Chelsey in Chicago

I went to Virginia Dec 5-7th... that's right, I was there for a whole 48 hours. I had planned to go out there for Thanksgiving but the prices were double the norm and I was going to be done with classes the following week so we decided to hold off. However my schedule is so crazy and busy that this was all we could squeeze in. Even 48 hours was difficult because I had my 20 page research paper due the 8th but had training with Academic Approach all day, so I did my best to finish before going, but I couldn't finish in time. So, Tuesday night we went out for pizza after he picked me up. It was a California themed pizza place! Which means I didn't feel so out of place when I asked for ranch dressing to dip my crust into :) Wednesday I worked on my paper for a few hours while Patrick read next to me on the couch. We then went out for a run so I could see the recently completed path along the waterway of Portsmouth. Thursday we ran along the Jordan Bridge, over another ...

I went to Nashville a MONTH ago, but haven't gotten to this post yet. Anne, my running buddy here from the Netherlands as a visiting professor and who is leaving Dec 12, invited me to do a race with her in Nashville. We took a Mega Bus from Chicago to Nashville (10 hours) and left at midnight on a Thursday. Sleeping wasn't too terrible but we were still exhausted when we got there. Not far from where the bus dropped us off, we found a breakfast spot: the Frothy Monkey. It was tasty and afterwards we walked about a mile to pick up our bibs at a local running store. On the walk there we saw Broadway which is supposed to be the main drag, what I imagine is displayed when tv programs are talking about Nashville. I was surprised at how small it was. After four dense blocks of bars and restaurants and hoards of people on the sidewalk, you were either at the river, or walking up a quiet hill. There are a ton of neon signs that light up at night, making it look much more happeni...

So, I had every intention of coming here and devoting myself solely to my studies. As you may recall, during my undergrad I worked two jobs at one point while attending Sac Sate. I was always very busy and never felt like I had the time to really invest in my school work, it was always about just getting it done. So, while the tuition is outrageous at UChicago, I really wanted to come out here and focus on the school work and enjoy the city in my spare time. However, as I mentioned many posts back, I was awarded work study and so was seeking a job in the community. I now have three jobs (only two overlapping at a time as you'll see). On Saturday mornings I tutored 5th - 8th graders in the suburbs at Kimberly Lightford's Saturday University and twice a week I am the arts and cultural assistant at Experimental Station . And now I have gotten a job as a tutor for SAT prep with  Academic Approach . Saturday University is in Westchester, a suburban neighborhood 35 to 50 minutes...

One of the images under the dome. Once a month the Adler Planetarium offers yoga under their dome. There were probably somewhere around 30 people there who participated. I gazed at galaxies, planets and neutron star collisions as I was guided through poses like, "star gazer" or "eagle" under the Eagle Nebula Pillars . The price for this event was a little cheaper than regular admission and did include admission so you could check out the planetarium afterwards. I walked around for about an hour and a half before getting to hungry to continue. I got to touch a piece of the moon, look through a 20 foot telescope from the 1700s, put my hand in an imprint of an astronaut's, and check what my weight would be on the moon (17 lbs.). I then biked back home to tell you of this magnificent Chicago morning.

With two papers due after Thanksgiving break and the quarter ending one week later, I decided to stay in Chicago to take care of business. I initially thought of taking Thanksgiving as my day off from schoolwork and just lazily enjoy the solitude (Maggie's in Fresno) but Chicago had other plans in mind. First, the University promoted an event called Thanksgiving at UChicago, where you get paired up with a professor or faculty member for dinner. So I thought, why not? Could be fun! Then, I found out Chicago has its own Thanksgiving Day parade. And finally, when I was matched with a  professor for dinner, I offered to make a pie to bring. So, yesterday I took the bus downtown to see the parade on State St. It was much less crowded than the Disney one, at least the street I went down to catch it, but it took me a little longer to weasel my way up to the front. It was scheduled from 8-11 which seemed a little long and I wanted to get some work done on my paper, so I got there a l...

So, apparently here in Chicago, Christmas comes before Thanksgiving. On Friday 11/17, there was a tree lighting ceremony in Millennium Park. I went downtown with Anne and her Serbian friend (can't remember her name now) an hour before it was supposed to be lit. We had raced out of the house to catch the bus so I didn't grab my umbrella and neither of them had brought one so, after finding where the tree was, we walked to Macy's to get out of the rain. This particular Macy's is in the building of the first department store in America, Marshall Field's (This was someone and something I had read about before coming to Chicago though I don't remember too many of the details.). We went up the eight floors, each cheerfully decorated and then back down as it was getting closer to tree lighting time. Not surprising, the park had gotten much more crowded but we still managed to get up close to the tree. The rain, which dumped on us as we left the Macy's had...

