It is like, but not exactly, a continuation of KWEST. It’s part of the orientation and pre-term programme. So there’s work to be done. And there’s also the beer.
29 Aug 2010, Sunday
So we got back from Costa Rica on Saturday night to find that there was iCIM for international students the next day at the Allen
* Still can’t get used to the spelling!
Our brown bag lunch was from Potbelly :) And I had diet coke *.* It’s very sad that there’s a limited selection of non-carbonated drinks here. And when I had teh-o kosong beng, it just didn’t taste the same…
Anyway, we had some speakers, including an alumnus on his experience, an etiquette consultant on American norms, second-years on their recruitment experience and Kellogg life as internationals.
And that night, we had our first home-cooked meal! Um, pasta :p (picture in earlier post)
30 Aug 2010, Monday
CIM week for everyone!
Went for breakfast at Jacobs Center – the Atrium was packed with a lot of students and their SOs. I was there for only a short while cos guess what, JVs had their CIM programme too!
There must have been some 100 JVs, and some 15-15 kids. We were seated according to our students’ sections. Sito’s a Poet so I’m poetic too :p
The programme was run by the JV Club, which ran through some daily info and how JVs could volunteer, find work or participate in various activities and even classes! We also signed up for more CIM activities an volunteering opportunities on this sheet of paper:
We then broke up into our sections to get to know a smaller group of people and have lunch. We had a little name game – I still remember half the people :p I think I went home after that but headed out in the late afternoon for the welcome BBQ.
That was where I saw many students walking around with paint on their faces. Was loitering outside Jacobs with some other JVs when dear Sito finally came out of the building – with red paint stains on his face!
Learnt that they just had a cheering contest and the Poets won! Cos their rival section is the Highlanders, they had this line:
What is mightier than the sword?
Pen is! Pen is!
:p
The sections were competing against one another during CIM. Took a picture of the scoreboard – wondering what it looks like now...
After the BBQ, we went to a JV reception at the Allen Center, and immediately regretted the burgers – the reception was swanky! Too bad we were full by then so had only a small bite of food for the heck of it!
It was the students’ section night out, at various pubs around town, but my nose wasn’t too good so I gave it a miss. Heard that in the end, many converged at The Keg… Here’s a shot of our KWEST group at The Keg – check out the huge pint (or more?) of beer in their hands!
And Sito told me they played flip cup and beer pong.. I couldn’t understand until I finally saw it the following week...
31 Aug 2010, Tuesday
Sito’s activities continued. Heard they had some diversity workshop that was really boring – it didn’t help that the video was like filmed in the 1980s!
I had a breakfast social at the café right across from McManus. There were some eight of us JVs and we were exchanging stories of our KWEST and relocation to Evanston. It felt like a tai tai lifestyle man! :p
Took a walk to Jacobs in the afternoon and found many students running about cos they were having the amazing race! I didn’t volunteer at any station cos I was slack :p Just wanted to go find Sito cos he said he wasn’t going to run about outside but couldn’t get into contact.. Oh well, good weather for a walk anyway :)
We had dinner at Mt Everest with some Poets – Indian food, with leftovers for the next day! – before heading to the Cahn Auditorium for a Second City show! It was hilarious! Especially the portion where they got two from the audience to inject random words in the performance – one of the two Avi was trying to talk at every opportunity! He became famous overnight!
1 Sep 2010, Wednesday
Went for breakfast with Sito and learnt from Tanya W that the campus tour was cancelled due to the rain! Oh well.. We headed for the Norris Center to check out the mini courses instead..
And it was community impact day! Sito painted a school while I attempted to do gardening but failed :p So I went back indoors with Danielle to count ducks instead – some ducks were missing after a carnival so we had to find out their numbers and replaced them.. Carolina joined us after her arm swelled up from a mozzie bite!
That’s us with Michelle who’s working at the Ecology Center:
The gardeners were still hard at work after we were done so we went into the animal room to help with feeding. But in the end, we did nothing but watch :p When Michelle asked me to take out a worm to feed another animal, I was just staring at her – I thought I heard wrongly! Um, sorry but I’m not about to touch a worm *.*
But I touched a snake!
There were also a tarantula and colourful geckos in the room, and of course cuter ones like rabbits!
Group photo at the end of the day:
2 Sep 2010, Thursday
I think pre-term started for Sito, i.e. homework soon! But it was still fun for me – ice cream social in the afternoon!
