I Am Enlightened

I am so happy – I got to wake up at 10:30 today! It was super nice to get more sleep, and I woke up super refreshed. My roommate, Michelle, regrettably could not accompany us down to the Art Institute of Chicago because she had work to do, so she made Kara, Raqueeb, Lindsay, and Jahnvi come say bye to her before we left.

The line was pretty long, but it moved fast.

We picked up Olivia from the café nearby, and we took an Uber to the train station. We took the L train and went on the green line. We arrived at the Art Institute of Chicago, right on time, to meet Ms. Sciacca. However, we decide to grab lunch before we went into the institute, so we decided go to Shake Shack.

I went with a Shack Burger and a chocolate milk shake. We shared a few orders of regular fries and cheese fries. The burger was okay, but I was kind of disappointed with the cheese fries because it was just a blob of cheese on top of the fries and only the fries in the center have cheese. The chocolate shake was really good, though; it was very sweet, but I have a weakness for all sweet things.

Then, we finally went into the institute. We waited for Kara and Olivia to get their tickets, and once they came back, we decided that we could all split up to go to whichever exhibits we wanted to and check in with each other through text in a little while. Jahnvi and I paired up, because we both struggle a little with properly understanding and appreciating certain types of art.

We started from the lower floor. We looked at We looked at miniature houses and other structure and was awed by the tiny details and nuances of everything. We also looked at various photography exhibits, and I came up with interesting stories/interpretations for many of them. I made Jahnvi laugh so much; I should become a comedian. Soon enough, it was clear photography was not really the type of art for either one of us, so we soon left for other exhibits.

I actually could really appreciate this photograph.

It took me and Jahnvi a while to locate it, but the exhibit for paperweights was super cute! Everything there was really pretty, and there was one with flowers inside that was particularly beautiful.

So pretty!!

After that, Jahnvi and I wandered around aimlessly for a little bit and just stumbled into whichever exhibit was the closest. There were some really cool pieces in the Asian Art section, and Jahnvi recognized some of the gods depicted in the sculptures. Somewhere along the line, we also went to look at daggers and various Asian creations, which were super cool. I mentioned the daggers because there was one very beautiful dagger that just entranced me; the handle, the design – everything was so breathtaking. I might have a little fascination with weapons.

We then also looked at textiles, and it’s so hard to imagine that everything we saw was done by hand. The details woven were so intricate and pretty, we could tell that much hard work and time had been put into every textile’s creation.

Such pretty colors. And the details!!!

We went to a few more exhibits, but my favorite gallery had to the one for new contemporary art. Perhaps because it was a bit more modern, I could actually connect with the pieces there. There were some really abstract ones, like one with three rectangular sections of three different colors. That one was Jahnvi’s favorite. However, I much preferred and loved the paintings that were splotches of colors because there were just something so mysterious and abstract – something so profound – about them.

My favorites (part 1/2)

My favorites (part 2/2)

???? So many questions

We spent around two and a half hours – almost three – at the institute. The last half hour or so, Jahnvi and I met up with Lindsay and Kara. We went on an elevator whose maximum capacity was either 2100 lbs or 5 people, which quite perplexed us. We calculated that according to the plaque, each person would have to be 420 lbs. It was quite the mystery, but luckily, the elevator worked for us, even though there were over 5 people (we were all small people).

At the end, when everyone was done exploring the institute, we went into the museum shop. Everyone managed to buy some souvenirs; I got an Art Institute of Chicago magnet and a cat keychain.

Then, because Ms. Sciacca heard that we had homework to do, she decided it was best that we called it a day and return to the dorms so we don’t fall behind in our work. The six of us took the L back, and it was hilarious because Raqueeb fell asleep and kept on rocking between me and Kara. He sleeps like a bobblehead. I honestly don’t know how he always manages to sleep like that; it looked extremely uncomfortable to me, and we all kept on laughing at him the whole ride. Finally, we got off the L, and somehow, we managed to squeeze in a shopping trip to Target before we walked back to the dorms to drop off our things and ate dinner in the dining hall.

He was literally about to just fall. I held his head up, but I don't understand how anyone sleeps like this. 

Today was such a fun day! I had a great time at the institute, and it was awesome to spend the day hanging out with my friends. However, I have decided tomorrow will be a chill day, and I will most probably stay on campus and relax a little before class begins once more on Monday.