What I've come here for

Thursday, February 2, 2006

Today was my first day at Easter Seals. I loved it. I get my own cubicle with tons of space, computer, phone, etc. etc. I'm working under three main people: Kristen-Public Relations/Communications, Patsy-corporate accounts and communication, and Joan-another part of the corporate sponsorship team. I never realized how many HUGE names they get to sponsor their events and annual campaigns. CVS, Century 21, potentials of donut companies, hotels and anything under the sun. I realized in the meeting this morning that networking and knowing people from boards in another company can make or break a business relationship. It's so true.
This morning from 9:30-12 I got to sit in a corporate sponsorship committee meeting. There were around 10-12 of us in the room and I just jumped right in and heard how they relate to corporate sponsors and potential sponsors. These women are very driven and find the best ways to communicate with these sponsors...different ways to appeal to them....very much a marketing thing. They really know what they're doing and they use all of their resources to get their stuff done. The values of the company were also evident in the meeting too. The women brought up how much the company helps families and the feedback they get only sustains and increases the sponsorship.
I went out for lunch with Joan and we got to know each other a little more. Kristen was supposed to come, but had some immediate things to take care of. We went to a cute little Italian sandwich, pasta, salad bar down the block.
I spent the afternoon researching on the internet and chatting with other people in the office, including a Chicago Semester alum who works at Easter Seals now. Very nice people.
I had to smile to myself as I walked out of the office. I love walking down the busy, busy streets after work on my way to the train. I really feel like a city business woman, and can walk with confidence down the city streets now. I hope I don't turn into any kind of stuck up business city woman, but I do want to appear confident around here especially.
In retail, there always has to be someone around to help customers, but in an office, bathroom or short water breaks can be taken any time and we don't have to find a replacement to watch things when we go for lunch. So much nicer than a customer service place because you can work at your own pace to get projects/jobs completed.
Tomorrow is casual Friday and then Saturday Pam and I will get the rest of our boxes of stuff that we sent here to Chicago before Christmas. It's gonna be like Christmas because I don't remember exactly what's in those boxes :)
I'd like to play cards or something tomorrow night, so we'll see what other people are up to. I heard it's the superbowl this weekend....boooooring. I'd rather watch a super slow hockey game for 24 hours not knowing anyone playing than a boring football game for a few hours.
Until tomorrow...
:)

Day off: Calm before the storm!

Today Pam and I took advantage of our day off by sleeping in. The other two girls were up early to buy milk and bread and map out and time their commute to work tomorrow morning. They very kindly let us sleep until we woke up! Well, I did have a time limit because I met with the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation this morning about volunteering. They were one of the places I interviwed at and they desperately need volunteers to get projects done around there, so I offered 2 hours per week at their office. I'd like it there. A nice casual atmosphere and very nice people. After that I came back to the apartment and hung out until all of us girls went down State street and did some "shopping." It was mostly just walking to get a workout. We knew we wouldn't be able to get to the monstrous health club tonight because of the play. At around 5 we headed back to the apartment, made supper and got ready for the Goodman Theatre! (yes, the canadian spelling. I think I'll embrace that in my casual writing and in any formal writing I'll keep it as 'Theater'.) We weren't really sure what to wear, so three of us opted out of jeans to be a little more formal than casual. Some of the guys of the group wore ties, one even wore a black suit! We were supposed to read up on the play before we went to it. I did a little bit, but I also wanted to see if I would be able to fully understand the play without an outlined synopsis of it...the cheat notes. Here are some of my notes for my Arts in the City journal due next week about Pericles.

Before:
Since I've been to a shakespere play before (the wonderful Bard on the Beach) , I know that with a good producer it can be fabulous, but the sorceresses and fantasy isn't so interesting to me. Sounds like a confusing story, with a good cast and production, it can be very evident to the audience what is going on. I already know that I will like the play even though I'm not a fantasy fan. To read Shakespere is harder than watching it in a play. In a play you never have to have someone explain to you what is going on!

