Week 8 + 9: Double Trouble

This week in Chicago was very special because I got to see my mom and brother for the first time in a long time.  It was also their first times being in the city and I had the responsibility of showing them around.  They took the train here on Friday from Detroit and arrived sometime in the afternoon but I would not see them until the next day due to a very busy day at work.  Overall it was a fun weekend full of good food and a few surprises.  It's not one I'll soon forget.

So the Friday they were set to arrive, all of the interns were "surprised" with the fact that we would all be traveling an hour down to the main Fulcrum-gt office to give a presentation / demo of our projects thus far.  I say "surprised" because we had submitted our pitch slides the week before and knew something was coming soon.  Regardless, we all drove down there, clamored into a large presentation room that was completely full, about 30 interns and 30 others in total.  After awhile Ahmed the CEO gets up and gives this short speech telling us how excited he is to see what we have along with how not only are there employees in the room, but also investors and industry experts.  I could feel the nerves already.

We had heard before that last years interns had some difficulties presenting.  Before the presentation

the heat was turned up to 90 degrees and while they presented they were asked things like "Why are you sweating, are you nervous?"   Thankfully this was not the case.  However when I first started presenting, I had an awkward moment.  I was running through the demo on the laptop leaning over the table which was probably blocking the view of the screen, Ahmed says "You're gonna have to get down on your knees."  If anything it helped get rid of the nerves when everyone, including myself, laughed but it was pretty awkward.  The demo ended up going flawlessly and I really didn't feel nervous like I usually do.  In the end it was very rewarding showing off a project we worked on from scratch in a setting like that.  It left me hungry for more.

Afterwards I was planning on going back to the apartment to see my mom and brother but Fulcrum ended up taking us to the "Main Event", one of those Dave and Busters like places.  There you could bowl, play arcade games and laser tag.  It was very fun, the laser tag especially!

Saturday was the day I finally got to see the family.  In the morning I showed them where we were staying, the john Hancock building, and the Fulcrum office.  From there we got lunch at Nandos peri peri and went down to the University of Chicago, got coffee, got deep dish pizza, and walked around Chicago.  However the best part about the day was when Ahmed called me, somehow knowing my family was up, and asked how we'd like to go see Hamilton.  I was blown away.  It was so cool to take my mom out to the play the next day!  We all had a fantastic time and the play really was as good as people say.

I often say that my brother is my best friend when I describe our relationship.  We are constantly joking around and spouting off inside jokes.  I almost felt bad for my mom because we just wouldn't shut up haha.  I was very glad he got to come up so I'd have at least a little time to spend with him this summer.  That's all of the highlights for this week, until the next one...