The Illinois College of Optometry Student Blog

I have a confession: I love to shop. What I love even more is hunting for deals. I get extra excited when I find something that I need that is good quality and a really good deal. The price is very important since I am on a graduate student’s income (loans, so it should be considered an outcome!) One of the most difficult things to get used to while living in Chicago is the tax on shopping. I am from Minnesota, where we have no sales tax; what we see on the price tag is what

Last time you heard from me I was packing up my last few things before leaving for my road trip to Chicago, with a stop in Minneapolis along the way. In Minnesota we stopped at the outlet mall in Albertville, but there weren’t too many great sales and we were promptly on our way to our primary destination, the Mall of America. Here I found awesome deals: I got lots of shirts for $5-10 each from places like Banana Republic, Ann Taylor and Club Monaco. After spending some time

At this point I have stopped feeling guilty about all the ice cream I’ve been eating–I have become addicted to this one parfait called the Zebra at our local ice cream shop. It’s vanilla soft ice cream layered with crushed Oreo bits, melted white chocolate and hot fudge. Hopefully I will be able to find something as good in Chicago that can be my go-to when I have a craving, or just for a treat during a study break. I have been spending as many weekends as possible out at the