Busy days...

They've been working us like crazy and sending us all over the city. Today I had a morning class (my precept) in Hyde Park, then had to ride the train downtown for our afternoon class (our seminar). Then I met with the internship coordinator about my internship opportunites, before everyone met up to go on a river and lake architectural boat tour. It was fun and hectic and windy and cold!

Our morning class toured the University of Chicago campus and spoke with a representative about how the college works within and with the neighborhood of Hyde Park. It was a pretty neat campus.

The boat tour was by far my favorite part of today. It was especially cold out on the water, but seeing all the giant buildings from the perspective of the river was awesome. It was also interesting to hear about the history of many of the buildings. It made for some pretty cool pictures, too! However, I've been taking pictures on my phone, and it's not wanting to upload them right now. I'm too tired to fight with it, so I'll post the pictures sometime tomorrow.

Day 2

I'm already out of super cool titles. Sorry.

This is the view out of our front windows into the courtyard of our apartment complex.

The living room. We have another sofa, it's just not in the picture.

The dining room.

The tiny kitchen.

My gorgeous bed. I love my sheets.

The view out my window. Not exactly promising.

Today we had a very long day. We came down to the program offices for class at 9 am. The door to our building is right under the edge of the Chicago Theater sign.

We did a lot of pretty boring class stuff, met the other people in the Business and Arts programs, then ate lunch. I took leftover pizza. After lunch, we were split into groups and sent on photo scavenger hunts. Each group was sent to a different neighborhood. We had to figure out how to get there, taking the bus down and the train back. Once there, we had to find a list of landmarks or addresses and take pictures of all of those places. Before leaving, we had to go to the last address on our list and pick up the preordered food. We then all brought it back and had a giant potluck dinner.

My group was sent to...

Chinatown! It was so cool. We went into a ton of little shops, selling all kinds of crazy things. One was a martial arts store, and they had swords and knives and playing cards with razor edges to throw at people. It was nuts!

This was one of the landmarks we stopped at, Nine Dragons Wall. You can't see the whole thing because I couldn't stand back far enough without getting in the street.

The potluck was great, with all different kinds of food. Mexican from Pilsen, Swedish desserts from Andersonville, ribs from Hyde Park, sandwiches and Italian ices from Little Italy, and even more. It was so delicious. We finally got out of there a little after seven, and the theater was all lit up.

I've met so many really fun people, and I'm really having a blast. Thanks to everyone for your nice comments.

The beginning of a Grand Adventure...

This is it, y'all. I'm in Chicago now.

I flew out early this morning. The view of the sunrise out my window was amazing. It was sad to say goodbye to the summer, to Austin, to afternoon naps with Trudy's kids, late night games with Christin and Brandon, delicious food Mom (and Dad) would cook for me, and spending time with Robert.

But the summer couldn't last forever. The first thing I noticed once we started descending into Chicago was the lush, vibrant green of everything. There were lakes and ponds all over the place, and green grass and trees and blooming flowers. Totally different from summer in Texas!

Once I arrived at the apartment, I had some time to meet my roommates, settle in, and go grocery shopping. I'm sharing a room with one girl, Alyse, who is from northern Minnesota. We began the orientation for the program, and I met the rest of the eleven Urban Studies program participants. Seven of us made the trek down to Lake Michigan. It's not too far, less than a mile, and has a gorgeous view of downtown Chicago.

You can see that some crazy person was swimming in that cold water! I think this might be the biggest lake I've ever seen- you can't see the other edge of it, and it almost feels like you're at the ocean.

We walked back down to our apartments, picked up another person, then headed out to dinner. I had my very first Chicago deep dish pizza, from a restaurant voted one of the top two places for it in Chicago. It was pepperoni and cheese, my favorite.

Let me tell you, it was DELICIOUS! I loved it. However, I filled up on so much bread before it came out that I only ate one slice.

I brought home the rest of the small (yeah right!) pizza I ordered to take in my lunch the next few days. No one was hungry for dessert except for Jeremy, the only guy with us, who also happens to be from CC. He ordered tiramisu, and the waiter brought him two giant pieces, one for free to share with us. I had never had tiramisu before, and it was good.

Today has been a crazy long day, and I'm exhausted. I still have some reading to do before I can go to sleep, and I have to be at the program office downtown at 9 tomorrow morning. I'll have my first experience with Chicago public transportation! Wish me luck!

It's closing time...

