Life as a CSer by Chris, Spring 2009

Final Wrap-Up

2009-05-13T08:49:00.000-07:00

Again, a long time since my last post – however, I will blame it mostly on my busy-ness as well as the fact that the last few weeks have been somewhat routine. Classes, work and job searching have been the main activies so far. A few of us did have a “last hurrah” for our final weekend as we went to Six Flags on Saturday which was a lot of fun. Sorry – no pictures as a camera would have just been a liability on all of the roller coasters.

Final reflections:

Looking back over the semester it seemed that I hadn’t really learned a whole lot in comparison to all of my other semesters where I would have at least 4 or 5 exams. When studying for an exam you realize all of the material that you have consumed over one semester. But then I began to realize how much I have really learned just by being completely immersed in an urban environment. It doesn’t seem like you are learning or picking up new skills, but once you take a step back you realize how much you have changed just by being forced to live in a new city, environment and job. I can definitely tell that I have grown and matured just by the product of having to complete all of my regular semester tasks of interning, going to class, experiencing different neighborhoods and art events and just plain living in the city.

Overall it was a great experience – one that I would recommend to almost anyone. However, it must be said that your semester will be what you put into it and you have to take your own initiative to make it what you want. Putting yourself out there and going to different events and new churches takes work and may be uncomfortable at times but in the end you are glad that you did it. Oh, and I “survived” the city without getting mugged, pick-pocketed or completely lost – you just have to use a little common sense and be careful.

With that I will leave you with some pictures taken from the 96th floor of the John Hancock building at night. Enjoy!

Chicago Tea Party!

2009-04-16T14:32:00.001-07:00

For those of you who know me, you probably know political views for more limited government. I also have blogged about Rick Santelli’s “Rant hear around the world,” after I saw him on the CBOT floor when I got a tour. As you may or may not know, hundreds of cities across the United States hosted a “Tea Party” or gathering in protest of higher taxes, bailouts and general government spending and waste today on April 15. I of course had to go check out Chicago’s Tea Party downtown. It was pretty good, lots of people upset (and rightly so) although the crowd as a whole wasn’t too rowdy. The had some various people speak and general rallying and sign waving. Check out the pictures below:

Museum of Science and Industry

2009-04-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

This post is also a bit late, but the other weekend my cousin from Canada came to visit so I got to show him around while he was here (aren’t I becoming quite the Chicago resident now huh?) One of the things we did was go to the Museum of Science and Industry which I would highly recommend. The submarine pictures below are from the museum; it is actually the German U-Boat, “U-505,” which the U.S. Navy captured. An amazing story which you can read about here if you like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U505

No - I have not been swallowed up by the city…

2009-04-15T14:20:00.000-07:00

Although it may appear that I have died or perhaps have gotten misplaced somewhere in this city, it is not true - my lack of blogging has been mainly due to business (and laziness.) However, I have also found myself settling into a good routine and perhaps did not feel the need to extensively blog. With the last few weeks ahead though I will try to stay on top.

First, a quick recap of the past few weeks. Work, class, art events and perhaps some fun activities on the weekend. One of our most notable art events recently was “Jersey Boys” the musical - the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Fun music and overall a decent musical. I think many people my age don’t think they know the Four Seasons but once they hear their classics such as “Sherry,” “Walk like a man,” and “Oh what a night…” they realize that they do indeed know it.

The Alvin Ailey Dance Company - amazing to say the least. This was probably one of my most favorite events thus far. We got to see vingettes or a sampling of many of their pieces as well as the half hour long “Revelations” which is set to all gospel music. The dance and music was beutiful and very moving.

“Rent” - the musical. Very famous and long running musical. However, I was actually not very impressed. For one we were sitting literally at the very back of the theater, making it impossible to see facial expressions and hard to hear dialog and music. The other factor was that it is a musical that is hyped up so much that I was probably expecting too much. Finally, I actually didn’t think it is that well written of a musical. The script is very sporadic with all kinds of characters who never really develop, too much dialog is sung which makes the music seem weak and poorly written and overall I just thought it was poorly executed.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra - a few of us students bought cheap students tickets for the CSO, even though the arts class is attending the CSO as a group next week. The theme was “Back to Bach” and obviously featured some great Bach pieces. The Symphony and the hall was also a bit of an experience in itself. I would recommend going to the CSO at least once if you can for a night of rich culture.

