A Fond Farewell

Three and a half months ago my parents dropped me off in Chicago. I couldn’t have possibly been in a worse mood. After having a fantastic fall semester at Hope, spending my spring in Chicago seemed like a horrible idea. I had absolutely no desire to be here. Before I headed down to the ballroom for our first meeting of orientation, I told myself that since it was far too late to back out now, I might as well pretend to be happy.

When I left my hotel room that afternoon, it never crossed my mind that I was about to embark on what has easily been the best semester of my college career.

I liked Chicago just fine before I came here, but during these past few months I’ve completely fallen in love with the city. Yeah, there’s the fun tourist attractions, the endless amount of shopping, the grocery stores that have turned me into a foodie (Trader Joe’s, anyone?), but it’s the little things about Chicago that have made my semester great. Joe, who greeted me every single morning at the Howard CTA station with the RedEye newspaper and a “Happy *whatever*-day!” The Red Line conductor who often drove my train home, who was more than happy to vary from the standard, “Please stand clear of the doors, doors are closing” announcement for more personal sentiments, like, “Let’s go home,” “Stay warm!” and, my personal favorite, “All right, buddy, I guess we’ll wait for you,” when someone tried to board the train after the doors had closed. It’s things like this—things that you miss when you come just for Michigan Avenue—that have made me feel like a true Chicagoan.

Before the semester ended, we had a great final party a restaurant in Greektown called The Parthenon. Chicago Semester people from across the board—general students, nurses, social workers, student teachers and the staff—were there, which was great because that hasn’t really happened at all since orientation. I had never had Greek food before, but it was all fantastic. Highlights for me included moussaka, which is similar to lasagna, the baklava and galaktoboureko for dessert and of course the saganaki, which is the official term for “flaming cheese.” It sounds a little weird, but it’s super good.

Spending four days a week working has been a welcome change of pace from my normal academic life. I’ve gained a ton of practical experience here and it’s really been helpful to me in getting a clearer idea of what I would like to do after I graduate next year. I truly would recommend the Chicago Semester to anyone. Even if you’re unsure about living in a big city, even if you’re convinced life can’t get better than it is on your college campus: give it a shot anyway. It’s an experience unlike anything else.

Amusing Museums

I cannot believe how close we are to the end of the semester! This is actually my last full week at work, since we have Good Friday and Easter Monday off and Easter inconveniently fell on the last weekend of our semester in Chicago this spring. This whole experience has just flown by.

Two weekends ago I went on a museum-ing adventure around the city. On Saturday morning I went up to Lincoln Park to see the Chicago History Museum. My sister had visited the museum after she spent the weekend with me and discovered that they have an exhibit on Fort Dearborn. Fort Dearborn stood where Michigan Avenue meets the Chicago River, and it’s a pretty big deal in my family because its namesake, Henry Dearborn, was my great-great-great-great-great (that’s five greats) grandfather. I don’t think he actually had much to do with the fort itself, but my siblings and I love to joke about how we basically own the city of Chicago, given its Fort Dearborn roots and all. I’m pretty sure that’s a completely inaccurate claim, but it doesn’t stop us from bragging about it anyway :)

That afternoon I hoped to go to the Shedd Aquarium, but, as usual, the line to get in was well over an hour long. Instead I went to the Art Institute. I had never gone to the Art Institute by myself before, and I found that I actually enjoyed wandering around alone. It was nice to be able to do things at my own pace and only stop to see the things that I thought were the most interesting.

This past weekend there was a huge 8K race in Chicago, the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle. It’s the largest 8K in the world with 40,000 registered participants—almost as many as the Chicago Marathon! I worked Chicago Athlete’s booth at the Shamrock Shuffle Health and Fitness Expo all day Saturday and actually enjoyed it a lot. I also got a free pair of socks from one of the booths, which may or may not have made my day. On Sunday I tagged along with our editor-in-chief while he took photos at the race itself. The weather was very un-April-like: somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 degrees at the 9 a.m. start. I was awfully warm, but a strong breeze of the lake kept it from being too unbearable. Thankfully the race was held really close to my apartment, so I was able to get back home and make it to church before the 10:45 a.m. service started. Normally the roommate that I go to church with and I take the train to and from church, but since the weather was so nice yesterday we decided to walk back to our apartment along the lake. Even though I was hardly dressed for a 3.5 mile walk, it was absolutely gorgeous. Living so close to Lake Michigan just might be one of my favorite things about Chicago.

Running Towards The Home Stretch

It’s been another busy few weeks in Chicago. I’ve really come to appreciate the busyness, though. I realized on the way to work the other day that we only have one month left in the semester. While having down time is nice, right now I’d rather cram as much as possible into my last weeks here. I can relax over summer vacation, right? :)

A couple of weeks ago a few members of my practicum group and I went back out to North Lawndale to continue our experience in the neighborhood. We were able to volunteer at LCDC helping them get some things in order. Even though LCDC does a ton in the community of North Lawndale their staff isn’t huge, so there is always work to be done. It was great to go back and see the community again. The next step in this process is to put together a presentation so we can show the other students in the Chicago Semester what we saw in North Lawndale. We present next week, and I’m really excited to be able to share everything with the other CS students.

http://www.lcdc.net/

The day we went out to North Lawndale happened to be one of the most beautiful days that we’ve had in the city thus far. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky all day and temperatures climbed well into the 60s. I, for one, was thrilled by this change, because it meant I could finally go running. I wasn’t much of a runner before I came to Chicago, but spending eight hours a day reading and writing about people who run marathons can really do something to your motivation. After class that day, I decided to check out the Lakefront Trail for myself. Running along Lake Michigan just might be my new favorite way to exercise. It was absolutely beautiful. I ended up running more that day than I have ever run in my life. Lesson learned: internships can affect your life in ways you never expected.

My sister and her roommate from college came to visit me last weekend, which was a ton of fun. I’ve found that nothing makes me feel quite as Chicagoan as showing people around and knowing exactly where I am when they have no clue. I took them to a couple of my favorite restaurants here, and we had a fantastic time wandering around on an epic shopping adventure. We also happened to see a TV pilot being filmed on their first night here, which is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in the city so far. The pilot is set in the 1960s, so the block they were filming on was filled with old cars, busses, and taxis. It was really interesting. Unfortunately it was nighttime and flash photography was not allowed, so I couldn’t get any pictures. It was still awesome to see, though.