Penn's Woods

I had the fortune to spend my autumn break in Pennsylvania, home of Hershey, the Liberty Bell and Penn State football. I flew into Philadelphia and, after a fairly scenic car ride, ended up in West Chester County. It's called the suburbs, but it was closer to what I would call rural. Fields with horses and goats appeared on either side of the road. Lots of fall colors everywhere. It was very pretty.

For the most part we just napped and watched movies and ate.  On Saturday we went to this English pub called The Whip, which was kind of out in the middle of nowhere. We passed by the ranch where a lot of Kentucky Derby winners were bred. The pub looked traditional and had a whole menu of delicious pubby treats. We shared a Welsh rarebit, and then I had the fish and chips. It was even served with malt vinegar.

On Sunday, we headed into the big city for some ice cream and beer. First up was the Franklin Fountain, an old timey ice cream shoppe. I'd heard about the Mt Vesuvius and was eager to try it. Apparently, this place had been featured on the Travel Channel or Food Network or something.

After filling up on some quality dairy, we went to a Belgian bar that featured over 300 types of beer. The menu was enormous. I tried out the local Victory Golden Monkey, and then had two other ones whose names I can't remember. The bar also had real Belgian frites, but I think I must have been distracted by the beer because I didn't get any.

I left Pennsylvania feeling very bloated and with a goodie bag full of leftover pie, strudel, and some home made pumpkin squares. Overall I'd say it was a pretty grand weekend.

Zip

Chicago has excellent public transportation, from the El to the Metra and city buses. Unfortunately, I am able to use very little of it. The borough of Chicago in which I live is not super accessible. The school has shuttles and buses that take students to heavily frequented places, but the buses stop running at 6 and the shuttles just circulate around campus. This makes running errands tricky. Plus, sometimes I want to buy a lot of stuff (yes, food) or heavy stuff (like food in bulk), which makes even taking the bus kind of annoying.

So, I decided to look into ZipCar, a car-sharing service where you pay a small annual fee and then rent a car for $7 an hour for the cheapest car. I figured if it allowed me the freedom to do some serious errands, or if I could get some friends to get in on it with me, it would be worth it. There are a number of ZipCar parking lots all around campus, including one just two blocks from the law school. I applied for my membership, got my Zipcard in the mail, and then reserved my car. On the website you can see which car you're reserving. This particular Zip-trip was solo and just going to be to the grocery store so I rented a svelt Smart Car.

After class I headed down to the parking lot. I was a little nervous because I hadn't driven in almost a year (thank you, excellent Korean public transportation), it was not my car, and it was a Smart Car, which the website noted was a little bit different from a normal car. I found the parking lot, swiped my card on the windshield card-swipey thing and the door magically opened. The site said that the keys would be chained to the dashboard somewhere. I found them, started it up, and drove along. The car was not super smooth (and neither was my driving) but we made it to the store OK and I parked. Since I'm not used to such a tiny car, I parked really close to the edge of the parking spot*.

I did my shopping and went to put the bags in the "trunk." They just barely fit with one on the passenger seat. That was when I realized the car could hold about as much as I could. I made a mental note to reserve a normal-sized car for next time. By the time I left, I didn't have enough time to swing by my apartment and drop off my bags so I just had to go back to the parking lot. I carried the bags the five blocks back to my place, realizing that if I had just taken the bus I could have been dropped off much closer to my apartment. It was dark, getting cold, and I had decided to walk on the scary side of the street.

Mission not so successful, but I haven't given up on ZipCars just yet. Plus, I have the membership for a year.

*The result being that it was well-hidden behind all of the other cars at the parking lot and I had a mini panic attack convinced someone had stolen the car.

Soaking in some culture

Another week gone, another weekend approached. I decided to do something social this time around. The Chicago Symphony has a fantastic discount for students and someone asked if I'd be interested in going. As a friend of mine once said, "Say yes to everything." I'd never been to a symphony before so I was unsure of what to wear, whose music would be playing, and basically what it would even look like.

Since I didn't want to seem uncultured or give the impression of a total symphony noob, I did some googling before going out. I found out the composer was Mahler and they would be performing his 7th symphony.  He was Austrian, strongly influenced by Wagner and composed during the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. A quick check of the Chicago Symphony website told me that the director was an Italian guy named Muti, but unfortunately he was very sick with gastric problems and would not be performing tonight.