St. Patty's Day

2009-03-20T13:33:00.001-07:00

Saturday the St. Patrick’s Day festivities were in full swing here in Chicago which boasts a few different parades as well as the famous dyeing of the river. We went to see the parade which was actually quite boring in my opinion. We went to the one on Columbus which is apparently 3 hours long; there were bands and floats and all but it was also just filled with a lot of people just walking in the parade.

The green Chicago river was quite cool though. Apparently (according to Wikipedia) the river has been dyed green for St. Patrick’s since 1961; sewage workers used to purposely dye the sewage green to check for leaks and discharges and then got the idea to do the whole river as a celebration.

The city was absolutely packed with people all walking around but at least the weather was a really nice 55 degrees and sunny. Division street where we live was of course an absolute circus (see picture of the overflowing bars by our apartment).

Edward Munch and “Our Town”

2009-03-15T13:31:00.000-07:00

This past wed. for our art event we walked over to the art museum to see the special display on Edward Munch. I had already been to the museum but didn’t see this display yet. It was very well done…unfortunately his iconic piece “The Scream” was not there at the time, but they had a lot of his other work. I liked that they had a lot of narrative details posted about his life, his circumstances and some explanations on some of his main themes to his work.

This past Thursday we went to the Looking Glass Theater which is in the old water tower building (the only building to have survived the Chicago fire.) We saw the play “Our Town” which was excellent - a great play that was done very well. “George Gibbs” of the play was actually played by David Schwimmer! (aka “Ross” from the show “Friends”) The theater is actually just a large “black box” kind of room (well, rectangle) where the stage was just on the floor and the audience sat on all four sides. It was quite strange to see such a well known TV character acting on a stage right in front of you…at first I had a hard time keeping his stereotypical “Ross” character out of my head even though I have only seen Friends a few times. I would definitely recommend the play to anyone if they are in Chicago. A play that has been said it is “about nothing yet everything.”

Tour of the Floor, Rick Santelli and the Chicago Tea Party

2009-03-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

So I somewhat forgot to post this; but the other week at work I got a tour of the floor! It was pretty awesome to actually be down there at the Board of Trade. They have undergone a number of changes since the whole CME group merger thing. Basically they have one room where all of the commodities are traded like grains and a second room that is connected where they trade the financials like interest rates and currencies. The futures pits are apparently much more empty than they used to be as much of this trading has gone electronic. But the options pit is still very full as many option strategies are still too complicated to do all electronically or the clients don’t want their whole trade to be seen on the screen by others and would thus rather have their trades done on the floor.

Here was the best part of it though, I actually got to walk right past Rick Santelli! He is a reporter for CNBC and reports directly from the floor there. In hindsight I wish I would have shaken his hand or something but it looked like he was getting ready for his segment. What is so cool too is that he has recently gotten a lot of attention for his “rant heard around the world” on CNBC a few weeks ago. You can view it below:

Finally, some people in Chicago actually put some legs on his words and held a small “tea party” right downtown at the Daley Civic Plaza. Apparently there were well over 500 people protesting the bailouts and stimulus packages. Here is just one video on youtube, but there are plenty more if you search for “Chicago Tea Party."

If I would have known about it I would have gone to check it out; oh well, perhaps I can get to the next one.

March 8 - Progressive Dinner, Bulls game and others

2009-03-09T08:45:00.000-07:00

So these pictures are long overdue, but on Sat. the 21 of Feb. we had a CS Progressive dinner where various apartments signed up to prepare either an appetizer, main course or dessert for all the other CS students. It was a lot of fun going from apartment to apartment and seeing everyone. There were three different appetizer apartments, two main courses (I think) and three desserts. We started at the LaSalle apartments, made our way to Canterbury and then ended at the Millenium Park Plaza apartments. All in all a good evening. What was very comical to me though was that most of the people who volunteered had studio apartments; you get the idea from the pictures with everyone crowded in a small room and maybe some food laid out on the bed. Good memories.

Other notable events: We went to a play that was actually written by one of the CS Professors - Loren Crawford. The play was called “Goldbrick” and was based around Jon Langford’s music who actually came to one of our CS classes to talk about some of his art, career and music which was very cool. Our last art event was “Dada Machinations” performed at the Harris Theater. Very cool venue as the theater is almost completely underground. The concert was interesting to say the least. It featured very post-modern music which usually meant irregular beats and time signatures without melodies or typical musical patterns. The final piece was quite impressive in the fact that it had a band mixed with two grand pianos played by pianists as well as 8 player pianos that were synchronized to the piece. They also used sirens, gongs and propellers for different sounds and effects.

