Friends visit!

Since it’s been about a week since my last post, I figured it was time for an update. Since my last post, I had several friends come visit me from North Carolina- Matt, Joel, Naman, Ivana, Emily, and Emily’s boyfriend Amr. They come up on Sunday, and I took the El into the city and met them in downtown Chicago. That day, we went to a German Christmas festival that was being held near the Thomson center, and walked around downtown seeing some of the sights. That night, we walked to Navy Pier, and then headed back to my apartment for a pasta dinner. On Monday, we slept in, and then prepared a picnic lunch to eat on the shores of Lake Michigan. I showed everybody my lab, and then we ate at the lakefill on campus overlooking Chicago and played some frisbee in the cold wind. That night we saw Second City with a few of my MatSci friends. For those of you who don’t know, Second City is a sketch comedy/improv show where a large percentage of SNL stars originally got their start, like Chris Farley, Tina Fey, Bill Murray, Mike Myers, etc. It was a riot, and I would definitely recommend it to anybody who will be in the Chicago area.

On Tuesday, we headed into the city around noon and had lunch in Millenium Park. Afterwards, we ice skated in the park for an hour or so before heading to the Sears Tower. We went up to the Skydeck after nghtfall, and the view was simply amazing- I had never been up before at night, and the lights of the city were just incredible to see. To finish off the night, we saw a UNC basketball game in a bar in Chicago, and had Giordano’s deep dish pizza for dinner. Before going to sleep we watched a few episodes of House from the DVD I got Naman.

On the last day everybody was there, Emily drove up to Milwaukee to see a friend, but the rest of us headed back to the shores of Lake Michigan and made s’mores before heading out. They dropped me off at the grandparents’ house that evening and immediately proceeded to Cincinatti for the night. It was awesome to see my UNC friends again, and I hope they visit frequently. The Vora triplets will have to come up this summer since they were unable to come up this time around. And of course, I expect Rez to come up and visit again even though he couoldn’t make it this time.

More to come later about Christmas at the grandparents.