Holiday fun!

For the holidays, one of my friends came over to visit me from California. We went to the Lincoln Park Public Zoo in the evening to see the zoo lighting, for which the zoo is famous. I enjoyed the evening at zoo; the magic of colorful lights, soft white snow, and a nice music playing in the background. The zoo has impressive specimens of reptilian and primate world. It is definitely one of the nice peaceful getaways in Chicago.
To know more about Lincoln Park Public zoo visit: http://www.lpzoo.org/

One day we also went to the UIC student union recreation center and spent some real good time bowling and playing pool.

For New Year’s celebration I prepared some chocolate walnut brownie at home and enjoyed a quiet New Year’s Eve diner and wine with few close friends.

Before my actual course work begins, I also utilized my spare time to visit the Office of the Secretary of State facility for issuing my state ID card. The information and forms for Social Security Card, State ID card, and Driver’s license is available on the Chicago school’s website. Most of the necessary information for the international students is available on International Students Service webpage.

http://ego.thechicagoschool.edu/iss

My first white Christmas in Chicago!

The morning of Dec14th, I woke up to see a few inches of snow all around. I was excited to experience the first snow-fall of my life. Chicago has its own beauty in winter. It looks as if everything is made up of white cotton candy. With the help of my friends and colleagues I was well prepared for the winter, I bought good winter coats from Burlington Coat Factory, the one located at Gurnee http://www.yelp.com/biz/burlington-coat-factory-warehouse-gurnee .
The Burlington Coat factory is located at various places in Chicago, which can be found on its website below: http://www.burlingtoncoatfactory.com/

The week before Christmas holidays was full of sweets, cookies, gifts and greetings from friends and colleagues. I was happy to receive my first Christmas surprise from my supervisor, Beth Tinkham, in International Student Services at Chicago School. In the morning when I reached at office to assist her at work, I found a gift box, which looked like a Chinese take out box. The box contained a gift card to Starbucks Coffee and different types of delicious, tempting cookies, including sugar cookies, rum balls, ginger snaps, mint chocolate drops, and citrus macaroons. Later this week I attended Christmas party at Hope institute, my practicum site, and ate additional sweets and cookies including sugar candy, bonbons, truffles, and almond bark. It felt really nice to receive such warm Christmas greetings from everyone. I truly enjoyed my first Christmas celebrations in Chicago. Soon after the celebrations, school closed for the holiday break.

One Semester Down!

The last two weeks of this semester have been crazy with final papers, projects and exams. I had two written papers and three project submissions for my finals, which was quite overwhelming! One of these projects one was the Fish Training Project I previously mentioned. After three weeks of intensive training, my fish successfully learned two tricks. The first trick was to swim up to the fish tank door after listening to the click sound of me opening the door; the other trick was for the fish to pass through a hoop in order to get food. I was thrilled to conclude my project successfully. My experience in training the fish also reinforced my belief in principles of behavior and learning theories. If applied meticulously these theories can enhance learning in any organism.

The two other projects I had to complete were based on my case studies at my practicum site; they also turned out well. The projects were followed by two written papers. The papers were lengthier then expected and covered all the topics of the fall semester. Finally, after a three hour long exam last Wednesday, I completed the last of my finals. After having been deprived of sleep for more then two weeks, I couldn’t think of anything but sleep.

The weekend after finals, I took a much needed break and went ice skating at Millennium Park with my friends. We reached there at 5 pm, but had to wait for about an hour in the queue to rent skates. The ice skates were available for rent for $10 for an unlimited time. If you have your own ice skates then you can save time waiting in the queue for skate rental. However, I didn’t mind waiting in line as it provided me a chance to watch others on the ice rink. It was really enjoyable to watch people displaying their skating talents. There were children as young as 7 to 8 years and adults as old as 60 years.