We took up almost the entire place. I had chocolate frozen yogurt with mango, M&M’s and nuts while most of the JVs had healthier options like plain yogurt and fruity toppings.. Oops :p
Met more JVs and was surprised to see Robert – wasn’t he supposed to be in school? Turned out that he skipped the boring thing! And he saw me a text message from Sito that it was boring… Damn, Sito did not text me *jealous*
Went across the street to Urban Outfitters with Tanya W – I desperately needed some clothes! But I didn’t get any in the end, sighs.. Headed for TG after that.. TG as in TGIF, just that, it was a Thursday :p And in case anyone’s wondering, yes, we had beer! This was the first TG. After this, TG will be EVERY Friday! Guess that’s where part of our tuition goes to…
3 Sep 2010, Friday
Spent the day lazing around – it was such a wonderful feeling! Even when I was on leave, I didn’t feel this way :)
This evening was the section showcase for which the students spent a lot of time this week preparing. By the time I got to the OLC in Jacobs, most seats were already taken but Sito got me a seat :)
The Poets were the first of eight sections to present their showcase. Sito’s role was to come out and shout :p Can see him, a little, in this shot – he’s the one with the red headband :p
Oh well, a clearer shot :)
Now I cannot really remember much except for the Poets’ three "saints" (Cim Past, Cim Present and Cim Future :p), the Bullfrogs’ frog in the box (diversity – different frogs in the box; KWEST – throwing up in the box!!!), and the Big Dogs’ big dog millionaire where they got Avi the chap at Second City to be the contestant and the super memorable commercial! Click on those links!
The booze cruise that followed was our first. Many many yellow school buses ferried hundreds of us to the ferry terminal. Given the boarding queue, we headed for Macs :p By the time we got to the ferry, we heard that they ran out of drinks coupons! So we got the namecards of the cruise managers instead – they counted as drinks coupons :p
There was some food on board but mostly, it was beer. And music. We boogied for a while, and stepped out onto the deck as well. The view was great but it was freaking windy!
Got home at 2+ in the morning. Heard that some people missed the school bus and headed to downtown to catch a cab back!
4 Sep 2010, Saturday
We went to Long Field for the CIM Olympics. Sports feature quite a bit here. We were supposed to have a beach Olympics during KWEST but we were slack :p
The thing was supposed to start at two pm but it didn’t until 3.30 pm! As I didn’t volunteer to do timing etc, I didn’t get a tee until the end but those remaining were all XL.. Oh well, got one anyway for souvenir :)
Went around taking pictures and talking to some JVs here and there..
That’s Sito after throwing a ball into a hoop (unsuccessfully)
The next game was tug-of-war, which didn’t involve every one. The next was the dreaded dizzy bat! Sito was the 39th or 40th to go but by the 38th, the other sections had all 40 and so the game stopped.. I waited at the dizzy bat hoping to take photos! *pout* But got a cute shot of some kids of the JVs:
Us at the BBQ queue later!
Oh, a word on the BBQ – it’s not the BBQ we’re used to, cooking and eating and chatting all at the same time. Given the number of people, they had people cooking the food in a smaller field and bringing them in trays to a few lines of buffet tables! So it was over pretty quickly…
After CIM week..
Well, such activities ceased but the drinking continues!
On Tuesday, the Poets went out to Cubby Bears pub near Wrigley Field, supposedly cos there was a game going on but within minutes of us reaching there, we found that it was never about the game!! Every one (but me :p) was drinking and no one was watching the telecast!
Something funny happened though.. When we just got out of the station, a baseball came hurling towards us! It came from the direction of the field so naturally we were like wow! But it turned out that some kids were playing around us *.*
We left the pub with Kaaha and Tanya R just as the game ended to avoid crowded trains. When we got back to Evanston, we headed for The Keg! And there was where I first saw flip cup and beer pong for myself...
Headed over to Bar Louie next door to have $1 burger! Hungry :p
And the next day, Mike organised a wings and beer session at Merle’s, where wings were $0.25 on Wednesdays. Um, we had a lot of wings :p
Had lunch at Sashimi Sashimi with some JVs on Friday. The week had been quiet for the JVs so I thought I’d do a lunch with some! The udon I had was quite good but it was spicy for some reason… I’ll make udon one day too :)
That Saturday, we went to BDubs with our Kwest group. Despite having had dinner, we couldn’t resist ordering onion rings! :) Some of us were watching the football games on TV and some of us were playing the pub quiz. Um, I couldn’t understand the game but the trivials were beyond me except for one on the oldie The Locomotion *.* And Sito got Kermit the Frog *.*
I guess we were pretty cute :)
And last night, I went partying without Sito – it was Thirsty Thursday for the JVs! I didn’t go for the one during CIM week so thought I would go for this one. Didn’t drink, just sat around and chatted with the usual group. Many of the internationals from Japan, Korea and Chile are taking English lessons but I want to learn Spanish! And I was reminded to email the lecturers if I wanted to sit in some of the Kellogg classes! I almost forgot *.*
So, so far, so good. Been keeping myself busy with activities. We have a BBQ at McManus tomorrow, and we’re involved in planning a mid-autumn festival party next Wednesday for the Chinese community! And I’m spending a lot of time on the Mac as well – the KWEST entry took forever! And I’ve been searching for food supplies, cleansers and even Berocca! Oh, and check out this website – great for packing lunch for Sito :)
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