After:
Wow, what an amazing theatre! The way it was laid out was exactly/similar to how we studied it in high school. It was really awesome to see the boxes alongside the audience seating. The lighting, enthusiasm of characters, temperature, layout, space of the theatre and stage helped the already amazing cast and stage come to life. I felt like I was in the renaissance/shakesperean times when I was watching it, aside from a few terms of our common vernacular today. I didn't think I would like it this much. Before, I focused on the fantasy element to the play, but that was a very very small part. I also thought the that Thaisa and her father's incest would play a more prominent role in the play, but it was only mentioned in the beginning.
It took a while to understand what they were saying, is that because of the Shakespearean language? Because we had listened to it for some time already? or because we were becoming familiar with the story of the play? I really really enjoyed this play.I found myself at the edge of my seat when Pericles again met up with his daughter at the end. There was such a long wait between when Thaisa was rescued and when she came to the stage again that it might have people forget about her. I kept her in mind and I knew they would all meet in the end. A nice end. Touching story, happy for Pericles. Was it live music or pre-recorded? I couldn't see down far enough to see if there were musicians down in front of the stage. I wish I could see more plays to compare this one to. The write-ups in the playbill say that the producer, Mary Zimmerman, has a fresh vibrant way to directing. It's a great play and I hope to see many more!

This has me eagerly awaiting our next Arts outing, a ballet, which I've NEVER been to before!
It's a pretty cold evening so right when we came back, during our "journal time" in the room, we made some tea and journaled to Enya. I can't tell you enough how nice it is to finally have music (from my new computer) in this room!
Easter Seals tomorrow!!!!

Half-work Half-fun!

TUESDAY, JANUARY 31

We arrived at the CS building early this morning for our final day of orientation and class information. We played a little community game as a group and then broke into practicum groups to talk about which Chicagoland community our group would be studying. My group, led by Sung Yeon will be studying Chinatown..the community, the people, the organizations that make up chinatown. After our practicum group meeting we all gathered together again to watch a movie on the city and the surroundings. I'd almost like to take that one home to watch again because it suggested different place to visit in each direction of the loop from the L. It also touched on the history of the city and how the people groups came to settle where they are today. I'm looking forward to the CHEAP food in Chinatown!

After classes Pam and I went shoe shopping for her. We knew already this morning that we would be partaking in a HUGE event for Janelle :) a Hip Hop dance class at the local gym. (We all received passes and had our orientation last night and also worked out today as well.) It's an amazing facility...pool lap lanes, bball court, tons of machinery, big class rooms upstairs, sauna and hot tub and steam room in each locker room, and the best thing is... wait for it.. that it's COMPLETELY FREE for one month!! Score. A student couldn't ask for more.
So Pam and I are shopping for shoes. She gets a good deal on some nice New Balance running shoes and we walk out of the store happy. Back to the apartment and we meet up with a few more people, okay 8 more people, and head off to the Shedd Aquarium. Took the train and busses to get there...and it's in the area of the Field Museum and Soldier Field. Very near the lake with some nice views of the city and the lake. We browsed and explored until around 5 and then headed back for some supper each going back to our own apartments.
Hip Hop started at 7, and I LOVED it! Loved it loved it. Awesome teacher, Leah, a spunky woman with long dark hair, petite little body, attitude, and explosion when she danced. We danced to the song Lose Control by Missy Elliot. Fun and crazy song, but we learned some clean coreography to go with it. Yesaah, I'll bust a move sometime if you ask for it.
We worked out a bit, showered and walked back to the apartment. Hung out a bit and then socialized a bit. It's Pam's birthday--the big 21, an important deal for americans because of the drinking age--so she went out as the last three socialized upstairs in one of the guys' rooms for a few hours.
I did a bit of reading of class stuff and now I'll head off to bed. I'm looking forward to my second night on my own bed. No more cracks between two beds anymore...my next mission, bedsheets and a warmer blanket. (Hopefully I'll get my next boxes by Saturday!)
G'night all!

I've survived a week!

Monday again! This morning us girls in the house had to work with our small bathroom, lack of outlets, and lack of mirrors in our apartment to get to the Chicago Semester headquarters by 8:45. We wanted to get there early to get donuts and coffee before more orientation stuff at 9. We went through some class information--I'll be taking equivalents to Gen 200 (Arts class) and Gen 300 (Values and Vocations-Senior Seminar) at Dordt--and it looks like these classes will be waaay better than taking them at Dordt.
Classes are on Wednesdays. Mine will be from 8-10am, 10-12, and then a practicum group in the afternoon as a discussion group about how things are going with our job sites, etc.
Coffee and tea will always be served here on Wednesdays and we can bring our own lunch or make it in the kitchen here. It's a really nice workspace up here. CS is located on the 12th floor and has some nice views of the lake and of other buildings. It takes about 15-20 minutes to get from our apartment to the CS building on the Red line. Not too bad.
My COMPUTER FINALLY CAME IN TODAY!! Oh, I'm SO excited now. Finally I can be connected to the world and check my e-mail everyday and listen to music rather than watching the two english channels that we get in our apartment. This is a brand new leaf and I SO appreciate technology and music over TV and rabbit ears right now.
Okay, back to other stuff. I just had to vent my excitement there. I had to make my calls of regret to the companies I said 'no' to. Just four phone calls...but a few of them were hard to make because I knew they needed office help desperately. I'll be volunteering at one of the sites maybe 1 day a week and helping wherever I can so I hope I can help out there.
I'll also follow-up with some thank you letters to each company. I have to do that when I'm finished on here.
Dad, I hope you get to read this now--(Media-free week is over now, right?) you're probably itching to read all that I've done so far this week. Mom, I'm glad I'm not boring you! Nathan, I hope you're still keeping in touch with what we've done here so far. My roommate Pam is a Graphic Design student and she had some very interesting interviews here. I'll have to write more about that for you...this would be an AMAZING place to intern some summer!!!
More later...


