Hi there! Since finals are just around the corner, I wanted to give some awesome stress reliever tips. These stress reliever tips have always helped me focus and manage my time wisely without feeling like I am going to pull my hair out and just break down and cry. They have been incredibly useful this past week and helped me write 4, ten page papers!
1. Start early! I know that everyone likes to procrastinate, myself included, but seriously, do this. Starting early and accomplishing small chunks of a paper or project over the course of a few days makes everything way less stressful. No one likes pulling an all-nighter to punch out a paper that will end up being a disaster anyways, so do yourself a favor and start early!
2. Take breaks! Even if the breaks consist of you just grabbing something to eat, or taking a quick power nap, your brain really needs that time off. Without taking breaks, you are basically putting your brain into overdrive mode and by doing so, you will figure out that your best work will not come out of being in this situation.
3. Sleep on it! If you feel that you have hit a rough patch and are completely stuck while working on something, sleep on it. Surprisingly, sleeping on something always helps create new ideas and angles that you might not have thought of before. That being said, this goes along with starting early, because you will not have this option if you try to bust out a paper or project the night before.
4. Do not try all the energy drinks! Energy drinks are oh so tasty, redbull is something that I love, but they contain soooo much sugar and plenty of other things that your body does not need. All they do is give you a sugar rush for a few hours, and then you crash, hard. Zero work can be accomplished after this crash so instead, just drink plenty of water and eat healthy food such as apples with cheese, eggs, yogurt, or almonds.
5. Do it your own way! Follow your own creative process. If someone tells you that you need to make a million notecards for organic chemistry or have to write an outline for a paper, it does not mean that YOU have to, unless it’s for a grade of course. If notecards are not for you, don’t worry about it. I never write outlines for my papers because it is too constricting for me. Whatever works the best for you, roll with it.
6. Alternate! Only work on one thing for a couple of hours, then switch to something else. You can always come back to what you were working on first, but the alteration helps keep the brain fresh and it makes it less cumbersome for you.
7. Talk out loud! I know this sounds crazy, and I would not recommend it if you are on the quiet floor in the IC, but talking out loud for your notes, projects, and papers, really helps you focus on what you are currently doing. Everyone knows that you get distracted while thinking, so talking it out loud focuses your mind with your mouth.
8. Find the Right place! Some people work best at the library, others at their desks, other with other people, and others just like to be alone. I get distracted easily by other people, so the place I work best in is my bedroom on my bed. Find your right study environment and don’t ever give it up!
Hope these stress relieving tips work for you! They are a lifesaver for me, saving each little hair on my head.

Hello again everyone! Since I have been boring you with birds in my previous posts, I thought I would shake it up a little and write about one of my most favorite places in Chicago to get delicious chocolates and drinks. Who could ever say no to chocolate??? That is like saying no to puppies and kittens.

The BEST place to get chocolate is at Leonidas Chocolate Café. It is located at 59 E Chicago Ave. right next to Loyola’s Water Tower campus. It is quite small and would go completely unnoticed unless you were looking for it, but that only makes it so much more of a gem. They sell fresh Belgian chocolates in all sorts of varieties. Chocolate with nuts, cream fillings, fruit fillings, caramel fillings, chocolate fillings, truffles, and the very best of all, the amazing chocolate covered orange peels. They candy real orange peels and then stick them inside a casing of chocolate, so if you like fruit and if you like chocolate (who doesn’t?) these are for you. You can buy as many as you want since they sell them by weight, so go ahead, buy ten, you deserve it.

Not only do they have wonderful chocolates, they also have delicious coffees and hot chocolates. My favorite is their Mexican hot chocolate. They add species to it, making it burst with flavor and spiciness. It definitely has a kick to it. Don’t let them fool you though into buying a medium or large sized drink. Since the hot chocolate is made with real chocolate, the richness in the small cup is enough to quench a chocolate craving for days. If you are feeling like spending a little more money than usual, Leonidas also has a few breakfast items such as crepes. I have never personally had any of their breakfast items, but that is just because once you walk in and see their huge display of chocolates, breakfast is not something on your mind. Unless of course, you want chocolate for breakfast. Totally acceptable.

Go to this place if you ever find yourself at Water Tower Campus BECAUSE IT IS DELICIOUS CHOCOLATE!

Hello everyone! So I know it has been a while since I have written, but finals are just around the corner and there are so many group projects, papers, and studying to do. It is overwhelming sometimes, but it nice just to sit back and take a break and write a few words to you guys!

So for today, I wanted to talk about a field trip that I took for my Ornithology class this past weekend. Yes, this post will be another one all about birds, BUT, surprise! The field trip is slightly different than last time.

