IIT in Chicago

I suppose I should be grateful for our early bedtime the night before, because I was up at 5 AM this morning to be ready and have breakfast by 6:30 AM to leave town by 7 AM. We packed a whole bunch of us into our team leader's minivan, and made the two-hour drive into Chicago. Needless to say, after such an early start, I found myself to be a bit sleepy on the drive.

Our day at the Illinois Institute of Technology at the Design school was actually quite a good day, some interesting brain-storming and discussion with people. Although as we were sitting around this room in these rolling office-chairs, I was once again struck by an observation that has hit me before, which is that my boss wears "Mom jeans" and has a giant rear-end like a middle-aged woman. Definitely noticed that a lot when he crossed his legs. Such a weird look on a guy...

At lunchtime, we got a break when a colleague on maternity leave came in to show off her new baby. This woman had, at age 39, realised that she wasn't meeting Mr Right, and so instead had decided to visit a sperm bank. I admire her incredible courage and determination to have a family on her own, although I really hope I don't end up like that, and that I might meet Mr Right in time to have a family the old-fashioned way, with a mommy and a daddy.

I've always had a good relationship with this colleague, so I was really excited to finally meet her in person. And it was funny, because the thing that immediately struck both of us was how much taller than her I was! It seems to be a huge pattern with this team, how I'm nearly the tallest member on the entire team, and everyone remarks on that as the first thing when they meet me. Apparently one of my most distinguishing characteristics is that I'm tall!

We took a group photo with the entire team all together, and I had to laugh at how obviously I stuck out, done up in my formal hairdo and fishnets, amidst a sea of casual-wear, lumpy sweaters and ill-fitting clothes. I know everybody in the US does the casual thing, but it was funny to see the photo and think, "One of these is not like the other one!"

We finally wrapped up our day, and changed our dinner reservation so that we were going for dinner at 5 PM. Yes, seriously, we were going to be sitting down to dinner at 5 PM! Absolutely crazy.

We went for a walk on Navy Pier, and I convinced everyone to stand for a photo with the Chicago skyline in the background. Very funny, I thought how the non-Chicago native knew where the good photo ops were. But you have to do dorky tourist stuff like that when you're all in Chicago...

We sat down to dinner and our team lead let Sarah, my counterpart on the team, choose the wine. I was fine with that until she revealed that she wanted Reisling to have with dinner? Who on earth does THAT? So we compromised on a choice (that quite frankly I don't think left either of us happy, she seemed to like overly-sweet wines and is probably the sort of person who drinks white zin). The staff poured for us throughout dinner, which was nice as of course I doubt the men here would have known to pour for the women!

The food however was really fabulous. We had hot appetizers of crab cakes, coconut shrimp, and calamari. All amazingly delicious. For cold appetizers, we had cold shrimp and oysters. I tried an oyster, because I've never had them before, and nearly vomited from the taste. Just not my style, I guess! But I was glad I'd tried one, nonetheless, and perhaps I'll grow into them later. (It still amazes me that I didn't like olives at one point in my life...)

Then, on top of the appetizers, we had starters, and so I'd gotten the New England clam chowder (a bit of a taste of home!) It was delicious, so I absolutely emptied the bowl. Which made it particularly strange when the server came up and asked me, "Are you done with this?" Ummm....no, I'd like to continue to stare at my empty soup bowl for a while, if you don't mind. Seriously, what on earth are these people thinking?

Then onto the mains, where I had seared tuna that was fantastic. I will admit, dining right by the shore, I remembered what really good fish is supposed to taste like. Then had an absolutely fantastic chocolate cake for dessert, to the point where my stomach was hurting, I was so full. But it was much like Thanksgiving, where everything is so delicious that one can't help oneself except to keep eating. So super-yummy.

Also hilariously at one point they took the fries away before I'd completely finished with them, and when I protested the brought me a whole new order of fries (which I had to take home with me, as I was way too full to stuff in any more food!)

I found myself in interesting conversation with Jen, the woman from New York, about how she had been on the Pantsuits Committee when she'd first started working for the company in Detroit. I can hardly believe that such a forward-thinking company was once so stuck in the mud that it didn't allow women to wear pantsuits, but she had many amazing stories to tell after 18 years with the company.

Crazy Lady left us all at dinner to catch a train at 7 PM. Do these people never stay out late? I couldn't believe it, as I often don't even go out until after 7 PM, and here this woman was already going home. How bizarre.

For those of us who stayed later, it was the birthday of the woman from India. We gave her a tiramisu cake with a candle in it and sang "Happy Birthday" to her, but I don't think she understood the American tradition, as she blew out the candle right away before we'd finished singing!

Finally, we finished our dinner and made the drive back to St. Charles, where I arrived back at my hotel room to find an e-mail from the woman I'd sent my CV to about this potential position. She wants to talk to me! I'm trying not to get too excited, but I'm cautiously optimistic...