Pics, or It Didn't Happen

As promised, internet's finally here in my apartment, so pics are here from the first couple of days. But, before they go up, I'll go ahead and describe the past few days before I forget them even more. This week has been a lot of introductions and tours and exercises in Newberry's unique and frankly antiquated way of doing things. Perhaps the most interesting, and somewhat fun, I'll admit, is the call system in the library. They have an online catalog of everything, but in order to get hold of anything in the library, you have to fill out call slips. There are three types of call slips: yellow, orange, and blue. You fill out a yellow one regardless. Then, depending on whether the item in question is in general collections or special collections, you fill out the orange (general) or blue (special) slips. You then hand in those slips to one of the reference desk people,and you go back to your special walled off carrel and they bring your books to you, and you don't have to return them ever....they're yours until the end of the semester. One thing about the carrel room....it's FREAKING FREEZING. I don't get to feel my hands for hours at a time most days.

Other than that, we've started class (the seminar part of the Newberry Seminar). We've started off small...Frontier Thesis and the like, but things are picking up. It's been a lot of fun....like a history class at CC where everybody's done the reading each day, which is REALLY nice. The profs are fun...they're both from Beloit College...which is in Wisconsin (I think.....). Their dynamic is quite fun....they know each other and so they will occasionally just dump on one another in subtle ways in the middle of class.

A typical day for me is up at 8:30 (class starts at 9....SO wish it were 9:30 like the rest of my CC history classes...), shower, grab my things, head to Newberry, class, lunch, research at Newberry through 5 pm, and then (until today) off home to either read for the next day's stuff, or to Barnes and Noble for wi fi for an hour or two. Then dinner if I feel like it, and then more reading. That's weekdays so far.

Today was my first full weekend day in Chicago. Slept through most of the morning, to be honest....burned out from the week. Then went down to Lake Michigan and built sandcastles with a few of the seminar people...it looked like Big Thunder Mountain by the end of it...pretty impressive, if I do say. After that, I monkied with the internet in my apartment for an hour, failed miserably, and so went to B&N out of frustration and used internet and read books. Came back to my apartment and found that my roomie and his brother had fixed the wireless....and there was much rejoicing.

Before I could be overjoyed too much though, it was time to meet some folks to go to this hodgepodge of opera thing that was going on at Millennium Park. The park in question hosts a whole series of free things, and this opera thing was a sampling from each of the ones that they plan on hosting in the coming season. Twas interesting. I liked the orchestra much more than the singing....but that's more because I couldn't understand anything the singers were singing, because they didn't sing in English or Spanish. Tomorrow, a group of us are going to the Art Institute and going for deep dish (FINALLY)...should be fun.

Ok...pics from the flight and the trip to Chinatown (all I have for now):



This is the board at John Wayne...ye typical airplane stuff. Shot at an angle b/c I'm lazy, and that part of the airport was a bit sketchy...didn't feel like walking anymore than I needed to.



My ticket after getting through security.....it was real then. Chicago was inevitable at that point.



The baggage claim area at Chicago Midway. Took a while for the bags to come...but get there they did (thankfully).



Chinatown part one....it's one of the things on our list of things to find.







More Chinatown...all on the scavenger hunt.

That's all for now...will be taking my camera with me tomorrow to the Art Museum, so more city pics will be incoming soon!

Research? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Research!

Day 3 in Chicago. Our first day of actual getting up early like real college students and doing things other than eating and talking.

I met up with a few people in the same program as I and we walked four (?) blocks to the Newberry Library (and thank goodness people were there....not sure I would have gotten there on my own without getting lost). The Newberry Library is this large building square in the middle of the city...very cool and very made of stone (still cannot get over that). We were directed to sign in with the guard at the front desk....the whole place doesn't have a drop of liquid that hasn't been previously approved to be in previously approved rooms very far away from any documents or books, and the guard is there to check to make sure that policy is enforced...along with the typical guard-y stuff, like making sure that people don't walk off with 200 year old manuscripts in their backpacks. After passing through security, we were sent to a comfy looking room and shown a nice powerpoint about the history of the library (the namesake isn't actually all that fascinating....the guy who took over after Newberry died though, had FANTASTIC overgrown mutton chops). We were then introduced to the other long term people at the library. It was a lot of undergrads (my program), and an even split b/w graduate students and professors to make up the rest of us. What was weird was that the one European history guy that was there was from UCR (University of California Riverside, for you Coloradoans)....small world, is it not?

We then got a tour of the place....we didn't get to explore any of the actual reading rooms...but I caught a peak into the cartography room....super excited over that. The one place we saw in detail was the room on the second floor that's pretty much entirely ours. It's filled with those special library stalls where people can store books without having to put them back day to day...we each get our own. Which, when I think about it, is rather groovy.

