I've officially been at the Chicago Semester for one month! It's actually pretty crazy how much I've learned, and how fast one month has gone by. I'm so grateful to how close my roommates and I are (physically and emotionally haha). When you put 3 people in a 1 bedroom apartment you're either going to love or hate each other pretty quickly- and we're fortunate to love each other ;)
One thing I've learned is that as much as I can try to convince myself otherwise, living in a city overwhelms me. I grew up as close to the city as you can get without technically being in the city- so naturally I thought I knew what 'city living' was like. My family went downtown all the time when my sister and I were growing up, and I knew all about the 'hustle and bustle' of city living. The crowded streets, consistent noise, packed buses/trains- I felt a little too confident in what city living was like, and I had convinced myself that I liked it.
Reality is, you don't know what city living is like until you actually do it. Living, working, running errands is a whole new way of life in the city when you're used to even the most urban suburb. I wasn't expecting to be crammed on trains and buses to go to the grocery store on Tuesday night. I had no idea what it was going to be like waiting 20 minutes for a bus in 10 degree weather. Some people love it (or maybe they tolerate it), and I don't think it's a bad thing to accept that I'm not one of those people.
Now there are some really great things I've discovered about the city. There are a lot of 'hidden gems' between coffee shops, antique stores and fun restaurants that I didn't know about. I've enjoyed being able to walk most places (including work) and I'm looking forward to when the weather warms up. All in all, I'm so grateful I've been given the chance to say I've lived in the city- it truly is a cool experience.
Last week I lead the first Bible study of the year and that was a really cool experience. We were experiencing some technical difficulties at work so I wasn't able to make as much headway on my projects, so I learned how to improvise with what I could so I didn't sit there twiddling my thumbs all day. On Tuesday, a group of us went to Mollie's for cupcakes after work. It was fun to get to know more people in the program. One thing I've learned between our cupcake outing and Bible study is that most people are feeling similarly- a little lonely in a big city.
On Wednesday our class met in Oak Park at a cafe. We watched a video and some of us got coffee- it made for an interesting class. This weekend I took the Amtrak to Grand Rapids for a long weekend. Every day was filled with seeing and catching up with people. My heart isn't as full anywhere else than in this place with these people :)
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