Lucy Shirrell of Chicago takes the public bus every day from her school to her home. She takes the Metra a few times a week. On the Medill cherub program\u2019s field trips to downtown Chicago, she and the rest of the cherubs took the 134-year-old Chicago L.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a really fun way for people to see the whole city,\u201d Shirrell said, explaining that she was excited \u201cto show everyone the city that I\u2019ve grown up in and that I love. We got to go by Wrigley Field, we got to go by Merchandise Mart, which I think are really fun things that we probably wouldn’t have seen if we were on a bus or in a car.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet the Purple Line, the route the cherubs took, is a particularly twisty track with many stops as the train reaches downtown Chicago.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re all kind of stuck on the same train for an hour,\u201d Charlie Edwards of Evanston said. \u201cIt really brings you closer together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edwards used the time to watch the England vs. Argentina FIFA World Cup match with friends. While he would have preferred to watch it in Jones Hall, it still got the job done, Edwards said.<\/p>\n
Cherubs who weren\u2019t as invested in the sports match busied themselves by listening to music, talking, reading or admiring the view of the city.<\/p>\n
For cherubs not as accustomed to using public transit, the journey downtown via the L gave them a glimpse into what it might be like to go to a college where it is often utilized by students.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaking the train, for me, because I came from such a small town, is almost a sign that I\u2019m growing up, a moment where I break from my childhood,\u201d Skylar Sachs of Toledo, Ohio, said.<\/p>\n
Yet after exploring the city for five hours under the 90 degree sun, there was a noticeable difference in the vibes going to and from downtown Chicago.<\/p>\n
Cherubs collapsed in the train from exhaustion, not quite jazzed about the ride back to Evanston.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was ready to be back in my bed in the comfort of my dorm,\u201d Shirrell said.<\/p>\n
After reflecting on the long ride downtown, the trek around the city and the snooze train coming back, Alana Zink of Barrington, Illinois, is ready to get back on board.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m very motivated now to get back and then beg my parents to let me go to the city more and ask, \u2018Hey, can I take the Metra train?\u2019\u201d Zink said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Taking the Chicago L on their field trip to downtown Chicago, cherubs got a taste for the city\u2019s public transit system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":11293,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,18],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[694],"class_list":["post-11773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city","category-going-to-chicago"],"acf":[],"authors":[{"term_id":694,"user_id":367,"is_guest":0,"slug":"wuo26","display_name":"Sabrina Wuo","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4880c7f08e02eef3a8ae1dc5a71ffd360abe7b43c8e1f9ab8c7f8bdbd55a0869?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Wuo","first_name":"Sabrina","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11773"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12818,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11773\/revisions\/12818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11773"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=11773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}