After that, we took the El to the ACM offices to meet up with the other people in other Chicago programs right now, and were assigned random groups to go out into the city and explore on part of the city and pick up food for a massive 60 person pot-luck. My group was assigned to Chinatown and therefore, was in charge of picking up Chinese food for the potluck. We also had a list of building that we had to find and take pictures of (the idea being to get us used to the grid system of Chicago). My group had six people in it, all of whom were quite awesome...we had a lot of fun just walking around and yacking.

Upon our return, we sat around and talked some more, and then ate the 20 different dishes that people had been sent out to claim....so much good food. Ribs, tacos, fried rice....it's a good thing I hadn't eaten all day before that. We then presented the things we found out to each other and talked some more. A few of us then took the El home...'twas a long day.

As before, I am in the local Barnes and Noble, partaking in wonderful free internet. Hopefully the stuff in my apartment will be fixed tomorrow while I'm in class (tis what we were promised). Pics will happen then....the connection at B&N is too unpredictable and bad overall to upload photos.

I Am Serious, and Stop Calling Me Shirley

Today’s the day….Chicago here I come. 10:40 am flight from John Wayne Airport to Chicago Midway. Ye typical preparatory things….shampoo and soap into bags and into suitcases, making sure my pockets are empty of anything that would give me…..special attention from TSA. Not that TSA does crap anyways….me being able to sneak a pair of nail clippers through the metal detector at DIA is evidence enough of that, imo.

As I sat on the plan, waiting for the rest of the people to board, and for the flight attendants to go through their typical pre-flight routine, I realized that the movie Airplane! takes place on a flight to Chicago. Hence the title of this post, in case you were wondering. Good thing I brought the movie with me….a movie about a plane in trouble’s exactly the kind of flick I want to watch on a three and half hour flight. Can’t deny the humor though….I’ll just leave it at that, or else this would end up as nothing but my favorite lines from the movie.

On the plane now, having just started Airplane! Fantastic as always. Hopefully the people next to me don’t need to use the bathroom…I’m about to stop typing, full screen the movie, and fall asleep. Well….if they do, we’ll see just how much work it takes to wake me up on a flight.

Finished Airplane!....I have a row of sleepers, which is nice…I can drift in and out without having to worry. On to Some Like it Hot...another nice omen, considering the movie starts with an interpretation of the St. Valentine’s Day murder in Chicago.

After the above (which was typed on the plane) I landed in Midway around 4:30 Central Standard Time and caught a cab to Canterbury Court Apartments. Settled in, got my key, and met my roomie, Jason. All in all a cool dude. Went and found myself some pizza....sadly it wasn't deep dish. It was this place that makes the pizza but doesn't cook it....you get to cook it yourself. It was pretty good.

The only issue is that my apartment, though equipped with modem and router, has no working internet as of now...I'm sitting at a Barnes and Noble right now using their free wi fi. I'm told that hopefully something will be done by Wednesday.

Oh yeah....Canterbury Court is an old apartment complex that is 17 stories high. Guess who's on the top floor and afraid of heights? If you guessed me, you'd be right.

Today (day after flight), I slept in a whole lot....flying wears me out. Then, the 15 of us in the program met up and had dinner with our professors (Thai food) and sat around talking for a good long while. The people I talked to were all very awesome...it should be a fun semester, all in all.

Tomorrow we get to tour the library and be told how things work there, etc. We also get to go on a scavenger hunt around Chicago to find dinner ingredients for a group pot-luck....that should be fun (and photo opportunities everywhere). Photos from yesterday, and tomorrow will be incoming as soon as I have a reliable internet connection in my apartment....so hopefully on Wednesday.

Getting Ready

Captains Log, Stardate 93201112.5:

It's almost 1:30 am, on what I guess is technically the day before I depart for Chicago. I have lots of folded laundry, lots of folded boxes, two crumpled suitcases and lots of stuff in general that needs to go in these boxes and suitcases lying around my room in a probably hazardous manner. I'm sure I'll be up much longer, finding ways of stuffing everything I need into two suitcases and as few boxes as possible.

I'll be departing from John Wayne (Orange County) International Airport around 10 am on Sunday....and despite my frequent requests to nobody who could do anything about it, the airport in question refuses to hire some audio editors to go through the Duke's old films and piece together "The white zone is for the immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no parking in the red zone." from his decades worth of cinematography. John Wayne Airport should speak in John Wayne's voice. This is not an opinion.

I'll be landing in Chicago at Midway Airport around 2 pm local time on Sunday and making my way to the Canterbury Court Apartments from there. More detail (and photos) on those as they happen, of course.

Hmmm....this is all for now. Time to get cracking.