Out field trip took place in Caldwell Woods. It is located right down Devon Street in Cook County and runs along the Chicago River. We got up at the crack of dawn (well, 7am, but 7am on a Sunday morning when you are a college student might as well be the crack of dawn) and headed out in rain and cold to see some birds!

In our previous field trip, we saw plenty of shorebirds like gulls, terns, and ducks. Since this field trip was in the woods, we were expecting to see plenty of different species and we did. We saw a TON of woodpeckers including the Red-bellied Woodpecker, the Downy Woodpecker, and the Hairy woodpecker. They are quite beautiful to look at because of their bright red, black, and white coloring. We also saw some beautifully blue Blue Jays and red Northern Cardinals. Another bird we found was the Brown Creeper. It is this small bird with a brown back and white belly who also has a curved beak. It rarely flies, but instead just creeps up the bark of the tree. It kind of looks like a miniature squirrel if that makes any sense at all!

The best birds by far were the cute little Black-capped Chicakadees. They have a wonderful song and are so small that they could fit snugly in the palm of your hand. The best part of the day however, had nothing to do with birds. We saw 25 deer in the forest preserve, 25! Living in Chicago and being surrounded by skyscrapers all day means that seeing 25 deer is like seeing enough nature for a year. It was truly incredible to be super close to deer and some were even baby deer.

The whole trip was a lot of fun, and even though I was starving by the end of it, it was not such a bad way to spend my Sunday morning. Yeah for school field trips!

P.S. I apologize for having no pictures, but in the rain and cold, bringing my hands out of their pockets did not seem like something ideal!

Hello again! In continuing my trend of discussing fun things to do, I am going to tell you all of a fun experience a little outside of Chicago. Ever wanted to skydive without paying around 300 dollars? Ever wanted to experience the feeling of free-fall? Ever just wanted to be suspended in the air and pretend like you are living in a Harry Potter world? Well if you answered yes to at least one of these questions, you should check out iFLY!

I went to iFLY a couple weeks ago and just wanted to tell you all about it. It is right outside of Chicago in Rosemont and is located next to O’Hare airport (which I am sure some of you will be familiar with if you are coming to Loyola from out of state). iFLY is an indoor skydiving experience. You can call ahead of time to make reservations, which we did because ya know, better safe than sorry, or you can walk right in and register there and try to see what times they have available. It fills up pretty fast, but the experience takes only around an hour total so there is some time slots with openings.

Once you walk in and sign in, you are taken to a classroom where you watch a short video on the safety rules of indoor skydiving. An instructor goes in the air tunnel with you, but you have to learn all the hand motions to communicate with them because you can’t talk in the tunnel. After the instructional video, you get geared up. They give you a jumpsuit, a helmet, and goggles. Then it is time to go. You get to experience two flights of 30 seconds. It does not seem like super long, but trust me, once you are in the tunnel, 30 seconds feels like 30 minutes (in a good way of course!). Being in the tunnel is a crazy experience. You are literally just floating in midair in a wind tunnel and being pelted by air. The instructor holds onto you for some of it and lets you go for parts as well. It really is a weird feeling being blasted with air and just hovering, but it gives you an awesome rush of adrenaline that makes you just want to do it all over again! On the second flight, the instructor does a high flight. This is where they take you up to the top of the wind tunnel and back down again.  This was the best part hands down!

After the whole experience is over, you get to take home two videos of your flight so that you can share with friends your experience. The whole thing is only 70 dollars per person! Which may seems pricey on a college budget, but save up for a couple weeks and you can definitely make your dream of skydiving a reality. I already cannot wait to go back and am seriously considering just becoming an instructor there. They have to log 150 hours in the air tunnel. Now that sounds like the best job in the world. I mean, I am a bio major, and defying gravity has to do with physics soooo it would sort of be a career related to my major, right???

Since the weather is getting even colder (it seriously feels like February over here in Chicago), Chicago exploration must be confined to indoors. What better place to explore indoors than the Museum of Science and Industry!

The Museum of Science and Industry is located at 5700 South Lakeshore Drive and they are dedicated to inspiring and motivating all people of all ages to learn about the fields of science, technology, medicine, and engineering. With three floors of interactive, fun exhibits, there is something for everyone. My friend and I decided to just go in order of floors so we made our way up from floor 1. One of the best exhibits on the first floor is the “U-505 On-Board Submarine” exhibit. Here you can walk through the Battle of the Atlantic and the U-505’s dramatic capture. There is the U-505 present in the museum that you can walk through and you can see torpedoes and stories of people who experienced this first hand. Another awesome exhibit on the first floor is the “Henry Crown Space Center” where you can drive a rover, learn all about the past missions to space, look inside a real spaceship capsule, and see all the rigorous training an astronaut must go through.

