september 5th - 9th

Sorry it's been a while... After we moved out of the hotel and in to our apartment on Saturday, we were without internet for a bit. I'll attempt to sum up the last couple of days for ya:

Saturday - like I said, we moved in to our apartment... My parents arrived around 12:30 and I think left around 3-ish. Nothing too exciting happened in the afternoon except worked on unpacking and getting everything settled. But I did discover that I strongly dislike grocery shopping for myself. Trying to figure out what I would eat for a week at a time is almost impossible since I don't really know how to cook anything :)
Saturday night I went on an adventure with one of my roommates, Jeanne, out to Navy Pier... if you want to know about it, feel free to ask but otherwise I won't bore you with the details right now

Sunday I went to church at the down-town branch of Willow Creek. Willow Creek Chicago meets in this amazingly gorgeous theater and so far I really like it. I went with two other people and we decided to sit in the balcony which I think is on the 5th floor. Worship was amazing - I love worshiping with such a diverse group of people! The sermon was good as well - definitely got me thinking - but it was a little different for me because it was a video feed from one of the other branches in the Chicago area. I think I'll still go again next week because they are starting a series (where I think the speaker is actually in the room haha) about being aware of how you spend your time and not letting yourself get too busy.
After church we did a little exploring while looking for the Jazz festival - and even though we never found it, we did find the Buckingham fountain:

This dad and his little boy were absolutely adorable! :) They were running around, playing games, and here the dad is trying to teach the boy how to do push-ups.

In the afternoon a few of us went to the beach which is just a few blocks east of our apartment building. It was gorgeous - a wonderful day to walk with your feet in the water... or to build a sand castle:

  

 

(more pics on facebook)

On Monday my roommate, Renae, and I went on an adventure to go thrift-store shopping with the hopes of finding some things to decorate our apartment, but... we forgot it was Labor Day and all of the stores were closed. We ended up relaxing for the most of the day at the apartment and then met up with one of Renae's friends from high school who has lived in Chicago for three years now. We went out for frozen yogurt at 

and then walked all over the city and ended up hanging out at his dorm for a while. But I just want to say... if any of you come to visit, we are definitely going out for some frozen yogurt! :)

Tuesday was pretty basic - I had more orientation meetings for the most of the day - just an introduction to the classes I will be taking.

And finally, today. Also pretty basic. This morning we had an intro to our practicum groups that we will be meeting with all semester. I took an unintentional nap while trying to get a head start on my homework :\ but it was needed. It's taking me a while to get used to the sounds of Division Street (major tourist bar-hopping street if you didn't know) right outside our window which we have to leave open in order to not suffocate from the heat. Now I'm going to once again attempt to get started on homework until leaving for a Bible study a guy in the program is hosting tonight at 7pm.

Thanks for reading! I hope you are all doing well and that you know how much I miss all of you!

Oh, and to just give you an idea of how much walking I've done this weekend here's a map of  some of the different places I walk between:

There are many other places I've gone and paths I've walked over and over again, so this is just a glimpse :) I really enjoy being able to walk everywhere or taking public transportation, but I know after a while I'll probably miss driving my car.