I was in Chicago! It was sorta spur of the moment as in next flight out in the am! I was really nervous and excited about going and taking a plane by myself for the first time. I don't fly often and from what I remembered, its a pain going thru security. I flew out of Philly which ended up being a breeze. I arrived
early in the am in Chicago and grabbed lunch, of a nice healthy salad. Afterwards, I went swimming in Lake Michigan which is so different from the Jersey shore. Its much calmer and the water is a lot clearer, calmer in the sense of the waves are only created due to boats or jet skis, and there aren't any jellyfish or weird sea critters.
The next day, I went a little shopping to get fresh fruits, veggies and whatever else I needed for the time I was there. I also did a little clothes shopping since I only packed two dresses for my mini internship. The next day, I met with the MD and set up a schedule to come and intern, apparently this who thing wasn't thought out and the MD was leaving to go on vacation the following week so I ended up only interning twice with the MD and twice reorganizing the front office. It ended up being a great learning experience in the sense that people are willing to try anything to lose weight. Everything that I had learned up to this point in college was questioned. But people are on such diets as HCG, optifast, and other type of quick weight loss plans. Are they acceptable, in some eyes, yes, but in my eyes not so much. I believe that a diet should be more of a life style change, add walking to start off if you haven't exercised in a while, add more vegetables, fruits and really try to have something within the first hour of waking up. Its easy to spend hundreds even thousands of dollars on these plans but in the long run, whats happening to your body and organs?
Aside from that aspect of the internship, I did learn how an office is managed and how files are kept. While I was out in Chicago, I went to a Chanel make up event and had my make up done. Im very simple with my make up routine and Im always looking for something to do to make my skin look better and just look prettier. I usually use bare minerals and I have for years mainly to hid my acne or make my face look less oily. Now that my face is much clearer, I started to use a liquid foundation and the Chanel one ended up being a perfect match to a Lancome one that Ive tried in the past.
The first Saturday I was there, Aug. 4th, I headed into Chicago to take a cooking class at "The Chopping Block," which was a vegetarian class in which I learned to make fresh pasta sauce, eggplant parm, a corn chowder, and a grilled vegetable salad with black beans and avocado. I learned how to properly grill eggplant which being a vegetarian is useful since I would basically eat it raw. I also worked with chayote squash and poblano peppers. Im not one to eat a lot, so I had a taste of everything. The best part about it was learning how to use the different knives and graders since Im a nutrition major and I will eventually have to take a few cooking classes and food productions courses.
The following week, I went to see Coldplay in concert! Another spur of the moment event that resulted in getting cheap floor seats. The concert was amazing. Each person in the audience gets a wristband that has a hashtag so you can tweet live and the cool thing about the wristband was when the Coldplay came on stage, it light up depending on what color band you had and the song/ beat of the music.( I think it was a tad too bright to get a great picture but I was 14th row from the stage!)
The following night, I went with my mom's cousin and his wife, who I was staying with to see an oldies band called The Nitty Gritty Dirt band. Defiantly not my cup of tea but overall it was a great night listening to decent live music and decent wine.
On Sat, the 11th, I took an early flight out of Chicago back to Philly. This was the best experience and best vacation/ learning experience of my life so far. Im so blessed to have had this opportunity and equally blessed for caring cousins.