One of the best exhibits on the second floor is the “Science Storms” exhibit. Here you learn about all natural disasters. There is a lot of interaction here. You can play with light refraction, control a flood, and watch a giant tornado come down from the ceiling. Another great exhibit on this floor is the “Fast Foreword” exhibit. In this exhibit there are new inventions being worked on. There is an idea for a 3-D printer to spit out pizza, one with a robot that has feelings, and one that is working towards space travel that is accessible to all people. It was truly fascinating to learn about things that you would never have though imaginable. My favorite part of this floor was the Whispering Gallery. Here you and someone else stand on opposite ends of the room and whisper into a glass. The person on the other side will hear you clear as day, even though you are whispering silently. It was awesome!

The third and final floor had a plane, a 727, that you could walk though. You got to learn all about plane travel here. Imagine fitting a whole plane in a building and you can understand how big this museum is. The whole museum was a lot of fun and I already can’t wait to go back, because one day is just not enough to experience and learn about everything the museum has to offer!

Hello again! Hope everyone is staying warm and cozy. The weather here in Chicago has been filled with snow, rain, hail, wind, and 30 degree temperatures. Just when you think that this post may be about sitting next to a fireplace with a warm cup of hot chocolate, BAMN! It’s not that kind of post!

Before the cold weather sits in and decides to stay, I wanted to tell you all of a field trip that I recently took for my Ornithology (study of birds) class. It was an outdoor field trip. Sounds miserable, but it was actually a lot of fun! We went to the Montrose Harbor along Lake Michigan. Our task was to identify birds in six different habitats. The habitats were meadow, mowed grassland, dunes, lake, harbor, and woods. Montrose Harbor is known for being a bird sanctuary in Chicago so it was the perfect place to discover some interesting birds.

We first walked through the woodlands and saw a giant Red-Tailed Hawk just perched on a tree staring at us. Our professor has a huge pair of binoculars that we were allowed to use to get a clear, close-up picture of the bird. We then moved to the dunes and the lake area. The lake area had the most abundant bird species. We saw a rare Great Black-Backed Gull that is almost never seen in Chicago! We snapped as many pictures as we could and wrote down every bird species we identified and how many we saw of each. After that, we made our way over to the mowed grassland area and the meadow. Here we saw Downy Woodpeckers, House Finches, and even an albino American Robin. Try to imagine a robin, but all white. I know, it’s hard huh? Finally our last location was to the harbor area where we spotted a Great Blue Heron.

After recording all our findings, our lab write-up was to take one species of bird from each area and identify whether it was a migrant bird, a winter visitor, or a resident of Chicago. It was really interesting learning all the migratory routes that the birds take and where they are all from.

Even though this field trip was outdoors on a cold day, I had a fun time identifying new birds. I mean, all for the sake of science right???

Hi again! Since classes are starting to slow down at Loyola because midterms are over and finals studying has not started yet, it is a perfect time to go out and explore Chicago. The weekends are the perfect time to do it. Being up early this past Saturday morning, a friend and I decided to head downtown for some breakfast.

The weather was a bit windy and chilly this weekend, but nothing was going to deter us from heading to our all-time favorite breakfast place in Chicago, Yolk! Yolk is a breakfast and lunch place. It has five locations in Chicago. One on Wells Street, one on Ohio Street, one on Madison Street, one of Diversey Parkway, and one on Michigan Avenue.  The one on Madison Street is located in the Chicago Metra Station, Ogilvie. It is a perfect place to stop if you ever find yourself waiting to take a train to the suburbs early in the afternoon/morning. All locations are open from 8am to 3pm on weekdays and 7am to 3pm on weekends and holidays. Yolk is always crazy packed, but trust me, it is worth the wait! The one on Michigan Avenue is my designated stop for their breakfast goodies!

The reason why Yolk is the best breakfast place in Chicago is because of their outstanding and creative food. Creating innovative, to die for food is their business and man, do they take it seriously. There is something for everyone! Plenty of vegetarian options, heart healthy options, sweet-tooth options, and traditional options. There is even a seasonal fall menu which brings all the flavors of fall onto your plate. During the fall season, Yolk offers pumpkin swirl french toast which is made out of real pumpkin cake with swirls of cream cheese dipped in batter and grilled. For lunch during the fall, they serve a delicious pumpkin roasted apple soup with bacon that is both savory and makes you feel like you are rolling around in a bunch of fall leaves (strange analogy, but try to picture everything you love about fall all in one cup of soup!). Their normal menus includes omelets, skillets, eggs anyway, french toasts, pancakes, and benedicts. They are known for their award winning eggs benedict. It is a go-to for me when heading to Yolk because you can never go wrong with a perfect hollandaise topping anything!

