mm mm chicago-cago.

After our family trip to NYC at the beginning of the break (which deserves a post later) I have had nothing but the big city on my mind. I love the city lifestyle, or atleast I love visiting it, and hope I will love living in it because I am looking to Chicago for grad school. I love the sense of urgency the city brings, the massiveness, the residents walking everywhere, and yes, I even love the public transportation. It's so efficient! Thanks to the trains in NY, we got all over that city..quickly. One of the cutest things I saw in the big apple was a precious little boy, probably a 4th grader, who hopped on the subway with his backpack opened his book and read all the way to wherever his stop was. While he was multitasking like a pro, my family and I were conversing in our slow southern drawl, mind you, "Is this it? Is this where we get off?" Ahh, yes that will be my first task in conquering the city as a resdient, figuring out the red, yellow, freaking roy-g-biv lines with train 1, 2, 3 or A, B, C., yadda, yadda. Jamie Myers, if you are reading I am expecting a tutoring session on subway maps from you before my departure!

Anyway, this post is about Chicago. And the title comes from the beautiful ballad my friends and I prepared before our choir tour trip to Chicago in the summer of '07. It went something like "Wickeds (the play-although I am sure plenty of wicked people inhabit the city as well) in Chicago mm mm Chicago-cago..Nave Pier is in Chicago mm mmm Chicago-cago..Pizza's in Chicago mm mm Chicago-cago." It was really cute, obviously, and we each had a verse that described all the acitivies we were doing in Chicago. As much as I loved that song, I loved the city more. Our time was rushed, but after taking in a Cubs game, visiting the Navy Pier, exploring the Museum of Science and Industry, seeing Wicked, and catching a glimpse of the waterfront, and Magnificent Mile, Chicago (mm mm Chicago-cago) had my heart!

I saw all that to say this... my friends and I want to venture up to the Windy City for Spring Break 2011 and I could not be more excited! Two of them have never been before, and I am convinced they will love it. Sometime in this Spring Break adventure, my parents are going to meet me in Chi-town to look at graduate schools! How am I this old? Time flies fast, but I am excited for this next chapter in my life and am looking for some change..I guess in the form of a brutally cold winter.

Regardless of where I end up for grad school, I am gauranteed some time in Chicago in the next few months and could not be more excited! I have been googling the "Top Ten" things to do, places to eat, etc. If any of you readers out there have suggestions about must see Chicago attractions or restaurants please let me know. My family and I depended completely on suggestions for food while in NY and it worked out beautifully! Every meal was a happy plate! You leave a suggestion, and maybe I can get the group back together for a special rendition of Chicago..mm mm Chicago-cago! Fair trade?!

Ps- yet again Blogger is not cooperating on my location of my pictures, so they came before the post (as if you couldn't see that) but pictures are courtesy of Staley's facebook album titled none other than mm Chicago-cago. And they are in order: before going to see Wicked, cheering the Cubs on in Wrigley field, and us outside of the Museum of Science and Industry!

Toodles yall.