What follows is a re-telling of the events that happened while on our visit to Chicago. Our visit was a school field trip through the University, for the College of Architecture. The studio members we usually have in class are all present, save for a couple people who couldn’t make the trip. I will not use the last names of my friends and Professors. This story will trace my studio over the 4 days we were in the Windy City.
Day One
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| Look at this damage. You can feel the damage. |
I should have known from the start that this was going to be an interesting trip. As soon as the bus pulled up, we all had a feeling of what was going to happen. We all felt this way because the charter bus was pulling into a parking lot way too small for normal school buses, let alone a giant charter bus. All 50 or so students eagerly awaited the bus to stop so we could load up. Well, our bus came to a stop alright. Backing into a concrete pole. That crunch woke us all up. None of us were surprised though, because we called a crash the second the bus turned into the lot. Every other person was saying “This is going to end badly” or “That bus is never going to make it”. You always joke around saying these things, because secretly you want them to happen. “How hilarious would the bus crashing be?” I joked to my nearest classmates. Well, my wish was granted. And everyone else’s as well. The bus driver came out to inspect the damage, probably hearing our snickering and laughter, because let’s be honest, that bus crash was funny as hell. I’m sure the driver felt terrible, and slightly embarrassed, and I felt bad for him, but the matter of the fact is that we weren’t even on the bus yet, and it already crashed.
After that crash fiasco, we settled down and loaded up our luggage and got into our seats. I sat next to Ricardo, with Scott and Ryan behind us, with Joe and Steph across the aisle. I took the inventory of our studio members. We were minus one. Trevor. It was already 8:30 and he wasn’t there. We were told a couple days ago we were going to leave at 8:30 sharp, and that we would leave people behind if they were not there. It’s one of those threats that professors make to get you there on time. They would never leave anyone. None of us minded waiting. Anyways, in the meantime waiting for the stragglers to saddle up, Peter, the professor heading this little trip, started making his way down the center aisle, asking if anyone had movies. Judging by his remarks halfway through the bus, I figured no one bothered bringing any. “No one brought any movies?! This is like a 10 hour bus ride.” I’ve made the trip a bunch of times before with my parents, going to and from college, so I had a healthy stack of movies. What the problem was is that I brought mostly Blu-Ray’s, since my DVD collection is back home in Illinois. I didn’t figure I’d be catering to the whole bus, just me and my laptop. Peter gets to the back of the bus, where I say I have some DVD’s, and pull them out. District 9, How to Train Your Dragon, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen rounded out my little collection. He made a face to almost all of them, except for District 9, and saying “This one’s not bad.” I looked at him a little confused, since that movie is super violent. I told him I had more DVD’s in my studio, so I ran to get those, while we waited for Trevor. I returned with Knocked Up, The Hangover, I Love You, Man, and some others.
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| Trevor. Arriving late. |
With Trevor finally joining us, since he overslept his alarm and left his place at 8:30, we started driving. We all held our breath as we left the parking lot. The running joke of the trip would be us freaking out as our bus driver took every turn he made. About an hour into the trip, us “back of the bus” folk decided The Hangover would be a fun movie all of us students could watch. We sent it up to be put in, and it was sent right back. We were all like “What the heck?” All of us figured it would be a good movie our whole bus would enjoy. I figured the Profs wouldn’t be too fond of it, watching a movie with tons of foul language and sexual innuendos. Well, we’d be proven wrong on the return trip, but we will save that for later. Transformers was finally sent up and not rejected, so we all sat back and relaxed.
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| More damage. |
Peter got up from his seat and put the DVD in the player. Gattaca appeared on the screen. I’m pretty sure the whole bus went “What the sh*t is Gattaca?” at the same time. Or maybe that was just us in the back. Anyways, what followed was a 160 minute snooze fest. Maybe it was the timing, since Gattaca is not that bad, but watching a slow drama at 9 in the morning wasn’t our cup of tea. While Ricardo and I popped Scott Pilgrim vs. the World into my computer, the rest of the bus slowly dozed off into a deep sleep. I kept my focus on Scott Pilgrim for the most part, looking up now and then, seeing if people were watching the other movie. Nope. I was able to see a car wreck though, which broke up the monotony of the trip.
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| Des Moines Art Musuem Exterior |
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was nearing its ending when we pulled into our first stop on this trip. The Des Moines Art Institute. Built by three different architects, all showcasing their own unique design traits, it was a cool building to see and to experience. But that experience was short-lived however, at lunch. Most of my studio reading this now are rolling their eyes and probably cursing out that meal, and there is good reason. After the 3 hour trip there, with no breakfast, we all were understandably hungry. In retrospect, we were probably too hungry, and that’s why we ate what we did. I took my seat in the gallery’s “café”, waiting and wishing for a good ole hamburger. Or anything greasy. Something other than what we eventually received. I know I may be coming off snobby, or ungrateful, but everyone was thinking it, and I’m saying it. Awful. What an awful lunch. At the time, it was fine, tasted kind of weird, but it filled me up so no complaints. I knew something was wrong as soon as the first plate hit the table. Why does the sandwich look like salad? What’s this orange sauce oozing out of the side? I tried to limit questions as I took my first bite. This was definitely something I’ve never tasted before. And probably something I will never taste again.
