Three Cultures in One Day

One good thing about a big city like Chicago is that it offers a lot of things to do. Today was particularly packed. Eugene and I went to the Field Museum to see the Pompeii exhibit. It featured artifacts (a lot of jewelry and coins, but also tools, including a couple of surgeon's kits) from Pompeii and other nearby areas destroyed by the eruption. It described where the artifacts were found and what clues they provided about the people they were found next to. They also had parts of the original frescoes, still brightly colored after all these centuries. There were also casts of the bodies; in some of them, you could still make out the fear these people must have felt as they tried to flee. We thought it was an interesting exhibit and well worth seeing. We also joined the Field Museum, and since there are several other good exhibits coming (King Tut, Mendel, and Auschwitz), I think we'll be getting some good use out of our membership. Although we didn't tour the entire museum, we did look at some of the permanent exhibits. For example, here's Eugene bravely holding Sue at bay with nothing more than a digital camera. Even she's scared of his equipment! ;)

We had our hearts set on German food (the Bergoff) for dinner, but we didn't realize they were closed on Sundays. We had to settle for Swedish food at Ann Sather instead. Their cinnamon rolls are good, but I still want a wiener schnitzel and apple strudel!

Finally, Eugene and I began tango lessons. Yes, you read that correctly: tango lessons. We decided after the wedding that we wanted to take more dancing lessons, and when we heard about this class, we decided it was a great opportunity. The class meets for three Sundays, though there are two more classes (three weeks each) we can take afterwards to improve our skills. We like the class so far. The instructors start off by explaining a lot of the technique of tango, teaching individual components of the dance (such as movement, connection between the partners) instead of throwing everything at once at you. They also don't teach you

a choreographed dance; instead, they teach you the steps so it's more of an "improv" dance. By now, I bet you're wondering how we did. Well, we're still learning, but at least we didn't run into the wall--though we came close. I think we both need to wear better shoes next time. Oh, and please don't tell Eugene's parent's we're taking this class; we want to surprise them the next time they throw a party!

Well, it's after 11:00, and I don't know how much, if any, writing I'll do tonight. We'll see if the muse is up for a few quick steps before I go to bed.