Chicago, IL ➡️ St. Joseph, MI
Today we crossed through Indiana and into Michigan, finally reaching the Eastern time zone, which is crazy! I can't believe we're getting so close to the East Coast. We still have about two and a half weeks left of 4K, so we have a good amount of ground to cover, but it feels like the end of this 49-day experience is quickly approaching. I am definitely excited to get back into a routine at home and figure out my next steps post-undergrad, but I am also not at all ready for this experience to end.
My van started from our host in Chicago, which meant we got to run through the city for some of our miles, which was beautiful. Before the past couple of days, I had only briefly been to Chicago on one occasion, so getting this time to explore the city and then run through it has been really cool. I have kind of fallen in love with Chicago and would definitely be okay if I ended up spending some time here in grad school or for a future job. The temperature is definitely rising and we are hitting more humidity as we travel eastward; I am starting to feel like I am at preseason again some mornings with the heat, sweat, and running, but this is definitely a very different (and much more fun) context! I think being used to some pretty high temperatures from field hockey is helping with these rising temperatures for 4K.
After we finished our miles and got to the host, we had an amazing dinner provided by a teammate's lovely family. We have been blessed with so many wonderful meals lately; with each of these delicious meals we've been getting recently, we all keep claiming that it is the best meal we've had on 4K. We have also had some amazing hosts recently, especially the ones who have spoiled us with beds. Although we don't have beds at our host tonight and are back to our typical sleeping bags and mats, we are all happy and enjoying the wonderful facilities of First Church of God (including ping pong, foosball, and air hockey tables that resulted in some competitive matches between teammates).
Our days spent in Chicago have been some of my favorite of 4K so far because of the running routes, the people, and abundant activities, but I'm happy to be in Michigan and moving on to more places where I have not yet been.
