Day 08

I had no Internet access, so here are the posts for the past three days.

Written on September 6 at 8:42 pm.

After sleeping in until 8am, my roommates and I packed lunches and headed to the Lincoln Park Zoo. One word can describe our time at the zoo: AMAZING! We spent over three hours visiting lions, monkeys, apes, snakes, kangaroos, llamas, rhinos, otters, etc. But my favorite part of the day was visiting Farm in the Zoo. Yes, it was like homemade Iowa. There were John Deere tractors, corn, cows, ponies, bunnies, goats, and other native Midwest wildlife. The smell alone was enough to make me homesick for farm ground and livestock. All in all, the zoo was a sweet taste of home.

On our way back we stopped at a grocery store called Trader Joe’s. The whole store was all organic stuff, which is not my style, so I felt very out of place. The store is located on the second floor of the building and the strange thing is that there is a parking lot outside. You would think you were at any old grocery store until you look out the window and see the street twenty feet below you. It was weird. I probably won’t go there again. Why can’t all grocery stores be like good ol’ Fareway?

After spending nearly five hours trekking around the city, we got back to the apartment and I took a nap. Mmm, how I love an afternoon siesta. Then it was time to make supper. We had chicken and cooked carrots with rice. I helped by setting the table and washing the dishes. I will figure out this cooking thing one of these days.

We contemplated watching a movie, but I said, “Hey, you should do this really great 45-minute workout with me!” After I pleaded with them for twenty minutes Kristin actually agreed to join me. Yay for workout buddies! At the moment I am recovering from said exercise...which we really didn't need since we spent hours walking around the zoo...oh, well.

Tomorrow the CS group is headed to headquarters for more fun hours of orientation on seminars (which is a fancy name for classes).