Sweet Home Chicago!!

 Come on.  You know you love it.   Look at it again. You love it.

I spent this week in Chicago with some of my favorite people.  One of the more obnoxious parts of medical school is called "Step 2 CS" which stands for Clinical Skills.  Or Cash Sapper.  You have to take and pass the exam to be a doctor- but the exam is only offered in 5 cities in the US (and neither New York or Boston has it!!)  and it costs about $1100.  Yikes.  So my roommates and I decided to make some lemonade out of our $1100 lemons, and turned the exam into an excuse to go on vacation together in Chicago.

The test was fine.  It's 8 hours of seeing standardized patients and proving that we (1) speak English (2) have better interpersonal skills that Dr. House and (3) know how to order lots of imaging and labs tests to ensure that healthcare costs continue to rise at an astronomical rate for another generation.

After the test, we had Chicago-bonanza.  I took my roommates to my undergrad old stomping grounds, and even paid an improptu visit to my sorority (yup... nobody knew me.)   Then we went to the Shedd Aquarium for free (thank you Chicago Public Library card!) and then the Art Institute also for free (thank you free Thursdays).

Apologies for the poor quality of this one!  The aquarium people took our picture, printed a copy for us and then wanted us to buy for $30.  Instead, I took out my iPhone and took a picture of the print they had made and handed it back to them.  Score: Aquarium: 0  Laura's wallet:1

As if by fate, my roommate Ala also got 3 Chicago interview offers, one of which she was offered WHILE we were in the aquarium.  My new magical life plan is to convince all of my favorite people in the world to move with me to Chicago.  The odds are looking good for me to- I've 7 interviews in Chicago currently.  Wahoo!
 
I also ran into one of my other good friends from IIT on the train, and went out to dinner with him and 5 or 6 of our common friends.  I forgot to take pictures of that, but it was awesome.  I always feel like I'm a rockstar when I run into people I know on public transportation. My travel companions probably thought I knew everyone in Chicago since I was just like, "O look, there's my friend!! Let's go say hi!"

In summary, Chicago rocks.  And you can rock too if you move to Chicago.