Thanksgiving!

Hi everyone!

I hope you are doing great. As you might know, this is the time for the biggest and most important holiday in the US. Thanksgiving is the time when the American family get reunited and travel to meet with their lovely ones.

This is actually my first Thanksgiving and I had the opportunity to have dinner with my closest friends here in the US (all from the grad school). Some brought a stuffed turkey, some side dishes like mashed potatoes and others brought something for dessert.

Here you will find part of my contribution! It seems like everyone liked it since I came home with no leftovers! I baked a Banana Bread, a traditional Peacan Pie and made some mini apple strudels for dessert!

We had a wonderful evening!

Winter season welcoming!

Hi everyone!

Yesterday the city of Chicago officially welcome the winter and Christmas season with an outstanding event. The Light Procession at the Magnificent Mile (officially North Michigan Ave).

Thousands of children (and adults) prepared to welcome Disney World's carriages.

Also, the city inaugurated the winter season by opening the icerink at Millenium Park!

Hanging around Chicago

Hi everyone!

This week we receive our friend Antonio, who came to visit us from Venezuela!

After midterms, I guess we needed a break out! So we went to the Field Museum, to see the largest and most complete T.Rex fossil in the world.

After that, we went to the Signature Lounge at the 96th floor, John Hancock Center for a couple of drinks together.

Actually, if you are coming to Chicago, don't miss this awesome place! There is no dress code or fee to enter, and it's free to go up there. You would only need to pay what you will consume. There is also a restaurant at the 95th floor. The observatory is located at the 94th street.

Take a look of the view at the Signature Lounge!

Autumn landscape at the University of Chicago

Hi everyone! I hope you are doing great!

I'm still having one midterm left, but even though I was focus on studying, I couldn't avoid being shocked by the wonderful autumn landscape at the University of Chicago.

This photos are taken from places I see on my daily way to school.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Crazy Midterms time! Don't overload yourself!

Hi everyone!

I hope you are doing great. These last weeks has been crazy with midterms exams, but hopefully, it will be over this Friday after my last exam!

So this is the really critical time. As long as you have had your materials up to date, you will find, but if you are struggling with any course, you will need to find some extra time to work on that. Also, recall that Professors are still as demanding as they were in the previous weeks, so they will still ask for Problem Sets deliveries and so. So be prepared to stay until late studying, but not overload yourself!

Below you will see me today with my Indian friend Shekhar studying Microeconomics! :D

I would like to add that in this stressful periods, it is critical to have some extra activity that keeps you away from the midterms's exams. Even if there is a talk or a conference, try to go at least to one activity you really like once a week. It will help you! And remind not to overload yourself beyond your limit (i.e. don't stay there for hours and hours), because it can be counterproducing for your learning process. Instead, if you are struggling with some material, try to relax, take a nap, and try it later.

Intramurals

Hi everyone!

I hope you are doing great! This week we played for the Volleyball Coed Graduate Intramurals (the Coed format is the one where men and women play together). Although it is a competitive tournament, there is nothing like professional level playing, so we basically play just for fun.

In most of the universities in the US, the intramurals sports are divided by season. So you will have sports that are played on Autum, Winter, Spring and Summer. This is good because you always have something to do and you can always join a team and play for a huge variety of sports. However, the only bad thing is that this format doesn´t allow you to sign up for a team an practice for long periods. Please notice that this is only for the graduate students. The undergrads do have a varsity team for every sport. Off course, they also spend a lot more time as students.

In any case, I guess that the University of Chicago is not particularly known for their sports´ competitors hahahaha.

So take this into account if you will be traveling abroad for your graduate studies. If you are an athletic person, the university´s facilities will provide you hundreds of options to do some physical activity, especially those related to cardio and working out.

Elected Admissions Chair

Hi everyone!

I hope you are doing great. After warming up in the quarter, these weeks have been crazy, full of problems sets and homeworks due every week for each class. However, in the midst of the classes, the Student Government at the Chicago Harris School held elections for the new positions available for the incoming students.

Fortunately, I've been elected Admissions Chair for the year 2011-2012, so I'll be working closely with the Admissions Committee at the Harris School! Also, I'll comunicate throught this blog every tip that I think may be valuable for your application process. I will try to learn as much as possible and bring that to you! So feel free to contact me any time regarding your application process, because I believe there are many things in common between Harris' application process and other universites.

As part of your experience studying abroad, getting involved with some student organization will be key to fulfill your networking and learning skills. At the Harris School, there are dozens of students organizations of every issue you may be interested. From Education Policy to Social Issues, you will find people who have things in common that they like to share.

As I've said in previous post, it may sound threshed to you, but getting involved with your colleagues IS REALLY IMPORTANT when you are pursuing a professional degree. This becomes especially true when your are doing it in an environment where your are not familiar to and you may have to learn how to establish relationships, how to do business or how to find a job or internship in a culture different than yours.

Find a complete list of all the student organizations that make life at the Harris School of Public Policy to see what I'm talking about:
http://harrisschool.uchicago.edu/students/current-students/organizations/