To Do for Fall 2012

In the spirit of school starting and the amazing fall-like weather we are experiencing in southern Wisconsin, I have decided to formulate a list of things I hope to do this fall.  All of them are classic fall activities and I hope to report back on my process of each of them as I complete them.

1. Buy and carve pumpkins
2. Make a pumpkin pie from scratch
3. Make homemade caramel apples
4. Go to the farmers market to purchase fresh fall produce
5. Discover and make new crock pot recipes
6. Make chili in a crock pot

A tout a l'heure!
Rachel

http://www.pickyourown.org/wigo.htm

The End of a Great Adventure

My ten weeks as a real person has come to an end and I could not be more sad to leave such a great firm.  My internship experience has been one of the greatest and most fulfilling of my life.  From the clients I had the privilege to work on to the great people I was able to connect with.  I learned so much more in the ten weeks I was employed than I have in the classroom.

There were certain people who definitely made the whole experience worth it and I hope to stay in touch with all of them.  I know that they were vested in me personally and professionally and I will be able to count on them again in the future.

Going back to school might be one of the hardest things I will have to do but know that it is necessary in order to complete this process and become the best person I can be.  I am excited to see my friends again and graduate in May.

The one downside of this whole experience is that I get excited to go to bed around 10pm am no longer able to sleep in past 9am. Yes, I am now turning into an old lady :)

Bring on grad school!

A tout a l'heure
Rachel

Day 2 - Training

Day 2 was a little less adventuresome than Day 1. The day began with breakfast in 312 Chicago.  We received complimentary breakfast vouchers with our stay.  I had a cheese danish and decaf coffee.  It was delicious but we had to eat it pretty quickly.  We made it back to the office for our first day of training.  A lot of it was review from classes but a good review.  The second half was learning a lot new things, the day went long but it was informative.

After dinner we came back to complimentary wine in the lobby.  We all met as a group for dinner again and had a really hard time deciding where we wanted to go.  Half of the group decided to hit up Chinatown and the other half decided on a restaurant serving bar food recommended by a local.  After wandering around for a bit we stopped in an Irish pub for drinks before hitting up a Chicago classic for dinner.  That's right, Gino's East!  We decided to get Chicago deep dish pizzas. Even though we were hungry it was worth the wait.  Boy did they blow Uno's out of the water!

After dinner we headed back to the hotel, another long day ahead!

A tout a l'heure!
Rachel

http://www.312chicago.com/

http://www.ginoseast.com/

Day 1 - Ventures in Chicago!!

For my internship we were lucky enough to get a pretty much all expense paid trip to Chicago!!  The morning started off bright and early with an Amtrak train ride from Milwaukee to Chicago.  I was up at the crack of dawn (4:45am) in order to catch my 6:30 train.  Granted this is pretty early for someone who has been used to sleeping until about noon over Christmas break.  My aunt was nice enough to drive me to the airport and after some adventures trying to find the station we eventually made it with about 10 minutes to spare.  The train terminal was pretty small compared to what I am used to in the airports.  There were two self serve ticketing machines and no agents to help you. There was some room to wait inside but luckily the train came right on time.  I spent some time reading but the journey only took about 1 hour and 15 minutes before we arrived in Chicago. 

After getting off the train I met up with one of my classmates and fellow interns.  We decided to nix the cab and hoof it to the office since it was less than half a mile from Union Station.  I bet we looked like a site walking down the street with all of our luggage.  Luckily I had chosen a sensible pair of flats to make the hike in.  We arrived at the office without any major problems.  My friend helped me carry some luggage since I am known to over pack and he looked pretty silly walking with a zebra print bag but I am very grateful he offered to help. When we got to the office we checked in with security, got our temporary badges, and headed up to the floor where we would be training.  We met up with fellow Badgers (and other schools)who were there, incurred the anticipated Rose Bowl talk, and the morning got started.

The orientation/day 1 info was pretty uneventful.  It was cool meeting interns from all over the country who were coming to work in Chicago and Milwaukee.  They served some yummy food for breakfast and lunch as well.  Safe to say, by the time the end of the day rolled around we were all ready to head over to the hotel.

