Drawing to a Close

It's hard to believe that my time in Chicago is almost over.  The days and weeks are starting to fly by now.  

Last week Wednesday for art class we went to Christ Temple in downtown Chicago for the noonday service.  A group of Japanese musicians were there and played a few songs on traditional Japanese instruments.  In the afternoon I went to the Jane Addams Hull House Museum on UIC's campus.  Jane Addams is widely known throughout social work and according to the website I've linked above, the "Hull House, Chicago's first social settlement was not only the private home of Jane Addams and other Hull-House residents, but also a place where immigrants of diverse communities gathered to learn, to eat, to debate, and to acquire the tools necessary to put down roots in their new country."  It was fairly interesting but to be honest, I was more interested in the actual house than the story behind it all.

On Thursday my supervisor took me out for lunch at the restaurant Rosebud Prime where a cheeseburgers costs about $17 and the wait staff wears suits.  This isn't the kind of restaurant that I ever want to become used to going to.  

Saturday afternoon Megan and I headed down to Shedd Aquarium but after waiting for a bus for 30 to 40 minutes and then seeing the length of the line we decided to just go for a walk along the lake.  We took some pictures and had some good conversations while enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery.  We ended our walk with a stop at Jamba Juice for smoothies.  

Sunday after church we went to Elly's Pancake House.  I had a HUGE plate of the most amazing pancakes ever--Cinnamon Apple.  I spent the rest of the day doing laundry and reading another book for class.

Today I had my final evaluation at my internship site.  My supervisor had all good things to say which is definitely a confidence booster!  

I still have a lot to do (and see!) before I leave Chicago.  This coming weekend Sherry and I are ushering at Blue Man Group so that we can see the show for free!  I'm also hoping to meet up with some extended family that I haven't seen in years.  Here's to making the best of the last week!!!

Loving the Quiet

Last week I went home for Easter!  Everyone got to leave work at about 3:45. I had a bit of time to kill before heading to the airport so I grabbed a coffee and read my book for awhile.  Once I got to the airport, things got...ridiculous.  My confirmation papers said my flight was from terminal 2 so that's where I headed.  I went to the US Airways counter where I was told to go to the United kiosks.  Once there, the screen told me that my reservation required "special handling" and that I needed to see a representative.  Well guess what...there are no United reps in Terminal 2! So I had to head over to Terminal 1, pick up my ticket, and then go BACK to terminal 2 to find my gate.
Once I finally made it home I was amazed by how QUIET it is! I don't think I ever really appreciated it before.  But after living here, where it is NEVER quiet--not even when you're sleeping!--I really appreciated it.
Friday night all the girl cousins had a "Girl's Night" at my sister's apartment.  We made supper together and then did manicures/pedicures.  We actually had 7 girls soaking our feet in the bathtub at one time...good cousin bonding time :)
Most of the time that I spent at home was filled with swimming--since we had "accidentally" heated the pool to 94 degrees!--and a lot of family time.  We ended up with 27 people at our house on Sunday which was really great.  And I finally got to hold my new baby cousin, Raylan!  I'm definitely looking forward to spending more time with him once I move home.
Monday afternoon/evening I headed back to reality--Chicago...and work.  As of today, though, I only have 16 days left in the city, and only 8 more days of work.  Guess that means I should get to work on all that homework that I have left to finish in the next 2 weeks!

I'm Alive!

Don't worry, I'm still alive!  After receiving an e-mail today that said it was "disappointing" that I had quit posting, I decided I should probably come back.  My response to said e-mail was this: "I have no excuse other than the fact that I 'just haven't felt like it'.  Though if I used that excuse for everything I didn't feel like doing...nothing would ever get done." (maybe that's why I haven't started my final art project yet!!!)  So now I'm here...writing.  


