Spring is in the Air!

It’s crazy to think about, but we’re already more than halfway done with our semester in Chicago! On the one hand it seems like Orientation just happened a few weeks ago, but on the other hand I think we’ve all reached the point where even though we know there’s a lot of the city we haven’t seen, we certainly feel like we know it enough to not feel like tourists anymore.

Things slowed down a lot at my internship after our last deadline. Working at a magazine is a different experience for me, because up to this point all of my journalism work has been for newspapers or websites, where your deadlines are very immediate. At a magazine that only comes out once a month, though, there’s a lot more breathing room as far as writing articles goes. I still have tight deadlines for writing online stories, but it’s nice to be in an atmosphere that’s a little more relaxed than what I’m used to.

When you’re a general student in the Chicago Semester program, you participate in something called practicum group. Your practicum group meets once a week on Wednesdays and has a lot to do with your internship. Each practicum group also visits one of Chicago’s neighborhoods during the semester as a way of getting us out of the Loop (downtown Chicago) so we can experience different parts of the city. Last week, my practicum group went to North Lawndale. North Lawndale has been through a lot, especially since the 1960s when riots after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death destroyed much of the commercial area in the neighborhood. The population of the neighborhood dropped by about 67 percent between 1960 and 2000. When we visited North Lawndale, though, my practicum group spent time with Lawndale Christian Development Corporation, and organization that has done incredible things to revitalize the community. It really was an inspiring experience to see everything LCDC is doing in North Lawndale.

This past weekend was a pretty active one for me. On Friday, a bunch of us went to the Bulls game against the Hawks. I had never been to an NBA game before, so it was pretty surreal to actually see people like Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and others whose names I’ve seen in the paper playing basketball. The next day the Bulls celebrated the 20th anniversary of their first NBA Championship, so a few players from the 1991 team including Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant were also in the audience. On Saturday one of my roommates and I decided to get out of our apartment and explore the city. Chicago celebrated St. Patrick’s Day on Saturday, so there were a ton of people around town. We opted for a trip to the Garfield Park Conservatory to get away from the tourists for a bit. It was an absolutely beautiful place and a great reminder that spring is coming! We decided to be a little tourist-y ourselves that night by going to Ed Debevic’s for dinner and then to Navy Pier to watch the St. Patrick’s Day fireworks. It may have been cold, but it was a lot of fun.

Work and Play

It’s been a busy two weeks in Chicago! Between my internship, classes and art events it seems like I haven’t stopped moving since the last post. It’s a good thing I like having things to do!

Last week was especially crazy at my internship because we had a deadline for two issues on Friday. Every year, Chicago Athlete releases an annual event guide that includes listings of just about every endurance sport event, club or store remotely close to Chicago. It’s a huge issue, so we had a lot to finalize with that. We also were working on our March issue at the same time. When all was said and done, I ended up writing nine pieces for the two issues combined, seven of which I wrote last week. I’ve never written so much on such a short deadline, but the sense of accomplishment when I finished it all made it completely worth it. Seeing my name in print when the physical copies of the issues came in today was also a very nice bonus.

When I wasn’t at my internship, it seems like I was at the theater. In eight days I went to three different shows. Last Tuesday we went to Working, a musical based on a book by Studs Terkel that tells the story of people who work in Chicago. It was a really good show and it really made me appreciate how different people contribute to the city in so many ways. This past Tuesday we went to Les Misérables. That was wildly exciting for me because I’ve wanted to see the show since I was in eighth grade. It was honestly more than I ever could have imagined. It was a phenomenal show, and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Last night we went to a play called The Moonstone at a small theater in Rogers Park, one of the northernmost neighborhoods in Chicago. The storyline followed the mystery surrounding a stolen diamond. I’ve never been very good at solving mysteries, so I was pretty surprised with how it all turned out, but it was a really good show nevertheless.

Last weekend several of my family members came into town. I didn’t have much time to spend with them on Friday, but on Saturday we all went out for breakfast. Afterwards one of my aunts and I planned on going to the Shedd Aquarium, but the line was ridiculously long because admission was free that day. We instead went to the Field Museum. I had never been there before, so that was a really cool experience for me. They had a special exhibit on gold that was really interesting. They even had real Academy Awards, Golden Globes, Grammys and Olympic gold medals. Obviously they were well protected in glass cases, but it was still so cool to see. I also really liked the view from the Field Museum. When you’re in the city it’s hard to appreciate how beautiful the skyline is, but we had a great view from the Museum campus.