Making My Way Downtown...

Ahh...I love days where I get to sleep in. I got up at 10:45 this morning after a long mental debate on whether I should eat lunch for breakfast or breakfast for breakfast. I decided to just go downstairs and choose based on what I felt like. In the end, I had breakfast for lunch: just two simple bowls of cereal with milk.

You know, we're having something called a drought in California...

Alana had another optional cohort excursion planned today, so I decided to go. Again, Brandon and Aisha decided not to go, so it was just Alana, Tamika, and me. We took the train to the Art Institute of Chicago, which was where Alana and Tamika had decided to spend the afternoon. I had already been there, so I ended up wandering around Chicago. Since the Art Institute is almost right in the middle of Grant Park, I decided to check out some of the major tourist attractions, like Buckingham Fountain and Cloud Gate. After going to the popular destinations, I decided to explore some more, and ended up seeing some interesting things, like a miniature model of Chicago. In the last hour or so of the excursion, I decided to go back to the Art Institute to look at some of the exhibits again, and found another half of the building that I had somehow missed the first time. 

The underside of Cloud Gate aka the Bean.

I thought this model of Chicago was pretty neat.

Tamika and I decided to take the bus back to campus. I tried to sleep on the bus, but ended up banging my head several times on hard edges. That's another thing that I've noticed about Chicago: it's really difficult to sleep on public transportation, usually due to the mysterious lack of headrests.

Tomorrow is the day that Dom and I have to present our project...I'm pretty sure that it will be alright, but I can't help but feel the tiniest pang of anxiety. I guess I'll just get it over with...

Exploring Chicago

Alexis kept falling asleep.

Today we went on an RA trip to a latino neighborhood, Pilsen. On our way there, we got very lost, a two hour detour to be exact. We took a train that doesn't have the best reputation to where we were supposed to go. When we finally got to the right place, the line to the restaurant was super long and we waited another twenty minutes or so to be seated. The food was super yummy and inexpensive. The restaurant was called Nuevo Leon and I highly recommend it.

When we got back from our trip we were all exhausted and I  took a very long nap. When dinner time came around, I was not ready to wake up. During dinner we all shared our stories of the adventures we had this weekend and all the interesting people we came across on the way.

Chicago has been very adventurous and eventful so far. I have met a lot of great, kind people that I hope to keep in contact with when this program ends. We have one more week left and I am going to make the best of it and have as much fun as I possibly can.

Spontaneous Surprise

Today was another one of those spontaneous days, where I had nothing to do at first, but suddenly found my self all around Chicago. It began with Saturday morning class at 9:30. Well, not really class, but another one of those child psychology experiments. Today we had four new kids and parents. A majority of the little kids are quite and don't really speak, unless spoken to. And of course there are the exceptions, who scream and yell about everything. I ended up being interrogated about why I was wearing a purple shirt. Today we had at least one of those kids. But that just made the experiments that much more fun. After two hours of experiments we finished up and headed to lunch.

After lunch I had no idea what I was going to spend the rest of my Saturday doing. So I decided to start it off by walking up to the usual soccer field and joined a few kids' game. I worked off a good sweat for at least an hour, but I still had no idea how i was going to spend my last free Saturday. One thing I like about the dorms is that each floor is like a small community. People say "hi" to each other in the hallways, share the TV, and even leave left over soap in the bathrooms. We often have hangout in each others dorm to just watch movies or play board games. Today was one of those days, but ended up exploring Chicago.

Pad Thai

Four other kids and I, got tired of the usual TV and board games, so we decided to go explore 53rd St. for a place to eat. Walking up and down, we ended up at this Asian American Restaurant, Noodles etc. This was the closest I was getting to my home culture's cuisine. This was probably one level up from your local Panda Express. Everything was cheap, big portions, and actually tasted pretty good. It was nice to see Chicago's attempt at Asian flair, other than Chinatown.  

The Epic Museum

Today was the type of day where I just didn't feel like doing anything at all. Which was just as well, because today was Saturday. I had finished most of my research report last night to try to avoid doing too much work today.

I woke up around 11 AM this morning, and probably would have stayed in bed until 2 if I hadn't had plans to go to the Museum of Science and Industry with Tamika today. So, I ate a quick breakfast (technically still breakfast since it was my first meal of the day), and met up with Tamika and one of her friends, Jaiden, in front of the dorms. The museum wasn't too far away, so we just walked there.  