The best dish that they serve by far is their red velvet french toast. Remember when I told you how much I liked red velvet in my first post? Well eating it as a breakfast food is just as acceptable as eating it as a desert. Like the pumpkin swirl french toast, the red velvet takes red velvet cake and grills it to perfection. Topped with fresh strawberries and whipped cream, you can never go wrong ordering this. My mouth is watering thinking about it right now.

So what are you waiting for! All locations can be reached easily by the el, so whip out your Loyola el pass and go get some breakfast!

Hi everyone! People always thinks that classes are no fun, but at Loyola they are! This past Thursday, my Shakespeare class scheduled a field trip to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier. We have been reading King Lear and so our professor thought that it would be a good idea to go and see the story brought to life.

I had never been to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, so I was excited. Being an English major student who loves one of the greatest playwrights in the history of literature, I was in my element. I did not expect the theater to be that large at all, but it turned out to be a nice size, where every seat in the house was a great seat. There were three levels of seating, and our whole class took up the entire third balcony. The stage itself was large. There was a huge rectangular stage in the back with a smaller stage jutting out into the audience. While absorbing the beauty of the theater, the lights dimmed, and it was time to watch the play.

 

Since the Chicago Shakespeare Theater is a theater that can afford special effects, this place pulled out all the bells and whistles. There was loud crashes of thunder, intense strobe lights for lightning, real rain that fell down upon the stage, and plenty of fake blood being squirted out of bleeding eyeballs and battle wounds. The biggest effect of all was when the whole building backdrop fell forward. I was scared that the actor would get crushed underneath, but there was a window on the building backdrop and the actor was standing in the precise location of where the window would be when the building fell to the ground. The actor remained completely intact. This special effect made my mouth drop and had the whole audience clamping!

The actors themselves are world famous actors. They have performed in many plays, some even in different countries! They brought so much life to Shakespeare’s words, that every single audience member, including myself, was sucked in the entire play. The minimal props and excellent lighting helped the audience focus on the actors instead of becoming distracted. This was a wonderful directing choice because Shakespeare’s language is difficult to understand, so the less distraction, the better. Also the actors used the whole space of the theater, including the aisles, to perform. It made the entire audience feel included, like they were actors in the play themselves.

King Lear was a wonderful play and I already cannot wait to go back to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier! It was truly a magical experience. And who said school was not fun???

Writing about my travels abroad in my last post really made me miss Rome. And since I could not immediately get on a plane and fly there, I decided to search for a little piece of Rome in Chicago. So where can I find a place to relive my memories? Eataly of course! Eataly is located at 43 E. Ohio Street and is easily one of the best places to visit when in Chicago.

This place is as close to Italian authenticity as you can get. There are two floors to Eataly. On the first floor are all their deserts and sweet shops, including a full Nutella desert station AND a pasty station AND a gelato station. It is like desert Heaven! I myself opted for the gelato station since I absolutely adore gelato and wanted to see if the gelato was even remotely close to Italian gelato. I ordered a dark chocolate gelato (because that is the best flavor of them all) and was completely blown away. It was delicious and was the exact creaminess and flavor of Italys.

One the second level there are the restaurants and fresh produce sections. They have a restaurant that serves meat, one that serves fish, one for paninis, and one for pizzas and pastas. I decided on the pizza and pasta restaurant. I ordered the Capricciosa pizza which had fresh mozzarella, mushrooms, prosciutto (Italian ham), and artichokes. It was wonderful! It was made with super fresh ingredients and baked in the traditional Italian style with the edges burnt and the pizza so thin that you have to eat it with a fork. The pizza itself is perfect for two people, or you can just get one and take some home, because who would not want to relive the deliciousness?! The servers were extremely friendly and willing to answer any questions you may have on the menu. Finally, to round out my trip down memory lane, I checked out the fresh produce sections. They have freshly made cheese to buy, handmade pasta, fresh fish, and prime meat cuts. They also have a whole vegetable and fruit section. Not wanting to go home empty handed, I bought some blood oranges in this section. Needless to say, they were also spectacular in taste. No surprise there!

Eataly is not only a restaurant and grocery store. They also offer cooking classes! You can learn how to make pastas, pizzas, and other such dishes from Italy. You can also hold private dining events there.

Eataly took me back to eating outside of a café on a cobblestone alley street in Rome. I already can’t wait to go back and taste more of Italy in Chicago!