aaand later...so we got cable and internet to our room...Robert Lea, the cable guy, is a fast little trickster of a guy. He basically conned us into paying more than we had to. We knew he'd do this somehow to us, but we had no way to be ready for it. The guys upstairs had the rates from online and they stuck to their guns then it came to not paying for more channels than they needed to get the cheapest rate on cable. Argg...they new the system from the inside, it seemed. No one in our room is really knowledgeable about that though! Anyway, we're going to call comcast and get them to reduce our silver package to a basic package--there's no way we'll have time to watch 8 HBO channels in different languages. Stupid.
The internet is great though. It's so nice to be connected again, with my music, with the convenience of e-mailing from a place that I can call home. So very nice. You realize how dependent you really are on technology when it's gone from you for a while. Kinda like this laptop and the files I had on it.
Until tomorrow...

Sunday..truly a day of rest.

We all managed to sleep in a little bit on Sunday. Kate and Pam took another trip to target to get more of those wire cubicle things while Ang and her friend, Joel, explored the walk by the lake as I slept in until 2pm. When I woke up Joel had muffins and fruit on the table for us! What a nice guy! Sunday afternoon I put up some fabric to act as curtains and got organized a little more. I made lattees for everyone and we walked down to Jewel once again to get more food. We made pizza in our gas oven..which we found out that we have to light before we turn on the gas (had a little incident with leaving the gas on and people were knocking at our door because of the smell). None of us have ever worked with a gas oven before.
In the evening we took a walk around the apartment building and saw how other people had their rooms set up. We also managed to trade some of our nasty old pictures for some nicer ones from other apartments...
Until we get a fourth bed, I'm still sleeping in the crack between Kate and Ang. So far no troubles with that :)

Saturday...moving day...

Saturday we had to move from our posh hotel in downtown to our new apartment up in the Gold Coast. Pam and I had all of our stuff with us already, and it was too much to bring on one or even two trips. I had a bunch of IKEA plastic bags with handles that were easy to carry on one trip, then we called a taxi van for the boxes and HUGE suitcases that we still had. We were SO glad to finally have our stuff unpacked again. For me, it was amazing since I have been living out of boxes and suitcases since before Christmas!
Our apartment is very cream colored...I'm already sick of the bland white everywhere. We have high ceilings though, and I appreciate that a lot. It's a really cute place and each apartment we visit, we see that they're all a little different in their own way. Some apartments are studios, others are one bedroom with different kitchens...either in a closet or out in the open. Really interesting to see how people have set them up, too.
So after moving the bags and riding the taxi we started to wipe down a few things in the apartment and fill up the closets and shelves. There are four of us with three closets, two dressers, and those wire cube connector things from Target. I'm glad I don't have as many clothes as the two Iowa girls...their T-shirt collections take up more room than all of my clothes.
We wanted a few storage things for our room so we looked up a thrift store and made the trek to find it. It was pouring rain outside but we didn't think we'd have to walk too much with the good transit system here...there would be no problem finding a bus to go to our destination...or so we thought.
We ended up walking at least 6 blocks north, and then another 4 blocks east before finding out that the Brown Elephant is no longer at that location...the "For Lease" signs on the windows made us all groan and laugh it off. We finally saw a bus going our way (back to the Red Line) and we finally got out of the rain after the 35 minutes of walking. What a day.
We made it back to the apartment and probably went to the Jewel again and probably Walgreens, too. Those trips seem numerous throughout the day because they're so close and we always find something that we need...like extension cords or power strips.
Saturday night we made another trek over to Target. We took the red line south and saw it right when we got out of the subway exit. It was nice and huge, a good change from our small apartment. We all walked with our huge bags back to the subway and rode home to set up more of our goodies :)
We all got to bed around 1am and by then we were all dissoriented because our bodies and minds were so tired. Sleep was NEEDED!