Outside Stockholm's Concert Hall, anticipation builds as guests arrive, directed by Swedish students wearing traditional studentmössor.

You can't expect great photography from an event where cameras are disallowed, but before the actual ceremony started I took this picture of the stage.

On the big golden N, King Carl XVI Gustaf met each laureate to give him the medal and accept a handshake. Thereupon follow three bows: one to the king, one to the Swedish Academy and other members of the Nobel Committee, and one finally to the audience, as a series of trumpet calls sound from the front and back of the auditorium. Soloist Ida Falk Winland sang Händel and Stravinsky in between the awards. I managed the first verse of the national anthem, but had to admit defeat in verse II.

None of us could have gone to this event without the help of the Swedish Fulbright Office -- Eric, Monica, and all the rest, whose hard work is much appreciated.