St. Patrick's Day...A Day I Won't Soon Forget!

Last Thursday our art event was at Harris Theater on the north end of Millenium Park where we watched the Hubbard Street Dance Company perform.  They performed 3 different dances. I really liked one of them but the last one was just...strange.  Here's a picture to give you an idea of what it was like...

Wearing flesh-colored body suits and dancing in strange robotic movements

Friday evening Megan, Sherry and I met up with my friends Jesse and Ruth and about 15 of their friends at a pizza place, Pete's Pizza, up north for some food and conversation.  We hung out there for a about an hour and a half and just enjoyed getting out of our apartments.

Saturday, oh Saturday...It was, by far, the most interesting day I've had in Chicago so far! Since it was St. Patrick's Day, EVERYONE descended upon this city!  In the morning we walked down to the river for the tradition River Dyeing and even though we were 40 minutes early (which was actually much later than we planned on being there), it was very difficult to find a place to stand and watch! We eventually found some spots pretty close to the edge of the river and watched as the first boat came by dumping 45 lbs of red powder into the river.  A second boat followed closely behind to mix it all up and then, Viola! A GREEN river!!

After the river dyeing we made our way towards the parade route.  It was INSANE.  I have never seen so many people in my entire life.  I now know what it feels like to be claustrophobic!  Megan, Sherry and I actually ended up getting to walk in the parade because Megan's supervisor's wife is on the board...or something like that! We walked the mile or so route and then were 'herded' off the street like cattle by policemen on horses...definitely not something you want to mess with!  Here's a picture Karla got of 'our' float in the parade. You can't see us, but the 3 of us are in this mass of people!

Once we got back to our apartment, we didn't leave.  It was MUCH too crazy/scary out there for me!

Sunday I went to a church called San Lucas United Church of Christ with some people for my class.  It was very tiny--maybe 15 or 20 other people there besides us.  I actually really enjoyed the service.  It was an English and Spanish church so anything that we read, either from the Bible or from the bulletin, was first read in English and then in Spanish.  Afterwards we were invited to stay for lunch where they served chicken, stir-fried vegetables, and rice.  We walked through the park (since we were in the Humboldt Park neighborhood) to get back to the bus we needed to take home.  It was really beautiful...other than all the trash.  The grass was green, the birds were singing, the water was not full of algae, and there were lots of people playing games, running/jogging, and fishing.  It was really nice to be in a more wide-open area away from tall buildings and cement!

Monday morning my class met back in Humboldt Park to help some of the members of San Lucas Church with some volunteer work.  Every 3rd Monday they hand out food to members of the community.  A semi arrived around 8:30 and we began unloading all the food.  The truck was filled with carrots, onions, apples, bread, cabbage, spinach, and desserts.  Once it was all unloaded we had to separate it into individuals bags to hand out to the community members.  As soon as we finished, people started coming through the line getting one bag of each food item.  They said we had around 140 people that day which was a small turnout compared to their usual 300-some crowd.  It ended up being a good thing though as we actually ran out of food and the last couple of people that came through the line only got onions as everything else was gone.  I had a lot of fun helping out with this and wish that I could help them on a regular basis!

Well, that's all I have for now! Only 16 more days til I come home for Easter!!!!!

A Little Taste of Home

For those of you that have been patiently waiting to hear how my midpoint eval. went...wait to longer! It went really well!  My supervisor had mostly good things to say about me which was very encouraging.  Overall I was very happy with how the meeting went.

On Thursday I went on a neighborhood visit to Humboldt Park with my Practicum Group.  We walked around the neighborhood a bit and got a very short tour with a lady from the Newlife Covenant Church.  This church has over 100 ministries and is apparently funded 100% on donations.  They have food drives, a clothing ministry, and have a home for women overcoming addictions.  I was very impressed by the amount of things this church does.  Afterwards we ate supper at a Puerto Rican restaurant, Papa's Cache Sabroso.  I had a Jibarito which is a sandwich made with fried plantains (instead of bread), a garlicy mayonnaise, chicken, cheese, and lettuce.  It was very interesting.  Definitely not my favorite meal but it wasn't bad.  As soon as supper was over we hurried (as "hurried" as you can be when depending on public transportation) back to our apartments to change.  We had our art event that evening at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra where they played some music by Brahms.  The music was incredible and made for a wonderful evening.  ...Even though a fight broke out during the middle.  If you want the full story, check it out here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-chicago-symphony-orchestra-fistfight,0,6463330.story