Armed with information, I left my apartment. We grabbed some dinner in HP before heading downtown.  I haven't yet had much opportunity to see the real city and was amazed at how clean it was. It was also a very mild night. Apparently it's been unseasonably warm so far this season (thank you, global warming). The symphony is right on Michigan Avenue (nicknamed "The Muti Mile," according to the sign outside*). There was an enormous poster of him on the exterior of the building, but alas, I told my friends, he was out sick. They had no idea. I felt so informed. Then, they asked what music was being played. Someone mentioned Mahler and the rest of the group was dumbfounded. Then I realized I wasn't actually uncultured and was a much bigger dork than I thought. I filled them in about Mahler and Muti and my obsession with Wikipedia and we went in.

It was pretty packed, with the orchestra up on a stage and the audience sort of below it. There were also balcony seats for the people who paid full-price for their tickets. Actually though, our seats were pretty awesome. About three rows out from the stage and to the left by the violinists. I was blown away by the music. It was dramatic and fast-moving. I don't know much about classical music or the relevant adjectives for it, but I can see that at times it did remind me of Star Wars.

One thing I wondered about and something that has always bothered me is the number of instrumentalists. There were probably 20 violinists, 10 violists, and a small handful of tuba-players, cellists, and flutes. I believe there was a lone tampani, piccolo, guitar, mandolin, triangle, tambourine, set of cymbals, and but one cowbell-player. So I was wondering: how do they decide how many of each instrument they'll have? I mean, 20 violins seems a bit much. How much does it add to the sound to have that many? How different would it be from, say, 10? Or 5?And there were two harpists. Two. Completely necessary?

Now back to the cowbell. They had a whole set of cowbells, from small ones to big ones. I never knew they came in sizes and had never seen a real musician** play them, so I was really looking forward to seeing them played. Since classical musicians always play their instruments with the utmost care, treating them like their children, I imagined the cowbellist would similarly play his "instrument." I imagined some sort of cowbell stick, sort of like a xylophone stick, that he would subtly tap each bell with. As usual, I was way off. Right at the end of the production, he just banged at them randomly, smashing them together, beating at them haphazardly. It was all sort of barbaric, and extremely noisy. At least one thing I couldn't ask for was more cowbell. All in all though, it sounded fantastic. I got lost in the music a few times and watching the director at work (though not Muti this time) was fascinating.

As we left the symphony, we ran into a few other law students who were there and heading to a birthday party at a club. We went down to the club, a huge 3-story place, but found it all a little too clubby for us. Instead we ran across the street for some deep dish (I've met my people!) and talked nerdy law-talk.


I think I might have my Halloween costume, though it's not settled yet. There is an upcoming costume party I need to get ready for. Advice is welcome.


*Probably only by symphony nerds.
**Sorry, Will Ferrell.

To Nano or not to Nano

November is fast approaching, which for the last 6 years has meant setting out to write a novel of 50,000 words. For the last 3 years I've been successful (success measured entirely quantitatively) and it's something I look forward to every October. The organization that...er...organizes it is an excellent galvanizer of creativity and acerbic wit and for a month I'm surrounded by fellow dreamers, united in an unreasonable quest whose success gains us no prize except pride. Plus it gives me an excuse to sit around in coffee shops and shirk my other responsibilities.

Unfortunately, with a new school year and way more homework than I've ever had before, NaNoWriMo is looking unlikely. One possibility is to go for 25,000 words instead of the more winnerly 50,000.

I highly suggest to anyone not currently in school or with an undemanding job to try it out this year. It's a lot of fun, free, and at the end you're left with an enormous Word document filled with a month's worth of creativity. You can't really lose (and if you do fail to write 50,000 words, you'll be in great company).

Back to school

It's been a while, but with a new adventure comes a new string of blog posts. I'm officially set up in Hyde Park. My apartment is a university-owned, fully furnished studio south of campus. I've got everything I need here from a large desk to a huge walk-in closet to a futon. Since it's a studio, I have one big room that acts as living room-dining room-office-bedroom. In order to make my apartment feel a little bigger*, I fold the futon up into a couch during the day and use the kitchen-side of the table for eating meals. After dinner, I retire to the futon bed and use the bed-side of the table. It might sound crazy, but there you go.

