a few down, a bunch more to go

well, so far so good with my social contract. I've organized a drinks night at a local bar for all my classmates who are gonna be in the bay area (74 in all if you count internships!). I've had one swimming lesson so far. Had my placement test for Chinese class (i passed to intermediate!). Cooking more - had a dinner party at my house with some friends. Pasta puttanesca - mmmmm. And for the most part, i'm doing all my reading and work for my classes.

As for getting to know Chicago better, i've started compiling a list of things i want to do and have started sending out invites for them. let's see how many i can actually check off in the next 7 weeks...

• Bob Chinn's Crabhouse (http://www.bobchinns.com/) - for those of you who have never heard of this place, it's about 40-50 minutes outside of Chicago and has been around for about 15 years. They serve all sorts of fresh seafood (you got it, crab is one of them) that is flown in fresh daily and can be prepared, like, 7 different ways. They are one of the top 5 grossing independent restaurants in the country and they serve 3,000 customers a day. Can't wait. Hmm. Seafooooood.
• Art Institute of Chicago - believe it or not, i STILL haven't gone after a year and a half.
• Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind - The longest running show in Chicago, this is the Neofuturists' signature show that attempts to do 30 mini-plays in 60 minutes. It changes up often so that each time is a different experience and the cost of tickets is $7 plus $1 times the roll of a single six-sided die.
• Baha'i House of Worship - it's the only one in the country (there are 9 in the world) and it's only a mile and a half from our school. Supposed to be beautiful.
• Architectural Boat Tour - supposed to be great views during the good weather season and really interesting background on how the second city was developed.
• Brunch and neighborhood shopping - lots of cool neighborhoods in Chicago and what better way to explore than to go to brunch in a different neighborhood each time (on a weekday to beat the crowds) and do a little shopping afterwards. Orange, Toast, M. Henry, here i come!
• Dim Sum at Phoenix Restaurant - i know, i know. growing up in the chinatown suburbs (we had a plaza we called the Great Mall of China), it's gonna be hard to compare dim sum in the windy city to Southern Cal, but a girl's gotta try! You can only live without dim sum for so long!