TechNews STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SINCE 1928 McCormick Tribune Campus Center Room 221 3201 South State Street Chicago, Illinois 60616 E-mail: editor@technewsiit.com Website: http://www.technewsiit.com STAFF Editor-in-Chief Kori Bowns Assistant Editor Hannah Larson Opinion Editor Austin Gonzalez Campus Editor Utsav Gandhi Sports Editor Nathan McMahon Business Manager IT Manager Distribution Manager Kyle Stanevich Pranava Teja Surukuchi Khaleela Zaman Capy Editors Vijai Baskar Travon Cooman Kristal Copeland Shireen Gul Anoopa Sundararajan Layout Editors Rachael Affenit Sijia Wu Financial Advisor Faculty Advisor Vickie Tolbert Gregory Pulliam MISSION STATEMENT Our mission is to promote student discussion and bolsterrtheiil'ecamnrunity bysproviding a newspaper that is highly accessible, 3 stalwart of journalistic integrity, and a student forum. TechNews is a dedicated to the belief that a strong campus newspaper is essential to a strong campus community. 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ADVERTISING Legitimate paid advertisements. from within or outside the IIT community. which serve to produce income for the paper, are accommodated. TechNews holds the right to deny any advertisement unsuitable for publication. Media Kits are available upon request. Ad space is limited and is taken on a first-come, first-serve basis. Contact the Business Manager at business@ technewsiit.com for more information. LOCAL Er NATIONAL ADVERTISERS To place an ad, contact us via email at business@technewsiit.com. | Tuesday, April 29, 2014 Trip to Iowa produces fabulous Easter Shireen Gul COPY EDITOR Like every other college student, I promise myself every morning that tonight I will sleep early so I don’t have to wake up with guilt. By the time you are done with your classes and work, you are so super ac- tive that you forget the promise that you made to yourself. Last Monday, I made this promise to myself once again and I did ful- fill this promise by going to bed at midnight. l was about to sleep when I got an email, which made me so excited that I couldn’t sleep and was all energetic again. Now you must be wondering that what was that email about. Well, that email was sent to me by Jessica Sheley, who works with Bridges International and IIT to ar- range difierent events for international stu- dents on and off campus, so they can help them improve their English conversation and have a better insight of their religion. She was arranging a trip to Iowa for the Easter weekend to experience some Amish and Mennonite culture and guess what? The only cost we had to pay for was the gas (about $10 per person) because there were Mennonite families who hosted the students in their homes. This was one of the best road trips I have experienced in my life. I only knew two people out of 14, but by the time we got there, I knew everyone (if you know me you should not be amazed by this.) The trip was very comfortable; we all introduced each ourselves to everyone and starting to learn quick, funny and witty words in each oth- er native languages. We were also playing songs in our native language, which we had to translate to each other. It was a fun thing to do because the songs actually made sense to us. Soon we reached Iowa Mennonite School, where we attended the Good Friday service. It was my first ever Good Friday ser- vice and I enjoyed it a lot, especially the sing- ing part. I loved the way all the people were singing it, in one tone and with the same en- ergy. To be honest, at first I thought it will be boring, but I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it and would love to go back there next year. Once the services were over, we all were sent home with our host families. I was staying with a lovely couple named Edwin Miller and Mary Janes. They were simply adorable, as sweet as sugar and as caring as grandparents. It has been quite a while since I lost my grandparents, and this was a chance for me to relive that relation once again. I loved the way they took care of me and my friends. Although they usually go to bed early, that night they stayed awake for us to share their background and listen to us (or maybe just me because I talk a lot.) They showed us their family tree and shared their culture with us, which was again a good experience because although we come from different cultures but we had so much in common. The next morning, we woke up early, had good English breakfast and left for church where we met our other fellow humans. We all sat in our vans and left to explore Kalona, IA. Though it’s a small town, we had so much to see, especially the Amish Buggy. Every time we would see one, we all would start running toward it so we could take some pictures with it. First of all, we went to an Amish Pastor, Vernon Yoder, who shared with us the background of Amish of people. He also showed us his house, where we learnt that even in 2014 people can live good life with- out technology and electricity. They also gave us some freshly baked Amish cookies and later showed us their church and farm. Then we went to a modern farm which was owned by Dave Yoder, anoth— er awesome person to know. He took us around his farm and shared with us how his farm works and how inflation has affected his business. He showed us some modern 0 equipment used in farming. One of his piec- es of equipment had such a big tire that even I could fit in it (you can see it in the picture.) From there, we went to an Amish furniture shop, JK Artisans, where they made beauti— ful wood furniture. We had a tour of the fac— tory and the owner was such a lovely lady, she made sure that we understood every— thing about her and her business. They were so sweet that they also gave free souvenirs. But this was not the end of it; we also went to an Amish bakery where we tried their pies, oh my god! I wish I could explain how good they were. All of us just loved them. Before dawn, we also got a chance to go to a Cheese Factory, where we tried the free sample of every cheese they had and we also got some cheese curds. In the end, we returned to the church and watched a movie about Jesus. Soon, it was time for our host families to pick us up and we went back to them and shared our experiences. Next morning was Easter morn~ ing, so we all had breakfast in the church with our friends and host families. The Pastor did a special prayer for all of us and thanked us for joining them on this big day. Then we went back with our host families and had our Easter dinner with them. Soon they all bid us farewell and we were on our way back home. Everyone there was very loving and caring; we never felt that we were meeting them for the first time. I would like to thanks Jessica for arranging this awesome trip and Jeff Miller for helping her out to make things possible. And my special thanks to Edwin Mary Janes for hearing me and my long talks and loving me like their own kid. I could not have been more blessed, having them as my host family. Not only me, but each of us had very loving host families and we shall always remember them in our prayers. It was really good to experience Mennonite life. Once again, thanks Jessica and Jeff, you made our Easter the best Easter ever. Photos courtesy of Shireen Gul