Spring Break

This week school is closed for Spring Break. Although, I am not able to leave town for a warm, sunny destination like many students do, it was glad to kick off my Spring break celebrating my friend’s 25th birthday on Saturday. The theme of the party was to incorporate the number 25 in our attire. I wore a T-shirt with the number 25 printed on it, while others painted the number 25 on their faces, arms and clothes. There was a huge truffle cake, soft drinks, and some Indian snacks for the party. As a birthday surprise for Venkat, the birthday boy, we prepared a slide show from an assortment of his photographs with all his friends, spanning his two year long journey in Chicago. The slideshow turned out really well and it lit up everyone’s face with a big smile and moist eyes, cherishing the two years of memories in Chicago. Then, we all rocked the floor on famous Bollywood numbers and sang few old Hindi songs. The party went on till 2 a.m. We did not leave any opportunity to capture all the happy moments of his birthday celebration.


The Saturday night fun quickly ended after I reached home and found an email from my professor stating that the rough draft of an assignment I attached on E-college (web-based classroom software) had not been uploaded, so my professor could not review it. As such, he told me that I would have to finish my final draft with any edits from him. This left me with a feeling of apprehension, as I will have to take excessive care to do the final draft correctly. I hope that I utilize my spring break well to finish my assignment. Along with my assignment I also plan to rest well, eat some good food, and watch some movies during the break. The weather is warming up and the sun has made some appearances over the last couple days, so I’m hopeful that my Spring break won’t be too bad after all.

Fellowship work and board game recreation!

As my spring semester is progressing my task list is getting longer, full of assignments and homework. Last week, In the midst of my daily school work, we had an International Board Game Event.

This event was organized by International Students Services, where I work as an for 10 hours a week. As part of the organizing team, I assisted in planning, preparing flyers, catering, arrangements, and hosting the event. This event not only was a good recreational break, but also an opportunity to sharpen my administrative skills – My Fellowship work in International Student Services is truly a good learning experience for me!

The International Board Game Night turned out to be a joyous event. There were lots of interesting board games selected from different parts of the world, like: Dominoes, Carcassonne, For Sale, Snakes and Ladders, Ticket to Ride, etc. Placards were placed at the tables where each game was being played; each game was hosted by a predetermined person. I was host of the game, “For Sale”, a European style card game

The event took place in the evening and as such, sandwiches, chips, cookies, and soft drinks were served at the event. Munching and playing simultaneously added more fun. I was impressed that regardless of the hectic school schedule, many students made it for the event. A group of 10 students from Peru, who were at the school last week for an educational and cultural competence seminar, also participated in the board game event. It was a pleasure to interact and exchange some cultural views about the board games with the Peruvian students.

There is a popular misconception that playing board games is childlike. But, according to me, it is a great brainstorming and creative leisure pursuit. I was amazed to see that some students were completely engrossed in planning strategies to win the game, and some were also using pen and paper to strategize while playing. Very Interesting!!

Overall, for me participating in this event was refreshing and innovative break from my daily, monotonous routine. I wish more such events keep happening at TCS, and I hope that I keep up my good work as a fellow in International Student Services.

New Year: My new beginnings!

My classes for spring semester started last week. Although I was sad to see my vacation come to an end, I looked forward to meeting my new professors. This term, after consulting with my course advisor, I finally chose four courses constituting 11 credits. In addition I am investing approximately ten hours for practical experience and ten for fellowship work.

My classes this week were pretty easy. We primarily reviewed the new syllabi and course requirements. I found all my professors knowledgeable, thorough, and supportive. The course work will be challenging, but after talking to my professors I feel confident that I’ll be able to successfully tackle my assignments this semester. My interactions with my professors continue to affirm my initial perceptions that the faculties at TCS were phenomenal when I was first considering application to the school. I am so glad to be a part of The Chicago School student body.

My Pet Goldfish Terror!

Yesterday night was scary and stressful because silly Nemo and Khubbie (my 2 pet Goldfish) swallowed one of the fish tank gravel. Earlier that morning, we noticed that Nemo was looking sick, would not swim and stayed in one corner of the tank. So, we cleaned the tank and started looking online for some information on types of goldfish illnesses. Then in the evening, while having diner my friend Mandar (from California) and Gina (roommate), I saw Khubbie chocking with a gravel stone stuck in its mouth. We immediately started looking for an appropriate tool that would help us remove the gravel stone off Khubbie’s mouth. We had to be extra careful, as we couldn’t keep fish out of the water for a long time. Luckily we had Mandar, who had fish tank at home and is used to handling fish and so he could handle them efficiently. Finally with the help of nail clippers he pulled out the gravel from Khubbie’s mouth.

It didn’t take us too long to figure out that maybe Nemo has also swallowed one of the fish tank gravel. And, to our surprise Nemo’s condition was even worse as rock had slipped deep down Nemo’s throat. Now, we needed some really effective tool that could slip in Nemo’s mouth to extract the rock. At this time, all we knew was, we have to save our fish from chocking. We researched online and found that Goldfish being scavengers have a habit of digging into rocks in search of food, may be in the process both Nemo and Khubbie inadvertently swallowed the tank rocks. Both my fish were terrified and so were we! We took the pitcher in the bathroom as it had bright lights; we also set the table lamp as focus light to see through Nemo’s mouth, and used a tweezers to pull the rock out. In between the rock extraction process, Mandar had to take excessive care of putting the fish back into the water frequently, so that they could breathe. Eventually, with all the stressful, but diligent efforts we successfully extracted the rock from Nemo’s throat as well. Phew!

We all couldn’t believe that we actually saved our fish. We were happy to see our fish back into the tank, safe and alive! We removed all the gravels out of the tank. I would never be able to forget this eventful night, spent in struggling to remove the rock off my pet fish’s mouth/throat.

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.