My Trip to Chicago and Mother's Day

On Saturday, I took a trip to Chicago with Human Biology students from both last trimester and this trimester. We left the high school at around 6:30 am in coach bus. On the way to Chicago, I napped a bit and reread half of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. We arrived at the Shedd Aquarium at around 10:oo am and left around noon. I had been there a few times before, so much of the sights were deja vu for me.

In the afternoon, we saw what we had come to Chicago to see: Gunther von Hagan's Body Worlds Exihibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. In the exibit we many plastinates, which are cadavers or parts of cadavers that have been treated with reactive plastics to become hard and preserved. To say the exihibit was awesome would be an understatement. There were over ten full body plastinates as well as numerous organs, sections, and slices of bodies. Parts of every bodily system were displayed there. It was truly amazing how much was there and it gave me a real appreciation of the human body. After leaving the exhibit, I bought a copy of the Body Worlds book, which has pictures of all the plastinates in the exihibit, a few more not shown in the exhibit and explanations for all.

Though there was a mix-up with tickets, we were able to attend the omnimax show about the human body at the Museum of Science and Industry as well. However, the time for the show was 5:00, an our after the rest of the museum closed, meaning that we did pretty much nothing for a good portion of an hour. However, the show was excellent and created even more respect in me for the functioning of the human body. It showed some of the systems of the body in action, which helped compliment the display of body structure at the Body Worlds exhibit. Many of the kids were grossed out, especially by the digestive system, but I just found it fascinating.

During the trip back, the sore throat that I had developed on Wednesday turned to laryngitis.


Today, Mother's Day, was fairly uneventful. I slept in and then went with my family to Sheboygan to see my grandfather for the last time before he heads to Mayo Clinic as well as to visit the niche for my grandmother's ashes.