Our hotel is beautiful! The perfect mix of old world charm with a modern twist.  So far all the employees have been very hospitable.  After checking in we indulged in the free cocktail hour happening in the lobby.  I decided on a Hot Toddie :)  After cocktail hour, all the Milwaukee interns went out to dinner together and take full advantage of our first experience with an expense account!

After talking with the concierge we decided on a restaurant not to far away, Hub 51.  It was a fantastic choice! I decided to go for the special ahi tuna steak.  It was sooooo good! My stomach is still smiling.  On the way home, the four of us from UW decided to stop at a dive bar and watch the Badger basketball game.  Though the Badgers couldn't pull out a win at the buzzer, it was still fun interacting with the locals at the bar.  After that we decided to come back and prep for another long day of training tomorrow.

Hopefully tomorrow brings just as many adventures!

A tout a l'heure!
Rachel

http://www.allegrochicago.com/

http://www.hub51chicago.com/

The future, it turns out, begins in 2020

The New York Times recently published an article about a crowd sourced timeline from Science Times of what people predict to be reality in the coming years.  Think cancer will ever be cured? The timeline predicts that will happen in 2023.  How about making cash illegal?  Readers predicted this will also happen within our lifetime, 2056.  Finally, everyone's favorite, artificial intelligence.  According to the timeline this will happen by 2063.  Here are some other predictions the timeline made:

2012: COMPUTER ON A CHIP
2013: ELECTRONIC INK
2019: ONLINE SCIENCE
2019: UNIVERSAL MEDICAL DATABASE
2022: HALO OF DATA

 

2024: PRACTICAL ROBOT CARS

 

2026: PROGRAMMABLE ORGANISMS

 

2031: FULL LIFE RECORDING

 

2039: DIGITAL ‘LIFE’ AND EVOLUTION
2056: CASH IS OUTLAWED
2058: CYBERNETIC INTELLIGENCE

2060: FLYING CARS
2063: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
2114: MEMORY BACKUP
2259: COLLECTIVE LEARNING

This is a great example of how firms are using open source publishing and it incorporates how innovation will change our lives going forward. It is a pretty interesting timeline and something fun to think about.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/science/imagining-2076-connect-your-brain-to-the-internet.html?_r=1&ref=business

Manly Men and Cultural Enrichment

Day 11 (Thurs Jan 6) - Manly Beach

Today was beach day!  It was the perfect day to go to the beach too.  We took the famous Manly ferry over to Manly Beach.  Manly was probably my favorite.  You get off the ferry and there is a very nice boardwalk that you take to get to the beach.  The weird thing about Manly was that there were pine trees on the beach.  It was very unexpected.  We rented umbrellas to have some shade on the beach.  After lunch Dad joined us on the beach.  There were warnings about tides and jellyfish so we could only go swimming in a certain area.  It was a fun lazy day at the beach.  I wish I could spend everyday at the beach!

Day 12 (Fri Jan 7) - Art Galleries, Opera House, Market by Moonlight

Today was Art and Culture Day!  Since it was Melissa's last day so we decided to do what she wanted.  We went to different art galleries around The Rocks.  Her favorite was Ken Dome.  There was also a shop that sold merchandise with his prints on it.  Mom and Melissa both bought some of his prints.  After the art galleries, we decided to take a behind the scenes tour of the Opera House.  Our tour guide was very theatrical.  It was fun to learn about the Opera House and see the inside.  I really wanted to be able to see a show there but unfortunately it didn't work out.  That night we went to the market that is held during the summer in the Rocks.  It was really neat to see all the local artists displaying their art.  There was even one young artist who was featured in a Wisconsin newspaper.  It started raining so we had to cut our shopping trip short.  On our way out we picked up some chocolate covered strawberries.  Since it was Melissa's last day, she decided she wanted to walk across the harbour bridge with Mom and Dad.  I wasn't feeling well so I went back to the apartment early.

Day 13 (Sat Jan 8) - Melissa leaves, Manly

Melissa was leaving today and when Dad took her to the airport, Mom and I went to Manly.  Dad met us there but we left soon because the weather was starting to rain.  Today was a VERY low key day.

