C-H-I-C-A-G-O! (warning: travel log...it get's long)

Take me back to Chicago

Where music was all I had...

Take me back to Chicago, to Chicago

Why don't you take me back

Take me back, take me back

To Chicago.

So last weekend, BYU Singers performed at the world famous ACDA convention in downtown Chicago! And I discovered something about myself. There is definitely a part of me that is a big-city kind of girl. The sights, the smells, the sounds...it's one of those places that has it's own underlying energy. There's a sense of life and freedom that comes from such a culturally diverse city. I must say, despite the car exhaust and second-hand smoke, Chicago was a breath of fresh air after 8 months in the somewhat culturally lacking Provo.

out my window, downtown, Lake Michigan

Besides our rehearsals, sound-checks, and final performances, we were pretty much free to roam the city at our leisure. No curfews + no chaperons = adventures.

check out my view!

Thursday night, we pulled up to our hotel, but it's not just any hotel. This, my friends, is the ritzy downtown Chicago Hilton! I had all this to myself the first night because my roommate decided to stay with her parents.

That night some of us walked down the street to a little pizza place. I, having pigged out on a ginormous fried taco salad at the airport, skipped out on the main course, but when the waitress brought out a chocolate-chip cookie pizza with ice cream and whipped cream...well, let's just say I all of a sudden found some empty space for it in my stomach.

Friday morning, I woke up to a beautiful, sunny, not-so-frigid day. We had the entire morning free so some of us ventured out to explore the city. After a quick breakfast in a small bakery, we had a few more hours to kill, so where did I choose to spend it? At the Art Institute of Chicago, of course! We knew there was no way we could see everything, so Mariah, Camille, and I each decided on some exhibits of interest. We meandered our way through halls of Ancient Egypt and Greece hieroglyphs, the marble statues of the French Renaissance, Medieval European armor, and originals by Monet, Rodin, Joachim, Titian, and others. Ah, it was bliss. I think I'd like working in a museum.

The three of us grabbed a quick lunch in a delicious little French cafe we found called Au Bon Pain. I got a roast beef caesar sandwich and liked it so much I went back the next day. If you're ever in Chicago, go here for lunch. We had a sound check in Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University at 1:15. You can imagine our jaws dropped a bit when we walked out on stage and saw the theatre where we were performing.

Exploring...yes, that is a gigantical metal jelly bean....

After sound check, I stayed in the holding room to work a bit on my Italian homework. See? such a good student. Not really. I hardly did any. At 4:30, we met back together for a rehearsal to make some minor adjustments. Earlier in the day, one of our tenors tripped and broke his collar bone in the process of trying to protect his camera, so he was in bed for that rehearsal. We got out early, so I traversed several blocks of downtown Chicago all by me onesie savvy to the Palmer House Hilton where a friend was staying as part of the National Mens Choir. I sat in on the first few minutes of their rehearsal before calling up my friends to find out where they were eating. April was beside herself to hear I was alone and refused to have me walk the 3 blocks to the restaurant by myself, so she sent Chris and Evan to come find me, which ended up being a fiasco in itself, and I ended up having to walk down the street anyway to find them because they were lost. It's times like these I'm thankful I was blessed with such a good sense of direction. 

That night, I experienced true Chicago pizza. As the Italian would say, "e squisito!" The gobs of cheese and layers of fillings and crispy deep-dish crust...Yum! Even the 14 of us who were there couldn't finish it all so we gave our left-overs to some homeless people on the street who really were thankful for it. Because we had an early performance, Dr. Staheli asked us all to be in bed early after that. I tried, but really I just laid awake for 2 hours even though there were no ticking clocks.

huddling in a garage entrance to get out of the wind
Evan, Chris, Michelle, Matthew

Saturday morning dawned grey and chilly. Of course, being the Windy City, it was a rather brusque walk down to the theatre. 

We warmed up. We prayed. We walked out on stage "[letting] [our] Light so shine." We sang. We bowed. And we wept. The notes had power. We accomplished what we came to do.

