Spring break?

It is spring break for students, but for the first spring since 1991, I am not a student. Yet my week has been fun.

On Wednesday I went to dinner at Embeya restaurant, with the week's Computations in Science seminar speaker. The restaurant calls itself Asian progressive, and there's a distinct focus on seafood on the menu. It was a more "modern" meal than I usually eat (I don't usually include foam of any kind in my main courses), and very enjoyable. It was also nice to spend time with a few University of Chicago physicists (one professor, me and two grad students): people here really seem happy.

On Thursday I went to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert. To be honest, it was my least favourite of the three I've seen here. My favourite piece was (uncharacteristically) the newest: a nocturne (though louder than I would expect a nocturne to be) by Michael Ippolito. There was nothing wrong with the Mozart piano concerto or Brahms symphony that followed, but I found them a little boring.

Friday was the most fun of all. I invited friends from church to come to my place for dinner, since there was neither a games night nor a grad dinner last week. In the end, there were six of us in total. I cooked baked tilapia with lemon-ginger sauce, sauteed Brussels sprouts with eggplant and thyme, and mushroom and red pepper... well, it was meant to be pilaf but ended up being more like risotto. I have recently purchased a few little bits of furniture (a rug for the living room, coffee tables and lamps), and the place really did feel like a home. I will pass on some photos when I get them from Guillermina. We chatted long into the night: it's nice to have such wonderful friends.