Four of my close friends came with along with about 50 other students from my school. We had to leave at 4am to make the flight in NYC that was at 7am. The plan was to wake up at 3:15am, get ready, and go. I was already packed, so all I really had to do was shower and go. Thankfully something wakes me up at 4:15am, and I realize I have five text messages and two missed calls telling me that my friends were at my complex waiting for me. *GULP* You know in cartoons when the character's eyes bug in and out really fast because they can't believe what they are seeing? Well, I'm pretty sure mine did that to my alarm clock. I'm never late. Ever. I text them really fast that I'll be down in 5 minutes. Throw my hair into a ponytail, throw on a shirt, jeans, and shoes, grab my bag, and I'm out the door. I was having heart palpitations from the stress of knowing that I might not make my flight, and I might cause us all to miss it. Thankfully my friend that was driving has a lead foot. We made it with time to spare.
Now that that's out of the way, we get to Chicago, and all of us are dragging. First order of business: Caffeine. There was this cute little Cuban restaurant that had cuban coffee that you get in little shot glasses because it's so strong. Let it be known that it kept me going until 3am the next night. It's strong, no joke. Good thing too because every single night there was a party for students, so I had to stay awake!
Oh, side note, when we left the east, we were at the end of a "heat wave". I say it that way because it's been more like a heat tsunami, not a short wave, but I digress. Anyways, we leave the east and it's 100 degrees. We are all excited because we all think we are flying over this so-called wave, and that we would miss the rest of it. Lo and behold, when we get to Chicago, our pilot proceeds to tell us, "It's going to be a hot one folks, heat advisories are just entering the Chicago area until Sunday." Mind you, we were going to be leaving Sunday. So not only did we just experience that last of the heat wave in the east, but we flew right into the beginning of one in the Midwest. Awesome.
We decided to do the traditional touristy stuff the first day we were there. We went to the Bean........and then decided we were all going to melt so we went back to the hotel. I chased a bird to get it's picture on the way back to the hotel. It didn't do much to help me cool off, but the bird smiled! That was also when my friends realized they were hanging out with an infant.
We hung out at the hotel until it was time to go to the Student Quiz Bowl, which is where each school sends one participant to compete against the other schools. We didn't win, but it was a blast, and I loved the t-shirt we got! I even made it work with the skirt I was wearing.
The next day we decided to chill out at the expo. We tried massage chairs, food, wine, and of course optometry related things as well. They even had the FIFA 2014 World Cup there. I got my picture taken with it, but only after I spent about three minutes moving all around the glass case it was in to please the guard. First I was too close, then I wasn't close enough for the picture, then my hand got too close, then my shoe was too close, then my purse was too close...it went on and on. Apparently my hand couldn't be in front, behind, within two inches, or on top of the case. I made all of those mistakes before the picture you see now was taken. The security guard who was guarding it seemed like she hated me. The people in the line were making snarky comments about how I was holding up the line, but I just told them to pay attention because I just helped them from making the same mistakes! They didn't think I was very funny.
The next day we finally got to the Sear's Tower, where we went up to the sky deck. The glass floor that extended out from the building was pretty popular. It was creepy, but it made for some pretty cool pictures from 103 stories up. While I was in the box, I noticed a spider just chilling on the outside of the box. I decided to make him attack Chicago. I started a trend too. Three days after I get home from Chicago, I noticed a friend from facebook went to Chicago, and he took the exact same photo I did. I can't help but think that my facebook posting of the photo a week before his didn't "inspire" him...maybe...a little bit...? Thanks for the credit, "friend".
We also went on a sail boat cruise which gave me some amazing photo opportunities, and we went to the Field Museum for the presidential inaugural ball. That was awesome. Sipping cocktails next to Sue (The T-Rex), eating cheesecake bites next to mammoths. It was quite the experience.
We left the next day after a loooonnnnngggg night out. I think we only got about 1.5 hours of sleep before our flight. Let's just say we all completely crashed when we got home.
It was a great trip all around!
xoxo
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