Random Observations About Chicago

-Chicago is so...clean. There isn't trash all over the streets. The water of Lake Michigan is actually blue. It doesn't smell like rotten eggs. They have carpeting on the subways.

-You can tell that Chicago is a midwestern city by the way people act like decent human beings. People say "please" and "thank you" and "excuse me." They smile and hold doors for you and apologize for bumping into your bag. When Adam and I were waiting for our table at Frontera on Thursday night, every single group that came in asked us if we had made our reservation first before going up to the counter themselves. It was...insane.

-In terms of the student population at the Div School, I am officially OLD. Even though they have no undergrads, I was still easily one of the oldest students at the Admitted Students' Day events. When I told people I was married, they often made an involuntary noise of horror, rather like one would make if another person told them they had a fatal disease. Only one other person there had anything close to a spouse, and that person wasn't even married yet-- she was engaged. Clearly most people were coming straight out of undergrad. I heard tell of a couple other second-career students in my year, but they're all MDivs, apparently. So I guess most normal grown-up people don't wake up one day and think, "Hrm, I think I'll quit my job and engage in the academic study of religion for two years with no real professional purpose in mind other than the eventual pursuit of a PhD and a lifetime of shabby, soul-sucking academia."

-I am now a huge fan of Potbelly sandwiches. Also: $2.90 milkshakes. YES.

-I very much enjoy the fact that the U of C is 2/3 graduate students. It's nice because although I feel old at the Div School, I don't feel like I'm swimming in a sea of 17-year-olds. When I went back to visit Vassar this fall I felt like all those people walking around were so very much younger than I was, but I blend right in at U of C.