The only thing that happened during March 20-28th that was important enough to stick in my mind was an incident on the Red Line on the way to an art event.  Megan's version of the story is much more entertaining than I'll make it so if you want that version you can find it here: http://chicagolife--megan.blogspot.com/.  If you'd rather hear my version, here it is:  We were all just chatting away as usual and were a few stops from where we would be getting off when two men started yelling at each other.  Usually I just ignore those kind of people but I started hearing people gasping so I turned to look at the commotion and found a man about 3 feet away from Karla and I waving around a knife and yelling "What you gonna do about it?!?!?" There was another man at the other end of the train who was yelling back at him but I couldn't really see him.  Every one who was seated between the two men started jumping over seats trying to get out from the middle of the fight.    Karla was gripping my wrist and quite honestly, I was glad. Because I was feeling the same way.  At the next stop the people on our end of the train would have liked to get off the but man with the knife was in front of the door so we all stayed put.  At the next stop, where we were supposed to get off, a man got up and took the lead to snuck out behind the man so we all followed suit.  Once we were off and new we were finally safe, my heart started to slow and was able to think again.  I think the thing I was most afraid of was that the man would turn around and start waving the knife in our direction.  I don't think I've EVER been as afraid as I was in those 5 minutes.  Needless to say, I was a little afraid to get back on the Red Line after that!


This past weekend Betsy came to visit!!!  She got in Thursday night so I took the day off on Friday to spend a little more time with her.  We went to Afternoon Tea at the Drake Hotel (a 4-star hotel!) where we each got our own pot of tea (I got Darjeeling, Betsy got Bombay Chai), and then got a 3-tiered tray of sandwiches( roast beef, cucumber & tomato, egg salad, and salmon on pumpernickel), pastries (banana bread and scones) accompanied by preserves, lemon curd and English Double Devon cream.  It was SO much fun and definitely not something I would have ever even considered doing if it hadn't been for my sister!  Afterwards we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art which was...interesting.  I guess contemporary art is just NOT my thing! That night we went to the show Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind Saturday we had sushi, went shopping in Wicker Park, and went out for supper at Little India with a bunch of NWC grads for Betsy's friend's birthday.  Sunday was church, shopping, and supper at Cafe Ba Ba Reeba for Tapas.  She kept me so busy over the weekend that by the end I thought I was going to die of exhaustion!  ...Maybe that's why I was sick on Tuesday!


I now have only TWELVE more days of work!  Tomorrow I'm flying home to spend Easter with the family--which I'm VERY excited about!!--and then I'll only have 3 weeks once I get back.
Well, once again, I'm sorry for getting so behind on my blogging!


Happy Easter, everyone!

St. Patrick's Day...A Day I Won't Soon Forget!

Last Thursday our art event was at Harris Theater on the north end of Millenium Park where we watched the Hubbard Street Dance Company perform.  They performed 3 different dances. I really liked one of them but the last one was just...strange.  Here's a picture to give you an idea of what it was like...

Wearing flesh-colored body suits and dancing in strange robotic movements

Friday evening Megan, Sherry and I met up with my friends Jesse and Ruth and about 15 of their friends at a pizza place, Pete's Pizza, up north for some food and conversation.  We hung out there for a about an hour and a half and just enjoyed getting out of our apartments.

Saturday, oh Saturday...It was, by far, the most interesting day I've had in Chicago so far! Since it was St. Patrick's Day, EVERYONE descended upon this city!  In the morning we walked down to the river for the tradition River Dyeing and even though we were 40 minutes early (which was actually much later than we planned on being there), it was very difficult to find a place to stand and watch! We eventually found some spots pretty close to the edge of the river and watched as the first boat came by dumping 45 lbs of red powder into the river.  A second boat followed closely behind to mix it all up and then, Viola! A GREEN river!!

After the river dyeing we made our way towards the parade route.  It was INSANE.  I have never seen so many people in my entire life.  I now know what it feels like to be claustrophobic!  Megan, Sherry and I actually ended up getting to walk in the parade because Megan's supervisor's wife is on the board...or something like that! We walked the mile or so route and then were 'herded' off the street like cattle by policemen on horses...definitely not something you want to mess with!  Here's a picture Karla got of 'our' float in the parade. You can't see us, but the 3 of us are in this mass of people!

Once we got back to our apartment, we didn't leave.  It was MUCH too crazy/scary out there for me!

Sunday I went to a church called San Lucas United Church of Christ with some people for my class.  It was very tiny--maybe 15 or 20 other people there besides us.  I actually really enjoyed the service.  It was an English and Spanish church so anything that we read, either from the Bible or from the bulletin, was first read in English and then in Spanish.  Afterwards we were invited to stay for lunch where they served chicken, stir-fried vegetables, and rice.  We walked through the park (since we were in the Humboldt Park neighborhood) to get back to the bus we needed to take home.  It was really beautiful...other than all the trash.  The grass was green, the birds were singing, the water was not full of algae, and there were lots of people playing games, running/jogging, and fishing.  It was really nice to be in a more wide-open area away from tall buildings and cement!

