Chelsey in Chicago

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...

Maggie and I hosted our first visitor this week. Megan was a teacher we worked with in Greenfield. She now works in San Jose and they get a fall break, a week off in October. Megan arrived Saturday (9/30) afternoon. Sunday we went to a Cubs game! We took the CTA there and as we got closer and closer to the field there were tons of people dressed in their cubs gear, down to the littlest kids. Wrigley Field is smaller when compared to a new field like the Giant's AT&T park, but very cool all the same. This was the last game of the regular season but they didn't seem to be taking the game too seriously (I guess they had already secured their place in the playoffs). They lost 3-1 but it was an exciting point they scored because it was an over-the-fence home run in the last inning.   After the game we went to Millennium Park and showed Megan the bean and I got to see, for the first time, the fountains that spit water at each other while we ate tacos from a taco truck....

The Sunday before the first week of school started I ran the Chicago Half Marathon. I had signed up for it back in June or July for a couple of reasons: 1. It was being held in Hyde Park so I knew getting to it wouldn't be too complicated (as it turns out the start was 1.2 miles from my apartment). 2. I am worried that the horrendous weather that will be here in a month or so is going to impede the progress I've made in my running. Thanks to Patrick's coaching I think I'm the fastest I've been in my running career. During his last visit to Monterey we ran a 6:02 mile which was my PR in high school. So, by signing up for a race, I figured I would stay motivated. Now you may be thinking, September? That's not winter time and, you would be correct. I guess I didn't want to sign up for one too far out not knowing my schedule, etc. As many of you are aware, it has been hot and humid here and race day was no exception. In the coolish morning and while under s...