It’s Not Only NASCAR…

The plan for Sunday that my guests and I had was to go to the market in the morning, and then straight to the Field Museum. We planned to be there by 11 and probably stick around until 3 or 4 PM.

We left the house a little bit later than we planned, and waited for the next L-train a little bit more than we planned, but it was still fine; we didn’t need to rush. We had two options: either to take the Red Line to Lake, and take bus 146 from there, or take the Red Line all the way to Roosevelt, and then walk. I decided on the first option, because it was a hot day, and the walk might not be so enjoyable, and also, it’s more fun to see something through the windows rather than being underground.

When we got out of the Red Line at Lake, we saw that State Street was closed for a small/medium size rally. It looked like it was about to pass to the North, so we waited, and about 15 minutes later, we finally saw our bus. It was packed, and when we entered, we realized that there was a Bears game at Soldier Field. That meant not only that the bus was packed, but also that it was barely moving, and all the traffic was stalled. People started to get off the bus and walk. I felt like an idiot for choosing the bus in the first place, and we still had to walk! We finally arrived at the Field Museum at 12:30, and we had to start with lunch.

Fortunately, everything was great after that: we stayed in the museum until it was closed. We saw the Evolving Planet exhibit, the T-Rex 3-D movie, and the new exhibit Reptiles Alive!

As usual, there were more things we didn’t see than the ones we saw :).

What I Liked Most About Our Aquarium Visit

The best part was that they didn’t change anything about the fight against climate change. Not only did all the notes in the exhibits stay as they were, including the Wild Reef and Amazon Rising, but they are also repeating this message during the dolphin show and other spotlight events.

I remember how, at the beginning of the year, several Chicago museums sent out the patron surveys asking the visitors’ opinion about the museum’s mission, supporting science and education, etc. I believe that the answer was almost unanimous, and when there is a will, there is a way.

Friends Visiting

My friends from France are staying with me for twelve days. We planned this visit for over two years, and I can’t believe it finally happened!

We had talked so much about the lake, and the first thing they wanted to do when they arrived at my house from the airport was go to the beach. I was happy to do this because I believe that the lake is the best thing in Rogers Park, and I completely approve of the idea of the beach being more important than dinner.

I was even happier to see their faces when they got into the water and declared that it was exactly what they needed.

I took a day and a half off, so today we went to the Aquarium, and it was an absolutely perfect visit!

…and went to the beach again!

Tomorrow, they will have a whole day on the beach while I will be at work, but I think it still won’t be enough!

Tallinn: The City Museum

I love that more and more city towers are being restored and used as exhibition spaces. We had already visited many of these new museums, and the next one on our list was the one opened in the Kiek-in-de-Kok (Peek into the kitchen) tower. Museum information can be found here.

There are tons of kids’/family activities offered in this museum, and the museum itself is way more than a fortification museum, although a large portion of it is about war and weapons.

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The First Homosexuals Exhibit

Yesterday, I went to see The First Homosexual Exhibit at 659 Wrightwood. Now I can’t remember where I learned about this exhibit; the usual suspect is WBEZ.

The place is seriously guarded, and all tickets should be purchased online in advance (I won’t be surprised if they run background checks before issuing tickets – they don’t show up in your inbox instantaneously).

I planned to go with a friend who cancelled a couple of days before, but I didn’t find anyone to offer tickets, so I went by myself.

The exhibit is extremely interesting, and gianormous! I didn’t expect it to be so intense, and didn’t allocate enough time. They have curators in every room, and elaborate descriptions for almost every piece in the exhibit. I came earlier than my ticket said, and they said it’s fine. I thought I would be done in an hour, but more than an hour later, I realized that I had seen only half of the exhibit. At the end, I had to rush, and unfortunately, I won’t have another chance to see the rest, since I will be out of town for the second half of June.

I ordered a catalog, which should arrive in the beginning of July. I mostly wanted it to retain the loads of information. In the beginning, I tried to take pictures of almost everything, until I realized it was not possible 🙂

Below are two pictures of the space, which is absolutely amaizing.

And just t little bit of the exhibit itself, to give an idea.

…. and over 300 pieces, each with the load of information!

For those who are planning to go, plan on staying for 2.5 hours or so.

