Thoughts about the windy city.

         I don't really like cities. I don't hate them or anything but I have a love for fields and open spaces that is bigger than my love for buildings that scrape the sky. I really like cornfields... or any kind of field. And trees and hills and mountains and skies. And I don't know, open land in general.

        I spent a couple of days in Chicago last week with an education class. We had the opportunity to to visit and observe two schools within the city that are considered "turnaround." Basically these were schools that didn't achieve state standards for quite a while and so the state "turns" them around by changing everything in the school.This was really different from anything that I had experienced before and was such an eye opener to both the good and the bad in the educational system.

        We also visited an after school program and several community outreach centers within the city. It was really cool to see ways in which God can work through one person to completely change a community. Before we went on the trip we read a book about one of these communities. It's called, Real Hope in Chicago (if I know you in real life, feel free to ask to borrow it, if not, you can find it used on Amazon, or maybe even at your local library!). I highly recomend it!

         I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to be a part of the windy city for a few days. Chicago isn't exactly my cup of tea, but it was still a great time. I'm still mulling over all that I learned and saw. Now I'm back among the fields and even more thankful than ever to live in a rural area.

Song of the post: Everybody Needs Somebody- The Blues Brothers