Grp 5 2016: 10/09/16

Sunday d. 9/10

We woke up early this morning, and eat breakfast at 9 o´clock. The breakfast was great and reminded a bit of the breakfast that was served in Madison, Wisconsin. At 10am we met in the lobby with the other from our class and started to walk to Navy Pier where we had to do our marketing assignment. The weather has been really nice today, there has been sunshine and no clouds on the sky and it has been warmer than we expected which is perfect.

Navy Pier in Chicago

As we walked to Navy Pier we noticed all the skyscrapers, the busy traffic, all the different kind of people and all the marathon runners who where going to run 42 kilometers today at the Chicago marathon.

When we arrived at Navy Pier, the first thing we noticed was the huge ferriswheele and the other fun things around the ferriswheele. Navy Pier is like a harbor where you can get entertained from restaurants, a theater, a modern architecture and the beautiful skyline of Chicago. Navy Pier seemed like a cozy place to be and at the same time a cool place to hang out with your friends in the evening.

Chicago skyline

After our observations at Navy Pier we wanted to do some shopping. But first, we grabbed something to eat at McDonalds. We ended up spending the whole afternoon in Chicago downtown where we were shopping and took some great pictures of the city. For dinner, we ate at a really cool restaurant called “FlatTop Grill” where we were able to mix our own food, which was really delicious. Some choose to mix all kinds of vegetables and make them into a wrap where other just got an ordinary bowl. While we were eating it became dark outside, so on our way home to our hostel we saw Chicago by night which was very beautiful.

Our trip to Navy Pier had not only the intention that we should see and experience the place, we also had a little task to do there. We had to take notes to the assignment below. The assignment was to make the 7 p´s for Navy Pier. The 7 p´s is respectively:

- Product - Promotion - Price - Process - People - Place - Physical evidence

The 7 P´s:
Navy Pier is a not-for-profit corporation and was originally opened as a shipping and recreational facility in 1916. It is located on Lake Michigan, and has served many purposes throughout its rich history and currently encompasses more than fifty acres of parks, gardens, shops, restaurants, family attractions and exhibition facilities. Some of the attractions are sightseeing tours from companies such as Seadog, Shoreline cruises, and the tall ship Windy. Another ship we saw, was called Mystic Blue and was a ship where you could go to eat and not a ship for sightseeing tours.

There are many outdoor attractions at Navy Pier such as the Ferris wheel, remote control boats and other funny carousels.

The Seventh day in The United States

Friday:

So Friday is our last day here in Madison, but still, we had a long day to await.
The day started at Madison College or for the most of us, for sadly Maja had become sick over the night and could not attend.
At the college should we make a presentation about what we found most amazing or strange about our trip in America, so far. We all took the different experience we had thought the trip, like Epic and Dream Bank.
After our presentations we ate lunch at the school too, we had a real American pizza (Pizza with a hell a lot of cheese). After lunch we said goodbye to the teachers.

As said we had a long program for today, for later that day we should see a football game on high school level. But that was first in the evening so we had four hours of free time. And in that time we shopped at the local mall called East Towne Mall.

Around sixth o'clock we meet with the others from our class down in the lobby, from here we should take a real American school bus out to Waunakee High School where the game was played.
The was quite interesting, for not only did you learn a lot about American Football but also about American culture.

The game ended with that our team won (Waunakee High School).

"Our team warm up"

"The school band is playing at the game"

"The game is starting"

"Ann-Sophie, Cathrine and Tanya with a player of the other team"

The eight day in The United States

Saturday:

Saturday was the day where we left Madison and travelled to Chicago. We have a quiet morning before we check out about 10am and loaded the bus, which should drive us to Chicago. One of our American teachers was there to say goodbye to us. It was a little sad to leave Madison because we had such a great week there full of good experiences and sweet people.

"Our hotel in Madison - Best Western East towne suties".

We drove about 2 and a half hour with the bus but most of the class slept almost the entire way to Chicago. When we got to Chicago, we were totally blown away by this beautiful city and its amazing skyline. Only two of the rooms were ready when we arrived so we put all the luggage in the two rooms before we went out to experience the city and get some lunch.

We met back at the hotel at 3pm where people took their luggage into their own room. Afterwards we all went on a walk around in Chicago. Our teachers, Preben and Søren, shown us down town Chicago which include "The bean" as we call it, Millennium Park, The Magnificent Mile (which is a shopping street) and other streets in the town. The town is so nice and its skyline is amazing!!

"The Bean" in Chicago.

One of the most impressive building is the "Trump Tower" which is almost a imitation of Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The "Trump" building is huge and very beautiful and the placement is nothing less than perfect. Directly to The Magnificent Mile and with a beautifully view over the water and the town.

"The Trump tower" in Chicago.

Millennium Park is nice park, where you can go for nice walk, visit the famous "bean" or just relax a little. 5 minutes away from "the bean" is the Magnificent Mile, which is a famous shopping street with all famous brands and much more. Expensive brands as Burberry, Chanel and Armani, but also cheaper but stil very popular brands as Zara, Topshop and many other brands are placed here.

We got a very good first impression of Chicago - the people here is very kind and the town is beautiful and luckily is the weather very good as well. The sun was shinning the entire day which only made the town look even prettiere.

What a view over beautifully Chicago!

Chicago look like other American big cities like New York, but a very speciel thing about Chicago is the "metro". The metro here is very speciel because the trains drive over the cars like normally trains do. They don't have a underground system here, they do only use the metro driving over the earth.

The "Metro" in Chicago which is over the earth.

At the evening some of us girls and most of the boys went to United Center, which is the home of Chicago's basketball team - Chicago Bulls. We drove to United Center with the driving app "Uber" which means that you order a private car that is near you and then the car pick you up and take you to your destination. Uber is very popular in the United States but not as popular in for example Denmark. It worked very well and our driver was so friendly.

Our experience at the United Center can't be described with words. It was totally amazing!! And we enjoyed every minute of it. We were there very early so we have lot of time before the game started. This saturday, Chicago should play against Indiana Pacers. The United Center is truly amazing and the atmosphere was something unique - everybody was happy and supportning the team by for example singing "let's go bulls!". In the beginning, Chicago was behind Pacers but before the half they were in front and they ended as the winner of the game with 121 point. During the game was there many times out so the teams could discuss their strategy. During the night was there some different competitions and shows from cheerleaders. The Basketball teams were both very good and without doubt in good shape before the season begin. The game consists of 4 quarters, which each is 12 minutes long. The rules for basketball is pretty easy to understand and the game is very interesting because the team can be 12 points behind and 10 minutes after 6 points in front of the other team.