Africa Fashion

A last-minute decision to go to the Last Call – Africa Fashion event at the Field Museum was a good one! Not only did I finally see the Africa Fashion exhibit, but I also enjoyed the outfits displayed by other participants. I was one of three or so white guests among 300+ total, and I wore jeans and a white blouse, which made me feel completely inadequate. If not for my friend I called to join me the day before, I would probably feel miserable, but there she was, with her eyes shining, proudly displaying her Ghana costume.

The exhibit (which closes on June 29) is absolutely stunning, but so were the visitors! I regret I didn’t have the courage to ask at least some of them for a photo! Below are the pictures from the exhibition, and I don’t know about you, but I definitely didn’t see anything like that before!

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Museum Of Surgical Science

I learned about this museum on WBEZ (the third museum in Chicago, which I discovered on the radio!). It has been on my list for a while, and I had different ideas about with whom I should go there, but I ended up going by myself this Saturday. I really enjoyed this visit, and now I am thinking who I should invite to go with me next time 😀.

It was my first outing with the repaired right eye, and I do not know what exactly changed, but it was way easier for me to read all the signs. Somehow, things stopped duplicating at that distance, and lines stopped running away.

As for the museum itself, I could easily spend twice more time there (which I would probably do next time!) Tons of pictures below.

Blood transfusion history
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Showing Chicago To My Guest

One of the conference attendees (and my good friend) stayed at my house for the whole event and the weekend after, which was great for both of us, and we were each other’s moral support :). It was her second visit to Chicago, and this time, not only did I show her places in the city she hadn’t seen before, but also, I walked with her around Rogers Park and showed all the best local spots, because she and her family will stay with me in August.

An L-train turning
A bridge going up
Lunch at the Art Institute Member’s Lounge
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Member’s Night at Aquarium

On Friday, I left work earlier and took a train to Milwaukee to pick up Nadia and Kira for the Shedd Aquarium Member’s Night. We already did it multiple times: Anna brings the girls to the train station, I get out, pick up the girls, and hop on the same train. That works great because the wait is minimal, and there is no risk of missing the train: it’s actually the same train going back!

I have many reasons to be proud of my granddaughters, one of which is that they can walk a long distance without complaints and understand what it means to wait for a bus or for the museum doors to open. We ended up walking most of the way from the Union Station to the Aquarium, with only a short Red Line ride in between two strides, and they did great 🙂

The Shedd is undergoing a major renovation, but some parts are already open, including the former Rotunda reimaged as two exhibits:

These are two live ecosystems: one with fresh water and one with salt water, and some parts of the glass are magnifying. The best part is that the systems live and evolve, so the promise is that each time you come, you see a slightly different

Nadia’s personal achievement was that she finally touched a sea star 🙂 (not pictured). and a couple of creepy creatures we spotted – there were more, but we were very busy watching!

Friends! In case you are wondering – life is getting on my way again 🙂 But I am alive and well! Probably too much alive!!!

Art Institute: Ancient Roman Sculpture

I still keep myself muted about the activities that take most of my time these days, draining my whole self in the process. There still appears to be room for cultural activities (but no time to blog about them), so I will try to post a short summary of the past two weeks.

Myths and Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from Torlonia Collection is a new exhibit that opened at the Art Institute last week. I was there on the opening night for the Members-only preview (and invited a friend). I didn’t expect anything groundbreaking from this exhibit (what could be new about the Roman Sculpture?) and mostly thought about taking my friend out, but there were plenty of new things!

This private collection was not on public view for over 70 years, and many sculptures where cleaned and restored for this exhibit specifically.

Men were always presented with their distinct personal features, and women in a more generic way, so it’s often difficult to identify the portraits, or even tell whether it was a portrait of a nobility or a goddess or a random person.
Younger and older Markus Aurelius on the right
As my friend noted, in most couples represented in this exhibit, the man looks way happier than the woman
Hercules is smaller than Athena and Apollo, probably because he was mortal
Arthemis with multiple breasts
Bacchus

After we saw this exhibit, I realized that my friend hadn’t seen the Black Planet exhibit yet, and we rushed there, and didn’t have enough time. And now, one more exhibit is about to open!