Once I got my skates I couldn’t wait to be on the ice rink. I had to tie my skates really tight to fit on my feet. Although initially I was scared to let go of the railing, eventually I could balance on the blades well. As I have previously roller skated in my school days, ice skating was like reliving my childhood days of sports and adventure. Ice skating is not very different from roller skating--just that it requires more balance since you are on a thin slice of blade placed vertically underneath your shoes. In the beginning I fell four times, but all the pain was worthwhile, as at the end I did skate without touching the railing even once. We spent some good 4 hours on the ice floor, with a nice music played in the background! I was so thrilled by this outing that I am planning to go there again next weekend. This reminds me next weekend will be all the more fun, as one of my Indian friends studying in California is coming to Chicago for Christmas.

Thanksgiving – eat, sleep, and be merry!

The last Thursday of November marks the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. My American friends told me that Thanksgiving is all about food and family--a short break for recuperating from the stressful work and an opportunity to give thanks for blessings in one’s life.

The week before Thanksgiving, I noticed that everyone, including my professors and people at work, were in the holiday mood. In discussing plans with my classmates, I learned that almost everybody from my cohort was visiting their families, and was looking forward to spend some time relaxing over the weekend. It was just enough reason for me to miss my family back home. However, I was grateful that Gina, my American roommate, had invited me and Naomi, my Indian roommate, to join her at her family’s home for Thanksgiving.

We visited Gina’s family on Thursday. We took a Metra train to Naperville, a city in the southwest part of Chicago. Gina’s mom then picked us up at the train station. The car ride from the station to Gina’s house was awesome—I immensely enjoyed the beautiful views of all the houses and Thanksgiving decorations in the verandas. After a half an hour ride we reached at Gina’s home. Her house was large and nicely decorated. Her parents were busy cooking a turkey and other delicious food so we utilized the time to tour her house and backyard. Afterwards we played lots of games on Wi-Fi (Video games) and enjoyed some a snack of hot chocolate and cheese and crackers. It was surprising that we were hungry again in just 2 hours. By that time, the much awaited dinner was ready.

We all gathered at dinner table, offered prayers and enjoyed the Thanksgiving feast. The table was full of bowls of different kinds of food, which looked and smelled delicious. Turkey was the main course. However, thankfully for vegetarians like me; there were lots of vegetarian dishes too. I enjoyed mashed potatoes (boiled potatoes with cheese and garlic flavor), green bean casserole (beans and crunchy onions cooked in the mushroom sauce), cranberries, Waldorf salad, and sweet potatoes. Everything was just irresistible!

After diner we all sat and talked, watched some movies, and enjoyed warm tea. It was a very relaxing day filled with great food and conversation. I’m so thankful for the opportunity to participate in this American holiday with Gina and her family.

The following day, I ventured out to participate in shopping on what is known as “Black Friday” because of all the great sales. Shopping the day after Thanksgiving is very chaotic; people are all pepped and set out early in the morning to get good deals on their purchases. I was quite thrilled to know that everything was extremely reasonable. I bought myself winter boots and a sweater for a real deal! Since we were in Naperville, we decided to visit shopping malls there, before coming to downtown. I bought my shoes from Nordstrom. Gina and her mother helped me choose proper winter boots, having no exposure to snowfall buying boots was really challenging. It is advisable to go for winter shopping with someone who is from Chicago or have been here for couple of years. Winter clothes are available in great variety and reasonable prices at most stores so having someone to assist you in the decision process can be helpful.

Shopping in general is fun in Chicago, There are really good shopping malls making it an ideal location for shopping. However despite good deals, it is always a good idea for students to stick to the budget.

After a long tiring shopping day we returned home. I was so tired that with all the pleasant memories of my thanksgiving holidays I collapsed in my bed and was fast asleep.

In reflecting upon the Thanksgiving weekend, I can truly say that Thanksgiving is a great time to eat, sleep, shop, and be merry. It also provided me with a much needed break in preparation for finals! I couldn’t have asked for anything more from God, I consider myself truly blessed for having such loving and friendly people around.

Trip to St. Louis – Educational and Recreational experience!

