Day Six: Hyde Park

Emilio and I went to the Admissions Office and took a tour of the University of Chicago that was led by a current student at the university who is finishing his first year. He started the talk walking backwards and making a joke about the difficulty of doing that in flip flops. Emilio and I were the only ones on the tour, so I told him I didn't think he needed to walk backwards. I'm sure it's a thing he does when he has big groups. He stopped walking backwards but he never quit using his loud tour-guide voice. I don't think this is a University of Chicago thing. It's a students-leading-campus tours thing.

Emilio is too young to go on college tours, but I think it unlikely that we will return to Chicago before he is old enough, so I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity. I also didn't want his expectations of college tours to be limited by those that are close by. And I also, as a sometimes recruiter myself, I wanted to see how the U of C recruits.

We didn't get to see a dorm room, which was one of the main reasons I wanted the tour. When we got done, Emilio said he didn't know why I thought he was smart enough to go to a place like this.  We had a talk about what "smart" means, with me pointing out the difference between "being knowledgeable," "having the ability to learn," and "wanting to learn."

During the tour, I asked our guide why he chose the U of C.  He said he wanted to live near a big city that had lots of things to do, and he liked that the U of C you apply to the general college and not to a particular school within the college. When I asked him to describe U of C students, he said they were "passionate." I suggested that they were also "verbal," but he didn't know what I meant by that.  "Articulate; talkative," I offered. He said that sounded right.

After the tour, we visited the Oriental Institute Museum. The Human-Headed Winged Bull  in the photo above was excavated by the Oriental Institute between 1928-1935. It formed part of the Palace of Sargon II (721–705 BC) at Khorsabad, which is 10 miles north of Mosul in Kurdistan Iraq.

Day Four: The Beach

The water was cold.

But not too cold for Emilio.

Grand Tour, Day 1: Madrid Monday

Emilio writes:

When we finally made it to Madrid, we got off the plane and got our luggage. Then we saw our grandparents. When he first saw us, my abuelo cried for joy.

It was awesome being in another country.

We went to my abuelos’ house, and then Pablo stayed with Abuelo while the rest of us went to a bakery. At the bakery, we got a croissant and a baguette. Then we went home and ate our food.

After that, my abuelo, my mom, my dad and I went to Atocha, the main train station in Madrid. We went there to get tickets from Madrid to Hendaye. There was a rainforest in the middle of the station, and I saw whole bunch of turtles.

After we got back from the train station, Pablo, Nina, my mom, my dad and I went to the houses where my mom and dad lived when they met.

After that, we went to El Retiro. El Retiro is a park. In the park, we saw the Crystal Palace. Then we saw the school that my dad taught at when he met my mom [see image below].


Then we went back to El Retiro, and I got a Twister at a food stand. The Twister is a twisty Popsicle-like thingy that has three different flavors on it. I liked the Twister, and I got it many times after that. Here is a list of my favorite things I did that day:
1. Bakery
2. El Retiro
3. The houses where my mom and dad lived when they met
4. Atocha
5. Airplane

Day Six: Custer National Cemetery