Hello, everyone! I’m back for my last semester of college (and student blogging) but I’m not actually back… I’m in Chicago studying through the Chicago Semester! I’ve moved into my teeny tiny apartment, I’ve landed an internship I’m stoked about (and figured out how to get there), I’ve set off the fire alarm in my apartment (apparently small amounts of smoke from cooking sausages are quite problematic in shoebox-sized apartments), MAJOR OOPS because I’ve accidentally paid $6 for an iced vanilla latte at an adorable outdoor coffee shop, I’ve swum in Lake Mich (the other side, of course), and, perhaps most importantly, I have NOT gotten on the wrong L train. Yet.
Killin’ it.
I grew up about two hours from the city but never really visited it much except for a few school field trips. It was never really my favorite place. Then I started dating that one guy who lives in Chicago and I totally fell in love with the city. Over the past two years I’ve gotten to visit him a bunch of times and I realized that there’s way more to Chicago than I ever knew about before, and I’m so excited to live and work here for at least a few months.
While I’m here I’m taking a few classes which I’m really excited about (one involves lots of field trips to different parts of the city so that we can learn about diversity and inequality here, which I think is going to be super interesting and formative!). I am also interning with the arts director at Community Christian Church in Lincoln Park/Old Town (LPOT for short) and I’m really excited to start in just a couple days. I practiced my commute there today and I just wish it was a little less ugly.
Just kidding. It’s stunning and I’m taking this route to work every single day and I’m probably going to walk it on the days that I don’t even have to be at work because I love it that much. By the way, my internship is half a mile from my apartment so I get to walk there instead of taking a long train or bus ride. Short distance, awesome views – such a win-win.
I also have to be an adult and go to bed and wake up at reasonable times, pay actual rent to an actual landlord, do this thing that professional-sounding people call “networking,” and also something called “laundry”????
Beats me.
So far, I’m loving it except for the fact that the nearest Culver’s is over an hour away but I have a Chick-fil-A within half a mile so that’s a pretty good tradeoff. I am so happy that I made the decision to spend my last semester studying off campus in Chicago – just one of so many awesome opportunities that have opened up during my time at Hope! As cheesy as it sounds, I can’t wait to see what this semester has in store and how much cheesy deep dish pizza I am going to eat (I already had bruschetta from Giordano’s yesterday and I’m not exaggerating when I say I could survive on just that stuff). Thanks for reading!
Make sure you keep up with me on Twitter (@hopekathryn17) and Snapchat (@chicagosemester) to stay in the loop (get it? the Loop? #chicagojokes) about my semester in Chicago. You can also email me at kathryn.krieger@hope.edu!
“You are worthy, O Lord our God,
to receive glory and honor and power.
For you created all things,
and they exist because you created what you pleased.”—Revelation 4:11