Winter is Coming

Today, I participated in my last RA activity: I woke up at 4:45 AM to watch the sunrise at Lake Michigan. I was very surprised by the amount of people who came on the trip. I honestly did not expect a lot of people to be willing to wake up so early. Yet, there were, at the very least, 50 of us led by one RA (Gaby), and it was quite an interesting experience walking through Hyde Park with so many people at five in the morning. We were such a big group, and I felt bad for the cars at the stop signs that had to wait for our entire group to finish crossing. 

It was able a 20 minute walk to the lake, but once we arrived, I could see it was well worth waking up so early; the view was absolutely stunning.

Not actually sure who these people are, but their silhouette looked cool

A beautiful sunrise; a beautiful start of the day to the end of summer

My friend Makayla and I sat down on the rocks and watched the waves crashing, which was so soothing. The waves were actually pretty strong today, and Gaby warned us that none of us were allowed to jump in to swim. Luckily, everybody listened and nobody tried to do so. Mostly everyone was like me and Makayla, choosing to simply sit and enjoy the cold breeze from the water, which pulled us from our sleepiness.

This is only half of the group

We left the lake at around 6:00 AM, which meant that I got to sleep for another one hour after we got back to the dorms before I had to leave for breakfast. All I’ll say is that it was some much needed sleep; I rarely get up at such an early hour, and I was drained by the time we came back. Breakfast came too soon, so, unfortunately, I had to drag myself from bed.

Interestingly enough, I felt a lot more awake after I ate breakfast. I did not mention it in the previous day's blog, but Dr. Fineschi had told us that the last day - which was today - would be a half-day, meaning we would end class at 12 PM. From 9 to 10 AM, we did some last minute assembling of our posters in the lab room, before we brought it down to the second floor and hung our posters up the boards.

Poster presentation was extremely fun. Elaine and I were scheduled to present in the second hour, so we spent the first looking at posters from both our class and the biotech class. Everyone had very interesting projects and research topics. When it was finally my turn to present, I remembered the good parts of everyone’s presentation and tried to incorporate as many as I can. I think it would be fair to say that I thought we did a pretty nice job with the presentation. 

Throughout the two hours, Dr. Fineschi, Dawn, and Rebecca went around to everyone’s poster for grading. At the end, the teachers treated both classes to ice-cream. Our class lingered behind afterwards, and we all ended up taking pictures, exchanging contact information, and saying our goodbyes for an hour.

Rebecca took the picture for us.

With my course officially over, I went to the Smart Museum of Art in the afternoon since I didn’t have class after lunch anymore. The museum was small, as I expected, but it was still pretty cool. There were many nice pieces in the galleries, but I think my favorite thing about the museum were the “welcome blankets.” Basically, the museum started a project where people who currently live in the US would hand make a blanket to welcome new immigrants to the country. I was able to read some of the experiences people shared on the cards/letters that went along with the blankets, and I was very impressed by some people and all they had been through.

Welcome blankets

I walked around Hyde Park some more after the Smart Museum, trying to discover and explore as much as I can on my last day. However, I rushed back to the dorms by 5 PM to say goodbye to Michelle. A lot of Michelle’s other friends were also there. However, it was only Kara, Lindsay, Jahnvi, and I that stayed with Michelle until she and her mom drove away.

After seeing Michelle off, I did some packing before I went for a run. This time, thought, my main purpose for the run was just to see the campus one last time before we’re gone. Later, I had my last dinner at UChicago in the dining hall, and I felt very conflicted. I don’t think I will ever miss the cafeteria food, but I will definitely miss all the friendly staff in the dining hall.

Back in the dorms, I did my laundry and participated in some last-day bonding with Karla, Makayla, and their friends. We had a great time playing cards with each other, and we were all sad that the program was at its end already, especially when it felt like everything had just started yesterday. Soon, everyone still had to work on packing their things, so we all went our separate ways.

Goodbye, Chicago. I had fun exploring.

So, our summer adventure has at last reached its finale. Tomorrow morning, we will be flying back home to California. I have learned so much over these past three weeks, both in class and from the awesome people that I have gotten to know. I have made irreplaceable friends, and I have learned to become independent. So much happened in just these three weeks – this is one summer I will not be able to forget soon.