Go Wildcats!

A simple breakfast

My alarm went off at 8:00 AM this morning, but I decided to sleep in some. Carla and I weren't up and moving until around 8:25 AM. By 8:45 AM we were in the lobby of the Drake Hotel, waiting to go sightsee. Once all of our cohort had gathered, we began our walk, first to breakfast and then to the bean. We ate inside a nearby mall. I ordered plain scrambled eggs, maple sugar flavored chicken sausage and some fruit. It was decent for a food court breakfast. American Girl was on our way out of the mall, so we snuck a few peeks and headed down the Magnificent Mile towards the bean.

                       

Amphitheater

This is my third visit to Chicago, so the bean isn't new to me. But I, of course, snapped a few pictures. Suddenly, we overheard a symphony orchestra performing and decided to go listen. Around the corner there was a gorgeous outdoor theater and there we found the orchestra, which turned out to be only rehearsing. The musicians were so talented, Mr. Chan-law thought it was a recording!

 We got bored after awhile and so we began our journey to Northwestern University. We took the subway and after a long 40 minute ride we arrived in Evanstown, Illinois. It was about 10 minute walk to the campus. We grabbed a quick lunch before our information session and tour, but I wasn't hungry because we ate an hour before. I grabbed some popcorn and a drink just to tide me over until dinner though.

Our Northwestern tour guide

 We made it back to the admissions office right on time for the college presentation. Honestly, after this session I wasn't particularly enthused about the university. The speakers did not share any information I could not have found online. So I hoped to get more out of the school tour. Our tour guide was a woman who actually graduates tomorrow! She was obviously very proud to be a student of Northwestern, but after the tour I still felt no real resonance with the university. However, one fact about the college I liked was how I would be able to major in anything I wanted (which would mostly be something English-related because English is my favorite subject) while pursuing pre-Med. After the tour we had to walk back to Metro, and unfortunately it suddenly started to rain. It was coming down pretty hard, but by the time we made it up the platform the sun was beaming down on us.

My wild umbrella
 & the random rain

Fast forward to when we got back to the hotel, Carla and I listened to Sam Smith's music and I worked on fixing my Cornell email. (The professors for my course emailed us a ton of information, including how we need to use our "Cmail".) An hour later we were back out the door, walking to dinner at Capital Grille. Our guests for the night were admissions officer, Shannon Kennedy, and three Northwestern students: Iheoma, Liam and Katie. I was seated in between Sue and Liam. Liam is a rising sophomore majoring in film from Miami Beach, Florida. He loved Northwestern so much he applied to Northwestern for early admission before he even stepped onto campus. His personal statement was so incredibly unique I'm going to keep it a secret...

"Dinner has been served"

Anyway, all three students emphasized the flexibility and diversity of Northwestern, in regard to classes. It is encouraged to take courses outside of your major. I'm not completely sure, but I believe doing so is actually required. Iheoma told us about one class that you can take "for fun": Marriage 101, a class that teaches you how to be married. By the way, Iheoma is a rising junior majoring in Anthropology and she will be going to South Africa next spring. Katie, on the other hand, is majoring in journalism. She sat across from me so I didn't get to converse with her as much as I did Liam and Iheoma. They all take part in so many clubs, or organizations. I was amazed. What was most exciting was that they are both in a sorority and a fraternity, respectively. And they said it was not so much who they were, but simply something they took part in. Joining a sorority is definitely on my college to-do list. It was a very laidback and enjoyable dinner. I'm incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to meet these individuals because I learned so much and I am now actually considering applying to Northwestern. We took our group photo and said our goodbyes, then back "home" we went. Tomorrow is a big day... Tomorrow's blog will be written at Cornell! Wish me luck!

(top left to right) Katie, Liam, Carla, Jun, Sue, Kevin & Natalie
(bottom left to right) me, Iheoma and Ms. Kennedy