Finally last Friday we went to a Bulls game. I had never been to the United Center; it was a good game and I think everyone had a good time. Pictures of the progressive dinner below.

Coffee Fest Chicago!

2009-03-02T14:35:00.000-08:00

WARNING: What follows is a somewhat long and geeky post about coffee. Continue to read at your own risk of boredom.

So on Saturday (last Sat.) I went to Coffee Fest Chicago. This is one of the regional shows where they have an expo, seminars and the Great Lakes Regional Barista Competition. The winners from this competition go on to the National Barista Competition at the annual SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) expo. The winners there go on to compete at the world competition - yes world.

The competitors have 15 minutes to prepare their stations, dial-in their grinders and pull some practice shots. The judges then come out and they have 15 minutes to serve four espressos, four cappuccinos and four signature drinks. (There are four tasting judges as well as 2 technical judges and 1 head judge for a total of 7 judges watching.) The signature drink can be anything as long as espresso is the main ingredient and there is no alcohol. One specialty drink used blue cheese (for a more complementing taste to a smoky, or spicy sumatra.) Another guy modeled his drink after Elvis’ famous sandwich “The Elvis” which was made with peanut butter, banannas, honey and bacon slices served with a pickel. The drink was a latte but had a kind of bannana cream made for it and real bacon pieces sprinkled on top with a pickel served on the side. There were also more traditional sweet drinks.

They also had a latte art competition where competitors had to do free-pour (no etching or chocolate allowed, only allowed to pour milk into designs) for cash prizes. There was actually a 16 year old girl there that has been competing since she was 14! Very cool as well. Oh, I also thought the espresso van was very cool. I got to walk around inside of it - it basically has everything a basic starbucks or other kiosk has: A three group espresso machine, grinder, double coffee brewer, three compartment sink, cash register/computer, ice machine etc. It is also completely self sufficient with a gas generator contained in the back with the option to plug the whole thing into a 220. It would actually be a lot of fun to do a few gigs in there. Enough room for 2 people to operate easily with maybe the option of 3.

Chicago Auto Show

2009-03-01T14:14:00.000-08:00

So last weekend on Friday after work I met another CS Student at McCormick place to see the 2009 Chicago Auto Show. However, I still haven’t put up the pictures. So here is a small sampling. The show was great - lots of nice cars to see and the concepts cars were pretty cool. I also got to see the much hyped up Chevy “Volt.” My first comment was “Hey look, it’s my tax dollars.” : ) It was cool yes, but not that cool. I mean you can only go 40 miles on a charge. However, it does plug into a standard 110 outlet. Jeep had a cool demonstration where they drove people on this big track they had set up; they went up very steep inclines over railroad ties etc. Also the other highlight was one of the “Transformers” from the second movie that is coming out. For more info on the show click here: http://www.chicagoautoshow.com/index.asp

Otherwise here are the pics. The cars by Lotus were very cool. Also, the red car I am sitting in is a Viper - very cool but very cramped inside. It was actually really hard to get in and out of the car. And the one-man car was actually a older Mazda.

Pictures along Lakeshore

2009-02-20T14:01:00.000-08:00

Below are a few pictures I took when I took a long walk up the Lakeshore trail on Monday. I walked from our neighborhood all the way up to Belmont Harbor. Some of the beach you see is not far from our apartment, maybe a 3 minute walk. I can’t wait for the weather to get nicer so we can enjoy it. Also, Lincoln park has a nice area where they have sand volleyball courts as well as a place for food and ice cream etc. I was looking at google earth to see what the beaches look like in nicer weather. For now the weather is very strange; it rained almost all morning and is now snowing a fair amount.

Settling into the groove

2009-02-19T13:52:00.000-08:00

Last post Feb 7 - need an update….yet not a whole lot has been going on. As most of you know we have a fine arts event to attend every week as part of our Arts in the City class. Last week Thursday we went to a play called “Not Enough Air.” It was a recently written play and its showing in Chicago right now actually makes it the world premiere of the show. The play was about part of the life of playwright Sophie Treadwell, specifically at the point in her life when she wrote her play “Machinal” which was based on the murder trial of Ruth Snyder. You can click the link here for more info: http://www.timelinetheatre.com/not_enough_air/ or go ahead and wikipedia both Treadwell and Snyder for more info. An interesting play which was done very well in my opinion.

