First full day in Chicago

Day -1

We begin class tomorrow at 8am. Prior to class I will treat myself to a nice barrel aged coffee...

I am generally not a morning person, but for this opportunity I will gladly wake up anytime necessary. In addition, I have been waking up early in preparation the past few days, which has been quite an easy adjustment. I attribute this to all the nervous energy and excitement. Even today I felt the need to go for a long run...when it was snowing. It was pretty windy as well and I got plenty of crazy looks. I was proudly sporting my favorite Wisconsin sweatshirt, so that probably explained a lot to these big city folk. I decided to run in the direction of Siebel to check out the area and if I felt good I would try to make it there and back.

When I got to Siebel, I ran into another student, Andy, who was similarly scoping the place out so he knew where to go tomorrow. He was from Birmingham, England and I am sure I contributed to some American stereotype. For reference this is a pic of me when I got back from the run.

It took me a while, but ended up not being so bad. That was the furthest I have run in a long time, good thing I lost all that weight in January. Hopefully making an effort to stay active between school and studying will balance out the unavoidable increase in caloric intake over the months to come. Speaking of calories, last night we had our first pizza together at Roots Handmade Pizza, although it was not deep dish it was still delicious. Really good beer list and some of the best Mozzarella sticks I have ever had.

Afterwards we met up with a large group of other Siebel students at Atlas Brewing Company. It is such a great mix of people from all over including Japan, Chile, India, Ireland, and even dry counties in Arkansas! I am really looking forward to getting to know everyone.

This morning we went to breakfast at Whisk, which beside great food has awesome decor featuring Ron Swanson as can be seen behind us.

They have a Ron Swanson burger available during dinner hours that I will have to experience. Chorizo Benedict with Peruvian Gold Hot Sauce had to suffice...

For some reason "Now watch me Whisk, Now watch me nae nae" popped into my head and later unfortunately became the theme song for my run. I despise that song and that silly dance. I thought we all learned our lesson with the Macarena. I will finish of this post with yet another food related picture. This place wins for best Chinese take out name, which has landed it on our must try list.

Cheers,
-Mike