Brian and Stacey came to visit this weekend!  Friday evening we went out to eat with Andrew and Athena (some of Brian's high school friends) at Giodano's, a pizza place.  We finished the evening by watching How to Train Your Dragon--WAY better than I thought it would be!!! Saturday morning I met them all at the Lincoln Park Zoo...because it's free ;)  We walked around there for awhile but since it's still (technically) winter, many of the animals weren't out.  Later we went to China town...by far the most interesting part of the day.  We went into a grocery store and I was pretty shocked.  You walk in the door and are greeted by a very fishy smell...literally.  They have tubs full of dried seafood...everything you can imagine is just sitting out in these open containers waiting to be picked through.  And the chickens, ducks, and quails they sell...they're whole.  Like they still have the head (including eyeballs and beak) and feet on them!  They also sell fresh seafood.  They had green, algae-filled tanks full of shrimp, crab, lobster, and fish. Oh! And turtles!  I was amazed.  It's very different than the kind of grocery stores I'm used to!       That evening we went to a dueling piano bar called Howl at the Moon.  We went partly for something to do and partly because I needed to for class.  It was kind of fun.  There were two guys playing piano that took any and every request that people from the audience had.  I was amazed at how talented these guys were.  Not only could they play the songs that were requested but they were also able to sing every word or every song.  Pretty incredible!     Overall it was really fun weekend and I was so glad to have Brian and Stacey here to visit; it felt like I had a little bit of home here with me.

As for work, things have been a little stressful.  I have been getting multiple projects handed off to me each day and sometimes I have NO idea what I'm supposed to do.  I just have to take it one day at a time and one project at a time.  Thankfully I have a pretty good friend at work.  Meredith, who has been filling in as the receptionist temporarily while the full-time receptionist is on maternity leave, has become a pretty good friend.  In fact, she invited Karla and I over for supper tonight!  She made a DELICIOUS supper--chicken and vegetables--and an equally delicious dessert--apple crisp.  Meredith, her husband Dave, Karla, and I sat around the table and ate and enjoyed each other's company.  I had a wonderful night and wish we could do it more often--both for the great food AND the great company!    My time here is much more enjoyable when I get out and do things and see people!!

Just Another Week

Things have finally started to pick up at work!  I've been working on projects for three different people lately and each of them seems to have a new project for me each time I finish one.  It's nice to finally have a list of things waiting for me to do!  I'm going to have to start asking which ones are of higher priority though, because I can't get them all done at once!  I need to know which ones need to be done NOW and which ones can wait a few days...or weeks.  It's nice to finally feel needed though!!  :)   My midpoint evaluation is tomorrow afternoon and I'm a little nervous for it.  I feel as though I've been doing a good job but my supervisor doesn't give me any feedback (at all) so I have no idea if he's happy with the work I have done so far or not. ...Guess I'll find out in less 24 hours!

Oh, in case you're one of those really observant readers and you've noticed that this is being written on a Monday at 4:20ish...Yes, I have the day off today.  It's C. Pulaski's birthday today.  Oh, you don't know who that is? Yeah, I didn't either.  Apparently he was a Revolutionary War cavalry officer that was born in Poland.  And since Chicago has such a large number of Polish residents, it's a city holiday...which means I get the day off!!!  But before you get too excited for me, I should tell you what my "day off" has consisted of: sleeping in (yes, this part was nice, I'll admit that much) and writing a paper.  NOT exactly an ideal way to spend a day off!  And if you're wondering why I didn't write the paper this weekend, here's your answer: I was working on other homework!  We had to read 250 pages of a book, an article, write a reflection on our art event, write a journal, and write a 4-5 page paper. So that's what I've been doing all weekend...other than when I went to church. Oh! And Megan, Karla, and I got FREE cupcakes from Sprinkles on Sunday afternoon :)

Last week's art event was at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier.  We watched A Midsummer Night's Dream and it was SO good.  I had never read it or had any idea what it was about but I really enjoyed it.  It was very funny and actually fairly easy to understand.  I was a little disturbed by one of the characters, Puck, because no one could tell for sure if it was a woman or a man playing him!

This week should go fairly quickly.  I have today off and only work half a day on Thursday.  I'm going on neighborhood visit for one of my classes so I get to leave work early.  Brian and Stacey are coming to visit this next weekend and I'm VERY excited to finally have some guests!!!!!