Newberry Semester in Chi City...

It's officially over...

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:10:37 -0600

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…

Turned in my final draft today!

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:58:15 -0600

45 pages.

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

Gorgeous house in the Pullman District.

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:21:14 -0600

Gorgeous house in the Pullman District.

Kitty!

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:18:58 -0600

Kitty!

Holiday updates!

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:21:08 -0600

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…

Two for $1 Arizona iced teas...

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:20:16 -0600

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…

It's getting cold...

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:44:05 -0500

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!

Long-awaited-ness...

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:15:30 -0500

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.

Remembering things is hard...

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:16:00 -0500

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.

Room from the Thorne Collection of Miniature Rooms.

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:53:42 -0500

Room from the Thorne Collection of Miniature Rooms.

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:53:14 -0500

Room from the Thorne Collection of Miniature Rooms.

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:52:50 -0500

Room from the Thorne Collection of Miniature Rooms.

Miniatures are the bomb...

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:50:30 -0500

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…

Irrational urban fear # 2: When you can see a fire-escape that...

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 21:53:07 -0500

Irrational urban fear # 2: When you can see a fire-escape that would be utterly terrifying to climb down in the event of an actual fire… because it is RIDICULOUSLY high-up and obviously open-air.

I walk by this shop on an almost daily basis. Everytime I do, it...

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 21:51:00 -0500

I walk by this shop on an almost daily basis. Everytime I do, it makes me think of “Quando Quando Quando”… :)

Irrational urban fear # 1: When it is foggy and you can’t...

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 21:49:43 -0500

Irrational urban fear # 1: When it is foggy and you can’t see the tops of tall buildings… It’s freaky…

Autumn in Chicago...

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 21:47:50 -0500

So, I definitely love living in a city for autumn. It’s already my favorite season and the neighborhood I live in is so beautiful.

It’s also still warm enough that weekly trips to the beach are definitely warranted. I love walking up to Lincoln Park and reading or people watching or listening to music all afternoon.

Also, the seminar is going well. We’re reading a fairly interesting book about race, ethnicity, and national belonging in the Old West for next week.

Earlier this week, Emily Gaul (the ACM rep for our program) took some of us to Hyde Park. It was pretty cool. We went to the Oriental Museum and the Seminary Co-op (<—my favorite… I’ll definitely have to go back at some point when I’m not trying to save money… there were sooooooo many books…) and then to this great noodle place for dinner where I got delicious pad se-eu.

OH. And we interviewed for and were assigned work study jobs! I will be working for the Publication and Digital Initiative department. Hopefully I’ll start sometime this coming week. I’m pretty excited…

Our apartment is starting to look truly awesome...

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:26:56 -0500

Maggie and I are both mostly moved in. We have stuff in the closets and posters on the wall, so it’s really starting to feel more like home.

Yesterday was our first officially meeting as a seminar. We had a library orientation and tour and then got some free lunch. And afterwards we got our syllabus and talked about our paper topic ideas. We’re a pretty diverse mix of academic interests, so it should be interesting to see how everyone’s projects take shape.

As far as my own paper, I think I’ll probably stick with what I wrote on my application. I’m very interested in newspaper coverage of events, particularly riots. So I’ll probably focus on the Chicago race riots of 1919. The Newberry has a TON of old Chicago newspapers (from back in the day when there were more than a handful), so I’ll have plenty of material to work with.

Living in Chicago is going pretty well. Our windows don’t face the street, so it stays fairly quiet. This afternoon after class there is an optional fieldtrip to Hyde Park… So I’ll probably go check that out…

I have been taking pictures, but for now I’m too lazy to put them up. But I will soon!

I'm here!!!

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:30:01 -0500

I moved into my apartment today! I will post pictures sometime soon…

It’s pretty small, but in a cozy way. The kitchen is in a tiny closet… So we’ll see how that goes… But the closet is huge!

I’m soooo in love with the neighborhood that I’ll be living/working in. It’s really cute and only a few blocks away from the lake. I will definitely be running down there sometime soon…

We won’t have wireless in my building until later this week (right now I’m at the Barnes and Noble down the street…), so my updates will probably be pretty sparse at first. But I’m here, and I’m already loving living in a city. :)

So, on a side note, I have to confess I am definitely being one of those creepers who people-watches from the bench-seats right at the front windows of Barnes and Noble. Oh, well. Can’t be helped I suppose… Anywho, more to come later!

Less than a Week...

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:29:00 -0500

Hello everyone!!

So, I’m leaving for Chicago this Sunday. I have a ridiculous amount of packing and preparations to do before then… But I have all week to do so… So we’ll see how that goes…

I’m definitely ready to get goin’. Most of my Beloit friends are already off in other countries enjoying their programs. And even though I won’t even be leaving the Midwest, I’m still really looking forward to this semester. Living in Chicago will be pretty awesome…

Well, that’s all for now, kiddos. More to come when I actually get there…