one day in the windy city

chicago in one day:

The first time I went to Chicago, I fell in love. We were on a weekend trip with the honors learning community at my university for spring break. It was the first weekend in March, so our "spring break" was full of snowflakes and whipping winds, but the snow seemed to make the city even more magical. I promised myself that my first trip to Chicago wouldn't be my last.

I fulfilled that promise thursday night. Straight after work I grabbed a bag and hopped in the car with my mom, and we were off. You see, to get your student visa for France you have to make an appointment with your regional French Consulate. The location responsible for Ohio residents is in Chicago, so a mini road trip was in the cards for me and mom.

I was a nervous wreck all week, making sure I had all the files and forms and photocopies and documents and EVERYTHING else I might possibly need. I bought a document folder from my grocery store and had everything they could possibly ask for and more. Let me tell you, over-preparing leads to overthinking, which leads to major stress dreams. But I had everything I needed, and the visa appointment went really well. My appointment was on the 37th floor of a building downtown, I had to check in and get a visitor pass, it was all very official. I totally felt like a Very Important Adult Person with my visitor pass and my meeting on the 37th floor. I got there early, and was finished before my official appointment time, so its safe to say I was more worried than I should have been.

That left the rest of the day to explore. In just a matter of hours, my mom and I:

-ate a free breakfast at a historic chicago hotel that we stayed at (it wasn't haunted though, no worries!) - saw the bean and walked through millennium park

- went to navy pier

-pet about a million dogs

-did the chicago riverwalk

-walked through and souvenir shopped in chinatown (my first time in chinatown!! SO COOL!)

-pretty much walked through the entire city, talk about blisters

-gave trump tower a certain hand gesture

-took a LOT of pictures

- bought a green aventurine necklace to satisfy my healing crystal craze

- (FOOD WE ATE) churros w/ dulce de leche filling, fish tacos, free guacamole from a wholly guacamole tent, dim-sum and chicken fried rice, raspberry goat cheese samples from trader joe's

All in all, a great trip. And it was only about 24 hours total. 24 hours of good food, cute dogs, great views and a kickass road trip playlist thanks to yours truly. Who said Chicago can't be a day trip? I'm very excited to be a step closer to studying abroad, and feeling more and more confident in my ability to travel solo and to do day trips in big cities. I'm realizing more and more that exploring is my happy place, and I can't wait to continue exploring on a larger scale.