Castaway in Paradise

My Reflections on Island Life It’s been exactly 60 days since I set foot on a flight from Chicago to Quito, Ecuador. 58 days since arriving in San Cristóbal Island. If you’ve ever been on a flight toward an unfamiliar country, you’ll know the feeling of butterflies right before you step off the plane. That …

St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago

Happy (almost) St. Patrick’s Day! This weekend I got to experience one of Chicago’s traditional events- dyeing the Chicago river and the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. I had never heard of this tradition before, and this was the first year that Chicago was able to do this again since COVID began. Unfortunately for us …

A Day in the Life

Today’s blog will be all about one day in Chicago, and I think it represents how much can be done in one day here. We finally had our first really nice day here in Chicago, and we got so lucky that it also happened to fall on a Saturday. Temperatures were reaching 70, and everyone …

New Babies!!

This week was all about Hope related things, and it has been great being home. I had been planning on coming home this weekend since I first arrived in Chicago, due to it being the last week of pledge for all of the sororities and fraternities. Both Libby and I took a train back to …

Nature is My Classroom

I knew coming into the Galapagos program that I would get hands-on learning experiences in biology. I never expected it to this degree, and I am beyond grateful for the unique learning opportunities this program provides. Regardless of your track, you may land in an impermanent classroom that’s always on the move. Sure, you may …

New Adventures

Another week down, and one week closer to warmer weather (hopefully). I think that the overall trend of this week was exploring new places, as I was able to visit the community of Pilsen, attend a play at Goodman Theatre, and finally walk on the Chicago Riverwalk. For my Social Justice class this week we …

Packing Mistakes Were Made

Because there’s a whole lot of stuff the pamphlets don’t tell you! I spent months preparing for my study abroad program in the Galapagos, read every packing list I could find, in efforts of arriving to the Galapagos fully prepared for any situation. I got a lot of things right, but I also got a …

Home

And so here we are on another Sunday. This week absolutely flew by, and I think that is due to how busy I have been the past few days. I typically only go into my internship once a week, but this week I was able to get out of my room three out of the …

One Month In!

Time really does fly. I’m somehow ¼ of the way into my semester here, and it still feels like I just got here last week. I was so worried that I wouldn’t be built for city life, but I absolutely love being here and have even begun to look into graduate school options within the …

Adjustment and Grace

It has now been three weeks since I moved to Chicago, and overall it has been an amazing experience. I am finally used to riding the trains, and feel comfortable getting to and from my internship as well as my classes. One of the things that I have struggled with the most these past few …