Traveler Spotlight

Back in May, former intern Erika caught up with Mathieu playing pool in the hostel lobby with another traveler, Naythan. Check back tomorrow for Naythan's interview!

What is your name?
Mathieu

Where are you from?
Geneva. I am French but I live in Geneva.

Okay. So what brings you to Chicago?I have a conference next week. I go one week before to travel and see the city.

Sounds good, is your conference here in Chicago?
Yes, in the Hilton on Ohio street.

How long is the conference?
For 5 days. I leave Chicago on May 18th, and I arrived the day before yesterday, so Sunday.

What is your conference for?
Linguistics, phonetics.

Wow!
Yes. It is will about 300-400 people. Each year they change the location. Last year it was in Brazil. It is nice because the university pays for my trip.

Wow! That is great! Do they pay for your week of vacation before too?
No, that is on me.

Bummer. So what have you done here in Chicago so far?
Nothing!

Nothing!?
I got lost yesterday. I was looking for Boystown. It took three hours to find it and I didn’t have a map or anything like that.

Oh no!
But today I went walking and went to the library. And I am going to see my sister here for 1 week. We will probably watch the….the baseball?

Oh okay! Yeah.
Then we are going to the cinema tonight. And try to have some drinks. We want to have drinks with young people. There seems to be a lot of businessmen here.

Yeah, downtown there are a lot more business people. But if you go to different neighborhoods there are more young people. Wrigleyville might be a good one. You should check that out, or Fullerton has lots of young people where you could have drinks with them.
Yeah sounds good.

You mentioned your sister is here, what is she doing?
She just got here today, she could not get in here. So she is staying at another hostel. She was studying in Canada for 6 months. She is going to South America and she is going to stay here for one week.

That is great! It’s cool that you get to see her for a little while!
Yes, it is very good. Because I haven’t seen her since Christmas.

Great! So when does your conference start?
On Monday. I organized the first part. It is a satellite workshop. I am very nervous thought because it is all in English. I don’t know how to say it, but your doctorial? After you do your PHD you can do 1-2 years…yeah I want to stay in the U.S. and do that. But not in Chicago, not because of Chicago, I have only been here two days (laughing). But when I was little I cam and stayed on Penn State University campus. I really liked that. I want to come back and stay on campus, I like that feel.

That is great! So how did you two meet then? (referring to Naythan who he was playing pool with)
We are in the same room here. I was getting something out of my locker, and he came in. And we just started to chat. Then we went out for drinks. So…it is really great. It is very easy to meet people here!

Yeah, it is. We try to make it that way! Well thank you for talking with me you guys! Enjoy the rest of your stay here in Chicago!
Yes thank you! Cheers.