Spring Break Destination: Chicago

Spring Break comes to the rescue right when students couldn’t possibly bear another minute of work. Some of us will be leaving town next week for warmer weather, and some of us, loathe to lift a finger during much-needed rest, will hardly leave our pajamas.

UIC Business students spending Spring Break in Chicago have a great opportunity to explore the city we live in (but are always too busy for). Here are a few things to do around town:

“Earth laughs in flowers.” For those of you craving spring blossoms, the Chicago Flower & Garden Show runs March 12-20 at Navy Pier. If you want a more outdoorsy garden adventure, visit the Chicago Botanic Garden. Admission is free; just take the train from Ogilvie to Braeside and follow the North Branch Trail to the entrance.

Spring Break is also a great time to knock a few area museums off the bucket list. Check out the Shedd Aquarium’s amphibians exhibit, or go next door for the Field Museum’s terracotta warriors. Further south, the Museum of Science and Industry invites you to play with Legos in their Brick by Brick exhibit. And, of course, the German U-boat is worth the trip any day.

Further north, the Chicago History Museum is running two great photography exhibitions, “Vivian Maier’s Chicago” and “Access for All: Tom Olin’s Photographs of the Disability Rights Movement.” A few blocks away, you can view the Graham Foundation’s current exhibition, “Architecture of Independence: African Modernism,” and while you’re in the neighborhood, you may as well stop by to see the red panda cubs and pink flamingoes at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Chicago is a great city for the performing arts. Check out the Hubbard Street Dance Spring Series, which runs March 17-20. The following weekend, hear the Chicago Symphony Orchestra perform Brahms Symphony No. 2 and Rachmaninoff’s daunting Piano Concerto No. 3. Above all, Chicago is a theatre city. Pay a visit to Court Theatre for Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, or visit Mary-Arrchie Theatre for American Buffalo, a play by Chicagoan David Mamet, set in a Chicago junk shop.

Whatever you do with your Spring Break, I hope you feel recharged and ready to get back to business on the 28th!