (e.g. compared to Europe), and there's generally a greater variety to choose from. The freefalling greenback now makes it more affordable than ever to indulge a splurge in the US. Little wonder then I have spent about US$200 on books alone; a few of them were purchased during the conference where I could make use of special discounts. An old friend of mine came to join me from Stanford (in the San Francisco Bay Area) that evening for a short break as well. The next day, we set off with a couple of other people from our hostel to the aircraft carrier USS Midway, which is now decommissioned, docked in the San Diego Bay and turned into a museum. Our first impression upon entering the hangar deck was that the Midway was rather different from other norm...