Movie Night ft. Bean Bag City

Apparently, humans have great adaptive abilities. This morning was the testament of that when I was not woken up by the sound of dorm doors shutting. Instead, I was woken up by my alarm as should be. Somehow, in the span of one day, I had gotten used to the noise enough that I had been able to sleep through all of it, a feat which I congratulated myself on.  

My floor

Breakfast was quick, and soon I proceeded to head for the Biological Science Learning Center, where my class was located. I found the correct room with little trouble; I bumped into a fellow classmate, Melissa, at the main entrance to the building, and we successfully searched for the classroom together.

There were about 20 people or so in my course, which is Contagion: Infectious Agents and Diseases. Our teacher is Dr. Fineschi, who is very cool and energetic, and I was relieved because she seemed like the person who could make lectures really fun. She had us introduce ourselves and then took us downstairs to the room for a laboratory safety orientation.

View of the building where my class is as I walked back from lunch

Walking to lunch after lab safety training; the path is really pretty

She left us there with the reminder we have to be back to class by 1 PM, since the presentation would take almost two hours to finish, and we could have lunch afterwards before we returned for the afternoon. The lab safety training was informative and humorous. At the very end, we were “quizzed” in the form of a game, and the top five winners got prizes. Unfortunately, I got one question out of 20 wrong, and I was not in the top five.

After lunch, Dr. Fineschi introduced the course and told us she liked having us discuss things and ask questions. She said from her two decades of teaching experiences, she had found out that we – the students – are capable of thinking outside the box because we don’t have as much knowledge yet; therefore, we are not bound by what we already know the way she is because she has spent so many years and years researching and honing her expertise. I think that is a really good and fair point. I love this teaching philosophy of hers, the way she is so open to what we think and not just handing out information but making us uncover knowledge on our own.

Dr. Fineschi lectured for a little while about epidemics and the types of infectious diseases. Around 2 PM, we headed to the laboratory to begin our first lab, the Lake Michigan Water lab. Over the next week, we will be working to determine the types of bacteria present in the water of Lake Michigan and reach a conclusion as to whether the lake’s water is safe to swim in. At this point, Dr. Fineschi left us to Dawn and Rebecca, who work in the labs in the Bio Sci Center, and Dawn and Rebecca led us through the lab and the procedures required. Everyone partnered up, and my partner’s name is Elaine. We all did lab work until the end of class.

A guy with umbrella.

As soon as I got out of the building after class ended, it began pouring, yet the air still felt so terribly humid. Chicago’s weather has me completely stumped, and I don’t think I will ever get used to it. I found myself missing California more and more as the day went on, but luckily I had friends to take my mind off of home.

Karla and I met up at the dorms to drop off our backpacks, before we headed out to go to the bookstore and the library. We spent longer time in the bookstore than expected, but Karla was able to pick a sweatshirt she wanted, and I got to browse through the books. With our time short, we planned to just visit the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library to take a look. This library was mentioned in one of my previous blog post as one of the seven places I wanted to visit in Chicago, so I was very excited.

We had to enter the Mansueto Library through another library. Perhaps because I was so excited and had such high expectations, the library was actually a little bit disappointing for me. It was a quiet zone, but I hadn’t realize that the library would be completely silent. Although the structure was beautiful, it was quite anticlimactic to be presented with just a reading/study room with everyone there in complete and utter silence. All of the library’s books are actually stored in the floor, retrieved by an automated storage and retrieval system, so it was less impressive than what both Karla and I had expected. Slightly disillusioned, we left and headed to the dining hall for dinner.

The library really is beautiful; The absolute silence, however, is just uncomfortable for me

After dinner, I went back up to my dorm to work on my blog little before I left for the one of the numerous activities UChicago have available each day. There were four different activities offered today. As I didn’t want to leave the residential, preferring an activity with less traveling, I chose the Studio Ghibli Movie Night, which ran from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM on the sixth floor lounge. We watched The Wind Rises, and it was cozy and relaxing (the entire floor was covered in so many teal bean bags, I had to walk on bean bags; I have so many questions). I’ve never been on the sixth floor before, so it was really nice meeting the people on the floor as we enjoyed the movie. It was a great way to end the night, surrounded by new friends as we talked and laughed together at the movie, and I'm can't wait for tomorrow's class!

I think teal is the color of the sixth floor. Everything is teal.