Last week was pretty fun! Literally, come to think of it. We travelled in by train to downtown Chicago to visit the 'Taste of Chicago' festival. This is a festival held in Grant Park where a bunch of local restaurants have booths where they can sell samples of their food. There was also a concert incorporated into the festival of a well known current band called 'Fun' - which was a free concert. This is pretty unheard of for us - to hear about quite a high profile band having a free concert. So we thought we would go seeing as it was free, and we like a few of their songs. :)
So here are some touristy pics that we took on our travels...
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| Waiting to catch the train at Homewood Station |
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| The 'Bean' |
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| Happy Hannah because she has a Churro :D (it was the first place I wanted to go) |
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| The Buckingham Fountain |
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| Josh playing around with his fancy panoramic camera |
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| Panorama by the Buckingham Fountain |
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| Genuine deep-dish Chicago pizza - really yum. It was a good day trying out some local food and getting into the spirit of the festival. It was also a super hot day. We ended up sitting for a good number of hours in a spot that we picked for the concert (in anticipation of the fact that it was going to get super busy - and it sure did). However unfortunately the spot we picked ended up bordering on being a swamp. Well - it was pretty damp on the grass, and although we had bought a big thick beach towel to sit on (not anticipating dampness considering it was so hot), it soaked up the damp pretty quickly, and consequently soaked our butts too. Not having many other options in so far as good spots to sit though, we stalwartly held our place - thinking well, we are Kiwi's after all. And therefore are pretty used to living in swamps. :) We also got quite sunburnt, so after coming from NZ winter with our glowy white skin, we have now started to fit in a bit more with the locals and are a bit more bronzed (once the red died down). It's pretty amazing - for the number of hours that we spent in the sun, we were only just burnt. Compared to back home, if we had spent that much time in the sun with no sunscreen we would probably be in hospital being treated for burns. |
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| This was our delightful swampy spot for the concert. |
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| By the time the concert started there were looooooooots of people. |
Perhaps the most interesting part of the whole thing was people watching. The people are so diverse (which I guess you would expect to find in a massive city), but they are diverse in different ways to back home. So it was really interesting watching everyone.
The past weeks have been busy, but enjoyably so. We have been shown masses of hospitality from the people at church. They are SUCH a blessing to us!
We have also enjoyed a couple of opportunities to hang out with some of the other Greek students and their families, thanks to their hospitality too. It's great to meet some of the others who are in a similar situation to us - and they are all really lovely!
Interestingly, in Josh's Greek class at the moment the majority of students (as in about 90% of the class) have relocated to be there. And most of them are 'internationals' - harking from NZ (of course), Canada, South America, the Netherlands etc. It makes for a really interesting group and class discussion.
I have been out and about cycling around again, just getting to know the area and enjoying the breeze! It is VERY hot here. You know it's hot when you are inside, lying down in bed, not moving - but you are still sweating (sorry if that's a bit TMI for you all, but it illustrates the point). :)
And apparently it's only going to get hotter. We have adjusted to the temperatures mostly, but it still takes some getting used to. It really impresses me that the people in this area are so used to these crazy hot humid temperatures in the summer, and then freezing cold and snow in the winter. It would mean that you could travel anywhere and not really be phased by the weather.
We have a huge amount to be thankful for - and in particular we hope that we may have found a place to live! We only got to go and visit it yesterday, but it seems to be just the right size for us, and within our means. So we haven't yet confirmed it, but Lord willing, we will have a place to move into soon. We will keep you posted!
Otherwise we are so massively thankful for the kindness and generosity of the people at our church and at the seminary. We know what it is like to move to a new country where you don't know anyone, and having people to help makes such a huge difference!
Soli Deo Gloria!
The past weeks have been busy, but enjoyably so. We have been shown masses of hospitality from the people at church. They are SUCH a blessing to us!
We have also enjoyed a couple of opportunities to hang out with some of the other Greek students and their families, thanks to their hospitality too. It's great to meet some of the others who are in a similar situation to us - and they are all really lovely!
Interestingly, in Josh's Greek class at the moment the majority of students (as in about 90% of the class) have relocated to be there. And most of them are 'internationals' - harking from NZ (of course), Canada, South America, the Netherlands etc. It makes for a really interesting group and class discussion.
I have been out and about cycling around again, just getting to know the area and enjoying the breeze! It is VERY hot here. You know it's hot when you are inside, lying down in bed, not moving - but you are still sweating (sorry if that's a bit TMI for you all, but it illustrates the point). :)
And apparently it's only going to get hotter. We have adjusted to the temperatures mostly, but it still takes some getting used to. It really impresses me that the people in this area are so used to these crazy hot humid temperatures in the summer, and then freezing cold and snow in the winter. It would mean that you could travel anywhere and not really be phased by the weather.
We have a huge amount to be thankful for - and in particular we hope that we may have found a place to live! We only got to go and visit it yesterday, but it seems to be just the right size for us, and within our means. So we haven't yet confirmed it, but Lord willing, we will have a place to move into soon. We will keep you posted!
Otherwise we are so massively thankful for the kindness and generosity of the people at our church and at the seminary. We know what it is like to move to a new country where you don't know anyone, and having people to help makes such a huge difference!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Man me and my friend Lydia made the mistake of not wearing any sunblock when we went to Brighton for the day back in July. It was actually the high 20s here (believe it or not haha) and beautifully sunny. We were like 'we're Kiwis, we are tough, the sun is no way near as intense as it is in NZ' (which it isn't)...but come the end of the day we found we still ended up being quite pink! So I think it is more of a 'slow burn' here as, like you said, if that had been NZ and we were outside the whole day with no sunblock - it would have been 3rd degree burns!
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