[MSJ] - Day 22: Goodbye Chicago...

Me and my professor

Today was the last day of the summer program. During class, all our groups presented their final projects which we had been working on for a week. It was amazing to see the different directions people took their projects. People did research on everything from prices of Starbucks coffee around the world to the effects of China's one-child policy. I think our project on height discrimination was generally well received, especially since our professor is shorter than me, and I'm pretty short. It's crazy to me to realize that we all gained the brunt of our economic knowledge in only the past three weeks and to be able to understand the presentations that called on some economic principles that would have had me very confused a month earlier was really cool.

Me and the TA, Ted

This course was great for me as a student not only because of the content that I was able to absorb but also by acclimating me to the pace and rigor of a college course. Our professor explained at the beginning of the program that he teaches this class almost identically to the undergrad Intro to Econ course that he teaches. The style of teaching, with lectures by the professor and experiments led by the TAs, was also completely new to me, and I am glad to have had the opportunity to experience different teaching styles to develop myself as a student and prepare myself for college. I am very grateful to my professor and TAs for making this class an extremely educational and fun learning environment.

Emma and I

In addition to the last day of class, today also marked the last day of being able to hang out with all the intelligent, interesting and amazingly kind friends I've made during my stay in Chicago. To celebrate the end of the class, and as a kind of farewell party, six of us headed down to the beach. More people were supposed to join us, but many got caught up in packing and saying their goodbyes to the people who left this afternoon.

Swimming at the beach was a throwback for me to my first Friday in the program, when we all went swimming after the sunset. This time it was some different friends (some were the same!), and we swam and played frisbee in the beautiful setting sun. After a lot of pictures (thinking of you Don!), we started walking back towards the dorms. To truly replicate the Friday from what seems like forever ago but in actuality was only 2 weeks, we ended up eating at the same Thai restaurant for my last meal in Chicago.

The past three weeks have had a lot of learning and even more fun, and I will be sad to say goodbye to all the good friends I've made here. But it is time to say: Goodbye Chicago, at least for now.

Goodbye Chicago beaches...