Newberry Semester in Chi City...

Moved back home on Sunday. My Newberry Semester is officially and finally over.

I have to say: I really enjoyed it. Despite the toll it took on my sanity, this semester was all I could have hoped for, research-wise.

I had a great time living in Chicago, seeing new neighborhoods, trying new restaurants, and hanging out with awesome people.

My only regret is that I didn’t have even more time to explore. Too busy workin’ much of the time…

But yeah. On to bigger and better adventures. Aka, chillin’ with my ladies this spring and trying to find a sweet summer job/internship…

45 pages.

And I now have absolutely no idea what to do all day.

So, a lot has happened since I last updated.

We turned in our rough drafts AND got them back. I did even better than I expected, so that was a relief. Only two more weeks until our final draft is due and then we have presentations. I’m trying not to stress too much… We’ll see how that goes…

Cat-sitting went well: the apartment was gorgeous and the cats were adorable. Pics to come soon.

Went on a fieldtrip to the Pullman District on the South Side. It was actually pretty fun despite the fact that our tour guide was kinda weird. We had lunch at this tiny diner and ate waaaaaay too much. It was delicious though.

Also, a bunch of us got to see a free pre-screening of The Fantastic Mr. Fox. I totally loved it! So cute and really fun.

I’ve actually been home for almost a week now. Thanksgiving was pretty great, as I got to see lots of family. Today I’m gonna put up the Christmas decorations and savor my last night of relaxation before I head back to Chicago tomorrow morning.

I can’t believe I only have two more weeks and then my semester is over! It seems like it really flew by… But as much as I love Chicago and the Newberry, it will be nice to get back to normal college life…

That is about as exciting as my life gets right now… And let me tell you, I was pretty freakin excited…

Haha. But yeah, I’ve been staying pretty busy lately. Our rough drafts are due in under two weeks… aka, CRAZINESS. So I’ve mostly just been trying to stick to my schedule for reading/note-taking/writing.

In other news, I got to see Noah & the Whale last weekend! It’s the first (but hopefully not the last) concert I’ve been to since I’ve been here and it was pretty sweet. Pics to come later (once I get them from Robert…)

I’ve also been trying to stay on top of plans for when I get back to Beloit next spring. Classes, living situation, and food plans are all a bit up in the air right now… So, we’ll see how all that goes…

I’m also trying to get a bunch of my Christmas shopping done while I’m here… It’s been pretty nice all week, so I’ve been trying to get out a lot, even if only to windowshop.

Not much else new here. I’ll be cat-sitting for a director from ACM next week, so that should be fun. Kitties! I’ve met them already and they’re super cute. Pics of them to come later as well…

I do love autumn, but it’s getting cold a little too quickly… Oh well…

Anywho, updates:

Last weekend Maggie and I went shopping on Michigan Ave. It was pretty fantastic. I bought two really cute dresses that I love. And Sunday night some of us went to Little Italy for dinner. It was super delicious and I ate left-over lasagna for days…

This week has been pretty work-filled. We have a 15 page deadline next Thursday, so I’m reading and writing a lot! But it’ll be nice to have that much definite progress. Goals and deadlines are good and they make me stay on track.

As for this weekend, I’m mostly just working on my paper. Although I might be seeing a movie tonight with Maggie…. We’ll see…

OH! Also, I went to this charity event last night. My mom’s friend Elizabeth co-hosted it and invited me since I’m in Chicago. It was for a fashion label based in Rwanda and it was pretty awesome. keza.com is the website, and they have some pretty cool jewelry…

Elizabeth and I, at the event!

It’s finally October! I love October… It’s the quintessential fall month.

Also, updates:

- I finally put more pictures up on Facebook. I’ll probably put a few on here too.

- My family came to visit last weekend! We went to the Museum of Surgical Science (very interesting, but often gross), this FANTASTIC fondue place (my new love), the Art Institute (because my sister had never been), and Portillo’s (to get greasy delicious-ness). Overall, a fabulous weekend that ended too soon.

- My research is going pretty well. We turned in our outlines and annotated bibliographies last week and we get them back tomorrow. *Fingers crossed* I do well.

- The first five weeks of the seminar are over, so now we only meet for class on Wednesday afternoons. I still have work 8-9 hours a week and a weekly meeting with my writing group, but needless to say a lot of my time has become very unstructured. Luckily, I’m pretty disciplined and have been going to the library very regularly. But I know it will definitely be weird when I’m at Beloit again in January and I have to go to class all the time. Haha.

- My job is still pretty cool. Lately I have been proofreading translations of German newspapers from the early twentieth century. It’s pretty interesting stuff…

Not much else to report. Busy, busy workin’ all the time.

During the middle of the day I’ll think “oh man, I should update my Newberry tumblr…”

So, I finally am!

I’ve been to the Art Institute Museum again since my last post. Saw more art. Highlights: sweet art deco chairs, paperweight exhibit, and the photography/visual arts room. They wouldn’t let me take any pictures in the photography/visual arts room, but there were two totally awesome installations. One was an entire wall of the backs of photographs. It was awesome to see all of the different little labels and stories people had written. The other was the projectors, each with a death row inmate’s final words written on the film. So what was projected on the wall just looked like a blur of type. It was a pretty neat idea.

I’ve also been to the museum of science and industry. That was also pretty cool. We got to see the U-boat exhibit, which was brilliantly done. Also, there was this totally awesome fairy dollhouse. You laugh, but that’s just because you haven’t seen it. It’s amazing.

I also finally started my job in Digital Initiatives. It’s pretty fantastic. I’m mostly working with different digitizing projects which involves organizing, cataloging, data entry, and research. It’s pretty interesting and my boss is super nice.

As far as my research goes, I’m doing ok. I have a topic, and it got approved, but the professors think I need to change my focus a bit… So I’m meeting with them this week and hopefully I can get it figured out.

Oh! And Luke came to visit last weekend and we went to Chinatown! Definitely fun… haha.

Yesterday we turned in our research proposals (*fingers crossed*). In class we each talked about how our projects are going. It was interesting to hear which projects overlapped and how initial ideas had changed completely.

Then yesterday evening we went to the Art Institute! It’s free every Thursday night, so we walked all the way down there and had an awesome time. I only got to see three areas (out of… a lot more), so I will definitely be going back. But I saw African Art, Impressionist Art, and the Miniatures Room.

Now, some people will say that if you only have an hour to spend at the Institute that you should hit the major works of art: Georges Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Grant Wood’s American Gothic, El Greco’s Assumption of the Virgin, etc. And while I saw one of those last night and will definitely see the others when I go back, I would personally still recommend going to see the Miniatures Room. It is full of these super elaborate time-period rooms that are just fantastic.

Maybe I’m just nerding-out here, but I thought they were totally awesome…