Northwestern, Pizza, and Water

Today was the second day of our Chicago adventure, and the first day we did something academically related. That academic activity was a tour of Northwestern University. I wasn’t really sure what to expect going into it; I knew that Northwestern was a smaller school and that it was highly regarded, but that was about it. Despite my ignorance going into the tour, I learned so much about and connected with the school, and now I think I’m going to apply there.

Weber Arch, the entrance to the university.

We arrived to Northwestern via subway. I was pretty impressed with how clean and efficient it was; the cars were spotless and didn’t smell bad, unlike a certain rapid transit service in the Bay Area. When we arrived to Northwestern, we expected it to be empty; after all, it was before 10:00 AM, and it’s not a necessarily large school. However, to our surprise, there were already tour groups going around and a lot of people who would participate in our tour were hanging around in the visitor center. We were prompted into the auditorium after a while, and then the presentation began.

The interior of our subway car.

The tour began with an informational session led by a senior admissions director and a former student. They told us all about the way Northwestern works, most notably its small schools and major selection policy. What appealed most to me were the variety of courses and the quarter system, which allows for a lot of scheduling flexibility. After the information session was finished, we were led on a tour by a girl named Jordan who had finished her undergrad studies and earned a Master’s at Northwestern in four years. At first, I didn’t really like her sense of humor, but as she walked us around campus (backwards) she grew on me.

The Northwestern Segal Visitors Center.

After the tour, we decided to ask Jordan for lunch recommendations. She pointed us toward Giordano’s but before we headed over there, we all waded into Lake Michigan for a while. The water, although quite cold, was really clean and clear. My legs have been sore since my little run to get my contacts yesterday, and the water was a welcome presence on my tired muscles.

A picture of us with Jordan (center).

By the time we got out of the water, we were all pretty hungry and so we didn’t waste any more time on our trip to Giordano’s. The restaurant was fairly empty, although there were customers. Yesterday, we had a box of really disappointing cheese fries, so we decided to order garlic-parmesan fries along with our cheese deep-dish pizza. Both were good; I’ve now had pizza almost every day of this week. What was most fascinating to me about the pizza was the way the slices seemed to collapse after they were taken away from the pie. The cheese just oozed out of the sides in the most satisfying way when a slice was put on a plate by itself.

Our fries...

...and our pizza, which I forgot to photograph prior to consumption.

Following lunch at Giordano’s, we went to Millennium Park for a quick preview of next week. The original plan was to go the Art Institute for a couple of hours and then hang around the park, but we were too late to enjoy the museum, which closes at 5, so we rescheduled our visit to next Saturday. However, we still got to see Cloud Gate at the park. This was my third time seeing it, but I always forget how big and impressively sculpted it is.

A picture of us at Millennium Park.

Soon after we left Millennium Park, we grabbed some dinner at Whole Foods, and then returned to the hotel. Our Lyft driver from the park to Whole Foods was great; he had gum and phone chargers in the car on top of good taste in music. Once back at the hotel, we went upstairs, changed, then went to the pool. We played Marco Polo, which I failed at, and I absolutely demolished Lindsay in a race from either end of the pool on our knees. The hot tub also saw a lot of our attention. When we were tired of moving, we relaxed in it and played with the jet streams.

Looking back at it, today has had its fair share of exhaustion, but we also had a lot of relaxing moments. We walked so much this morning, but the time spent in Lake Michigan and the hot tub almost completely counteracted that. Tonight is the last night I spend at Omni; I’m sad to be leaving my beautiful room, but it means that tomorrow we get to move into our dorms at UChicago, which I can’t wait to do.