There’s many things I like: travel, cities, learning. In an unfortunate turn of reality, these great things often have to intersect with some things I do not like: large gatherings of people, meeting new people, and - dun dun dun - networking. Regardless i jumped at the chance to make my first work-related trip to the Forum on Education Abroad conference in Chicago earlier in the month. It seemed like a great idea when I booked, less-so when I first started the run of 12 hour days, but definitely improved immensely with the sun shining over a new city to explore (right after another 18 hours of work talk).
Chicago has a lot of similarities to NYC: architecture, street layout, dedicated obsession with pizza, a deep-seated love of their sports (and a hatred of Boston’s :) ) We spent a lot of time walking around Friday, checking out the public library and the city line.
We ate Chinese Bao and almost a whole deep-dish pizza. Oh, and Sprinkles cupcakes!
I was most looking forward to the Aquarium and it did not disappoint...except when the power failed after we waited over an hour and a half to get in! But we did get to see the beluga whales, otters (which are actually GIGANTIC) and the jellyfish special exhibition. I was pretty sad I did not get to buy any awesome fishy souvenirs as the tills were all locked out sans power. We also checked out Macy’s Annual Flower show which was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a department store.
To round out the weekend we went to the Drake Hotel for afternoon tea before boarding an ahead of schedule flight back home. Nothing makes a good trip even better than decent air travel.
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