I had Monday off of work for President’s day and went to the Shedd aquarium in the morning. I had been there before but it is always fun to go to things like aquariums and museums. I think the most amazing thing is that we are literally about as far away from any ocean as you can get, yet you can go see all of these amazing ocean creatures right in the middle of the city. And it was free that day as well which is always good. A bunch of museums have free days throughout the winter, you just have to look up when they are.

Tonight (wed.) we are going to a music performance for our fine arts event. It is called Gokhi-bi System and is apparently a group of Senagalese hip-hop and rap artists with a unique rhythm and sound. Should be fun. I am enjoying the fine arts class alot - such a good deal as well to pay one price for and be able to go to all of these things.

The internship is going well, my supervisor is back from his conference and vacation and I am eager to get going on our projects. I got a lot of research and reading done while he was gone and have learned a lot already. Also, he is really good about letting me get a wide exposure to things, I should be able to spend some time at other departments as well over the next few weeks.

The following pictures are of Grant Park which was having some kind of winter fest with a snow sculpture contest. They also had a ramp made with rails for a snowboarding competition that we saw a bit of. The sculpture with the butterfly won first place if I remember. Oh, and you can’t really tell how big these sculptures are from the pictures but all of them were taller than me, very impressive.

View From Apartment

2009-02-10T07:38:00.000-08:00

I thought I would just add these two pictures, they are the view from my apartment. Not great views, but I actually am enjoying our location. It is only a 20 minute commute to work for me and we are near lots of essentials like grocery stores and target is only 15 minutes away by the el. Also, I took a walk around the neighborhood on Sunday and there are some really interesting old houses and duplexes just north of our neighborhood. Also, the lake is only a few blocks away as well.

Tourist Day

2009-02-10T07:23:00.000-08:00

So we have officially named last Saturday our “tourist day” in Chicago as we visited Millennium Park. They actually had a winter festival with some things like ice sculptures and some kind of parade. But we just wanted to get outside and enjoy the 63 degree weather! Here are some pictures of Millennium Park and the Cloud Gate, aka “the bean” Also, the two fountains with the video screens of the faces are called crown fountain - although the fountain wasn’t turned on of course.

One Week Update

2009-02-08T07:19:00.000-08:00

So I know my last update was about a week ago, but our apartment doesn’t have internet and its been very busy as well. Monday and Tuesday were introductory classes which was good. I am in a “Values and Vocation” class as well as “Arts in the City” everyone is also in a small practicum group class. Perhaps some more details later.

Wed. we had off to just prepare for internships and get organized etc. I got some errands done and hung out with friends at night…we ended up playing a few games of Mafia which was fun.

Thursday was the first day of internships for most people. My first day at MF Global was good. I had a good introduction to my workplace and did a lot of reading on the project I will be working on. I also went along with my supervisor to a seminar/panel after work that had a few different speakers who talked mostly about the hedge fund industry and how it will be affected in the aftermath of this whole crisis. No doubt there will be more regulation.

Thursday night was our first fine arts event. As part of the class I am in we attend at least one arts event a week. Our first one was a dance production at Columbia called “Japan Now” which features three excerpts from different Japanese dance companies. All three were very modern and the first two mixed a lot of different sound and video along with the dance. I can’t say the show was “enjoyable” in the same sense as seeing a Broadway or movie or something with a storyline- but I am very glad I went. It was interesting to see and experience.

Friday at work was pretty good as well. I got moved to my more permanent desk position which I like a lot because we are by some windows and have a good view of the whole office floor which is interesting to see. Unfortunately they did not have my user name ready so I couldn’t log in yet on my computer, but I got a lot of other readings done. One thing I am getting used to is the whole large corporation workflow where everything has a procedure and a department. This can be good as it allows you access to a lot of resources but can also be incredibly aggravating when you have to spend a lot of time trying to track down the right person and department to get even the smallest thing done.

Saturday the weather was incredible here. I believe the high was just over 60 degrees! It was such a refreshing break. We went to Millennium Park where they were having some kind of winter festival with ice skating, snow sculptures etc. The best was just walking around and taking in the nice weather.

This was just a short update - I will post more pictures and details soon.

Chinese New Year Paradise!