Monday morning my class met back in Humboldt Park to help some of the members of San Lucas Church with some volunteer work.  Every 3rd Monday they hand out food to members of the community.  A semi arrived around 8:30 and we began unloading all the food.  The truck was filled with carrots, onions, apples, bread, cabbage, spinach, and desserts.  Once it was all unloaded we had to separate it into individuals bags to hand out to the community members.  As soon as we finished, people started coming through the line getting one bag of each food item.  They said we had around 140 people that day which was a small turnout compared to their usual 300-some crowd.  It ended up being a good thing though as we actually ran out of food and the last couple of people that came through the line only got onions as everything else was gone.  I had a lot of fun helping out with this and wish that I could help them on a regular basis!

Well, that's all I have for now! Only 16 more days til I come home for Easter!!!!!

A Little Taste of Home

For those of you that have been patiently waiting to hear how my midpoint eval. went...wait to longer! It went really well!  My supervisor had mostly good things to say about me which was very encouraging.  Overall I was very happy with how the meeting went.

On Thursday I went on a neighborhood visit to Humboldt Park with my Practicum Group.  We walked around the neighborhood a bit and got a very short tour with a lady from the Newlife Covenant Church.  This church has over 100 ministries and is apparently funded 100% on donations.  They have food drives, a clothing ministry, and have a home for women overcoming addictions.  I was very impressed by the amount of things this church does.  Afterwards we ate supper at a Puerto Rican restaurant, Papa's Cache Sabroso.  I had a Jibarito which is a sandwich made with fried plantains (instead of bread), a garlicy mayonnaise, chicken, cheese, and lettuce.  It was very interesting.  Definitely not my favorite meal but it wasn't bad.  As soon as supper was over we hurried (as "hurried" as you can be when depending on public transportation) back to our apartments to change.  We had our art event that evening at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra where they played some music by Brahms.  The music was incredible and made for a wonderful evening.  ...Even though a fight broke out during the middle.  If you want the full story, check it out here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-chicago-symphony-orchestra-fistfight,0,6463330.story

Brian and Stacey came to visit this weekend!  Friday evening we went out to eat with Andrew and Athena (some of Brian's high school friends) at Giodano's, a pizza place.  We finished the evening by watching How to Train Your Dragon--WAY better than I thought it would be!!! Saturday morning I met them all at the Lincoln Park Zoo...because it's free ;)  We walked around there for awhile but since it's still (technically) winter, many of the animals weren't out.  Later we went to China town...by far the most interesting part of the day.  We went into a grocery store and I was pretty shocked.  You walk in the door and are greeted by a very fishy smell...literally.  They have tubs full of dried seafood...everything you can imagine is just sitting out in these open containers waiting to be picked through.  And the chickens, ducks, and quails they sell...they're whole.  Like they still have the head (including eyeballs and beak) and feet on them!  They also sell fresh seafood.  They had green, algae-filled tanks full of shrimp, crab, lobster, and fish. Oh! And turtles!  I was amazed.  It's very different than the kind of grocery stores I'm used to!       That evening we went to a dueling piano bar called Howl at the Moon.  We went partly for something to do and partly because I needed to for class.  It was kind of fun.  There were two guys playing piano that took any and every request that people from the audience had.  I was amazed at how talented these guys were.  Not only could they play the songs that were requested but they were also able to sing every word or every song.  Pretty incredible!     Overall it was really fun weekend and I was so glad to have Brian and Stacey here to visit; it felt like I had a little bit of home here with me.

As for work, things have been a little stressful.  I have been getting multiple projects handed off to me each day and sometimes I have NO idea what I'm supposed to do.  I just have to take it one day at a time and one project at a time.  Thankfully I have a pretty good friend at work.  Meredith, who has been filling in as the receptionist temporarily while the full-time receptionist is on maternity leave, has become a pretty good friend.  In fact, she invited Karla and I over for supper tonight!  She made a DELICIOUS supper--chicken and vegetables--and an equally delicious dessert--apple crisp.  Meredith, her husband Dave, Karla, and I sat around the table and ate and enjoyed each other's company.  I had a wonderful night and wish we could do it more often--both for the great food AND the great company!    My time here is much more enjoyable when I get out and do things and see people!!