My hands are shaking from excitement, obviously...
The place is so huge!

From the outside, the museum looked old and stately, with an enormous main building and large adjacent buildings. However, the real museum was under the buildings, meaning that it was even larger than it looked. Also, the interior looked incredibly modern, and awesome in the formal definition. 

This has to be one of the coolest things that I've ever seen. No lie.

The mirror maze. Who's that handsome guy taking a picture...?

We systematically worked our way through most of the exhibits, which included but was not limited to: a real German submarine captured in WWII, a huge hall dedicated to weather, geological phenomena, and physics, an exhibit on the history of bicycles, an elliptical room where two people standing at certain spots could hear each other perfectly, a giant castle dollhouse, and a disorienting maze of mirrors. There was so much to do! Jaiden, Tamika, and I all got separated several times, but eventually found each other again.

An bicyv

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Sadly, we eventually had to leave. It was super fun exploring the giant museum, and helped me de-stress after having an intense working session last night. I just noticed that another week has zoomed by, and we only have one week left here. I'll try to make the most of it!

We Leave in a Week?!

This Saturday had been forecast to rain, and I wasn’t excited about that. Although the day started off cloudier than lately, it actually cleared up and there wasn’t any rain today, yay! When I woke up this morning, it felt like a weekend but I knew we still had class today. Most of our class met up in the dining hall for breakfast and then walked over to the Learning Lab at 9:15. Today we’d be testing a lot of participants, and we spent the next two and a half hours running experiments on a broad range of kids. It was a busy day for data collection. Our group has created an elaborate rating system for measuring the reassurance level of participants, and our results are a little strange. Still, our experiment is working well, if not exactly as we’d expected it to, and writing up our results and discussion shouldn’t be too challenging.

After class, I ate lunch at the dining hall. I’d been contemplating going to the Farmer’s Market on 61^st today, but since I’d managed to obtain berries earlier in the week and was planning to go to the museum this afternoon, I decided it would not be worth the extra time. After lunch, I met up with Jae-An and Jaiden and headed towards the Museum of Science and Industry, which is conveniently walking distance from campus. On the way there, we stopped at Powell’s bookstore. All the bookstores around campus are a lot of fun, and though I haven’t done much but look around in each of them, I could probably spend a whole day in any one of them.

U-505

Maze of Mirrors

Fairy Castle...a preview to the Thorne Rooms

The Museum of Science and Industry was incredible. I’d seen it from the outside and remarked how huge it was, but I didn’t realize that all that space was used for exhibits inside; I’d thought a large part of it might be research or something else. It was a little overwhelming at first trying to figure out which exhibits we should go to, but we started with the U-505 submarine and then worked our way from there. Every exhibit was very thoughtfully constructed to be interactive, interesting, and informative. I had a swell time exploring, but was also exhausted by the time we decided to head back, three and a half hours later. To finish off the day, I took a quick swim at the gym, played a bit with my soccer ball, ate dinner, and headed to my room to relax. Tomorrow is our last weekend day and I’m very excited that we’ll be visiting the Art Institute! The Art Institute is possibly at the top of my list of things I wanted to see/do in Chicago, and I’m anticipating the visit greatly. Plus, we are free admission with UChicago ID, so that is an added bonus. Expect lots of pictures tomorrow....

A day in the Town

Alexis, me, and Defne,

This morning I woke up and went down to breakfast to meet my friend Alexis. We ate then we went into the city and walked along Michigan Ave. Alexis, Defne and I went shopping and we bought so much stuff. On our way back we got a little lost but found our way in no time.

When we finally got back to the dorms, it started to rain but didn't last very long. We got back a little late and missed lunch in the dinning hall so we ate lunch at the cafe down the street. It was so delicious. Defne introduced us to a new show, Gossip Girl. When we got back, we ate our lunch in one of the lounges and watched the show. Alexis fell asleep while watching.

My friends and I thought it was going to pour down rain. But it actually was a very nice day. It got warmer further into the afternoon and more humid. The sun was out and felt really nice today.  Currently we are binge watching Gossip Girl.

