One of the best parts of being at Northwestern is just how easy it is to get into the city of Chicago. We’ve been lucky lately with some incredibly nice weather so on the last Sunday of February, which was a ridiculously nice 60 degree day, I took the opportunity to head downtown and enjoy the city. I grabbed a friend and we hopped on the purple line toward downtown.

We transferred to the El’s red line and got off at Argyle to start the day with brunch at one of my favorite spots in Andersonville, The Bongo Room. As usual, there was a decent wait for a table so we spent the time checking out some of the book stores in the area. I spend less time than I would like to looking at books that don’t include mathematical formulas in them, so this was a nice escape from the daily grind. Once our table was free we enjoyed a delicious meal and decided to go to Millennium Park to enjoy the beautiful weather outside. A few red line stops and a short walk later we were in the heart of downtown, in the gorgeous green space that is Millennium Park.

 We spent a couple hours just chatting and enjoying being outdoors (and honestly playing on the jungle gym). After a while we decided to go to the Art Institute, since it’s a short 5-minute walk from the park. We were able to use our Northwestern student ID’s for free entry to the museum and enjoy the artwork. One of my favorite spots is the Miniature Rooms so we spent probably too much time looking at them. As five o’clock rolled around the museum was closing so we made our way back to the el station and headed towards home.

It was a great way to spend a day relaxing, before going back to study and do homework to prepare for the week ahead, and a great reminder of how lucky we are to be close to such an amazing cultural center.

–Mickey Shalman