Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Once upon a time

Once there was a beautiful princess who went to University in a land far far away from home.

She grew lonely in the vast country, with only her school books to keep her company on the windy nights. She whined on the phone constantly to her dear brother about her loneliness but he ignored her pleas until one day when his computer fell ill with the Bubonic Internet Virus Plague and he was left with nothing to do. He recruited his sister and off they went, into the bright Saturday morn, in their golden chariot made by Saturn (a legacy left to them by the Great Grandpa Carolus).

"Alas," they trumpeted triumphantly, "Fair Maiden we have arrived!" With unshed tears shining in her eyes, the princess ran down the stairs to meet them. Half an hour later, she reached the bottom and greeted them joyously.
"Let us make haste! The day awaits for no man," they shouted. The princess took them on a tour of her fair campus, making frequent stops so her guests could rest their weary bodies. (Hey, I told them they should probably stop after the giant waffles but they had to eat cookies AND try the cappucino machine too.) The tour took them to downtown West Lafayette because the princess forgot that Saturdays are Breakfast Club* days when there's a home game. A ghastly sight awaited all so the princess hurried them back to her tower for a nap. The rest of the day passed in a whirlwind of birthday present shopping for their father, getting lost in town, and general avoidance of the football crowd.
Weary after a long day, they returned home for an early night.

HA. yeah right. They caroused around like the hooligans they are well into the night.



Sadly, the trip must come to an end some time so Sunday afternoon after meeting, the royal siblings got back into the golden chariot and journeyed back to the Fort of Wayne. The princess tearfully waved goodbye and immediately started a count down to Thanksgiving.
The End.
What a good story.
I realize there are squillions of pictures of the Chicago trip left to post but I'm lazy and I'll just post a link to 'em later.
*Breakfast Club is a long-standing Purdue tailgating tradition for home football games where students aged 21 and above dress up in costumes and go to the bars when they open in the morning and get completely smashed before the game even starts. Some people are so gone, they actually forget to go to the game. Which is why there were some entirely drunk people in costume downtown in the middle of the day. It is the uncontested winner of the "The Stupidest Thing I Have Ever Seen A Large Group of My Peers Do Repeatedly and One of the Reasons Why I Am Convinced I Was Born in The Wrong Decade" award. Some consider it to be the best college tailgating tradition in the country. I consider it to be the only thing that makes me not proud to be a Boilermaker.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

"Chicago, Chicago, I'll show you around.."

This weekend WRH Club and Cary Residence Hall cosponsored a day trip to Chicago to see the Broadway musical Wicked for their residents. Naturally, Catherine and I were the first to sign up, along with Catherine's best friends who live next door to us, Lauren and Shannon. I love love love the city and was beyond excited to go. For the low low price of $30, you get a bus ride to and from the city and a ticket to see the musical.
College is awesome.
We began our day by rising at the foreign hour of 6:30. We packed our bags, buttoned our coats, and were on the bus by 7:30. It's only about a 2.5 hour drive there and we commissioned the Purdue tour bus so it was a pretty comfortable ride. Shannon ended up not being able to go so I sat by myself...for about 5 minutes. Girl in Houndstooth Coat scanned the bus and decided, out of all the empty rows surrounding us, she wanted to sit by me. Let me be the first to say I am all for meeting new people and I am fine sitting next to strangers as long as their thigh is not pressed up to mine. awkward. I kept shifting towards the window and the thigh kept moving. This sad little game of cat and mouse continued until my cheek was smooshed against the cold glass window. Finally, when I could feel my face no more, I decided to end the madness. I grabbed my bag from the floor and plunked it down between us. Since my bag could be mistaken for an ocean barge, it worked. She had to move the offending appendage. Victory was mine.

We got to the Windy City at 9 their time and were off the bus and into the brisk morning air. We didn't have to go to the show until 2 so we were free to roam at will. First stop? Coffee shop. Catherine and Lauren gratefully chugged their Seattle's Best while I stood nearby, hoping to inhale some caffeine in the steam. Of course I could have purchased my own but let it be known that I loathe the taste of coffee.
  • Side note: part of my life's philosophy is that if you have to acquire a
    taste for something, why taste it in the first place? And yes, this means I
    place coffee-flavored things under the same umbrella as alcohol, cigarettes, and sushi.
  • Side note disclaimer for all you concerned adults: fear not,
    the only one of those things I have actually ever tasted is coffee.
  • Side note tangent: Did you know that in the Andes Mountains, the main meat
    source is cuŃ—? That is all well and good until that I found out in English
    that means guinea pig. Talk about acquired taste.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch called Chicago, we went to Millenium Park to take pictures and hang out until stores opened.


Millenium Park is full of fantastic art and sculpture, some of it amazing and moving and some of it incomprehensible.







This is the ampitheather. Fantastic architecture, ridiculous art. It featured "Arctic Soundscape". A soundscape is an environment created by sound. Let me put it layman's terms: it sounds like someone put in a CD that recorded sounds in nature and blasted it out over the huge soundsystem in this ampitheater. This soundscape featured sounds entirely of the moaning wind and what sounded like seals being murdered. At jet engine decibel level. I was not impressed. Art, in my opinion, is a quiet entity. I do not consider soundscapes to be art.





This is is my favorite piece. It is called Cloud Gate. We called it the Magic Bean. Many pictures ensued.










Catherine reflected in the bean. A rather cool image, if I do say so myself. and I do.


























At ten, we left the park to experience the pricey side of Chicago: the shopping. We went into Macy's which has nine floors and an FAO Schwartz inside. We went to a few other stores, but not many because Catherine hates shopping and Lauren and I had to nearly exchange purses so we wouldn't buy everything in sight. I made them go into H&M before we had lunch though, because that is my favorite clothing store in the whole world. They were beautifully patient while I tried on squillions of things and ended up only purchasing a scarf. It was more than I would usually pay for a scarf but it's gorgeous and my neck was cold.

We lunched at Jimmy John's, a sandwhich chain found here in West Lafayette but we promised ourselves we would have authentic Chicago cuisine at dinner. Afterwards, we wandered into the Chicago Cultural Center and saw this display of coral reefs that had been entirely crocheted. It was amazing. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but it was astoudning. The array of yarn was a riot of color. They had a section that had been crocheted entirely using plastic bags, displaying the terrible destruction of the Great Barrier Reef. Did you know that 10% of the world's plastic produced every year ends up in the ocean?

It's the reason why we have to see coral reefs made of yarn in a museum, as opposed to the real thing.
Well I am tired of messing around with the formatting of pictures on this blog so I think I'll end here tonight. I'll post the rest of the pictures and story tomorrow. Or sometime.

Kiss Hug. Bonne nuit.
 

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