A Poorly-Timed but Fun Trip to Chicago & the Completion of LCU: Year One
Books
I just realized that I had
planned on sharing the books that I was currently reading. I also haven’t been
reading much lately due to homework and doing whatever else I can to be busy
100% of the time. Recently, I’ve finished Mere
Christianity by C.S. Lewis for one of my classes at school and Extreme Prayer by Greg Pruett (the
current president of Pioneer Bible Translators). I would, of course, recommend
both. Usually, I would recommend any book that I finish reading. If I’m in the
middle of reading a book and I hate it, I’m going to stop reading it because
there are so many more books that I want to read, and my life is approximately
almost 1/5 over. I’m currently reading Verbal
Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion by George Thompson and Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur. Both of
these books were recommended to me by friends, so I’m always open to new books!
Feel free to comment books I should read!
Chicago
The weekend of April 29-May 1
turned out to be the only weekend I was free to go and visit some friends in Chicago,
so I made plans about a month in advance to visit. Little did I know (or maybe
I just didn’t pay attention) that this was the weekend before finals week. Ha.
So while I was on a train Friday evening, I was thinking about a final for
Worldviews, a final project and project presentation for New Testament 2, a
vocal jury (or test), and another final and paper to do for Basic Christian
Beliefs. I’m still not entirely sure how I got all this done while spending the
majority of my time in Chicago. And I didn’t really do much on the train
either.
My friend Sarah picked me up from
Union Station at about 11:30 Friday evening, then we took the bus/walked to
University of Illinois-Chicago where she goes to school. That night, I met a
few of her friends and hung out with them for a little bit, but then we went to
bed because we had an early day of sight-seeing ahead of us.
Early Saturday, Sarah and I took
the bus to Adler Planetarium. Or we tried. There was a race going on that day
and the buses couldn’t take us all the way there, so we walked a lot of the
way. (P.S. it was cold and I didn’t have the appropriate jacket, but I endured
because adventures.) Adler was really fun, there were some interactive exhibits,
telescopes, videos to watch, and squished pennies to buy. (I’m a collector.)
For lunch, we ate at Panera along with the majority of the Chicago Police
Department. From there, we went to the Chicago Institute of Art which was
hosting an exhibit called “Van Gogh’s Bedroom”. We wanted to see it, but the
wait was an hour and a half long, and we really wanted to get back because we
were tired and wanted to nap. So we looked at everything else instead.
Contemporary and Modern art is always my favorite; I’m not sure which exhibits
were Sarah’s favorite, but she did know a lot of the artists from being in an
Art Appreciation class and being the Art master in Scholastic Bowl.
After our nap, we ate supper at a
place called Portillo’s which was really good, then we got drinks at McDonald’s
because they were cheaper there than at Portillo’s (even though they were
$2.65!!!) And we headed back for the night. I got to meet Sarah’s friends Ana
and Nathan.
Sunday, we made our way to City
Church Chicago where Sarah has been going this semester. They are actually
partnered with Hillsong, so I was very interested in that, needless to say. The
message was about Missio Dei (the Mission of God) and how the church wants to
carry it out through a new building project. Just in case, I gave them my information
if they offered any internship programs for worship majors.
For lunch, I met up with my
cousin Jen, because we hadn’t seen each other in a long time. She took me to a
place in Chinatown for Dim Sum, which is kind of like the Chinese version of
“tapas”. Basically, you choose a bunch of different appetizer-type dishes, and
they bring them out to you and you share with your entire table. This wasn’t
the typical Chinese buffet that I was used to, but I was pleasantly surprised
with everything I ate. I also surprised myself with my chopstick skills.
We walked around Chinatown for a
bit after lunch, it was really neat to see. I tried a lot of candy samples from
the candy shop for sure. There was one flavored Lemon and Ginger which was
definitely not my favorite thing I’ve eaten in my life.
Jen also took me to see her
apartment which happened to be right next to the church I went to that morning.
I loved her apartment, it was basically everything I had ever pinned on
Pinterest haha. She even took me on the roof to see the skyline.
Too soon, it was time to get some
greasy fast food from a food truck and make our way to Union Station. On the
train ride home, I wrote a paper for my New Testament project after waiting the
entire trip to do something productive. I considered my Chicago trip a reward
for finishing the semester (for the most part).
Last Days at Lincoln Christian University (for now)
Though I’ll be at LCU on the
weekends due to camp teams, the majority of my friends were leaving for the
summer (and some of them leaving for longer than that) this week. Tessa and I
packed up our room on H2 and moved a lot of our stuff down to H1 and a lot of
it home for summer. It’s kind of weird to me being so sad to say goodbye to all
these people and getting really emotional, because I really wasn’t sad about
graduating high school or going to college. To me, I got emotional when looking
back and seeing how much we’ve grown this year and how much more we know now
about ourselves, the Bible, community, and God. Tessa and Brittany really show
me how to be a true friend. My heart overflows when I think about my year at
LCU: the late nights at Steak n’ Shake, the volleyball games, Focus, waking up
at 6am the past five weeks to spend an hour in prayer and reflection, even all
the times my mind and abilities have been stretched this year. I’ve picked a
few pictures from the year that mean a lot to me. So many different people have
poured into my life this year, and I really want to be someone that can pour
themselves into someone else’s life next year.
I am beyond excited to continue
studying at LCU next year and for all the new students coming in! I’m trying to
think of some advice for incoming freshmen. Here’s what I’ve got: do your
homework, go to as many community events as you can, get out of your dorm room,
just take it all in.
Yours,
Sadie
It's a no from me
ReplyDeleteI've read better on stall walls
Refrigerator
Wow I'm such a good riter. Glad i cud reflect on my wrk.
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