Lots Of "See You Later"s, But No "Goodbye"s

I'm so sorry I've been gone from the "Blog World" for so long and have not given any update on what's been going on with me. SO much has happened and I either have been too busy to post anything, didn't have access to the internet, or just didn't feel like writing. But no worries, I'm back now =)

Before leaving Chicago I had a lot of "last time moments" with different people. You could say that I had a lot of "little good-bye parties" spread out in two weeks...I don't like having big parties where I don't get to spend time with every person that's there and which just doesn't feel very personal and intimate.
Here's a list of all the different things I did =) : I got to...
- finally finish the Narnia series with Hannah by reading the end of The Last Battle (the last book) during a very cool thunderstorm and we got to watch Still Magnolias together for the last time.
- have a last girls' movie + sushi night with Ami, Carolyn, Betty and Nate.
- have a pizza dinner with my JPUSA family (The Switajs, Betty, Claire, Michael, Max and Melissa. Grits wasn't there).
- finally have a fried ice-cream night with the Claytons which was a lot of fun (and very yummy =P).
- have my last Gilmore Girls' night with Laura and Chrissi.
- have a little lunch with the girls' from my Project 12 class (though we missed Dora and Suzanne!).
-have a last dinner together with the McCormacks who were so sweet and really helped me out when I was having my meltdown two days before I needed to leave.
- go out to eat with Erica, Josh and Josh's sister Mary quite a few times.
And I had a nice worship time and mini 80's dance party with various other friends.

I also finally went to the Field Museum with Erica, Mary, and Joby (a friend of ours who wasn't able to stay the whole time). I had been wanting to go to this museum the whole time I'd been living there so I was really glad we got to go! We had a lot of fun.
The first exhibit we went to was the Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement which was very good. Most of the pictures were things I've seen before (rallies, protest marches, police hosing down protesters and beating them, too), but there was a couple pictures that really got on my nerves that I had never seen before (not that the other pictures didn't bother me, but these were things I didn't know about which kind of shocked me). One was a hotel owner pouring cleaning chemicals into his pool in which were a bunch of black protesters! (The explanation next to the picture said that once the people got out, he had the pool emptied, cleaned down and then refilled. UGH!) The second one was a man standing up in a room full of protesters and spraying two cans of deodorant above him. The irony of this one was that he had sweat stains on the armpits of his shirt!
Racism is something I will never get.... It's so stupid, it doesn't make ANY sense!

After that, we saw the hall of jade and various different ancient jewelry displayed in a hall way. They were beautiful!
Then, we got to go through the Pirates exhibit which was very interesting! So many things that we think we know about pirates are really just myths. Pirates didn't have people walk the plank and they didn't bury treasure and therefore didn't have treasure maps. They had democracy and equality on their ships (most of which used to be slave ships). People who didn't have rights on land were considered brothers on the ship, as long as they had skills.
They usually just intimidated ships, they preferred just stealing their stuff without violence and then leaving. If a ship resisted, however, they would attack, and then they would take their ship. They would then ask the crew what their captain was like. If the captain was a good man, they would let him go free. If he was a bad man, they would kill him.
Last but not least, we started going through the taxidermy exhibit (which was a little creepy, but cool), but didn't get really far. We saw all the birds and some mammals, but then the museum started closing and we had to leave...
Needless to say, I loved this museum!! I wish I had gone there more often during the time I lived in Chicago!!
I also really liked the Art Museum when I went there a year ago, but I can't say I was really fond of the Science and Industry Museum, though I'm sure it's fun to go to with kids.

So, anyway, I enjoyed my last times with all of my friends.
My last night I even got to spend time with "my big brother" Brach (who went through Project 12 with me and is dating my good friend Hannah) exchanging music and pictures. And then my good friend Betty stayed up late with me helping me get all my packing done (my suitcases kept being too heavy and I ended up getting rid of and leaving SO much stuff!). Then, the morning I left, a small group of people gathered in the lobby while I got my stuff, and through tears I said good bye and went to the airport with Betty and Erica. God knew that I wouldn't be able to deal with my bags being over weight so he changed the number on the scale! (It initially said it was over, but then it changed right away to the exact maximum weight I could have and my friends and I let out a sigh of relief and smiled at one another)

Unfortunately, I didn't get to spend time with ALL the people I wanted to hang out with for the last time. =( Between being super busy AND sick, I just wasn't able to...I have way too many friends in that house! =) And that is why I am going to miss it. Terribly.

I hate saying "good bye". Though, really, I know it's just "see you later"....