This past weekend was one of the most eventful and enjoyable weekends I have had this semester. Why, you ask? Well, it was the Chicago Day Trip on Saturday, sponsored by the Student Activities Committee. Every year they put on a day trip into the heart of Chicago for $5 and students who sign up are able to shop around and do whatever they want all day. However, spots fill up very quickly, so it’s nice having a friend who is part of SAC who can tell you when the sign-up date is approaching. At least that’s what I did and man I’m glad I took advantage of this inexpensive offer! I went with three of my best friends from school and we had quite the adventure.
First of all, the bus we were on was amazing! It had fake hardwood floors, a microwave, free WiFi, and I was told it was the Griffins’ bus, but I’m don’t completely believe that. Oh, and we watched Elf on the way there—what a classic! Anyway, we got there and met up with my brother for lunch. That was a journey in itself—we decided to go to the Billy Goat Tavern. From my experience, I wouldn’t recommend it because it is underground in a sketchy location and the food is pretty mediocre. However, if you go there, you will for sure get a great story out of it.
After chowing down on some lunch, my brother headed back to school and my friends Lauren, Anna, Audrey, and I walked around and shopped for a while. Luckily my best friend from home lives in Chicago, so she was able to meet up with us for a majority of the afternoon. Let me just say that hanging with a friend from home is SO nice. Reminiscing and being able to talk about things not related to classes and our schools was really nice because we could enjoy each other’s company and talk about our friends that are back at home.
Some of the things we ended up doing is getting free peppermint bark at Ghirardelli’s and the Hershey’s store. I have to admit that we went in both stores a couple times to get free samples. Shhhhh! After all that chocolate, we decided we were pretty darn thirsty so we went to Jamba Juice and gulped down a wonderfully cold and refreshing smoothie. We then walked around some more and went in and out of stores and just talked and met up with Lauren’s friend from home. At this point it was approaching dinner time, so we attempted to get to Giordano’s but of course the wait was over an hour, so we decided to go to Lou Malnati’s, which was just as good (plus we had an awesome waiter, so that made it even better!). Unfortunately, Melissa had to catch the train back to school so she left shortly after dinner and the rest of us walked around in various stores until it was time to head back to the bus. The ride back was pretty uneventful but I think everybody ended up sleeping for a good chunk of the ride back because everyone was exhausted from walking around all day.
Even though it was a tiring day, it was such a great break from being on campus and having homework on your mind. However, Sunday wasn’t the most fun because I had to catch up on everything, but shopping and being with some awesome friends definitely was worth it! Now we only have to hold out for a couple more weeks until Thanksgiving! Hang in there everyone!!!
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