Chicago History Museum and Improv Olympics

September 13th,

Following a GREAT weekend I had with my newly discovered classmates in Chicago, Kate Latshaw, and the p-house girls, our "class" was to be held in the Chicago History Museum at 10:00 am. As much as it seems like a "tour" of the place, it was extremely educational. We learned many of the facts about how Chicago became the "great" city it is today. I never really have known the "real" history of the city and the image Chicago tried to portray to the world were completely opposites. Getting the architectural boat tour as well as the Chicago History Museum really has shown me how dirty the city actually was. It wasn't a grand town, it didn't have a particularly clean atmosphere, but the way it boasted it's strength actually made it believable. As my baseball coach, Les Hunter says, "you've gotta fake it until it becomes a reality", which I think perfectly sums up Chicago. I don't need to go into specific details about the city, but if you want to know more about Chicago....come on up!

Following our tour at the Museum, the next event we had lined up for the night was to do Improv at the ACM office at 7 p.m. Improv? For class? Needless to say I approve. The speaker that came in was a guy who has taught at the Improv Olympics, and for you who don't know what/who that is, let me hit with you some knowledge. You know Second City, right? (If you don't, take this time to Google it). They are the "improv" group that does more sketches than purely improv. Improv Olympics (IO for short) are completely focused on improvisation and do not participate in any of the sketches that Second City are known for. Anyways, the improv "class" was amazing. And the teacher of it completely GOT IT. He had the whole idea that improv could be used in more sections of your life than you EVER though possible. For example...one of the activities we did was to construct a story as a group, one word at a time. As much of a stretch of the imagination it takes, it actually is a very good drill to work on your team building skills. The concept he was trying to get to us was to "build a wall, one brick at a time" instead of trying to build it all at once (by throwing out really random, but seemingly "cool" words in a story). He brought a lot of different ideas toward teamwork to us which, in a business setting, has a lot of opportunity to help that business. Having an Improv class open to the workers of a business, I feel, would boost the morale of the workers and would also help the "team chemistry", so to speak. Anyways, I think it was a great day of studying and I am really enjoying the learning we are doing actually in the "real world". Fantastic.