Normal Nights

This week went by so fast. Significantly faster than last week. I cant believe there is only one more week left. I have learned so much already and I cant imagine leaving this. Not much happened today, from an academic standpoint. We had a pop quiz today, that thankfully I prepared for last night, because I saw it coming. It wasn't too bad and I had a few study buddies to help. Today, class was let out right after lunch, so I actually had a lot of free time today. And I spent it doing what I usually do in my free time. I went up to the soccer field with some other kids and kicked a ball around for a few hours. Today was mostly a relaxing day, the calm before the storm. I have the rest of my weekend set aside to work on the rest of my psychology project. 

There are multiple summer programs for high schoolers at the University of Chicago. Some longer than others. Today was the last day for other high school students in a 5 week program. Today was a day to just have fun and spend time with them before they all went their separate ways. A much deserved break consisted of movies, pizza delivery, and good company. Im probably never going to see these people again. Some of my friends' last hours this summer at the University of Chicago was spent on a care-free night.

   

Swing and Things

Friday! Everyone is glad it’s Friday, and the start of our final weekend in Chicago. Our Psych class got to start the weekend early, as we only had class in the morning today. This is because we have class tomorrow morning as well, since that was the best time for participants to come in. Class this morning felt long. We started with a quiz, which Cassie had strongly hinted at yesterday. I’d spent breakfast studying and I feel relatively confident about how I did on this quiz. We go over the answers immediately after we take the quiz to enhance learning, and I think I got most of them correct. Today’s lecture topic was moral development, which is really complicated and interesting. Here is a moral dilemma for your amusement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5czp9S4u26M

It was really relaxing to have the afternoon off. I was able to FaceTime one of my good friends, which made me happy but also miss everyone at home even more. I also practiced flute and played soccer with Brandon.

Buckingham Fountain at Grant Park

The main event of my Friday was attending the Chicago SummerDance Festival in Grant Park. Rebekah the RA led a group of us downtown for the event, and tonight’s dance was Swing Dancing. This was perfect for me, as our band program at ECHS has a Swing Dance every year and it’s one of my favorite events. I had an amazing time dancing, both with friends and strangers. We also wandered around the city and got some deep dish pizza from Pizano’s and boba from a cute, random bubble tea shop. Like yesterday, this was another great evening and hopefully the start to an extremely memorable weekend.

Bad quality photo of Swing Dancers

Mulan Overload

Gotta get down on Friday? More like gotta get down to business! Ha ha...get it? I actually thought of this idea last night in bed...Maybe it's because I watched Mulan 2 recently. It was nowhere near as good as the first movie, but I watched it anyways. Actually, because I was watching it, I forgot to sign in for curfew like we do every night, and got a curfew violation. Anyways, now that I've gotten the bad humor out of the way, I'll continue.

Today was class as usual, but for some reason the curriculum was much more difficult to understand. Our teachers used a hefty amount of calculus in today's lectures, and I got completely lost, due to the fact that I haven't actually taken calculus yet. Sometimes I feel like if I had a stronger base knowledge, if I had taken physics or calculus, I would be able to appreciate and enjoy this course better. But I haven't, so I just have to manage without.

I wish that I could get out of the dorms more after class...But with this project deadline coming up, I really can't go out unless I make some serious sacrifices. And that usually isn't good. So, I've resolved to finish the project today. Everything. It's not as bad as it might sound; I just have to finish writing a report on my research, create a few data tables relating neutrino flux to core solar temperature, and help work on a powerpoint for the presentation of the project. Oh, wait...

I better get down to business (not a Mulan reference at all) then...

*This is the 100th post of this blog! It's been a great time so far; I hope the smooth-ish sailing continues!

A Perfect Day in the Windy City

This morning I woke up extra early, two hours earlier than I normally do and worked on my lab report. I have been working on it non stop, trying to get a good grade, I hope it pays off. Today in class we looked at our hand washing lab results and was very surprised with my results. I learned that my hands are A LOT cleaner than I would have ever imagined. It was so interesting.

Today's weather was amazing!!!!! It reminded me of back home in California. Not blazing hot or humid, it was just right, a warm wind that made my hair flow back and made me feel alive. I miss the food that my mom makes, although the food here is pretty good, it doesn't do my mothers food justice.

After class, my friend and I went to get a tea and we wound up walking around the entire building on accident. When we got back to our dorm, we powered through our lab reports and finished them before dinner. We were so proud of ourselves that at dinner we treated ourselves to ice cream and cookies. Turning our lab reports in was the best feeling. I hope we get good grades because we have worked so hard on them for the past week and a half.

Alexis being Alexis