Conserved Plants and Sketchy Spots

When I should get my work done,
when I say I'll get my work done,
when I actually get my work done.

Although I have fallen into a routine for the weekdays, the same cannot be said of the weekends. I slept in until eleven-thirty, which left me just enough time to dress and shower before meeting up in the lobby of the Campus North Residential Commons (aka the CNRC) with the two RAs leading the trip to the Garfield Park Conservatory, Misra and Madeline, along with a smattering of other Summer Sessioners. We traveled using the usual method of bussing west towards the train that runs north and south. However, this time the train ride was significantly longer than usual, as we did not go downtown, but instead east. This reminded me of the inefficiency of this method of transportation, as it both costs a great deal and takes a long time to get anywhere. I think that the university might save both their money and our time by allowing the summer session groups to either borrow one of their shuttles or use a ride-sharing service (though the latter might be hard to coordinate with large groups).

We arrived at the Conservatory at around one, and it was not a hundred meters' walk from the train stop to the building, which was quite convenient. It was beautiful inside, with a vast variety of palm trees, cacti, edible plants, ferns, flowers, and intricately-patterned bushes. It was not only the plants that were amazing, though. The organization was incredible. Each plant was labeled carefully, trimmed cleanly, and given just enough space to grow freely. After exploring all six of the main rooms and taking far too many pictures, a few of us decided to split off and get lunch.

This may have not been the wisest decision, as we would soon discover. The closer we came towards the restaurant and the farther away from the conservatory we went, the sketchier our surroundings became. The ground was covered with discarded waste, we saw a school that looked like it was either a prison or had closed down years ago, and we received a multitude of odd stares. After arriving at the restaurant, we noted that there was an inch-thick layer of plastic in between us and the staff. Not the most encouraging sight. I had never really been in an area with that kind of atmosphere before, and I do not plan on revisiting it. We did not really want to linger, so we walked back with our food and stopped on the lawn just outside of the conservatory to eat. Our meal of ribs and fries was tasty and I could have relaxed on the grass for hours, but before long we had to meet up with the rest of the group for the journey home.

Describes my day pretty well.

I had nothing else planned for the afternoon, so I came down to study. I need to find a topic for a project that I can work on at Yerkes, so I'm doing a little research online and rereading through my textbook to remind myself of the different topics I could cover. I also need to review a few chapters and my notes from last week to prepare for a quiz on Monday. If I have any time left, I'm going to start reading one of the two astrophysics books I got at Powell's yesterday. I still don't know exactly what we are going to be doing at Yerkes Observatory in the next four days, but my guess is that we will be primarily using the main telescope as a way of taking observations for our next project. I'll update you all as soon as I get the details. Good night!