They say Chicago is a city of neighborhoods. Pilsen is a neighborhood south west of the center and is primarily a Mexican one. After a run with Anne 3 or so Sunday's ago, Maggie and I took a bus downtown. Unfortunately they were doing some work on the trains so, after much back and forth and delays, we eventually got to Pilsen. Maggie felt at home because she said it smelled like a Mexican neighborhood (combination of fabric softener and something else, I think she said). She was eager to try some of the food too, you know her people's food ;) Because I had run 10 or so miles and because it was mid morning, we were both very hungry. We headed in the direction of a museum we planned on going to but were hoping to find someplace to eat before reaching it. We landed at a small diner (counter space only) with three Mexican women cooking up pancakes, gorditas, bacon, and chilaquiles. One of the cooks asked us what we got the last time but, Maggie assured her we had never been to...

Many have been curious as to how Maggie is or what she's been up to here. She initially took a week to settle in after our road trip and then spent the next few weeks registering her car (she's got Illinois plates and a license!), taking care of health insurance, applying for jobs, etc. It was a busy and stressful time for her but she says she learned a whoooole lot. After not having great luck with the job search in something other than teaching, she decided to go ahead and start substituting. There is a charter school system with elementary, middle and high schools. She has subbed for them all and has had some very interesting experiences. Even the sub jobs can be few and far between so she also began subbing for adult English classes in the evening. Lately she has been working for the charter schools in the morning (she got a few longer term positions) and the English classes in the same evening. She has been super busy! But, she feels like she's gotten what she wanted...

In October I visited the Art Institute of Chicago, saw a string quartet, and enjoyed a Halloween themed University of Chicago Symphony performance. The university had organized a trip to the Art Institute where they would pick us up on campus, in a school bus, and drive us to the museum and back. When we were dropped off we were told to be back at the bus in three hours and that the time was ours to do what we pleased in the museum. There was a tour that gave an overview of the museum so I figured I might as well do that to get my bearings. On the tour I met Anne, the assistant professor from the Netherlands I now run with. We recognized each other from the bus and were the only two from the university in the group taking the tour. The older gentleman to your right was our enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide. The overview was great and we hit some of the highlights but of course there is so much more to see. I think the university is doing an identical trip this month so I mi...

The Campus The buildings at the university are magical. There are perched gargoyles, ivy covered walls swaying in the wind, heavy wooden doors, windy stone staircases, and one of my classrooms has a fireplace. The buildings where my classes are held are arranged like the outline of a square so in the middle, the "main quadrangle," there are stone walkways, green grass, wooden benches, and beautifully arranged flowers. One of my classes, Core, is held in a traditional lecture hall, as seen on t.v. A hundred or soon seats, the kind where the bottom part has to be put down and there is a small piece of wood that you can swing up from the side for something to write on, face three chalkboards and a podium. One side of the room has glass windows with a triangular pattern in metal, facing the quad. The rest of the room has wood paneling. My Tropical Commodities class is held on the fourth floor and faces the midway, a long stretch of grass facing east to wes...

What feels like many weeks ago I participated in the South Side History Bike Tour, the morning that Megan arrived. This was an event put on by the university's Office of Civic Engagement and the speakers during the trip were two professors, one history, one economics I think, and a dean with a background in urban planning (Are you picturing three older white guys? Good.). We biked around 20 miles and saw 10 sites of Chicago. (1) We started at the Dusable Museum of African and African American History which is right by campus. It was founded in 1961 and is the first and oldest museum dedicated to the study and conservation of African American History (it's also where I saw some musicians during the Hyde Park Jazz Festival the weekend before).(2) Next was the tomb of Steven Douglas which is his burial burial site. Douglas was a distinguished Illinois statesman remembered for his legendary senatorial debates against Abraham Lincoln. (3) We next went to a neighborhood call...

I'm back! With so much to share. Patrick came to visit from Thursday (10/12) evening to Monday (10/16). Maggie went to go visit her cousins during his visit. I desperately wanted to meet him at the airport but my Spanish Lit class had a make up class that evening that let out right when he landed. So we met at Millennium Park; he took the train from the airport and I took a bus from home. We met at the bean (cloud gate) and walked around the park before heading home. Friday we went for a run in which I attempted to run a sub 6 minute mile but my actual workout for the day included two, one mile repeats with a half mile recovery jog in between. So he had me wait to try during the second one and my times were 6:27 for the first and 6:10 for the second. I was disappointed but then realized (with Patrick's excited help) that, that was actually quite a feat for me. He then walked me to my precept class (No, he didn't carry my books for me. In fact, I carried his book in my...