Fighting Illini

One thing that has really jumped out at me since I arrived in Champaign is the scale of the infrastructure that the university is able to operate and maintain. The campus occupies almost 6 square kilometers and has a football stadium, ice skating rink, gymnasium complex, etc - the list goes on.

 

On Thursday evening, I attended a basketball match between the University of Illinois and Northwestern University at Assembly Hall, a stadium located in the southern part of the campus. The stadium is really impressive - it was built 50 years ago at a cost of $8.35 million (comparitively $80 million today) and seats between 16-17000, depending on the event.

Another thing that was evident was the level of 'patriotism' shown towards the team. 'Fighting Illini' is the common nickname that is used to refer to the university, in particular the sporting teams (I found out the Illini is pronounced Ill-eye-nai, not Illini!) and you can find signage all around town, spurring the teams on. The turnout was very impressive for a mid-week game - the stadium was at close to full capacity, with most people donning the conspicuous orange Illini colours for the game.

The night also had a full marching band playing 'pomp and circumstance' style music, a cheerleading squad, an aerobatics squad, not to mention that it was also broadcast on TV. Everyone was happy that Fighting Illini won 88-63.

Well, for now anyway!

As the stadium is more or less within walking distance from my place (about 1.5 kilometers), I walked home after the game. It started snowing shortly after I arrived back home, and I woke up the next morning to a 1cm cover. It was chilly when I left the apartment in the morning, but I felt better prepared after picking up some thermal gear from Walmart.

I ended up deciding against spending the weekend in Chicago and had a really great weekend in Champaign. I was invited to a house party on Friday evening with some friends I had met through Salsa on Wednesday. We had a great evening, and ended up spending most of the following day together, ice skating during the day and going to salsa in the evening. I spent most of Sunday resting from the previous two nights, and a friend picked me up in the evening to collect some groceries.

The Illini student union

It is now Monday morning, and Jacky is arriving tonight. He won't be arriving until 1:30am, so I am planning to spend the evening cooking with some friends, before heading off to downtown Champaign to collect him from Illinois terminal. I'm looking forward to him arriving and having some company around the apartment.

As far as my project goes, I haven't seen my supervisor since Tuesday last week so things haven't really progressed. Hopefully we can get everything started this week. Things are still fairly quiet at the NCSA, although everyone should be back by Monday the 17th.

As for the rest of the week, I was asked by one of my friends to participate in an experiment she is conducting at the famous Beckman Institute. She is currently doing a PhD in Psychology and the experiment is MRI Investigations of Perception, Memory, and Language. I have never used an MRI before, so it should be an experience. I have to say that I'm not particularly looking forward to being confined in a small space for two hours. I'll post an update with the details later this week!