The French-American War

This past week has been a doozy. I got all I needed to turn in and got my honors essay back. With some strange comments docking points because my professor disagreed. Turns out people have a definitive narrative of the bible that I have not been privy to. But that's the most exciting, academic news, except maybe for the fact that after the entire class failed the quiz my Business information systems made our midterm open-note, open-source.

But moving on to the more exciting, or rather more life-enriching news break has been fantastic, and exhausting. On Friday I started my break with a nice stroll on the beach in an outfit, that sans coat was quite cute, and with coat, made me look… Mennonite. Luckily I was not bombarded by Vouge, or the “What not to wear” people, although, I think I could scrap with them if needed.

When the real break started we headed downtown. To those not from the city, think city center in which 85% of the people are tourists who don’t pay attention at crosswalks. Which, although I almost VOWED to not hate tourists, I’ve got an American Girl store to get to, and you standing there does not help me in that mission. However, the bus ride back with the European woman telling us all to move so she could get on the already very full bus was the creme de la creme of the day. Something that is hard to describe to others about Chicago, everyone wants to go home so bad, all of the time. Like lady, I *assure* you, that if there was room on this bus, we would let you on so we don’t have to be at this stop any longer.

Also of note, the dining halls were closed for the break, which meant we started our day with the breakfast of champions. A pancake breakfast was prepared for us by bestie Megan. I will describe the vibes, and general experience akin to an episode of ‘The Bear’. If you haven't seen it, expose yourself to my culture. If you have you’ll know it was great fun, and the bowl of Froot Loops I had as an alternative was delish, as were chocolate chips that were to go in the pancakes,

Following that day, was Sunday, the day of rest. As well as the Chicago Marathon. Bridget and I decided to head down there, which was a spoiler, not a decision I regret, it was quite fun. However the red-line train there was not fun. At one point I had a small French child falling into my ass every time the train lurched, which was about every 30 seconds. He also had a cardboard sign that would poke me in the back of the knees. So on my decree, Robespierre has a young protegee, in the form of a 7-year-old.

Monday, was a trip to Andersonville, in which we had coffee, and then spent 3 hours toting around looking in any stores we could. I buy so little here, I’m shocked and impressed with myself. I walked away from the three-day excursion with just a book, #fiscallyconservativequeen.

On the docket for today, (yes I'm writing this on break because I love you all so much), is the day of museums, Field, and Chicago history, which both will grant us free admission. The field because it is a free day for all Illinois residents, and the Chicago History Museum because we still consider children (18 and under)!

I’ll apologize for the broken-up format of today's post, there has been a lot of life crammed into a short time, so I’ll include some photos that won’t have a whole lot of context. I put some captions but Wix limits me to 30 words so they are a little confusing. That being said, thank you for reading! I’ll be back next week!

- Gretchen

The evening Friday night view

A baby sweater I knit

My first Call Of Duty game

Me and my Marathon sign

The pancakes being cooked

Break picw Bridget, me & Megan