Union and Chicago

Missions Conference at Moody is behind us. We are now past the half-way mark of the semester, which is quite bittersweet for me this time around. To celebrate fall and the half-way mark, a trip to a little town in Illinois was in order.

My roommates, Michelle and Michelle (yes, both of my roommates have the same name!), and Cassidy (in the striped shirt!) and I made the trek out to Cassidy's hometown of Union, IL. The other fun thing about this group is that Cassidy is actually going to be "replacing" me in The Little Byt, our apartment, next semester. This was a Little Byt gathering of sorts then.

Union is quaint and an all-American town, complete with a cute cafe, second-hand shops, a local bookstore, and a place they call the "opera house" (which is really just a place for any and every show in town). We also stopped by the apple orchard, where Cassidy's younger sister works. We're close to the end of apple picking season, but we managed to find some anyways!

It's times like these that I truly realize that I am in America. That may sound strange, but it does still strike me sometimes! It was good to get out of the city, but not so much so that I could be gone from Chicago, but so that when I came back, I would realize how much this place has endeared itself to me. The city was foreign to me when I first got here. I didn't know how to appreciate its beauty, nor praise the Lord for it. He has definitely changed my heart. Although I don't see myself living in Chicago for the rest of my life, this city is dear, and holds a lot of special memories and friendships.

While we still had fall break on Monday and Tuesday, I went out to the lake early in the morning with a friend. We looked back at the cityscape from the Lakefront Trail and soaked it in. Is it not beautiful? God created people with the creativity to make things like skyscrapers and high-rises. That's pretty incredible.