The Snow Must Go On

It’s hard to believe, but we’ve already been in the city for four weeks! We’re all beginning to settle into our routines and internships, though it took a little longer than expected to figure out a normal week’s routine as a result of this little snowstorm that blew through Chicago last week—maybe you heard about it?

One of my responsibilities at Chicago Athlete is twittering. On Monday, I logged onto Twitter and saw our timeline filled with tweets about an impending blizzard. As a born and raised Michigander, I’ll admit I blew it all off as hype. I’ve heard plenty of doom-and-gloom winter weather forecasts in my life and have seen most of them end up turning into a few flurries, so my expectations for the storm were pretty low. As the storm approached, it became clear that the storm would live up to the predictions. The Chicago Athlete offices closed down early on Tuesday, as did much of the city. By the time I got back to my apartment it was snowing pretty hard. The weather just got crazier as the night went on, complete with thundersnow!

Our first day of classes was cancelled on Wednesday due to the weather, so my roommates and I made the most of what will likely be our only snow day in college. Two of my roommates cooked a fantastic breakfast while I watched the blizzard get more and more intense until I literally could not see out my window anymore. Here’s my normal view:

And here was my view around 9 a.m. the morning of Snowpocalypse:

Later we went outside just to see what the city looked like covered in 20.4 inches of snow. In a word: dead. There’s usually a lot of traffic around our apartment, but on Wednesday you could look up and down the road and literally not see one single vehicle. I never thought I would see the day when Chicago was as quiet as Holland, Michigan!

A lot of the city remained closed on Thursday, but I did make it out to my internship. We’ve been working on the annual issue, which includes listings of nearly all the endurance sport events and clubs in the general Chicago area. I spent a lot of last week checking on contact information for clubs and stores, and finishing all that on Friday was a great feeling. I also got to write two articles for the issue profiling the magazine’s athletes of the year, which was a really great experience. Writing articles that give readers the chance to learn more about athletes are my favorite kind so I really enjoyed that.

One of the cool opportunities we have through the Chicago Semester is the chance to go to various art events during the time we’re here. We were supposed to go to the Art Institute last Thursday but that was delayed until tonight. I haven’t been to the Art Institute since I was little and I’m excited to go again now that I’m old enough to appreciate it.