Surviving the Weather

As some people may have heard, this last week started out with a historical Midwest storm... LOTS of wind and rain and even tornados across Illinois!  I made sure the weight myself down to the ground with some heavy books in my backpack and managed not to get blown away.  I was very shocked though when I saw someone wind surfing on Lake Michigan!!  Must be insane to go out in 60 MPH winds... well guess it proves there are some crazy people outside of the Bay Area :)  Even though it was windy, it was in the mid 60s.
Then I woke up today and all the sudden it was 42 degrees out!! It never got above 45, but I managed pretty well.  I was proud when I saw several other people wearing (simultaneously) scarves, gloves, coats, and ear muffs! I managed with a long sleeve shirt and my vest.
But the best part of today was most definitely the GIANTS WIN!!!  2 more wins to go!

GO GIANTS!

I'm definitely repping the black and orange here in Chicago!

I've even converted my roommate!

Halloween in Regis

Since both Claire and I love holidays, we've decided to decorate the room for Halloween.  Everyone enjoys our room and we are all excited to see what will happen around Christmas!

Pumpkin lights and bats on the wall

Happy Halloween!

Fun spider webs over the windows!

Color changing ghost lights

Fall Break in Bloomington

For my four day weekend, I was planning on sticking around Chicago since I got the opportunity to volunteer at the finish line of the Chicago Marathon.  So Friday and Saturday I spent up in Winnetka with our friends the Baneux's, and Sunday I headed downtown to hand out gatorade to thousands of runners after they finished their 26.2 mile race. I was really a fun experience and a great chance to get to be part of something so important to the whole city of Chicago.  

Corn from the corn maze

From there, I walked to Union Station where I got on an Amtrak train to Bloomington/Normal Illinois to spend the next 2 days at my roommates house.  We had a ton of fun making carmel corn, watching movies, seeing new scenery (at least for me) on our runs and having home cooked meals. We also went to a pumpkin patch and did a corn maze, picked out some mini pumpkins for the room, had slushy apple cider, and went to the petting zoo.  Claire admits that it was the true Midwestern farm experience :)  We took the train home together Tuesday and made it back to Loyola in one piece. 

Alpacas at the petting zoo

We weren't quite ready for dining hall food yet, so we went up to Evanston that evening for dinner.  It was a wonderful 5 days, and the best is that we only have 3 days of school this week!!

PS:  We also both signed up for a half marathon on Halloween...not sure why, but we think it will be fun. Now we'll have something to train for!

Pictures from LUC

Since the leaves have been changing, I've really been dying to get and take some pictures around campus.  After Claire left to head back home for fall break, I had some free time to just walk around and take some pictures.  We are planning on riding our bikes down to the bike path area where there are a ton of beautiful trees with all different colored leaves soon.  But here are a few pictures from around Loyola's campus.  It definitely was nicer weather than it is now... it's currently pouring rain and the thunder is shaking all the buildings. Pretty exciting though!

Weekend Runs

So lately I've ben getting really pretty bored of my running options here... it's either run North, or run South, turn around half way and come back.  Not to say that the bike trail can't be interesting, but compared to all the trails that I'm used to, it's gets monotonous.  

When my mom was here last weekend, we stayed in Evanston and ran on some trails along the Lake there. So this weekend I tried something new.  I took my school ID, my train pass, $4, phone and iPod, and ran up to Evanston, around Northwestern, then to downtown Evanston.  I stopped in at Peets after stretching, grabbed a coffee ($3.72, I brought just enough!) and took the L back to school.  It was so fun to try something new and adventurous, get to see new places.  Even though it was EXTREMELY windy, it was still fun.  By Northwestern there are big boulders that line the trail, and the wind was so strong that the Lake looked like an ocean with all its waves, and when they crashed against the rocks it splashed about 15 feet high!  

After enjoying my new long run so much, Sunday I convinced my roommate to run it with me again! I think it'll probably become my new weekend long run, or at least change up my weekly run a bit now and then.

PS:  Claire and I found the dishes situation in the dinning hall pretty funny! There wasn't even room for us to put our dishes in...

Family Weekend

Last weekend was family week, and my mom got to come visit me.   When she walked up to my building, she was carrying a pumpkin with her.  She carried this pumpkin from our garden all the way to Chicago... it is know sitting happily on my window sill.   

When she was here, we stayed up in Evanston to get away from campus for a bit.  We enjoyed running together on new paths, eating really good food, getting Pete's coffee in the morning etc... We had to do all my winter shopping, starting from scratch.  I got a pair of snow boots (like hiking boots), gloves, earmuffs (so funny looking!), warm socks, another pair of warm shoes, and a coat that goes to my knees!  It has a funny fur thing on the hood... we'll see how long that lasts :)  We also made a trip to Target and stocked up on fun Halloween decorations for the dorm.  We got some really yummy apples and veggies from Whole Foods to make.  Though this week was really stressful with exams and papers, last weekend definitely made it seem a lot better.  And after next week, we have a 4 day weekend!!