2009-02-02T09:04:00.000-08:00

Sunday my roomate and I went to LaSalle Street Church which was just a couple of blocks away. It’s a non-denom and was pretty good - a fun choir and a pretty good message. After church a group of us took the red line down to Chinatown to see their New Year’s parade. A long parade (about an hour) that was fairly entertaining - the dragons were cool but the corporate sponsor floats were pretty boring. It didn’t help that it was still quite cold outside though.

Also below are a few pictures of around the hotel - we were in the theater district. I am looking forward to seeing some shows this semester for our fine arts class. One of the pictures is of the Old Water Tower by the Magnificent Mile - it is the only pre-Chicago Fire building standing. I also finally got a chance to go to one of the Intelligentsia locations (it was the one on Randolph about 5 blocks from our hotel.) The latte I had was good, but I think they can do better.

Class on Monday and Tuesday, Wed. we have off and then start the internships on Thursday!

A New Home

2009-01-31T08:58:00.000-08:00

Friday most of the students made their internship decision of where they would like to work. It is a matching process where the students rank where they want to work and the CS staff receive feedback from the sites - provided there is a good match most students get their first pick. I mentioned some of the places where I interviewed at but I can now go into more detail.

Millburn Ridgefield Corporation (www.millburncorp.com)
- A small office in Evanston (north suburb) where the intern would be working on a database of hedge funds as the supervisor there primarily deals with Millburn’s fund-of-funds accounts. I think the data would be very interesting and the work appealed to me as it was a much more qualitative job instead of quantitative. I also really liked the guy there, very friendly and seemed to have a lot of knowledge.

Andrie Trading
-A prop shop of about 40 guys who all either trade on the floor or electronically or both. The intern serves as a clerk or runner and basically does what the trader wants. This internship would be very fast-paced and exciting but also very high-pressure and the intern would have to deal with a little verbal abuse etc.

MF Global (www.mfglobal.com)
- A large publicly traded company. They have about 1,100 employees in Chicago and are a large brokerage and clearing house but also offer many other products and services. The intern here would be working with the project manager on a relatively new division that is being developed - the Alternative Investment Strategies division. Work with a database and perform a number of other tasks.

I chose to go with MF Global as my first choice and Millburn as my close second. Both looked like good opportunities but what really appealed to me about MF was the chance to see other departments in their corporation and have a chance to see what a bigger company would be like. It also seemed like the skills they were looking for matched up to my skills well. I will be starting on Thursday! They are in the same building as the CBOT and CBOE just on the south side of the loop.

Saturday was spent just moving into our apartments. I will post some pictures soon. There are three guys and we have one bedroom. Small but not terribly cramped compared to most college living that I am used to. Old yes…but we prefer more endearing terms like “vintage” or “shabby chic.” At first I was a little apprehensive about the apartments but already they are growing on me and are seeming more cozy. I also really like the location with things like CVS, Walgreens and grocery stores nearby.

Here is a picture of the outside - the building is around 20 stories tall and we are on the 5th.

Ever Seen "Trading Places?"

2009-01-29T08:51:00.000-08:00

Wed. was my second interview with a company called Andrie Trading. They are a proprietary trading firm (a.k.a. “prop shop”) meaning they trade their own capital - no clients or customers, it is their own money on the line. They primarily trade options and some futures. In their office they do some electronic trading and then a lot of floor trading. This kind of internship is exactly what many people think of when they hear words like “floor trading” or the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE). I literally walked straight down LaSalle from the hotel toward the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and past all of the traders hanging out. These are the guys you see on CNBC and Bloomberg in the background - wearing the mesh trading jackets with a large tag on the corner that identifies their trader code. Some have trading slips in their pockets while others are carrying around their tablet computers that they punch orders in. It was what I imagined almost exactly and was quite surreal as I have seen the scene many times on TV but was now very close to the actual action.

Andrie Trading was what I expected - in other words they somewhat fit the stereotypical trading firm persona that is portrayed in books like Michael Lewis’ “Money Culture” and scenes from movies like “Trading Places” with Eddie Murphy. The interns with them serve as clerks or runners on the floor and basically do whatever the traders needed them to do. It is a fast-paced, high pressure environment that you get thrown into. Needless to say you learn a lot very quickly. Check out this youtube video of actual footage from the Chicago Board of Trade floor for an idea:

And check out this footage from a TV show called “wall street warriors” - only the first part of the clip shows a trading floor and then goes into some hot shot fund manager who thinks he’s all that with a Ferrari. But you can see how shows like this love to stylize the open outcry trading floors, yet I don’t think they incredibly far from reality.

