Chelsey in Chicago

This was Patrick's third visit to Chicago and I had the urge to get out of town. Between finals and my thesis I have been in the house a LOT, just type, type, typing away. So, I wanted to get out and see some new sights. We rented a car and drove to Holland, MI and that name is no accident. Apparently there was a great deal of Dutch settlers there and this town has the only working Dutch windmill in the US. We went about 2 weeks before the beginning of tourist season so it was pretty quite and we could imagine what a zoo it would become in the spring. The drive was only 2.5 hours and our first stop was the Saugatuck Dunes state park for some hiking. It was write on Lake Michigan and was amazing how much it felt like a beach you might visit on the east or west coast. It was also SUPER windy and cold so we weren't out there for too long. We next drove into Holland to visit the windmill and then the "big red lighthouse" which was actually super tiny. We then ate wa...

We received an email from the MAPH mentors about how it's a joke that Spring Break is called "week 12" around the MAPH office, because it's less of a break and more of a continuation of the winter quarter. It was recommended that we spend about 4 hours a day on our thesis and take two to three days to ourselves. So that is how I spent the beginning of my spring break, at the library, working on my thesis. I actually participated in a "write-in" that was being hosted in the library. It was for graduate students to work on their theses or dissertations for four hours for two days with coffee and snacks provided. The idea is that it is inspiring and you are more productive when you know everyone around you is hard at work on their paper and also the commitment of at least four hours a day. I went the first day and hated/loved it. They put us in a room within a room, meaning no windows and blank, white walls. It was also a bit crammed and nearly silent (except...

  Chicago dye's its river green for the holiday. They do it at 9AM and people go out to watch as they do it, but I had work (tutoring) until 4PM. So ,even though I was exhausted, I dropped my things off at home and headed downtown so see it before sunset. I met Maggie who had gone downtown for the parade that afternoon. We looked at the river, took some pics, got some food, and then went home (we were both tired). This morning I took the bus downtown again so I could run along the river. Still green! Working backwards: Winter quarter is officially over.* I had a twenty page paper for Exploratory Translation, which was just a paper about my thesis, since my thesis is about the translation of Roberto Bolaño's 2666 . An 8 pages paper for my Don Quijote in the Americas class. And lastly, a group paper and PPT presentation for the Public Policy Lab. We had to go downtown to Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) and present our three governance and finance models and my team did...