The kitchen is pretty small and there's no room for a microwave so I'm considering not buying one (you'd be surprised at how easy it is not to have a microwave, when I was in Korea I didn't have one and I was fine) or putting it in a cabinet. I'm not sure how the latter idea would play out so I'm putting it off for now. Actually, I think the only appliance I really need but don't have is a toaster. There's just something about toast that I soft bread can't satisfy.

The main reason I don't need a microwave, or groceries much at all, is because my school feeds me almost every day. There are talks, club meetings, and receptions almost every day where free lunch and sometimes dinner are provided. In addition, free or heavily subsidized booze is very common. I'm not sure why, but for some reason they feel very strongly about having us buzzed all the time.

Law school isn't as bad as I'd expected (it could help that I'm buzzed all the time). The homework is consistently 1-4 hours of reading per day and I have 2-4 hours of class today. So it's kind of like a job, but I have plenty of down time. I also don't have the distractions of a big city.

Hyde Park is pretty slow. There are no grocery stores, convenience stores, bars, or restaurants anywhere near my apartment. Campus has quite a few options, including a Subway and a smattering of coffeeshops, but sometimes I crave something (anything) else. The school has 3 buses that take me from the law school to a shopping area (and by shopping area I mean a square that has a Whole Foods-type grocery store, an Office Depot, and a Walgreens) but the buses stop running at 6, so you know, it could be better.

Downtown Chicago is awesome. I've only really been there twice. But today being a lovely day I decided to head into the city. I grabbed an express bus instead of the El (elevated train) because my nearest El is in a kind of a sketchy neighborhood. The bus took forever to get down there because of the traffic. There was a USA-Poland soccer match, the Chicago marathon, a country music festival, and perhaps other stuff going on too. So it took a while, but once I got there I really enjoyed it. I started at Millenium Park, which has these awesome face fountains (I'll upload pictures) and this cool bean sculpture (it'll make sense when you see it). The park was packed and I overheard some people talking about the Culture Center across the street. I went to check it out and it was really beautiful on the inside. It has the largest Tiffany dome in the country (no, I don't know what that means either, but it was pretty).

Next I walked down the "Magnificent Mile" (what they call Michigan Avenue, kind of like the main street of the city) all the way to Lake Michigan. I have to admit, I thought I'd really miss being close to the ocean and had no idea how enormous the lake is. It's huge. You can't see across it and they have beaches, so it's a lot like having an ocean close by. I sat on the beach for a while and enjoyed the weather while it lasts (I hear it gets bad here).

I wanted to head back before it got dark and I went in search of the bus in the opposite direction. I assumed I could just cross the street from where I originally got off and there would be a bus stop there. Well, there was a bus stop, but the bus I needed did not stop there. I walked and walked in search of it but never found it. In the end, I just took the El. The stop closest to my apartment was only 3 blocks away.


Here's my law school schedule:

Civ Pro = Civil Procedures; Crim Law = Criminal Law; Elem of Law = Elements of the Law; Contracts = Contracts; LRW = Legal Research and Writing

So far I love all of my professors. They're brilliant, personable and funny. I think Professor McAdams is my favorite. After going over the old definition of a vagrant (which included jugglers, people who frequent liquor houses, and those who can support themselves but choose instead to rely upon their wives) he actually juggled**. All of the professors rely pretty heavily on the Socratic Method, or "cold-calling," but it's actually not too bad. For the most part, no one sounds stupid.

Name dropping: My contracts professor, Eric Posner is the son of a famous former lawyer and current professor also at my school, Judge Richard Posner. Former professors Obama and Kagan met here many years ago. And Supreme Court justices Scalia and Stevens also both taught here.

The undergraduate campus (about a block north of my apartment and the law school) is beautiful. It features gothic architecture, beautiful and surprisingly enormous cathedrals, the Frank Lloyd Wright "Robie House" and a really interesting glass dome, which apparently will be part of the library. It's a relatively small campus, so I'm only occasionally lost. There's a building called the Reynolds Club which is sort of a common area for all the students. It has some dining options, a cafe, theater, a few lounges, and an awesome dining area that I swear looks like the dining hall in Hogwarts (but with smaller tables). Portraits of former deans and presidents of the school line the walls. Oh private schools.

All right, more to come at a later date. Happy Autumn.

*Fool myself. Not so hard, really.
**Not 100% what the lesson was there.