My second (and last) week of teaching here in Chicago-land is now over! I was very sad as I cleaned up all my teaching supplies. "My" kids aren't mine anymore -- they're back to Kelly. Now I understand how hard it was for her to let me teach her class for a little while! I appreciate it so much though. This next week is a short one: we have three days of school, which I plan to spend observing -- the autism program, various therapists (occupational, physical, and speech), possibly music/choir, and definitely I want to spend more time in my room! I will miss my kids a lot. Anyways, Thursday and Friday are inservice days. Thursday is a workshop day on a very interesting but very specifically special ed topic that would take a paragraph to explain, and Friday there is nothing for me to do so I'll pack and tie up loose ends in Palos Heights (i.e. return library books if I haven't yet... etc.).

Yesterday I went to Chicago again, this time with a native Chicagoan. Amy was very nice and showed me around some of the more popular sights: we drove in on the Dan Ryan, a very busy and famous highway. Here is a picture. See the Sears Tower, the black one slightly to the left?


We went up to the top of Sears Tower (the view was wonderful from 103 stories up!) which cost $12. It was worth it. And I had an famous Chicago Italian beef sandwich. Which really is just roast beef on a subway-ish bun, only you can get it dipped in a kind of beef boullion mixture. We also walked through Millenium Park, which has a huge outdoor stage/theater set-up where they have free Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts during the summer. Too bad I missed those! The other attraction at Millenium Park is The Bean. I decided it is my favorite piece of artwork, and this isn't even the best angle to view it from. It's shaped like a giant kidney bean and you can stand under it in the middle and see yourself about 20 times because of all the directions you reflect from. :-) And you can see lots of really cool views of the Chicago skyline. This is the view I chose to photograph.


We went to Grant Park too (named after Ulysses S.). It was a homier park, less expensive, the kind of park you could play baseball in. Nice to see in the middle of a city. I rode the "El" -- so called because it is an elevated train which takes people around the business loop of Chicago at very high speeds. I call it the "Sub-El" though, because the part of the loop I took was underground. In spite of this sad experience, I can verify that in parts of the city it actually is above street level. I saw the tracks.

Today I said goodbye to my church here. The people are so nice -- I got hugs and prayers and many wishing-wells and addresses to stop by if I'm ever back in the area. And I got to play in the band, which was super-exciting. I was even able to count all the measures of rests, so I didn't come in at the wrong time or have to watch my fellow flutists very closely for cues. That's an accomplishment for me, as any flutist who sat next to me in band knows quite well. ;-) Sunday school was really good. We talked about why it's sometimes harder to hear God than others. Someone said, "because if we heard/saw Him really clearly all the time there would be no reason to have faith!" hmmm.... good to remember. God's God, not me -- He calls the shots.

This afternoon I'm in a baking mood and we have apples and green tomatoes sitting on the counter. I'm going to see what I can make with them... I'm hungry for apple crisp, and a green tomato cake recipe I found online looks mouthwateringly good. Stop by and you can have some! ;-)