Posts Tagged ‘travel’

Chicago II

July 11th, 2009 by Emily

Librarians have taken over Chicago!! Really, everywhere I look, SWARMS of them! Well, maybe not quite swarms, but I did hear that around 12,000 people were coming to the American Library Association conference, and every time I turn around, it seems I see someone else with a massive nametag like the one Frans is lugging around (photo of that coming soon). I do wish I could go to some of the meetings, but my registration would have been expensive, and NOT attending the conference means I have a chance to explore the city. Which I LOVE.

It’s not nearly as hot here as everyone told me it would be. I’m hoping it warms up because my jeans and sweatshirt are dirty but I have plenty of clean shorts. The plan for today is to rent a bike at Millenium Park and bike around the waterfront, then down to the museums, then back in time for a scholarship bash at the Art Institute. Not bad, eh?

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Into the city

July 8th, 2009 by Emily

As I write this, Frans and I are sitting on a commuter train bound for Chicago with an impressive amount of luggage piled on the seat next to us. We left Honolulu about a week ago and spent the weekend (including the fourth of July) with my grandparents and a collection of aunts, uncles, cousins, and other relatives in Winona, Minnesota. This was Frans’s first chance to meet most of the family crew and to see Winona, so it was a busy weekend. Monday we drove down to Illinois to see another (smaller) set of relatives, and today we’re on our way into Chicago for the American Library Association conference.

It was great to be in Winona again – I don’t think it would work for us to live there, but it’s so nice to be in a small town, go boating on the river, and relax in grassy backyards. I got some good job news on the drive down to Illinois, but more about that later. For now, a picture of Winona taken from the overlook on Garvin Heights:

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Books for traveling

June 29th, 2009 by Emily

It’s always a funny combination of stress and excitement as I choose which books to take along on a trip. We’ll be in the Midwest for most of next month, and will be moving around quite a bit (Minnesota to Chicago to southern Illinois to St. Louis) so I want to bring enough interesting reading to stay occupied on planes and trains, but not so much that I regret having to lug it all around. I’m sure I’ll also buy a few books on the road. So, without further ado, here are my choices:

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  • Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. Frans got this for me back in 2006, right when we started dating, and occasionally we’ve read passages from it together. We started reading it again last night, and both agreed it should come on the trip.

  • Patrick O’Brian: The Mauritius Command and Desolation Island (#4 and #5 in his Aubrey and Maturin series). My dad and I are both making our way through this series – he’s a few books ahead of me but I’m hoping to catch up this summer. Of course, if I catch up there will be squabbles over who gets a book first – right now he has most of the series with him in Seattle, where he scoured used book stores to collect them.

  • Roberto Bolano’s 2666 (first volume). This has Parts 1-3. I’ve read 1, and was supposed to read 2 in June, and would like to write a little about each of them during the trip for the Read-Along.

  • Jerzy Pilch’s The Mighty Angel. Not much to say about this one, just that I’ve been wanting to read it, and the small size makes it ideal for sticking in a carry-on.
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