Just Another Week

Things have finally started to pick up at work!  I've been working on projects for three different people lately and each of them seems to have a new project for me each time I finish one.  It's nice to finally have a list of things waiting for me to do!  I'm going to have to start asking which ones are of higher priority though, because I can't get them all done at once!  I need to know which ones need to be done NOW and which ones can wait a few days...or weeks.  It's nice to finally feel needed though!!  :)   My midpoint evaluation is tomorrow afternoon and I'm a little nervous for it.  I feel as though I've been doing a good job but my supervisor doesn't give me any feedback (at all) so I have no idea if he's happy with the work I have done so far or not. ...Guess I'll find out in less 24 hours!

Oh, in case you're one of those really observant readers and you've noticed that this is being written on a Monday at 4:20ish...Yes, I have the day off today.  It's C. Pulaski's birthday today.  Oh, you don't know who that is? Yeah, I didn't either.  Apparently he was a Revolutionary War cavalry officer that was born in Poland.  And since Chicago has such a large number of Polish residents, it's a city holiday...which means I get the day off!!!  But before you get too excited for me, I should tell you what my "day off" has consisted of: sleeping in (yes, this part was nice, I'll admit that much) and writing a paper.  NOT exactly an ideal way to spend a day off!  And if you're wondering why I didn't write the paper this weekend, here's your answer: I was working on other homework!  We had to read 250 pages of a book, an article, write a reflection on our art event, write a journal, and write a 4-5 page paper. So that's what I've been doing all weekend...other than when I went to church. Oh! And Megan, Karla, and I got FREE cupcakes from Sprinkles on Sunday afternoon :)

Last week's art event was at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier.  We watched A Midsummer Night's Dream and it was SO good.  I had never read it or had any idea what it was about but I really enjoyed it.  It was very funny and actually fairly easy to understand.  I was a little disturbed by one of the characters, Puck, because no one could tell for sure if it was a woman or a man playing him!

This week should go fairly quickly.  I have today off and only work half a day on Thursday.  I'm going on neighborhood visit for one of my classes so I get to leave work early.  Brian and Stacey are coming to visit this next weekend and I'm VERY excited to finally have some guests!!!!!

Thai and Jazz = A Pretty Great Saturday

Last week Thursday I finally got some projects to work on and was kept very busy all day Thursday and Friday.  The projects were nothing thrilling but at least it was something to do!
Friday evening we just hung out in our apartments, relaxed, and watched a movie to unwind after the week.
On Saturday all the Chicago Semester students were required to go to the play Hunger at Lifeline Theater way up north.  Here's a little blip about the play...


"During the 900-day Nazi siege of Leningrad, Russian botanist Ilya is charged with protecting a cache of valuable seeds for future generations. As the weeks turn to months and the city starves, Ilya and his co-workers are torn between their lives’ work, the dictates of a brutal regime, and the harsh realities of survival in a time of war. Consumed by innumerable hungers and haunted by memories of happier days, Ilya must decide whether to preserve his life or protect his ideals."


After the play 9 of us went out to eat at a little Thai restaurant called Cilantro.  It was a pretty tiny restaurant and I think we overwhelmed the waitress when 9 of us walked in!  I had a great time...great conversations and great food!

For our art class we have to have three "Art Encounters".  Basically, you choose a genre and have three "encounters" with that genre.  Megan and I both chose music so we decided to go to a jazz club, Green Mill, after supper. We got there at about 8:45 PM and the place was already at capacity so we got to stand outside in the 18 degree weather for 20 minutes until people left.  Once we got inside we had no idea what to do.  It was SO packed we weren't even sure if we could make it to the other end of the bar.  After snaking our way through the crowd we finally found enough room for the two of us to stand next to each other and then waited for the band to start playing.  40 minutes later our feet were hurting--Megan made the mistake of wearing heels!--and we wanted to leave but since our first paper is due on Wednesday we knew we couldn't leave.  Thankfully, shortly thereafter the band finally started playing.  We stayed for 2 songs--each about 20 minutes long.  It was kind of a fun experience and I'm glad we went but I've decided that I don't really like jazz.

For church on Sunday we returned to the church we attended last week, Park Community Church.  I really liked it this week...a lot.  And I think we all did.  We might try a few other churches but I definitely wouldn't be opposed to going back to this one!  The rest of the day was spent grocery shopping, washing dishes 3 times, and doing lots and lots of homework.

Last week was a short week since I didn't have to work on Monday so I have a feeling this week is going to seem extra long...  Oh well, one day down!