Sleeping On A Couch in a Basement in Wisconsin

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To Wisconsin and Back, via Tonica, Ill This was quite a Weekend trip. I think I can speak for every UD student who went that we were all exhausted at the end, but the trip was very fulfilling and helpful.

We began by taking the not so best way to get to Madison from Dayton, Ohio by driving through Champagne, Illinois instead of Chicago to miss the traffic, but it took forever. We also stopped every other twenty minutes or so, so that slowed us down. We also drove through Normal, Illinois, the home of Steak n' Shake. Finally, we stopped in a town called Tonica. BIG MISTAKE. That town was the definition of sketch. The gas station parking lot was way too big for what it needed to be and had enormous puddles everywhere. Beyond the parking lot was a huge overgrown field. The cars were old, the people were old, and only new thing was the Vault energy drink in the convienence store, and this one house was literally right out of Texas Chain Saw Masacre.

We arrived in time to get a quick dinner after signing in before everything would officially start. Our group walked down State Street with our tour guides Christina and Shileng who were both great people. We went to I think 'Roma Pizza' to get some food w/o meat (Friday in Lent). We each had a slice of pizza, which was delicous and quite messy by the way, but delicous none the less.

Next, we walked back and made it in time for praise and worship, followed by a great talk from the Archbishop of Millwaukee. After that, it was off to where we were staying, the MSG(or main street guys) House. That was where the first annual ECI party was taking place, but that was cool until we had to get up in the morning. It was a great party with food, pop, and some of the best dancing/music. The strobe light really helped me to look awesome while dancing. Christin and I had fun 'Networking' and just getting to know people we didn't at the party, like Tim or the group from Notre Dame.

The party ended around 2 and that was followed by evening prayer, and then we went to bed around 2:30. I slept on a couch in the basement in the State of Wisconsin. (check that off the list of things to do in life) We woke up around 7 to walk over to St. Pauls.

Our 15 minute walk took us past Camp Randall Stadium and through some of the campus where we saw the riot proof Humanities building and the zoology building to name a few. They even had a Dayton Street up there so that was cool. Breakfast was weak, but then John and I took a little stroll over to Lake Mendota.

Lake Mendota was where I called my dad and revealed to him and the rest of my family I was in Wisconsin. I was hoping since it was April Fools Day they would not believe me but he did, and so did my mom. But my brothers really didn't. Anyway, Lake Mendota sort-of reeked, so Jon and I went back to learn.

The workshops were nice and helpful, and the second keynote Speaker was actually from the Univ. of Dayton.

We walked down State Street a couple of more times, and got to see the capitol building which was pretty nice. Overall State Street was nice and had a good overall feel and vibe to it. Too bad we couldn't check out the Wisconsin Film Festival. We ate dinner at the Angelic Brewing Company which we felt was a little overated. Altough I will back up my seasoned waffle fries, they were scruptious.

The group stayed at St. Paul's for the overnight and got up around 5 in the morning. We made good time back despite the fact that we lost an hour to time change and another to daylight savings time.

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