Chicago Trip

This Morning we met in the lobby of the hotel at 7:05 AM. As soon as everyone got down to the lobby, we caught a ride on the SuperShuttle to the airport. When we got to the airport we got our tickets, waited for a while and ate some cupcakes from Alie’s birthday because we still had time to relax since our plane to Chicago didn’t come until 10:05 AM.

The Airport

After a while of relaxing, we went through security and lucky for me, Dani, and Alexa had boarding passes that allowed us to go through pre-check and didn’t have to wait in line to get checked. Then we went to our gate to sit down and wait for the plane to arrive.

We started boarding on the plane at 9:35 AM and it took a while because we were called by group number. Our group number was 2. When we finally actually got on the plane, we had to wait to be seated because everyone was getting situated and putting their bags in the overhead bins before sitting down. That took a while, too, because our seats were in the back of the plane. After we sat down we waited to leave and be on our way to Chicago. I actually slept the whole time like the rest of the cohort, which was good because we had another long day ahead of us in Chicago. I don’t even remember taking off, that’s how good the sleep was.

The Omin Hotel

When we arrived at the Chicago airport we went to get our bags and caught a shuttle like usual. The shuttle took us to the Omni Hotel and we checked in, went to our rooms to put our bags away, and then caught a cab to Northwestern University.

After we arrived at the school we went to the Admissions Office to check-in for the info session and tour after. The speaker’s name for the info session is Toni Garcia and she’s an admissions officer. She told us that she never felt unsafe on campus. I learned about the five schools they have there. Those five schools are Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, School of Communication, Medill School of Journalism, McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Beinen School of Music. She also let us know that this school is one of the best schools in the country and more about the school. She ended the session and turned it over to all of the tour guides there and they introduced themselves to everyone.

Marie Donaldson~Our Tour Guide

So we split off in groups and we chose to go with a tour guide named Marie Donaldson. She was on the pre-med track and she was majoring in Spanish. On the tour we walked around most of the campus while she talked about the different schools they had like in the info session and showed us one of the libraries they have. We didn’t know at first what the building looked like but she told us that it’s supposed to look like books. She also took us through the Dining Hall and she told us that the meals were paid for by points on the student IDs. The Dining Hall is only for the students and no professors could go in there or have any classes or meeting in the rooms they had for studying. The students use the meeting rooms to study and the students could actually meet to have study sessions together. I liked how there were three athletic gyms. The biggest gym had Ping-Pong, basketball courts, racquetball, tennis, and more. All of the Varsity sports were supported by the students and everyone would go to all the games. Students got in for free with their student IDs. Gladly we ended the tour before it really started raining outside. When we got back to the Admissions Office we met Jaime, who was going to be meeting us at the dinner at 6 PM. The restaurant is called Café Spiaggia.

My Pasta Dinner

At the dinner we met Jaime, Andrew, Vernon, Viral, Monte, and Chris. I didn’t get to talk to most of them but had the pleasure of talking to Vernon and also a short conversation with Monte and Andrew at the end. Vernon and I sat at the end of the table with our chaperone Alie. The appetizers we had were meatballs and different types of cheeses. For dinner I had some type of pasta which I don’t remember the name of but it was Italian. For desert I had Panna Cotta which is gelato topped with blueberries and a small scoop of vanilla ice cream.

My Panna Cotta Desert

The conversation with Alie and Vernon was very informational. First we talked about the Ivy League Connection and what we were doing in the program. Later on in the conversation Vernon told me that he was a counselor recently for a freshman orientation in the summer and if he had done the whole college experience over again that it would be the reason to come. He also told me that I should be organized so that I won’t have problems with doing my work on time and to have a calendar of the assignments that needed to be turned in. That was really helpful because now I won’t have issues with turning things in late and I will be able to have a clear mind set in my pre-college experience.

Before we left, we were talking about taking selfies in the bathroom for some reason and I got to tell Monte, Andrew, Alie, and Vernon a story about my sisters and I taking selfies in the bathroom and a video of our jingle we made about In-N-Out Burger. That made people want In-N- Out after talking about it. 

The Gang Outside of Café Spiaggia's

To end the night we took a group picture outside the restaurant and then walked back to our hotel since it was like four blocks away. We said our goodbyes and parted to our separate ways. I really liked to tell my story of my sisters and I taking selfies. The jingle goes like this, “In-N-Out... (Snap) In-N-Out... (Snap)In-N-Out... (Snap) In-N-Out... (Snap) I like the cheeseburgers, the fries, milkshakes, ROOTBEER!!!” I sang it on the way back to the hotel to my cohort and they thought it was funny. That jingle was from when I was about nine or ten years old. Lastly, we all went to our rooms to get some sleep for tomorrow’s adventure to UChicago.