Hey all- so I ran for the Asian Pacific American/South Asian Law Student Organization’s 1st year student representative position (APALSA/SALSA 1L) and got it. Well, my first activity will be a mini-road trip to Chicago for dim sum and pho. The position is basically whatever I want to make of it but I am supposed to represent the 1st year student’s perspectives in the org’s activities, etc.
Hong and I visited Niti this past weekend and we went to Chicago on Sat. I love Chicago. The people are rude and crazy but hey, that’s why I love them. Actually, they’re not any crazier than SF folks and I love my bay area folks (including Drew and Vicky- the wackiest of them all. j/k)! Lemme tell you about our Chi-town experience:
Fri night: took 2.5′ish hours to get to Niti’s apt in Clarendon Hills. We ordered pizza and rented "Be Cool" (sequel to Get Shorty). I love "Be Cool"- "twinkle, twinkle…stop playa hatin’ and start participatin’" hehehe…anyone else seen it?
Sat: had Dunkin’ Donut for breakfast- I had chocolate donut with colorful sprinkles. Hong had apple fritter and Niti had bagle.
Then we drove to Chinatown which is in southern Chicago. It was too clean to be considered a true Chinatown. There were no cars parallel parking and no one crossed the street illegally. So, it was alright- of course not like Oakland’s chinatown. But it had pearl drinks and herb stores.
We took the El train from Chinatown to Michigan street and did some shopping at H and M. I got my legwarmers- had to stand 15 minutes in line to pay for them cause it was crazy packed in H and M. Cute clothes but too busy for me. Well, then we took the 22 bus to Clark street and walked to Devon, India town where we had some good Indian food- naaan bread, tandoori chicken, etc. The place had weird service and the atmosphere was quite dead but I think it was cause we went in around 4 p.m. so they were closing up from lunch and transitioning to dinner so it was really empty.
All I know was our bus ride on the 22 was wacko! Our bus driver looked like a Mexican gangster but in his 50’s. The bus door got stuck a few times so he would do this kung-fu kick and kick open the door each time it was stuck. The first time he did it, I thought the folks standing outside the door were gonna get smacked in the face by the flying door. Anyways- he was cool and got us to where we needed to go.
Hong and I bought some stainless steel plates in India town- they are cool- with three separators so our food doesn’t run into each other.
Then we caught the 155 to red line right across from U of Chicago Loyola to get back to our car in Chinatown.
We walked lots and it was refreshing to be mobile rather than sitting inside reading all day like I’ve been doing for the past six weeks.
Last week, I went to our Bar Review at Kamia lounge and met lots of cool folks from the law school- there are many international students who are in the master of law prog so I talked to them- a guy from Taiwan and girl from South Africa. They were so cool and have done so much work already- many of the intl students have a law degree already from their home country- some of them are judges from China and/or lawyers, etc.
Well, I have midterm on Mon in Torts- gotta go study. Check out photo of Niti and I in Chi-town’s Chinatown.
Would love to hear from anyone- Nancy:)
