Beeks' Place! Beeks' Place!

• The week before I was supposed to leave for Chicago, my grandpa died after a battle with cancer. It is very hard to see a loved one experience so much pain from an illness like that--my grandpa was a very intelligent man with a PhD in Philosophy that traveled the world, so to see him confined to his bed and not even able to taste the foods he used to love was heartbreaking. But I was so glad that I hadn't moved to Chicago yet because I was able to spend as much time as I could with him before he died. It's important to be with your family during times like that!
• Anyway, that was a sad way to open my post, but my grandpa was very important to me, and he said he was proud of me for wanting to pursue this dream of fashion design in Chicago! The morning that I was supposed to leave, Amtrak called me to tell me that my train was delayed 4 HOURS! This did not help when I was already very nervous about moving away! When I finally arrived at the train station, I found out (to my dismay) that the baggage limit was 2, whereas I had 4 suitcases. I mean, I was moving, so YEAH I had a lot of things! I managed to pick out some things to leave behind until winter and crammed the rest into 2 large suitcases. (By the way, those space saver bags that you vacuum the air out of do NOT work! They mostly made things very hard and lumpy.) With 2 bags in tow, I climbed on the train hoping to make a heartfelt farewell to my parents, but the train conductor spoiled it by telling me my suitcases were TOO HEAVY! At this point, I was bawling, the train started moving, and I had to make a quick wave to my parents, who were also bawling. It was very emotional indeed!
• I spent most of the train ride writing in my diary and being emo/sad/optimistic about the CHICAGO ARRIVAL! 15 hours later, I FINALLY arrive and Matthew is there to greet me! I don't know WHAT I would have done if I didn't have a friend there!
• The next day I moved into my new apartment/school sponsored housing! The exterior was quite an upgrade from my old apartment in Newton, but I was soon shuttled into a tiny studio apartment that I would be sharing with my 18-year-old roommate that was FRESH out of high school. Oh, the first impression of her was nice! But then she hid a bong in my oven mit, brought a boy over to spend the night (it's very awkward to hear rustling and whispering coming from across the room at night when you are trying to sleeeeeeep), and--this one's the best!--took a picture of her BOOBS with my camera when I wasn't in the room. Real nice.
• So anyway! Presidential Towers--a total of 4 highrise apartment buildings in downtown Chicago that have 49 floors each! I was in Tower 4, floor 25 to start (I have since moved, but I'll get to that later!). I had a nice view of the Sears Tower and also this parking lot that would literally FILL to capacity each day--and I mean every parking space, driving aisles, etc, just like a tetris game! Perks in Presidential Towers include a grocery store, number of restaurants, and McDonald's--all in the lobby!
  
  
  
  The main lobby, full of bamboo shoots for visiting pandas!
  
  
  The hallway between towers, to make you feel warm and safe
  
  
  This place is so fancy, it's got sliding glass doors accessible only by validated key card! Kind of like the Starship Enterprise!
  
  
  The view of the Sears tower from my window!
• After getting settled in, it's time for orientation at SCHOOL! Everyone has their parents with them, except for me, so I bring Matthew and he poses as another fashion design student. The daytime activities included filling out your own diploma and a rousing game of people bingo--you know, the kind where you "find a person that has brown hair"--and you cross them off your bingo board. EXCEPT the questions on this bingo board were a little weird! I don't know about you, but as an ice breaker game, I wouldn't necessarily include "find a person with ADHD" as a bingo square, or "find a person that knows someone with a disability!" AWKWARD!
• After that was all said and done, I was getting antsy for school! My Mondays and Wednesdays consisted of going to Textiles, Survey of the Fashion Industry, Costume History, and Clothing Construction. Each class was very exciting and interesting, but I did not make any friends right away. In fact, it wasn't until that finals week that someone asked me if I wanted to hang out sometime--and I was so excited that I called my mom and said "I MADE A FRIEND FINALLY!"
• Since I only had class on Mondays and Wednesdays, I had to fill my time with other things, and since I certainly didn't want to hang out in my room with my crazy roommate, I decided to get a job. I was hired at American Eagle, but quit after orientation because I didnt' want to make an hour commute just to work 3 hours. So, I decided to apply at the Potbelly Sandwich Works by Matthew's house in Wrigleyville! If you happen to live in an area where there are Potbellys, you should know that they are quite tasty!

Of course, there were many other things that I got to do during the months of July thru September! I signed up to help out behind the scenes at a few fashion shows, prepping outfits and dressing the models; I also went to the beach once!



I also did a podcast with TheTanooki.com members Christian and Matthew! Afterwards, we went to the Kwik-E-Mart for Squishees and donuts!




After the quarter ended in late September, my parents came to visit! I was so excited to see them since they weren't able to come up with me when I moved. We crammed a lot into 3 days--museums, rides on the L, Indian food, orange juice--I was sad to see them go! But I was glad that they could come see my school. They told me that they were very proud of me for moving up here all by myself and enjoying school so much--and that made me REALLY happy!!


There's me and mom, snacking!


Please enjoy this Sunday afternoon with Beeks!


Hustle and bustle of my neighborhood!

That's all I'm going to write for tonight! I had too much to say about my first quarter here, so tomorrow night I will try to post about everything that's happened since then. Which is a lot too! I hope you find it interesting!