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| This is what we ate. In all of its glory. Yum. |
As if on cue, plate after plate hit and classmate after classmate had the same reaction. It was very comical to watch. We were so close to food yet so far away. This was not food. This was fancy rich people artsy food. My mind screamed, “NOOOOOOO,” feeling like I was just pushed into a bottomless pit. Yea, a bottomless pit of terrible food. The shock wore off each of us as we took a couple bites, most of us going to town on the soup, which was god-like compared to the sandwich. We would later learn that the orange sauce thingy on the sandwich was humus. Humus. Now, no offense to humus eaters, but that’s just not my kind of food. Sorry. It just didn’t work out. We tried, had a couple laughs, or what constituted for laughs between the gagging. But in the end, I will never knowingly eat that again. I’m pretty sure most of my studio will back me up on this, especially Ryan, who said this little gem. Peter said “Beats a hamburger and fries, doesn’t it?” to which Ryan responded “Really?” The way he said it though was what brought out the laugh riot. He sounded so innocent, so confused, like he couldn’t comprehend how someone might like this food over a hamburger. We couldn’t comprehend it either, but none of us could’ve put it into words better than him. Looking back now, I’m not entirely sure it was humus, but does it really matter? It was awful, and the word “humus” just brings negative connotations to my mind. So humus it became.
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| Ryan moved to tears by a statue. |
After “lunch”, we toured the museum, looking at some pretty random art. We also got to see the lighter side of one of our Professors, David. My friend Joe was greeted by him, with David saying “My man!” I cracked up when Joe told me this, mainly because we had him as a studio Professor and he never really said anything quite like this. He is a pretty quiet guy, so him saying something like that is hilarious. Back to the random art. I say that because one such piece was literally a white canvas, called “White” or something, but I’m sure that was the name. Ricardo, walks up to the painting, says “This is racist” and walks away. Hilarious. While he was funny then, he was giggling like a school girl as we rounded a corner to see a nude painting of some women. Really Ricardo? He’s probably shaking his head as he’s reading this. He will probably tell you a different story too, but mine is the truth, since it’s on the internet.
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| The "back of bus" folks. |
We loaded up the bus again, with all of us wondering if we were going to make it out of the parking lot alive, and not rolling down the hill into the river on the side. That gave me a funny image in my mind, a rolling bus. Haha. The bus did, however, have a new duct tape piece keeping the cracked bumper together, and making sure it didn’t fall off. After a little while, Peter came to the back of the bus again, asking about movies. He chose District 9. Now, I don’t know about you, but District 9 is gritty and super violent, with people exploding like watermelons. While I love this movie, it probably wouldn’t have been my first choice to show to the bus, since it’s a heavy sci-fi movie. Well, two hours later, Peter rolls back to us again, stops, and says “This is a baaaad movie.” I ask why. He says “Well, I woke up in the middle of it in the lab scene and some alien just explodes.” We all start cracking up. Not the best scene to wake up to. What a priceless reaction though.
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| View from the Winter Garden |
Next stop, Davenport, IA. The Figge Art Musuem. This one was pretty cool too, being about 4 stories tall and having some pretty interesting gallery spaces, such as the Winter Garden. They also have this bathroom where you walk through one door to get to the drinking fountains, then another door for the sinks, and finally another door for the stalls. Crazy! I was so confused walking through those doors. I’m like, “Where’s the end?”
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| Scott and Ricardo in the childrens area. |
But let me skip ahead to the dinner, which was PHENOMENAL compared to earlier. I ate so much. Probably too much, as I think about it now. Totally worth it though. Also, I almost died from laughter after eating that giant meal, because during the gallery’s presentation they gave us, Ricardo would randomly go “Hmmm…”. This happened a couple times, and I almost lost it. I couldn’t breath, but good thing the lights were dimmed or I would’ve looked like I was choking.
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| Scott uber excited about How to Train Your Dragon. |
The bus ride from Davenport to Chicago was pretty uneventful. We finally got Peter to agree to watch How to Train Your Dragon, which he seemed to think sucked. Our bus rolled into Chicago around 9:30 p.m., much to the surprise of all of us. We got all of our stuff off the buses, and threw our stuff in our hotel rooms. This was also the first time we got a glimpse of our own Professor, Steve. He was chillin’ at the bar with some of the other Profs. Steve said hell no to the bus ride and decided to take a flight out, which was probably a good idea. Actually, he had some business he needed to take care of around Chicago, so he needed to leave earlier than us to finish that up. After chatting with him for a little bit, it was time to hit the town. Actually, hit up two closed parks, as it turned out. I figured it’d be fun to go to Navy Pier. By the time we got there, it was closed. Great. Alright, plan B. Let’s go to Millennium Park. More like “Let’s take the shadiest way to get to Millennium Park.” I thought we should take the more direct route to get there, following Lake Shore Drive. Bad idea. While it was well lit and we were in a big group, it was still a bad idea. Let’s just say that was an interesting walk, with one section having us sneaking by some homeless people. By the time we got there, the park had closed. Well, we didn’t walk all that way to not go into the park, so we started across the BP Bridge from Grant Park. About 90% of the way over the bridge, we are all startled by some woman yelling “HEY! YOU CAN’T BE UP THUR! IT’S CLOSED!” I apologized and say we didn’t know, and asked if we could just finish walking the bridge. “NO! GO BACK THE OTHER WAY!” Alright, take it easy lazy park guard. No need to bark. We meandered back the way we came, and decide its time for a drink. We ended up at Miller’s Pub, a nice little bar, with 8 dollar beers, as Scott found out the hard way. He started a tab, only to close it one beer later. “Screw that”, I think his words were. About 20 minutes later, we peaced out and headed back to the hotel, which is about 10 blocks away. One uneventful walk later, we are back at the Embassy Suites. That pretty much wrapped up the rest of the day. We stayed up talking until about 3 in the morning. Unfortunately for us, our day started 5 hours later at 8. We would definitely be feeling that lack of sleep hit us the next day.
