Welcome to my semi-charmed life...

My Chicago Adventures
I guess I should blog about my recent long weekend to Chicago. On the way there, I got to visit America's second biggest church, named Willowcreek Community Church. Many of you may have or may not have heard about this church before but I have to say, the experience was exhilarating and inspiring. I think the sanctuary can seat about 7,000 people or so. The Audio Visual stuff were amazing and top notch, the inside space were all so new and clean, its children's worship can hold up to 3,000 children, they have their own river for baptism (I heard they can baptist 300 people at a time), they have their own in-house bookstore (which i can probably stay for a week to look at), they have a gym, a huge cafeteria and enough space for a church retreat. I guess you can say, they have every single facility that any church would want and then some!

I was really in awe of the whole experience, I've never been to a church like that before. To honestly tell you, I thought my church had the best facilities that I've ever seen but Willow Creek Community Church was in a category of its own. Everything there was so professional, the speaker was really good too, He was talking about marriage and singleness in the 21st century and leaving that part of your life to the Lord. The seats were super comfortable but I don't think anyone fell asleep!

As for Chicago, i really enjoyed it. I havn't been there since grade 9 but this time around, I think I enjoyed it a lot more. I would say, it is a cross between Toronto and NYC. Not as busy and crazy as NYC but not as boring as T.O. hahah. The company buildings in Chicago were state of the art. I can already tell that they treat their employees real good over there in Chicago. The city I would say is pretty clean. I visited the Navy Pier as well, we had a lot of fun looking into those mirrors that distort your image...hahah. They had fireworks there the night we visited, they dont' have victoria day though but for some reason they had fireworks, it was nice but nothing compared to HK heheh. We also ate at the China town there at night...ecck. let's just say its pretty ghetto, its one of those restaurents where they bring you the food with their finger in it before they put it on your table. Eeewww. Thankfully the tea we pour ourselves..hahaha. Well, maybe we just didn't know the right places to eat there because it was pretty late and a lot of the restaurants were closed.

Then we visited the Chicago harbour, I was so thankful to God that the weather was really beautiful the whole time. The air was good (no smog surprisingly) which made the harbour the more beautiful. The Chicago harbour is surrounded by Museums, a very relaxing atmosphere. When we were there, I see a lot of businessmen and women near the Space Museum. I think they reserved the whole Museum Cafe for a business party or something. The sky was clear blue with little cloud and a slight wind blew at our faces. We also walked down Michigan Avenue, the shopping street of Chicago. There we walked past the Eddie Bauer store where I brought a jacket nearly 10 years ago, isn't that crazy? We didn't do much shopping though, we just window shopped and walked around downtown. I also saw the Chicago Newspaper building, the Chicago Tribune and the Wrigley's building. Not to forget the Corn Cob building (hehe, that's what they call it in Cantonese), it basically resembles a corn on the cob and its used as a parking lot. We also stopped by at the infamous fountain, remember that stupid show married with children? and they show a fountain in the beginning credits? That's the fountain I'm talking about. The water from the fountain can shoot pretty high up in the air, I think its one of the highest in the world? I don't know. Anyway, I would say Chicago was overall a really good trip.


Catching up with the ol'hobbies again
Why is Toronto's weather so moody? It goes from rainy, sunny to rainy again within just an hour. Sheesh. Right now, I'm starting to do some reading again since I have the freedom and time to do so :) Currently, I'm reading a book called "Twentysomething" by Margaret Feinberg. It pretty much talks about the transition from being a student then into the real world, the struggles that are inbetween and learning to rely on God at these times. After reading the first few chapters, I would say I'm not really there yet or experienced it yet. I think its probably because I'm a super fresh grad but then, I have a feeling that my transition would be okay. I usually experience things early, the struggles that the book talked about, I felt like I already experienced them while I was in University. Aside from that, I'm also an old head which sometimes can be a good and bad thing. From what I read in the book so far, I should learn to be a strength and encouragement to others if your transition isn't so rough. Will do. I have to say the book has some interesting things that I can really relate to, especially when it comes to friendship. Its so hard to harbour them when you're so busy and we all have our own lives too, separating us from a common experience. *sigh* I'm just going to keep reading for more interesting insights.

On another interesting note, I started biking again. Man....I have to say its sooo fun! I felt like a kid again! I honestly havn't biked for like 10 years or something. When I got on the bike, the ride was a little wobbly and bumpy....but thankfully, after some warming up I'm up and at them again! haha but not as good as I used to be. I was able to do all these tricks.....anyhoo, practice makes perfect I guess. hehehe

Until next time....

posted by pegz @ 11:51 AM