Saturday, June 16 -- Graduation!!

..and finally, the big day had come! The day started off with a reception at Jacobs, followed by a 4-hour ceremony in Ryan arena, and closed with a reception back at Jacobs.

Upon entry to the reception, they had set up a nice ice sculpture, which was worth this picture


..and one with my mother


Fangning and I outside Jacobs before boarding the buses to head to the ceremony.


The ceremony was ~6,000 people packed into a the NW basketball arena for four hours without air conditioning on a incredibly hot day in the midwest -- it was quite a challenge! ..and the loudest cheers of all came when the last 'Z' name was called.

Bill Perex ex-CEO of SC Johnson and Nike spoke for ~30 minutes, but interestingly did not mention Nike at all.

..and finally, it was time to cool off and enjoy ourselves. My mother caught this photo as I was exiting.

The tassles are now hanging to the left, indicating that we are official 2007 Kellogg graduates. Stathis and I were all smiles

I caught this quality photo with my father.

This one will be in the family for awhile, as I have my Mom and Dad to thank for their support througout.

That night, I caught up with some first year soccer players to enjoy a few final drinks

The next morning, I was out off to Nike to start the next venture in my life.

Wednesday, June 11th -- 3 days until graduation

The Final Formal at Kellogg --

After a ~2-hour pre-party at Stathis place, we jumped in a 22-seater Hummer Limo -- we were closing out the Kellogg formal experience with style!


A picture of the crew who joined us in the limo --


..and a look inside


From left -- Deidre, Mike and Tomasso

Silvia and Nicole

A few shots from the venue of the formal ..

These two must have coordinated this beforehand -- yes?

Mike and Diedre are a good couple, and will likely be together for awhile

Anita and Nicole (Nicole loves getting a little airtime :)

An artistic view (i.e. with no flash) of the venue on Nave Pier in Chicago

..and a look outside

The 2nd year soccer crew (from left: Justin, Rich, and I) with "THE SERIOUS LOOK" ..thought I think my smirk indicates that I may have missed the memo.

Fangning, with another attempt at an artistic shot

A very good shot of the both of us

Charlies Angels?

Carlos and I

very nice

the DJ stage

..and a few shots with the Asian crowd

....

..and finally, it was getting close to the end. ..and naturally, I found myself spending a little quality time with J

Tuesday, June 12th -- 4 days until graduation

Cubs game!

For Tuesday night, the Kellogg grad committee purchased ~300-400 tickets for Cubs game against the Mariners. The weather was perfect, and this was one of the most highly anticipated ventures by all the grads.

J Riley and I and headed down a little early to enjoy some of the pre-party, and couldn't resist grabbing this shot by the stadium as were heading to the happy hour bars.


We met up with a few other Kellogg grads who were grabbing some drinks at one of the many bars around the stadium


Approaching game time! ..so we headed to the stadium


Wrigley Field represents a great piece of Chicago history, and the personality in and around the stadium is contagious near game time

J was clearly in the mood, as he is seen here throwing back a little Chicago-style pizza and striking a Mafia-style pose

Finally, we were in! We were near the top, but it really didn't matter -- the view from here is better anyways.

The scene changed as the night progressed

We were sitting near a great crew for the game, and naturally, most of these people were folks I met during my first week of Kellogg -- i.e. KAOS Puerto Rico. Friendships from this first week were still some of my strongest of all at Kellogg

Sunil was definitely one of them

Our favorite Europeans, Stathis (Greece) and Silvia (Italy)) were doing their best to try and get into the favorite American pasttimes -- they are seen here with the first American ballpark hot dog

This was during the 7th inning stretch. Their energy was clearly fading...

.. but we were smiles, nonetheless

These girls, who were celebrating the b-day of the 'Queen' in the background, ventured into the Kellogg crowd and were worth taking a picture of :)

Interlude -- a few photos of Northwestern and Chicago

As an interlude to the festitivities, I thought I'd share a few photos of Northwestern and Chicago that I took throughout the week. Mind you, this is June, and both the school and city look fantastic; however, as any student can attest, these scenes are rarely the norm.

A view of one of the more modern buildings on the undergrad campus


The running trail at Northwestern looking back at a small beach


The beautiful lake in the middle of campus


The view of downtown from the campus shore

The varsity soccer field with the under grad gym (i.e. SPAC) in the background

Another view of the lake

A great view of Chicago from the Lake Shore running trail

Here a few pictures that I missed from the North Beach posting. The volleyball scene around this area is truly impressive, and rivals anything I saw around my old stompoing grounds -- Hermosa Beach in California.

A view from a top Castaways..

..and another