'16 ILC at Chicago: E - Various Pathways

Dear Reader,

I felt like dough today. Beaten and weary, yet still able to rise.

The view rising from the underground.

Last night was our cohort's fancy ILC dinner at Town Hall in the City (SF). Well actually--let me start from the beginning. Chicago cohort + parents + Don + Ms. Kronenburg met at the El Cerrito Plaza BART station. I had driven past the station with my parents more times than I can count, but this was the first time I had ever traveled on a BART train. Therefore, I was nervous and excited. We left without Don and Mauricio, but somehow they wound up arriving at the restaurant before us. Apparently the rest of us took the "scenic route". :^ )

Another new experience--taking the escalator up to the exit of the Embarcadero and seeing huge buildings surrounding me. Living in the suburbs of Hercules + seeing SF through a car window (mainly) = (O_O)

I think my favorite kind of contemporary architecture is of buildings that reflect the sky perfectly. Luckily for me, there are plenty of those in San Francisco. We walked about five blocks (in high heels T^T) to get to the restaurant, and passed by LinkedIN and more tall buildings.

Creepy construction going up.

We got to meet our fantastic sponsors and a few UChicago alum at the dinner too. The most interesting person I met there was Michelle Berge, the wife of one of our architect sponsors (Scott Berge). Interestingly enough, all of our sponsors were involved in architecture. I connected with Michelle as she and I both had experienced time in Japan with host families, and also had common interest in business (however, where she works in marketing, I aspire to). Another face that stands out is Christopher Dewing, an alum that recently graduated in 2014. He had numerous stories of mundane events that I considered interesting, such as biking. But imagine biking cross country. For two months. Intense, right? Those are the people that really made my night, other than my cohort, and of course, Brandon Dela Cruz. Brandon had various stories of his mischievousness during his time in Chicago, making for a great, chatty dinner table.

Dinner:

Salad, with walnuts and greens. It was pretty heavily dressed, which I didn't particularly favor, but it was still a good salad.

Then comes mashed potatoes, gravy, and biscuits with a strange sweet and spicy jam (the biscuits were A-1, just to mention.) followed by prime rib and fried chicken.

There was also asparagus with egg bits, and dessert was pieces of fudge with caramel on top.

From the top 'o the sm0l restaurant.

Overall, of the dinner experience, my favorite part was going to the restroom...because from there, I found the roof. :) The way the restaurant was situated, to go to the restroom, you have to go to the second floor. But, being who I am, I didn't stop there. Heh. Trekking up five more flights of stairs in heels isn't an easy feat, but it was definitely worth it. Atop the building, facing an open sky and the Charles Schwab building was a creepy abandoned playground (!) My pulse was rushing as I opened the door extremely slowly, begging that an alarm wouldn't go off in this seemingly abandoned part of the building. When I walked out with no bells ringing behind me, my body instantly crumpled in relief. Woohoo!