september 13th-21st

Okay, let's see... it's only been a week since I last wrote something, but it feels like that was forever ago! It was strange because every day this week felt like a Friday making it take forever to actually get to the weekend! Now it's here and it will be over before we know it. I forgot how exhausting it is to be busy every day of the week. Every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday I work at the Field Museum 8:30-4:30 and on Wednesday I have class from 8:30-2:30 and Bible study from 7-8:30. All I have to say is that I am not fan of waking up at 6:45 every day!

But apart from the early mornings, this week has been fairly enjoyable. I think I'm finally getting into a routine at the Museum, even though I get lost every day. That place is HUGE! But it is going to be an amazing experience.

Right now I'm still getting eased in to projects and tasks but soon I will get to be very involved with the new Diamonds/Gems exhibition opening in October. This week has been mostly observing - getting a better feeling for how the project managers work. Monday was orientation, Tuesday I was given a few projects, Thursday I got to go on a "field trip" which was a part of the research for a new exhibition that's in the beginning stages of planning, and Friday was meetings and a few more projects. So far my favorite part of working at the museum is the fact that whenever there is a lull in the work I have to do, I can go exploring. So far I've gone through the Water, Evolving Earth, Animals, and the Pirates Exhibitions.

On Thursday we also went to our first "Arts in the City" event - a play called Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. We had to meet at a library at 6 to catch a school bus to the theater however, at 6pm I was still on the train coming back from our "field trip" way up north. Thankfully my roommate was on the bus so I could call her and have her tell our teacher that I was stuck on the subway. I managed to get to the red line stop at 6:15 and proceeded to sprint 5 blocks south to where the bus was. I made it, but the entire group had been waiting for me. I felt awful, but there really wasn't anything I could do about it. I had told my supervisor at the museum that I needed to be back at my apartment by 5:30 and she said it wouldn't be a problem. However, we underestimated the amount of time we would be stuck in traffic when driving from the suburbs up north, back in to the city.

Friday was an interesting day at the museum - I got a chance to talk with one of my supervisors and found out a lot more about my involvement and the kinds of projects I will be working on. I'm really excited about how involved I get to be in the Gems/Diamonds Exhibitions that are opening in October!!! I'm going to be an expert on precious stones in no time :) I also got to walk through the Pirates exhibit which is the most popular exhibit at the museum right now. It was fascinating following the story of a former slave ship that was taken by pirates and then after being a pirate ship for a while, sank just off the coast of Cape Cod in 1717 (plus I got to touch a piece of real pirate treasure hehe - it made me feel like a little kid)! 

Saturday was a wonderfully lazy day with a little bit of homework and baking of brownies thrown in - the night before Renae and I got ice cream and watched a movie, but I ended up going to bed ridiculously early - and in the evening we had a girls night out with Jeanne and two other girls from the program.

Sunday I went to Willow Creek Community Church with a handful of others from the program and filled the afternoon with more homework. There was a group that went to the zoo, and I thought about going, but it was a chilly, rainy day. We ended our day with a ridiculously long game of SceneIt.

And today was just another day at the museum - working on a handful of different projects. I also made a Target run... which is always dangerous for me :) but it's so hard to resist since it's just around the corner from where I catch the train to go home.

Sorry I don't have pictures to add to this post but soon I'll add some of our apartment now that it is starting to look a little more like home. And hopefully I'll keep up on writing more often so I don't have these uber long ones :) - I have to keep a journal for one of my classes so I'm thinking I might alter my writing a little bit to fill that requirement.