Diplomats, Gamblers, Businesspeople, Students, Siblings
2015 August 4
Note: I wrote the following entry on an overnight train from Denver to Omaha on June 12, 2015 so it should be read as such. The reason I’m uploading it now is the lack of wifi on the train and procrastination. Enjoy!
It’s been since November 2014 since I updated this travel blog. That makes sense, though, since I haven’t done much traveling since then. I have not been outside of the US since I got back from Argentina in November of 2013, but I have done some travel within the US at least. I’ll start where I left off.
Chicago – November 2014
On a couple days after the anniversary upon returning to US, I finally had another international(ish) experience, AMUN (American Model United Nations), Chicago. This was the first MUN experience I had had since WorldMUN Australia in March of 2013. We, Creighton, represented the nation of Austria, meaning that we had to study policies and some history of Austria in preparation (on top of our studies). Although it sounds serious, AMUN is truly a fun and valuable bonding experience for those of us in the MUN club at Creighton University. Of course, this goes for other schools too, but seeing how competitive some of them are compared to Creighton, I’m glad our MUN club is the way it is. If I went to another university, I don’t think I would have an easy of a time attending these conferences without studying something related to international relations.
Which reminds me… I switched my main major in the second-to-last semester of my college experience. In most cases, this would set people back a semester or two, but I got lucky. I had already been taking elective in the major I switched to, Business Intelligence & Analytics (or MIS to some people, or Business IT to others, or computers if you want it to be even simpler). This move was inspired by a realization that I want to work in the technology industry after successfully navigating my internship with Yahoo!, which just ended this Friday. On Monday I start as a full-time Accounts Receivable Analyst, but I digress.
AMUN 2014 was probably the highlight of my senior year. I think that traveling is the absolute best way to bond with friends, old and new. You get to find out who makes the best Pokémon imitations in the van (it was a tie between Emily and me), who has the best road trip music (that was me), and who can’t stand 30 minutes of Pokémon impressions and switches vans (Nicole).
I found Chicago’s nightlife to be similar to Buenos Aires’, but, to be honest, not as fun. This has a lot to do with personal bias. When I was in Argentina, most of the nightlife fun came from being able to practice Spanish on new people. In Chicago, people spoke boring English just as much as any other American city. Another major difference was the price. After I spent $10 on a rum and coke, I decided that I had enough to drink that night.
While it was fun to experience Chicago’s nightlife, that wasn’t the most important thing for me last November. I was ready to return to the hotel about 20 minutes into going downtown to hang out with my friends and do things like this:
video
After AMUN was all said and done, I was inspired to go to WorldMUN, Seoul in March of 2015 despite already making plans not to (I would’ve had to budget very tightly and coordinate travel directly from the tail-end of a planned San Francisco travel class). Though I was accepted to go to South Korea with the Creighton students, I ultimately had to decline. I realized that missing a week of school would be difficult, too, with the 21 credit hours of classes I would be taking to graduate on time. My philosophy, though, is that for every 10 planned travel experiences, I will probably get to go on at least one. Because of that, I plan for as many trips as I can when they come up to get the most experiences possible.
November of 2014 will probably be my last MUN experience that I have. I can be bitter that I didn’t get to go on one more (and have experiences with hamsters and international students), but I would rather keep in mind that 3 MUN experiences is 3 more than most people go on their whole lives and be happy about that.
Las Vegas – December 2014
My mom has been planning this vacation for a long time. The only reason why we hadn’t gone up to this point was that, for the first time, I was finally 21.
If I had all the money in the world, Vegas would actually not be my first choice of destination. Those who know me well know that gambling and shady nightlife venues aren’t the first thing I have in mind when it comes to fun. Of course, my parents know me well and kept this in mind.
Lucky for me, Vegas is a hotspot for entertainment. Among the shows we saw were Carrot Top (actually hilarious), Zombie Burlesque, Absinthe, and Cirque du Soleil, in which Beverly and I witnessed an acrobatic accident. Near the end of the show, an actor fell and sustained an injury, after which a voice came on and announced, “We are sorry, but tonight’s viewing of The Beatles Cirque du Soleil has been cancelled. Please exit the auditorium. You will receive a refund for tonight’s show.” Apparently that refund still hasn’t come yet, but Beverly and I still got to see most of the show so we aren’t too shaken up about it (the refund would go to Mom anyway :p). If you are concerned about the actor, he and/or she survived and I think ended up fully recovering. Somebody in our family saw it on the news or something. I know that’s very reassuring.
Las Vegas ended up being a better experience than I expected. While I did gamble a little, I didn’t do it excessively. I, of course, lost money (a total of about $40) as does everyone in Vegas (casinos ads say that “someone’s gotta win”, but no, it’s not going to be you) but that was far from the highlight. I would say that the highlight was the interesting scenery and people present in the city. It’s a weird place and it’s not ashamed. It’s a place where ridiculousness happens and is openly encouraged. In the daytime, the buildings and architecture appear tacky and gaudy, but at night, the neon signs shine brilliantly and the tacky buildings almost turn into works of art (almost). From the air, Vegas looks like a world-village playset, complete with a pyramid, Eiffel Tower, Statue of LIberty, and Ferris wheel.
You would think that all of the age restrictions in the city would make it an almost child-free utopia, making adults leave their children at home until they were of age like how they did to my parents. This was utterly wrong. I saw more kids and bumped into more strollers during that week than I did the entire year. I don’t have anything against children. They’re fine. They’re just tiny pre-adults after all, and the only reason why they don’t know as much as us adults is lack of experience and brain development limitations. But why are you bringing these pre-adults to Vegas, people? Neither of you are having fun. But I imagine the bright lights at night are relatively stimulating for them.
Chicago – February 2015
February of 2015 marked the second time I attended PBLI, or Principled Business Leaders Initiative, as a part of AKPsi, or Alpha Kappa Psi, my business fraternity.
I played a slightly more important role this time around in scheduling a tour of the Yahoo! office in Chicago. It was relatively easy to set up, since all I had to do was email my boss for a contact, exchange basic information with the Chicago employee, and get him in touch with the AKPsi executives.
The Chicago office is located in the Hancock Tower. If you don’t know it by name, it’s the one that looks like this:
And here’s the inside looking out:
(Can you tell I was there?)
Bonus snowman. #nomakeupnofilter
While it wasn’t much more than an office building, I think people were impressed by the presentation of the employees and conversation about the company’s business. The kitchen also impressed them. Free food is always impressive.
The PBLI conference itself was interesting. We got to meet people from other AKPsi chapters around the Midwest. We also got to meet some executives in the national fraternity. Overall, the experience was valuable and professional. To avoid boring you with the details, I’ll leave it at that.
To be continued in part 2!