Last weekend I got to go home for the Notre Dame game! It was really exciting and my weekend was packed full of fun things! It’s finally caught up with me though, and I’m getting sick. Hopefully I’ll get to rest up this weekend because I have another round of midterms next week! It’s hard to believe we only have 5 weeks in the semester (and one of them is Thanksgiving.) For me that means I only have 9 days that I am required to go to school left this semester. Crazy. Senior year really is going too fast. This week I got my senior lab presentation done. It feels good to have that over!!! But anyway, back to last weekend. My roommate Caroline and I landed in Chicago on Thursday night around 6:30. My brother landed right after us from Washington D.C. My brother Nick went to Notre Dame, so needless to say there was a little family rivalry this weekend. Obviously, I chose the better school ;). After we landed we went straight to Lou Malnati’s for pizza. This is my favorite Chicago pizza place. Yum!!!!
Then we went back to my house in Valparaiso, IN. It was really nice to be home. My twin sister, Alexa, was also home from school for her fall break, so the whole family was there! On Friday we went back into the city. It was Caroline’s first visit to Chicago, so we did some of the touristy things like Millenium Park (the ‘bean’), the Marilyn Monroe statue, and Watertower Place (all great Chicago landmarks). It had been a while since I’d been back to Chicago, so I really enjoyed getting to do these things too! The Marilyn statue was new, so I had never seen it! Here are some pictures:
Alexa, Caroline, and I at the bean in Millenium Park.
The Marilyn statue...I know you're all wondering...she was wearing underwear!
I was really happy to be at the lego store (and the oldest person that actually purchased something that was for myself...)
Friday night we went to Greek Islands, one of my favorite restaurants. I love the saganaki (flaming cheese) and the spanikopita (feta and spinach pie like thing).
The next day was the game. My brother and father woke up at 5am to leave for the game! They had everything set up and were tailgating before 9am!!! Caroline and I had a little harder time waking up…we ended up getting there around 10am (I think). Don’t worry, we still had 9 and a half HOURS to tailgate. I took at 5 minute power nap around 5pm. We walked around Notre Dame’s campus (which is truly beautiful) and ate yummy food alllll day. The game was SOOOOO exciting. Caroline and I got tickets from our friend Goose (a senior biomedical engineer and linebacker on the football team…no big deal). The tickets were with friends and family of the USC players. (Caroline and I played ‘Guess who the Barkley’s are…’ .) The seats were AMAZING. I would argue that this was the best football experience of my four years here, and obviously I can’t argue with the outcome! Here are some pics from that day:
My brother Nick and I!
My sister carved 'ND' and 'USC' pumpkins for the tailgate!
Our AMAZING seats!!!
After Saturday, we really needed a day to sleep in!!! Caroline and I slept in past 11. My parents, Caroline, and I had plans to go on a hike in the Dunes, so off we went around noon. The hike was beautiful, and I got in my weekly trip to the beach, even though I wasn’t in California. The lake looked beautiful!
The top of the large sand dune...I lost the race up to my dad...
It was a great weekend at home, and the weather was beautiful. On Monday it was back to reality and another busy week of school! It’s always good to have little getaways, but after non-stop traveling for the last two weeks, I’m happy to have a weekend at school this week. Time to get to bed. Viterbi Breakfast with the Dean in the morning =). Hope to see a lot of student’s and parents there! See you guys next week!
