Month in Review

It's been awhile since I last updated, but I've been keeping busy!  Here's what I've done in the past month:

The East Lakeview Art Festival at the end of September:

Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the world reknown conductor, Muni.  This was a FREE concert ant Millennium Park, look at the GORGEOUS background of the city lights.  I was there with 7 other classmates, we had a picnic on the lawn.  It was a gorgeous night and a beautiful concert.  The whole place was packed (they had to shut down the entrance 1/2 before the show started).  At the end, there was even fireworks!!

Now that I'm a member of the Chicago Architecture Foundation, I've been taking advantage of the bus tours and walking tours that they offer.  I've been to two so far:  The Great Chicago Fire Tour and the Loop Tour.  They were both great.  It was fun to learn more about the city and to walk around and just relaxing after a full week of learning.

The Chicago Fire Department.  The art piece marks the site where the Great Chicago Fire originated. 

Another free concert at the Millennium Park.  This was the Chicago Country Music Festival.  It had been a long stressful day of studying, so it was so good to take a break with one of my classmates and listen to some awesome concert, by Jake Owen and then Jewel.  Jewel yodeled.  It was random, but great!

 

And lastly, it was my birthday yesterday.  I had SUCH a wonderful day.  I had so many people wishing me happy birthday (thanks Facebook!).  I got a very sweet phone call from my lovely co-workers at EComm.  I miss the girls at the fire pod.  It was so great to hear from them.  I wrote an exam (and learned today that I received the highest mark in class!  WOOT!), my classmates got me a birthday card and mini cupcakes (totally unexpected, SO sweet of them!), and we all went out to celebrate after class.  The bar we went to had trivia night.  My team got 3rd place (with VERY little help from me), and this was my prize:

All in all, a fantastic month.  I feel like I'm getting the hang of grad school.  It's a lot of work, but I think I'm doing pretty well.  My past two exams have been good, anyways.  I love everything I'm learning, I LOVE my new friends, I love the new city.  I'm just too happy for words, and just so so lucky. 

The next month should be pretty hectic - I've got even more exams coming up and many papers and assignments all due within a week of each other.  But there are also lots of other exciting things:  we are taking a class trip to Wisconsin for a workshop over one of the weekends in November, for one.  Halloween is coming up, and I think I just might dress up this year if I can come up with an idea.