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.
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