Signs you're close to State Street and the awesomeness that is downtown Madison, WI
The weather in Madison was absolutely gorgeous despite the chilliness and wind (which was especially not fun around the construction at Camp Randall- dirt blowing everywhere!). My contact met me outside the athletic facilities and brought me downstairs to tour the Office of Academic Services first where I got to see plans for all the construction going on. We got to his office where I assumed we'd have a brief chance to discuss my questions about getting into student-athlete affairs and more about the UW-Madison office structure before he had to get back to work. Instead, we chatted while we watched the Illinois game in the Big Ten Tourney, which prompted conversation about the experiences in our field of working with different coaches and what those relationships are like. Since he'd already answered my standard questions before I got there, we had more time for some pretty laid back conversation about working in the field and getting tons of insight for what I can be doing now to prep for breaking into such a male (or former student-athlete) dominated career. He took me around the athletic facilities and across the street to lunch where I had an amazing toasted turkey sandwich with melted Swiss and apple chutney. It tasted like Thanksgiving on a sandwich. (He literally stopped mid-sentence to say he was impressed I finished the entire thing as I took the last bite. I mean, it was a pretty big sandwich, but seriously, this is how awesome of a visit this was.) We ended the visit talking about summer internship potential, but I'm not writing anymore (yet), because I don't want to jinx anything.
In about a year, this will be covered by the brick facade of the new Office of Academic Services building. Inside information from spending 2.5 hrs hanging out with the AD for Academic Services. No big deal...
From Madison, I headed back to Milwaukee to meet for dinner with my aunt and cousin that I'd met only once before when I was really young. Such a bizarre experience, but in a good way. Super excited for the potential to hang out this summer if internship plans go well- my cousin is only a few years older than me and she seems to be a go-do-stuff girl & a foodie like I am. Tons of random adventures planned already, like biking the trail between Milwaukee and Madison, Taste of Chicago, it's an on-going list. Post-dinner and custard, it was back to bff then off to UW-Whitewater the next morning.
On my way back, I made a stop at Brennan's Market- fresh fruits, cheeses, wine, and craft beers. Another of my favorite things in Wisconsin
I noticed the trend of everything in the Midwest (except Chi-town) being surrounded by farm in mass quantities. I literally feared the college didn't really exist (or existed in a barn), then all the sudden, there was a cute little town and a university in the middle of all the farm.
Downtown Whitewater. Well, pretty much all of Whitewater except the campus, from my understanding.
My contact at UW-Whitewater planned to take me on a tour of campus to meet people from a variety of departments that also work with athletics. Their athletic department is absolutely amazing, but since they're D-III, they can't have anything separate for student-athletes that isn't accessible for all students. She explained some of the challenges that come with that and how they handle them at each part of our tour. The campus was great, and everyone I met was incredibly nice and informative. The midwest is seriously just full of awesome people. I left their campus 2.5 hours later with a much different perspective of the D-III world and a lot to contemplate.
Ironically this showed up in front of me for a good portion of my trip back to Chi-town. A sign, perhaps?
I ended the trip with Culver's (ButterBurger, Cheese Curds, and purposely drove over near O'Hare where their custard flavor of the day was Snickers :) ) and Big Ten Tourney coverage of Indiana v Wisconsin in the car as I waited in afternoon traffic heading back into Chi-town to return my rental car. I spent one last night in Chicago, out to watch the Blackhawks game at a bar in Wicker Park, then headed back to Florida early the next morning.
Almost 20 hours in the car and the only traffic I hit was on the way to return the rental car. The irony.
The trip was amazing. So much fun to meet up with everyone, eat amazing food, explore Chicago some more, see my fam, and wander the Midwest. So much awesome potential and a great area in general. Can't wait to see how the summer and life after May 2013 work out :)
Mission: Midwest-- accomplished :)