Day 14 (Sun Jan 9) - French breakfast, Day Market, Watson's Bay, Walk across the bridge

Today we decided to have breakfast at a little French cafe.  It was very yummy and you know how I LOVE my french food!  We then decided to walk around the Rocks Market during the day.  There was so much cool stuff.  My favorite was either the 3D stamps or the framed strips of film from movies.  We got a present for baby Westley there too.  After spending too much money at the market :) we decided to take some ferry rides.  The one place we hadn't seen yet was Watson's Bay.  We went out there and there was a cute ferry landing that reminded us of the one in Merrimac.  They even had ice cream and everything.  We went back to the city for dinner and decided to walk across the Harbour Bridge since I hadn't done that yet.  We got all the way across and decided to check out Luna Park.  I had seen it on the Mary-Kate and Ashley movie "Our Lips are Sealed".  We got some treats for our walk back across the bridge.  We took some pretty pictures of the skyline and Opera House.

Day 15 (Mon Jan 10) - Packer game, Shopping

Today was the day of the Packer playoff game versus the Falcons.  I had already missed two Packer games and seeing as how this might be there last of the season (thankfully it wasn't, Super Bowl Champs 2011!!) I wasn't about to miss it.  I had Melissa skype me the game from home.  Since the connection in the apartment was horrible, I went with Dad to his office.  I was fairly tame with my screaming and only had to be told to be quiet once.  After the game, Mom and I went shopping! I got a lot of great buys.  The prices in Australia were usually pretty high but we found some new great buys.  My new favorite store by far is Cotton On.  For our last meal, we decided to go to the Belgium bar next door.  They are famous for their scallops so I just had to try some.  I got mine a l'escargot.  They were prepared with garlic and butter and they were sure good.

Day 16 (Tues Jan 11) - Last Day

Today was the last day of our Sydney Adventure.  Mom and I left that afternoon to return home.  The plane rides were all uneventful.  We had to walk outside in Denver and it was so cold!  We wanted to head back to warm Sydney.  It was nice to finally be home though and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to travel to Australia.  It was a once in a lifetime trip that I will surely never forget.

Roadtrip to Port Stephens and a little sandboarding...

Day 10 (Wed Jan 5) Reptile Park, Port Stephens

Today was the day for our one and only day trip out of Sydney.  We were hoping for good weather because we were going on a dolphin watching cruise up in Port Stephens.  Our first stop was at Reptile Park.  Now don't get me wrong, Reptile Park was fun but it seemed like a place where elementary students go on field trips and it was our 50th time going to an animal park in Sydney.  We did get to pet koalas, definitely one of the highlights of the trip.  They are not fuzzy and cuddly like you would think.  There hair is very coarse and they do not like to be held at all.  We also got to see crocodiles and wombats.  We got to feed kangaroos that were hopping around in the open and had close encounters with some wild emus.

 

After leaving Reptile Park, we headed up to Port Stephens.  We ate lunch at a little restaurant that boasts the best fish and chips in NSW (New South Wales).  It was very good!  You could tell this was a tourist town somewhat like Wisconsin Dells because it costs $3.00 for a candy bar (even with Australian inflation this seemed high for us Americans).  We got on our boat to watch the dolphins and the weather had taken a turn for the worst.  It wasn't bad weather but the sun had gone down and it was a bit chilly.  We got to see some dolphins but the boat was very crowded.  The highlight of the trip came next.  We got to ride in a boomnet!  This was pretty much the equivalent of extreme tubing.  The lowered a large net that resembled a fishing net on the back of the boat.  As the boat was still moving forward at full speed, you could climb down into the net and sit in it.  The water was FREEZING but it was so much fun.  The waves would splash up and you could feel like you were almost flying out of the net.  Only a handful of people actually got in the net but the people who didn't were missing out!  We came out bruised and burned from the rope but it was one of the most fun things I have ever done.

After leaving Port Stephens, we went to another beach.  Here we got into 4WD vehicles and rode around on the sand dunes.  I felt like I had been transported to the desert.  We stopped at the largest sand dunes I have ever seen and got to learn how to sand board.  You ride on a board that resembles a small sled.  It is about the size of a snowboard but you sit on it instead of standing.  It was very fun but resulted in a lot of sand in my swimsuit!  We got back on the bus after that and traveled back to Sydney.  It was a good end to a very fun day!