Tag: reunion

The Three Parts

The Three Parts

When The Prestige first came out on DVD during my sophomore year in high school, I happened to be flying back from a trip to Israel. Because of this coincidence, it playing on its own channel during my 12 hour flight from Jerusalem to New York. The movie is just over two hours, and they played it about 5 times. I watched it every single time.

The reason for this high school throwback at the beginning of my annual “Look what an awesome time I had during my winter break this year!!!11!” post is that throughout my holiday break, I couldn’t stop thinking about the ending of the movie.

We hear Cutter (played by Michael Caine), explaining that, “every magic trick consists of three parts, or acts.” And, if I needed a quote to describe my winter break, that was it. It was grouped into three different segments of time and every one felt just like magic.

Part 1 (aka Livin’ the Dream)

Christmas at a children’s hospital!

During the first week and a half of winter vacation, all my dreams had come true. I was able to limit myself to four activities: 1. watching cheesy CW television shows; 2. sleeping; 3. working Christmas shifts at the hospital; and, 4. sleeping some more.

After my semester filled with at least 48 hours without sleep at least once a week and countless commitments to take care of, it was so nice to go to work in the afternoon, watch television all night, and sleep all day.

I know that it sounds like working over break wouldn’t be very fun, but surprisingly, it was a blast. Since I work at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, we constantly had Santa and his elves dropping off toys for our patients. And we got to wear awesome holiday themed headbands!

Part 2 (aka JewFest 2013)

Last year, I spent Easter Vacation in Miami, Florida with one of my best friends. Since she had visited me at Loyola our freshman year, we wanted to go somewhere different for what we have now decided is our now annual reunion.

Our destination for junior year: New York!

Reunited…and it feels so good!

We ate, saw, and did so much over the 10 days we were there.

We…

…inadvertently ended up spending New Years Eve in the penthouse at the Waldorf Astoria

ate

…went to the American Museum of Natural History

…continued to eat

…saw Peter and the Starcatcher

ate

… and reunited with many of our old counselors from the camp where we first met each other about 10 years ago.

While New York and everything in it is pretty ballin’, seeing all of our old friends was definitely the best part of the trip. We saw staff (including my first counselor, who I hadn’t seen since I was 10!) and other campers who we used to be in awe of, whispering to each other, “OhmyG-dohmyG-dshe’sSOCOOL.” And the best part…they treated us like real grown ups now!

“OhmyG-dohmyG-dshe’sSOCOOL.”

Part 3 (aka Cabin in the Woods)

Finally, with one weekend to spare and after only 2 days back in Chitown, I went up to my mom’s cabin in Minocqua, Wisconsin with my two friends, Maureen and Scott.

We had originally planned on going skiing, but that fell through when the snow did. However, we still had as much fun as three kids alone in a cabin in the middle of nowhere could have. Spoiler alert: it was a lot.

Wilderness Explorers!

We watched an obligatory we-are-three-kids-alone-in-a-cabin-in-the-middle-of-the-woods horror movie, in addition to cooking meals, convincing family friends to give us free meals, going hiking, and even playing some pretty intense Scrabble. It was the perfect.

Even though I’ve cut down on my commitments (maybe i’ll actually get sleep now!) this semester, I still have a long ways to go before summer vacation. I’m really grateful for the chance to rejuvenate before I dive back into school life, and I can’t wait to see what Spring 2013 brings me!

Photo 1 attributed to myself

Photo 2 attributed to myself; used with permission from the ballin’ Rachel Niederhoffer

Photo 3 attributed to, and used with permission from, the lovely Batyah Weiss

Photo 4 attributed to the grown up Koz; used with permission from Maureen “Cool Cat” Burns and Scott “I Haven’t Been Scared Since Alien” McCoy

Still Living and Still Learning

Still Living and Still Learning

As a freshman, I was a part of the Global Citizenship Living Learning Community (LLC). I joined on a whim, thinking that it would provide an easier way to overcome my shyness and make new friends at college, while giving me an opportunity to take some non-science classes before I jumped into my nursing only courses.

Joining my LLC was one of the best decisions I have ever made. My community helped me get acquainted to college, and it introduced me to some pretty cool people.

As part of the community, we had the opportunity to take a class each semester with just the 30 of us. Our second semester, we took ANTH 271: Globalization and Local Cultures, with Dr. Kathleen Adams. (Fun Fact: Dr. Adams is one of the best 300 professors in the nation, according to Princeton Review!)

Dessert...It was as amazing as it looks!

Dr. Adams really supported our community, and she recently organized a reunion for us to all go out to eat at Uncommon Ground. It was an awesome and delicious get together. We all shared appetizers (sweet potato fries, artichoke dip and flatbread) and I had squash risotto for my main course, with pear brown butter cake for dessert. It was more than delicious.

It was so nice to finally see everyone again, and a good break to think about as I try and survive the last two weeks of the semester.

Oh, and if you have any questions about LLCs, feel free to leave a comment here!

Picture of Pear Brown Butter Cake – Attributed to my fellow Global Citizen, Nicholas Ramirez