During our small break, we ran down the street to Panera, another delicious bakery for brunch. I got a spinach and artichoke souffle and a strawberry parfait and enjoyed every bite. Can you tell I like food? We then met for sound-check at Chicago's Symphony Hall. 


Unfortunately, that morning I'd taken a shower which resulted in me needing Benadryl (see this post). There was a point in my life where I was immune to the narcotic side-effects of that nasty stuff since I was on it regularly, but that was years ago, so by the end of the sound-check, my vision was spinning, my feet weighed a ton, and I was ready to fall over. Instead of going out to lunch, as soon as we were back in our "holding cell"/waiting room, I laid down on the hard wood floor and zonked out for a good hour and a half. I woke up with 10 minutes to dash across the street and grab another one of those sandwiches before our final performance. This time, although I didn't feel as emotional, we all concurred it was a better performance. We were listening more, our Spirits were more in tune with Dr. Staheli, and the audience recognized the "extra something." Upstairs in the lobby, we were congratulated and praised by directors and musicians from around the globe. We accepted their words with thanks but always replied with the recognition that "We've been blessed."

Theatro numero due...

I went back to the hotel to change (not to mention, I nearly had a heart-attack to find my roommates parents sitting in my hotel room when I opened the door), and ended up spending a couple hours watching the Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Edition on T.V. (Fabulous!). 

When I got hungry, I wandered up to the BYU Singers Alumni reception to find people. I found Evan, and after a quick stop on the 12th floor to pick up Jonnie, we met up with a big group at an Asian restaurant called Tamarind. Oh. My. Delicious. Since it was the last night in Chicago and I wasn't paying for the hotel or flight, I justified splurging on mouth-watering goodness. Spicy octopus sushi, red curry and chicken, and a coconut Boba drink. Call me a pig, but I was in heaven.

Stuffed full of yummy food, we wound our way through the masses of drunk leprechauns (St. Patrick's day is huge in Chicago...costumes, parades, fireworks, and lots and lots of alcohol) back to the hotel. Mariah recounted how the past two nights, she'd snuck down to the empty Grande Ballroom and played and sung to her heart's content.  Of course we had to check it out!

The Grande Ballroom...Gorgeous!!!

Jonnie (left) and Evan (above) singing a duet in the ballroom
accompanied by Mariah

 It started out as individual solos (Mariah can make up and accompany anything on the spot!), and quickly moved to improv duets and trios. Before we knew it, we had a full-fledged improv opera (or Improvopera) on our hands. Ridiculousness + a digital camera = immortalized quality humor. It was only later that we learned that the security cameras had been watching us the whole time, the doors had been locked from the outside, and some big important dude eventually came to kick us out. My theory is the security guards were having so much fun watching us that they let us stay in there, but then their boss walked in and saw what was going on and made them get back to their jobs and came to kick us out himself. Good times. :) And of course the video has made its way to Facebook. Not gonna lie, it's embarrassing, but Jonnie and Evan are hilarious.

Anyway, I decided within an hour of being there that I loved Chicago and all its busy-ness. I don't think I could ever live there permanently, because I feel like it would be easy to get too busy, but it really is thrilling just to be there. Living somewhere like that, you just can't help but be cultured. Everything comes to you. There's always something to do, people to meet, food to eat :) I can't wait to go back, which I must do because I somehow missed out on the hotdogs...shocking, I know, but at least I have an excuse to return. :)


Random photos...

the night life

trippy inside of the Bean

Boyd, Matthew, and Jonnie riding a cow...Evan is pushing...

All right, this one has a story. So we come out of the Giordano's Pizza, look up,
and see the Bat Symbol!!! or, at least that's what we decided it was.
Even though Gotham City is supposed to be in New York, it was filmed here in Chicago.
And the top of the Sears Tower glows neon green at night,
so I decided that it's really made out of Kryptonite
so that Superman doesn't steal Batman's turf.

COMING UP NEXT for the Singers:  
Music and the Spoken Word...Sun. March 27 @ 8:30 AM
University Forum....Tues. March 29 @ 11 AM
Concerts....April 7th and 8th
Tour through Colorado and Wyoming....April 26th to May 8th