Shop 'Till We Fly

Yesterday concluded the last day of touring schools and today concludes the touring and sightseeing (excluding Ithaca). From Monday 'till today, our cohort visited Washington University, University of Chicago, and Northwestern University. Those four days were fast-moving and was definitely a packed schedule to follow. So today we were granted six hours of sleep and two hours of shopping in Chicago downtown. 

We were instructed to meet at 10AM in the lobby of the hotel. As usual, Sue, Natalie, and I rode the same elevator down with Mr. Chan-Law. Promptly following us were Katelyn, Kevin, and Carla. We then headed out to the cafe and got a drink for breakfast. Because our lunch will take place in less than two hours from 10AM, everyone decided to save their stomachs and eat brunch at Gino's East Pizzeria. So all was set with the food then shopping rules were decided by Mr. Chan-Law. We can split up into groups if we wish to browse downtown Chicago and meet up inside Gino's East at around 11:45AM. 

For the breakfast drink, I got a white chocolate mocha to wake me up. I don't know why, but chocolate related drinks are excellent substitutes of coffee for me. After all our drinks were served to us, we then headed out together at first to Walgreens. There we got little key chains and cup souvenirs for our family members to commemorate our stay in Chicago. Top Shop was in close proximity to Walgreens, so everyone  was thrilled (unfortunately, not Kevin) to go check it out. But because we were still shopping as a group, Kevin reluctantly tagged along. I found a pair of really awesome cowboy boots but unfortunately they didn't have those pairs of shoes for my size, so I decided to go for dinosaur socks. After visiting the well known Top Shop, Sue, Carla, Natalie, and Kevin formed a group to go to the mall right across from H&M where Katelyn and I decided to go. Our two groups went our ways to find what we wanted, and the main reason I wanted to go was because Ithaca does not reside a H&M. A little after ten minutes of looking, Kevin and Natalie joined us at H&M because I assume that both Kevin and Natalie did not take an interest for the makeup sections inside the mall. I was utterly surprised to see Mr.Chan-Law in line to pay for items at H&M. But again, the whole third floor was dedicated for males so why should I be surprised? 

We all finished our shopping within the given time. After carrying our newly bought items inside Gino's East Pizzeria, all of us agreed on getting several appetizers to start the brunch.

Interior design of Gino's East Pizzeria

The appetizers that made us all full before receiving our main course of deep dishes (Chicago's well known pizza style of making) were buffalo wings, calamari, and garlic breadsticks. All of us were full and couldn't intake more than one slice of the deep dish even after forty five minutes of settling our stomach.

My one slice of Pepperoni deep dish

Mr. Chan-Law thought that deep dishes take around forty-five minutes to an hour to bake, so when it gets served to our table, all must be hungry to devour more food, but he was wrong on this one. Everyone literally rubbed their stomach exclaiming that if we were to eat more food, our tummies would explode. We were right on schedule by getting back to the hotel at 1:15PM. The airport shuttle arrived a little before 1:30PM, so all was well. Off to the airport in a flash I would assume. But I was completely knocked out that I didn't realize we were stuck in traffic for two hours. When we finally arrived at Chicago O Hare airport, the time allotted before boarding was thirty minutes. Mr. Chan-Law then used his two year experience of chaperoning Cornell cohorts to make us check-in our luggage and through the security checkpoint in less than twenty-five minutes. As a matter of fact, everyone picked out a drink to quench our thirst afterwards, even before boarding even took place.

Our itinerary for arriving at Cornell consists of transferring in Philadelphia. We would fly from Chicago to Philadelphia and then have a three hour layover in Philadelphia Intl' Airport. Around 9:10PM, we will board a small-sized aircraft towards Ithaca. Once we were to arrive at Ithaca, it would already be 10:35PM. Things were exactly as the itinerary has stated but the time was shifted just a little bit later for arrival in Ithaca.

Late night view outside the window during the Ithaca flight (sorry for the bad quality)

By the time I checked my cellphone what time it was while exiting the aircraft, it was auto-updated to 10:45PM.

First time boarding such a small airplane (notice how I "professionally" blurred the person because of copyright issues)

Upon arriving inside the Cornell campus and into Balch Hall, it was already 11:35PM and I was determined to shower, brush my teeth, make the bed, and blog (of course) before snoring towards a good night sleep. In this very moment, I am done with showering, teeth-brushing, bed making, and blogging. Now, all I need to do is put my awesome photos on MediaFire, generate a checklist of items to buy at Target tomorrow, and have a good night sleep. I hope y'all don't read this right now because then, you will be demoted from the glorious diurnal club to the nocturnal baggy eyes club.