A Horrible Day With a Wonderful Turnaround

Apparently Chicago just really likes us ILCers, since this is the second year in a row where it has simply refused to let us leave. Today we returned to our wake up so early you might actually still be dreaming schedule, and woke up at 6 in the morning. We rushed over to the airport and got there with time to spare, at around 9. As we were walking in towards baggage checking, I noticed that one of the departure screens showed "cancelled" as a flight status suspiciously close to our own flight. I did an immediate double-take, and saw that it was in fact our flight that was cancelled. For the next five hours or so, the Delta officials tried as hard as possible to get us on a plane to Ithaca, but to no avail. Early on in our five hours of waiting, I was able to bond even more with my Fellow ILCers from Hercules, who I had known next to nothing about as recently as three days ago. These first three hours were quite entertaining, from an epic game of Egyptian War (a card game for those unfamiliar with the term,) to trying to translate what on earth Terilyn was saying backwards. By noon however, all our energy was completely spent, and everyone tried to sleep on the hard airport floor, no easy feat. Finally, at 2:00 P.M., we were informed by the Delta officials that our plane would be leaving at 6 in the morning tomorrow, which will mean yet another early wake-up.

2:00 was when the day began to take a turn for the better, when we were given lunch vouchers by Delta. Although lunch wouldn't seem like such a pick-me-up to most, I had one of the best sandwiches i have ever eaten, from Potbelly's, which was recommended to me by the informative Ms. Callie Brown (who apparently has taste in food rivaling our own Mr. Charles Ramsey). After lunch we headed to a hotel by O'Hare, which was quite the drive from Midway. When we got to the hotel, we decided that we simply had to see Millennium Park, which we had been trying to see ever since we got here but just didn't have the time.

We were actually extremely lucky with this flight cancellation, because not only did it let us finally go to Millennium Park, but it also let us go at the beginning of the food festival "A Taste of Chicago," which was conveniently taking place in Millennium Park. The park lived up to my expectations and then some, from the 3-dimesional bean-shaped mirror, creatively known as "The Bean," to the Buckingham Fountain, popularly known for its role in the introduction of "Married With Children", the TV show. We didn't get to see the fountain shows, but it was still fantastic, as was the view of the city at night. (I'll post pictures tomorrow, since it's almost 1 in the morning now and I'll be walking up in less than 4 hours). All in all, although I am disappointed that we weren't able to get to Ithaca and meet with various admission directors, I was still able to have fun, and am looking forward to Cornell as much as ever. I should be blogging from Ithaca tomorrow, plane permitting, and hope to finally get to see the campus.