As a part of the course requirements for one of my classes, I had to attend at least one professional conference from the list of conferences assigned. Earlier in the semester I decided I would attend the MOABA (Missouri Applied Behavior Analysis) conference in St. Louis, Missouri as it was towards the end of the semester. I thought this would give me two months time to settle and adjust well with the routine before I travel to the new city to attend the conference. However, before I knew it, the dates for the MOABA conference were upon me. I was excited to know that some of my classmates were also attending the same conference and delighted to learn that my roommate, Naomi, decided to join me for the trip to visit her family friend. I was curious to see the city and the popular monument, the St. Louis Arch, also known as “The Gateway to the West”. It was overwhelming to manage a trip in the middle of such a crazy time of the semester. However in the end, I found my two-day visit to St. Louis was a very memorable and refreshing (much-needed) break.

We decided to travel to St. Louis via Megabus, a double-decker coach bus. After a long day at school we started our journey at 5 in the evening. I was feeling extremely sleepy, but the interaction with some of my classmates was so interesting that it kept me up. I am glad that I chose to go to MOABA, as it was a wonderful opportunity to get to know others in my class and socialize with more people.

We reached St. Louis Union Station at 11 pm. It was freezing cold outside so our group of 11 students quickly hailed two cabs to the hotel. We were pleased to reach the hotel so soon and rushed out of the cab and hurried to the reception so that we can go into our rooms. But we soon realized that we were at the wrong Holiday Inn. It was interesting to know that St. Louis had two hotels with the same name, but it was a very frustrating situation to face at that hour landing a strange city.

Fortunately the receptionist was very helpful and called for another cab. We all were helpless and couldn’t do much other than waiting outside in the hotel lawn. We were so irritated with the cab driver and started venting our anger and frustration about the situation. Our conversation soon moved to the comparison between the St. Louis and Chicago and we all agreed that Chicago is much livelier and a better place to live. Girls will be girls – we were so busy with our interesting random discussions that we almost forgot about going to the actual Holiday – Inn (Vikings) and that we were waiting for the cab. We had to wait for about an hour for another cab to go the Holiday – Inn Vikings. We were in a great relief to see a cab after such a long wait at that hour in the night, making our journey truly eventful.

Me and my roomies – A Wonderful Trio

It has taken me several months, but I am finally settled into my daily routine. It’s been great having the apartment, internet, utility, groceries, phone, and all the other basic necessities in place. And, I am fortunate enough to have wonderful roomies like– Naomi, and Gina – we make an awesome trio. After long, hectic hours at school and practicum, it’s a great stress-buster to sit down with them for some tea and small talk.

Yesterday we went to Devon for grocery shopping. There are lots of Indian and Pakistani grocers in that neighborhood. Indian spices and other foodie-goodies are available in huge variety; it looks like a mini-India. We bought some fresh vegetables like Eggplant (Brinjal), Okra (Lady Finger), ginger and garlic. My trip to the market reminded me how surprised Gina and some of my classmates were when they first learned that egg plant is a common food in India. They were all very curious how we prepare it in India. I am delighted by their curiosity and happy they are interested in my culture.

It has also been fun to learn more about U.S. culture from Gina (my American roommate). We often discuss and share a lot about our cultures and practices. Ever since I have been to the U.S. I have heard a lot about most awaited “Thanksgiving” holiday. We are planning to visit Gina’s place for Thanksgiving. I am very excited and looking forward to being a part of this traditional American holiday celebration.

Practicum Work

After a tedious week full of midterms, this week was comparatively relaxed—allowing me to more easily focus on work at my practicum site. I conducted some assessments and made exciting intervention plans for the children with whom I am working.

The senior therapist and colleagues at my practicum site are very friendly and supportive. My work there has been good exposure for me to the U.S. work culture. I’ve found that people here are very professional, and at the same time, open to other persons’ thoughts and ideas. Sometimes, I do feel apprehensive in my interactions with my colleagues due to some subtle cultural differences, but overall I’m very encouraged that my colleagues have been so open to others from diverse backgrounds.