Thursday I had my final interview with MF Global. I thought it went very well. The intern there would be working on a specific project but seemed like they would also get a chance to see other departments of the company. They are a huge brokerage and clearing firm and make up the most volume traded in options and futures on all of the major exchanges.

www.mfglobal.com

I will elaborate more on my internship selection after it gets wrapped up.

Orientatin Overload?

2009-01-27T08:46:00.000-08:00

This morning we received more information on where we will be interviewing later this week. I have one interview on Wednesday and another on Thursday. They are actually in the same building not too far south from the hotel, so should be easy to get to. More on the interviews and internships later.

We also figured out where everyone was living and where. Chicago semester had a few different housing options with different locations, size etc. The order of who gets to choose what is chosen by lottery. I will be living with two other guys in Canterbury Court Apartments just north of the loop. It will be a small one bedroom apartment but should be just fine. I think the best part is that a lot of other CSers are living there as well which will be fun and convenient.

We also had a good overview of the transit system and the layout of Chicago and its streets. After an afternoon of going over interview tips and internship research we put our map and transit skills to the test by having to find a specific restaurant for our group to go out to dinner. Our group did very well as we got to the restaurant via the el quickly. I love public transport and I think I am really going to like Chicago’s.

Dinner was at a small Mexican restaurant and the people in our group were a lot of fun. As stated before, one of the best parts of this week has been meeting some really great people and tonight’s dinner was no exception.

Tomorrow morning we have an appointment to choose our apartment and then I have my interview at 1:00pm. Should be fun. I also realized that I need to actually take some pictures because I usually just scan the pictures on people’s blog and so far this one has none, giving it the most boring blog award.

An Early Interview and First Day

2009-01-26T08:44:00.000-08:00

Monday is the day where everyone comes to the downtown hotel where orientation is held. However, the supervisor at one of the internship sites I was scheduled to interview at later in the week was going to be gone traveling so I actually interviewed there on Monday morning as we had been visiting relatives in a suburb of Chicago. The interview was with Millburn Ridgefield Corp (www.millburncorp.com) and was in their office in Evanston – an area north of downtown Chicago. I thought the interview went fairly well and enjoyed talking with the supervisor there. I will probably elaborate more on internship details after more interviews and after my site is officially chosen.

Orientation consisted of the usual introduction things, getting to know people etc. I correctly predicted that there was going to be a mixer game which I usually loathe; however, it wasn’t too bad and we didn’t even have to take off a shoe! We had dinner in small groups at different restaurants around the area. Our group took the el to a Thai restaurant which was excellent.

We also had a seminar on safety in the city. Fairly basic stuff – don’t be/act clueless and just be aware. Stuff that other city people and travelers would be familiar with but still good to know and review.

The best part is getting to know some really cool and neat people already. I am really looking forward to hanging out with a lot of different people on the program. Tomorrow morning is more orientation on where we will be interviewing, living and how to use the transit system.

Sioux Center to Chicago

2009-01-24T08:40:00.000-08:00

The day of moving to Chicago is actually becoming a reality instead of a far distant idea. It’s one of those things that you have thought about, planned and imagined so many times that it seems a little surreal when it actually is happening. My name is Chris and I will be participating in the Chicago Semester (CS) this Spring for my final semester of college. I attend Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa and have heard about Chicago Semester since my freshman year at Dordt. Shortly after deciding to major in business/finance I knew I wanted to work the CS into my schedule. It turned out that my final semester would work best, so after 7 semesters at Dordt with the Chicago semester always planned a long time in the distance it is finally here.

If you want to know more about the Chicago Semester click on the link (www.chicagosemester.org). Otherwise a basic summary: The CS Program is an off-campus study program where students work four days a week at an internship and have class one day a week. The internships count as college credit as well as the classes, so it is like a full semester and I am still a full-time student. I will be taking two classes that fulfill requirements for Dordt as well as a general practicum class which I am sure I’ll talk about later.

Many people ask where I will be working and living and who I will be living with but
I can only tell them that all of this is figured out in the first week of orientation of the program. I also get asked if I am nervous – not really, but only because it doesn’t quite seem reality yet. However, I am extremely excited to finally start this semester. While I have visited Chicago and other large cities before, I have never lived or stayed there for an extended period of time, especially downtown. I have also lived, grown up and gone to school in small, rural towns so I am excited for a big change of pace and scenery. I am also looking forward to exploring the city and discovering all of the food and culture it has to offer.