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...

(I should be tutoring today 9AM - 4PM but the classes were cancelled due to the storm.) Happy New Year! 2018 has been busy ! I love this quarter's classes even more than last quarter's! I am in a Spanish class reading Don Quixote and discussing how it influenced contemporary Latin American writers. I am also in a translation class where I get to read about translation theory, do my own creative translations, and listen to guest speakers who come and talk about their work as translators. Checkout the website where I have to post my own translation work each week:  https://exploratorytranslation.wordpress.com/ . You'll also see the varied and interesting work my classmates do. Lastly, I am in a  Harris School of Public Policy, Public Policy Lab . I am working with a team of eight other students to come up with governance and finance models for the Our Great Rivers project. Let me say it again, I LOVE my classes. I am getting to do the fun, whimsical stuff and also pra...

There were some posts I never got around to publishing so here they are briefly to round out the fall and beginning of winter in Chicago. Maggie's birthday is in November and I took her out for a full day of Chicago winter time fun. We first went ice skating at the Skating Ribbon in Millennium Park which is a look around what serves as rock-climbing walls during the summer. Maggie only feel once and I managed to stay on my feet the whole time! We then walked to the  Christkindlmarket which an open air, German themed market. There we got hot spiced wine in a commemorative cup, ate a warm pretzel and I bought Chris a beer stein. For dinner we walked to Eataly (Maggie fell in love with this place when we went there with Anne and some friends after the Disney/winter parade) and got pizza and Italian sodas. Anne left the second week of December and I have missed her since! On her second to last night in Chicago she met me at the Lincoln Park zoo where we saw lights, ice sculptur...

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...