 Yesterday was a fabulous first day in Chicago. We slept in a bit at our hotel, and after enjoying the buffet at the Embassy Suites, headed out to explore Chinatown, which we had glimpsed Thursday night on our way to Connie's Pizza. Chinatown was very cool - many of the signs had more writing on them in Chinese than they had in English! It is very clearly a multilingual community - they even had double sets of street signs! There were lots of restaurants and shops to explore, and it was a great way for us all to experience a bit of another culture. We split up in groups to explore Chinatown on our own; Russ and I joined a group with Gettysburg College Student Luke, who has extensive knowledge of Chinese cuisine. He picked out a restaurant, ordered a family style meal for us, and even taught some of us how to use chopsticks! All the food was great - noteable highlights included the soup dumplings and what are called "tree ear mushrooms" (evidently the Chinese equivalent of brussel sprouts?). Following lunch, our group stopped for some bubble tea. When we met back up with the group at our pickup location, it was clear that all had had a great time. Many kids had acquired purchases, ranging from bamboo plants to head massagers to nunchucks... Everyone also looked well fed - I spied one group that had visited the rolled ice cream shop (which looked super cool, but we were all stuffed after our great lunch). As we were getting ready to leave, another bus rolled up with the delegation of Lions from Taiwan! We greeted them as they headed off the bus. (Unfortunately, your intrepid blogger and photographer did not think to get a picture...) Small city! Once we were back on the buses, we headed to Vandercook College of Music. The concert ensemble performed there. Following another great performance, we had a tour of the campus, which was beautiful. |    |
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