So I'm all packed up, my room is clean, and I'm checking out with my RA first thing tomorrow morning. Robert arrived around 8:30 p.m. yesterday, and he's been a great help (when I can pull him away from his computer games!). We're headed over to Megan's for a last friendly get-together before summer in just a little while. It's sad to think I won't see her (or any of my other friends) again until the end of January.

Robert and I went out for a special dinner tonight. He said he wanted to take me out to celebrate the beginning of my senior year of college. I had fajitas, which made me so happy! In addition, we ordered the margarita sampler tray. After tasting all of them, I drank the red one and the blue one. The red one was pomegranate, and we agreed that it was the best. I'd never had a margarita of my own before, and it was TASTY!

By the way, this picture was taken with my brand spankin' new camera. It's tiny and perfect to slip in my purse for occasions such as this. As you might be able to tell, I'm still figuring out the settings as far as focus points and such. I'm so used to being able to choose every setting that it's a little hard to get used to.

I hope everyone is doing as well as I am. To my Texas family, I'll see you in just a few days! I come bearing gifts (as long as they fit in the car :) ) and I can't wait to see everyone. I love you guys.

To my mother...

and every other mother I know, happy Mother's Day! I hope that you are all able to relax and have a wonderful day.

I'm horrible at keeping secrets, so I told my Mom about half of her Mother's Day present. Here it is, a gorgeous handmade single serving teapot made by a super cool CC student. (Sorry, not me!)
I traded for it yesterday at Llamapalooza, and got a super great deal. The price on it was 1.5 times more than the price of one of my animals, but the guy traded me for just one octopus. So I'm happy with that!

The coloring on it is gorgeous, and it looks way better in person. Here it's reflecting everything in my room (the light from the window, the lights in the room, the brightness of the fabric under it, etc), so you can't really tell how gorgeous the coloring is. But just trust me, it's gorgeous. :)

I love you, Mom, and I hope you love it!

Oh, Llama.

Llamapalooza was fun, but the selling wasn't great. I made about $100, and paid $30 for the booth. So that's kind of disappointing. But hey, at least I have a bunch of animals made and ready to sell now! The day itself was cold and windy. It was sunny for a while, but then the sun went away and never came back. One of the bands (a really awesome jazz group) joked about how somebody promised them it was going to be warm and sunny. "Well," he said, "somebody lied." It didn't get out of the 50s, and I was freezing the whole time. Plus the wind kept knocking over my animals, which was so annoying.

But anyways, here's my table. This was right after I first set up, and I did fix the uneven table cloth things. (Hey Trudy, recognize them?)

Here's a closeup of some of the animals, including my best sellers- the llamas. They were the first three things I sold.

Here's my view of the stage.

Okay, just kidding, that was the zoomed in version. Here's my actual view of the stage. I took these pictures before a ton of people showed up.

Here are the people! And, as you can see...no sun. There were free cheeseburgers and veggie burgers, but the line was so long that I didn't get one.

Here's another crowd view. You can see the graffiti mural they were making. You can also see the huge variety of seating that people brought in. There were at least fifty couches, and I also saw computer chairs, lawn chairs, recliners, futons, mattresses, and one blow up pool (with no water, of course).

There were a ton of fun things for people to do, including a huge bouncy house, a slip 'n slide (which no one was using because it was so cold), frisbees, sidewalk chalk, slacklining between trees, horseshoes, kite flying, and face painting. The face painting booth was right next to mine.

So, overall, Llama was fun, but I don't know if I'll sell there again. I like my nice, climate controlled, indoor sales. I did, however, trade with other crafters for some really awesome stuff. A little more about that next.

Llamas for Llama

When I turned in my sign up sheet for selling at Llamapalooza, a girl asked me what I would be selling. I told her crocheted animals. She asked if I'd have llamas, since that would be just so perfect for Llamapalooza. Having never made a llama before, I just kind of smiled and laughed and said something like, "yeah, that would be cool".

The thought got stuck in my mind, so I decided to try to make a llama. Here's my first try. I think he's pretty cute.

His head is a little big for a llama, though.

So I tried again. Here is llama 2.o. What do you think? Which one do you prefer?

And here's just a quick snapshot of my "work station". I've been putting together animals as fast as I can, while watching TV or listening to music on my computer.

So far I've got 47 completed animals. My goal is to get five more done tonight, then finish putting together all the animal pieces I have completed tomorrow. Then I'll use Friday and Saturday morning to get everything ready, find some things to set up a nice table front, and gear up for the sale. Wish me luck!