Chicago!
I love big cities. Therefore, I loved Chicago. I think Seattle will always be my favorite, but for whatever reason I think Chicago beats out New York. Maybe.
But yeah, left on Wednesday for a four day conference in Chicago and really ended up doing a little bit of everything.
Wednesday: Spent most of the day flying. Finally arrive in Chicago and get stuck in playoff traffic. Not that I minded. Our shuttle driver was pretty cool and chatted about a lot of different things. And it was kind of fun to see the different areas we passed from O'Hare to down town. There were 6 of us that went from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the School of the Arts. 4 of us stayed in Hotel 71 and 2 in Hard Rock. I was in Hotel 71 with my friend and coworker Erin D.R. (We also have Erin G.). It was right across from the Trump tower - shiny with lots of glass but didn't really seem to fit the downtown architecture style - and a block away from Michigan Avenue. Since we are all girls we decide to go find food and shopping. So we did.
We ate at the most wonderful Thai place I think I have ever been. I'm pretty sure it's called VTK (Vong's Thai Kitchen or something). Seriously. Their Pad Thai was perfect and the Panang chicken was so rich and flavorful. It also had the most ridiculously delicious passion fruit souffle. yumyumyumyum. Shopping happened and I spent way too much at Sephora because we don't have one here in Utah. I do most of my shopping from them online so it was great to do some testing and actually try some colors before I buy. Purchases included a baked eyeshadow set (great browns and purples!) a couple of shadow pencils and lipliner. Not to mention some cream and a replacement brush. Yay.
Thursday: We actually went to the conference. We were there for NACADA (National ACademic ADvising Association). Lots of good sessions about how to get students engaged, how to professionalize our jobs, and how to keep us at the top of our game. Thursday night was actually free night at the Chicago Art Institute. This included a walk by Millennial Park (beautiful!). The art institute had a lot of cool stuff including Geoge Sauret, Monet, and Van Gogh. I also saw The American Gothic painting and this super cool painting interpretation of the Portrait of Dorian Gray. Totally freaky that last one was.
After the museum we went to Buddy's Legends and had soulfood and listened to live blues. The food was awesome. The music could have been better, but it was sweet atmosphere.
Friday: More conferency stuff. I also had lunch with good friends from College I hadn't seen in a while. Hello Bill and Kristine Parker! And they brought their little boy Jamie who's about 10 months. We did lunch at Harry Caray's cause Bill and I are both baseball fans. Friday night was WICKED. And yes, it's just as amazing the second time. The cast had it's differences of course, but the Elpheba was good and so was Galinda. I would have liked a better Fiero, but oh well. It was still amazing and the girls I went with hadn't seen it.
Saturday: Ended up meeting up with a friend from my grad program from Seattle. So crazy we have to fly to Chicago to hang out. He's actually a registrar so I didn't expect to see him there, but thanks to facebook I realized we were both at the conference so we met up for coffee. Sooooo good to see him again. Then those from UVU went back to the Thai place. Yes, it was that good. And then flew home.
Phew. It was a crazy busy week, but the sessions I went to were actually pretty good and helpful. It was great to build good friendships with those I work with and great to see some old friends. And spend some time in a big city.
But yeah, left on Wednesday for a four day conference in Chicago and really ended up doing a little bit of everything.
Wednesday: Spent most of the day flying. Finally arrive in Chicago and get stuck in playoff traffic. Not that I minded. Our shuttle driver was pretty cool and chatted about a lot of different things. And it was kind of fun to see the different areas we passed from O'Hare to down town. There were 6 of us that went from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the School of the Arts. 4 of us stayed in Hotel 71 and 2 in Hard Rock. I was in Hotel 71 with my friend and coworker Erin D.R. (We also have Erin G.). It was right across from the Trump tower - shiny with lots of glass but didn't really seem to fit the downtown architecture style - and a block away from Michigan Avenue. Since we are all girls we decide to go find food and shopping. So we did.
We ate at the most wonderful Thai place I think I have ever been. I'm pretty sure it's called VTK (Vong's Thai Kitchen or something). Seriously. Their Pad Thai was perfect and the Panang chicken was so rich and flavorful. It also had the most ridiculously delicious passion fruit souffle. yumyumyumyum. Shopping happened and I spent way too much at Sephora because we don't have one here in Utah. I do most of my shopping from them online so it was great to do some testing and actually try some colors before I buy. Purchases included a baked eyeshadow set (great browns and purples!) a couple of shadow pencils and lipliner. Not to mention some cream and a replacement brush. Yay.
Thursday: We actually went to the conference. We were there for NACADA (National ACademic ADvising Association). Lots of good sessions about how to get students engaged, how to professionalize our jobs, and how to keep us at the top of our game. Thursday night was actually free night at the Chicago Art Institute. This included a walk by Millennial Park (beautiful!). The art institute had a lot of cool stuff including Geoge Sauret, Monet, and Van Gogh. I also saw The American Gothic painting and this super cool painting interpretation of the Portrait of Dorian Gray. Totally freaky that last one was.
After the museum we went to Buddy's Legends and had soulfood and listened to live blues. The food was awesome. The music could have been better, but it was sweet atmosphere.
Friday: More conferency stuff. I also had lunch with good friends from College I hadn't seen in a while. Hello Bill and Kristine Parker! And they brought their little boy Jamie who's about 10 months. We did lunch at Harry Caray's cause Bill and I are both baseball fans. Friday night was WICKED. And yes, it's just as amazing the second time. The cast had it's differences of course, but the Elpheba was good and so was Galinda. I would have liked a better Fiero, but oh well. It was still amazing and the girls I went with hadn't seen it.
Saturday: Ended up meeting up with a friend from my grad program from Seattle. So crazy we have to fly to Chicago to hang out. He's actually a registrar so I didn't expect to see him there, but thanks to facebook I realized we were both at the conference so we met up for coffee. Sooooo good to see him again. Then those from UVU went back to the Thai place. Yes, it was that good. And then flew home.
Phew. It was a crazy busy week, but the sessions I went to were actually pretty good and helpful. It was great to build good friendships with those I work with and great to see some old friends. And spend some time in a big city.