Chicago

I spent President's Day weekend in Illinois. I flew into St. Louis, and my brother picked me up and I spent two days in Carterville, Il with his family. I love my nieces. I then took a train up to Chicago, had an old friend from BYU pick me up, and I stayed with a girl I had never met before. She was absolutely wonderful. She took me all over Chicago and was the best hostess. I met a lot of the singles in Chicago because of her and would really love to move there in the fall. I spent almost all of Monday at Northwestern University. I met with the professor in charge of graduate admissions, went to a master's level class and a doctoral class. I have to wait until March sometime to find out if I have been accepted.
Monday Tiffany took me to FHE, and then we walked around downtown Chicago. It was freezing, but so much fun. We finished the night by going up to the Signature Lounge in the Hancock Building (instead of the Sears-Willis Tower because this was free) and bought dessert on the 96th floor. Tuesday I was supposed to go back to Northwestern, but I didn't get in touch with the professor, so I went to see some things downtown. I saw the Cloud Arch, which looks like a big silver kidney bean, and then went to the Chicago Cultural Center, and it just so happened that the Chicago Children's Choir was doing an outreach to elementary schools in Chicago and they were performing song to celebrate black-history month. It was like they planned it just for me while I was there. All in all I really enjoyed my trip.


Tiff and me on the "L"


The Music Administration Building at Northwestern University


The view from the 96th floor (top) of the Hancock Building


Me and my reflection in the Cloud Arch


The Cloud Arch with Chicago behind


One of the elementary schools warming up to perform under the world's largest Tiffany Dome in the Chicago Cultural Center

Catching up

I finally downloaded some pictures from December when a lot of my family was here for Christmas. We played in the snow and built half an igloo. We put on the nativity several times. My nieces and nephews used my head-wraps from Egypt and they had a marvelous time. My mom, being the wonderful grandma that she is usually buys matching pajamas for her grandchildren. I absolutely loved spending that much time with my family. It's a rare opportunity for my family to get to spend time together.
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Teacher's College at Columbia

I got my acceptance letter today to Teacher's College at Columbia University. I am still waiting to hear back from Northwestern University, but it's a great feeling to know I've been accepted somewhere.