TravelStream™ news feed for member cestlavie on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/cestlavie en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:52:59 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1253492645/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1253492645/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1253492645/tpod.html Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:52:59 -0400 Lutheran Volunteer Corps--A Year on the Third Coast

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Kirkland, Washington, United States

I arrived home to the Northwest about a month ago. Three of us took the Amtrak Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle, a 46 hour trip leaving early Saturday afternoon and arriving late Monday morning. We spent most of our time on the train in the observation car, looking out the window, reading, knitting, and chatting. Volunteer park rangers joined us from time to time, riding a few stops along and explaining the scenery and history as we went by. Amtrak's sleeping situation leaves a lot to be desired (it would have cost an extra $350 to get a sleeper car) in the coach section, with the seat backs reclining to just enough shy of horizontal to be uncomfortable. They do provide an airplane-sized pillow, but I recommend bringing your own plus a blanket. Overall it was an experience I highly recommend, and one I hope to try in other parts of the country.

A couple of days after the train ride, a group of 6 of us who had just finished our LVC program (some from the NW and some not) took a weeklong trip to Holden Village up in the Cascade Mountains. Holden used to be a mining town, but once the copper mine closed, the Lutheran church bought the place and turned it into a village, complete with a post office, general store, and public school. I have been to Holden three times in the past, but this was the first time I was a true "guest" and not part of a youth group or volunteer group. We enjoyed their summer programming--Bible study, discussions, workshops; hiking around the mountains the village is nestled into; eating meals together as a community; and attending Vespers each evening. It was a wonderful time of renewal and recreation.

Since coming home, I have begun to embrace this transition period of my life. The other day I came across a book called Life Journeys According to Mister Rogers, which is a collection of Mister Rogers' thoughts published a couple years after his death. Here is a quotation that resonated with me:

"I saw a friend who's a freelance writer and asked him what he was working on. 'Nothing right now,' he answered. 'You know how it is for freelancers. But at times like this I tell myself I'm "between opportunities." That way I don't have to feel I'm nowhere.' There's often a tendency for us to hurry through transitions. We may feel that these transitions are 'nowhere at all' compared to what's gone before or what we anticipate is next to come. But you are somewhere...you're 'between'." ~Mister Rogers

So I'm in the 'between' part, and despite the fact I don't have a full time job, I've been finding plenty to do. One day a week I have an internship with City Arts Magazine, a free monthly publication with editions in Seattle, Tacoma, and the Eastside. I get to do a little writing and editing, and just generally see how magazines are published. While I am looking for another part time job, I'm enjoying babysitting as well. In addition to finally getting unpacked and organized, I've caught up with friends, visited Holly at PLU, played with Holly's new kitten, worked on a friend's farm in Carnation, run around to farmers' markets with my mom, helped at the church yard sale and taught Sunday School, walked around town (takes me off guard every time a driver actually stops for me!), took a hike, and went to the Seattle Central Library to hear Sue Monk Kidd and her daughter Anne Kidd Taylor talk about their new book. So life is good!

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

With that update all being said, I am still processing the life-changing experience that was living in Chicago for a year and participating in Lutheran Volunteer Corps. I have decided that living in Chicago was kind of like living in France: there is a different lifestyle, a different kind of people, different weather, different food when we went out to eat, and a different language in a way. That is to say, I learned the language of Chicago--the street names and L stops and current events and popular places and important people. And now, just like my French, I am slowly losing my effortless fluency and vocabulary. Oh I'll always be able to go back and visit either place--Chicago or the French Riviera--and enjoy myself and the relative familiarity of it all...it just won't ever be the same. Fortunately there's something about living in a place, experiencing the change of seasons and the rhythms of everyday life, that permanently connects you despite having moved away. Which is why I am back in the Seattle area.

Anyway, at the end of July, I wrote the following list intending to do a blog entry but never got around to it in the craziness of doing everything for the "last time" in Chicago, packing up, having guests, and moving cross country. So I thought I would still include it because it sums up the summer months of my life in Chicago.

I have...

killed more cockroaches than I care to count (fortunately all but one in the kitchen) and have come to appreciate the slower, stay-in-one-spot-on-the-wall nature of spiders like never before (I have seen one spider here all year)

developed a reputation for knowing every free or cheap thing that's going on in the city, where every thrift store is, and which Whole Foods consistently has the best samples

shocked coworkers when I tell them we live on the 4th floor of an apartment building and don't have AC (I've discovered that not having AC is akin to the blasphemy that is putting ketchup on your Chicago hot dog)

experienced more thunder and lightening storms in the past couple months than in my entire life before

chuckled when I find myself reading the weather forecast and thinking, "low 80's, ok not too bad"

watched The Bachelorette with my roommates every monday and cheered for Ed, who is from Chicago; we have yet to spot him on the streets, but that doesn't mean we aren't trying!

enjoyed a Matt Nathanson concert outdoors at the Lincoln Park Zoo and put up my umbrella (which I am now kinda attached to) when it started drizzling

tried at least half a dozen ice cream places around town, including our friendly corner vendor Pablo, who Nora speaks to in Spanish for us all

checked a few more states off my list: Ohio for Kate's wedding; Indiana because we drove through it, got stuck in construction traffic (apparently the Midwest is notorious for summer highway construction) and went about 3/4 of a mile in half an hour, and stopped at Dairy Queen; Wisconsin again for our last retreat

hosted friends Ashley and Alana over long weekends in July and my parents to help me move in August

been visited by friends Selene and Kris on their road trip across the country

taken a trip to the ER for the first time in my life after slicing about a 1/4 inch cut into my left thumb on the paper cutter at school, got three stitches, and am slowly regaining movement and strength (the cut was right on the knuckle where the thumb bends). Things I could still do without moving my left thumb: type. Things that were way challenging: washing dishes, cutting fruit/veggies, cooking in general, doing buttons, putting my hair in a ponytail

realized I rarely need a map to get around any more, and have the street grid system so ingrained in my head that I can hear or read an address and know if not exactly where it is, then at least the two "big streets" it's between

spent time at the Taste of Chicago on 5 different occasions over the week the festival was happening in early July, saw Emeril Lagasse, got an autograph from the editor of Everyday Food, tried samples from food of many, many restaurants

planted, staked, and watered three cherry tomato plants, which are now cascading out of their pot

watched two movies in the park: My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, both of which I love, haven't seen in a while, made me laugh out loud, and are set in Chicago (something I didn't realize before but is SO OBVIOUS now :)

tried not to laugh when I went to the tiny REI garage sale (the Chicago store is less than a year old though, so I have to cut them a little slack)

learned how to make popcorn on the stove, whole wheat pizza dough from scratch, and roast s'mores over our gas burners, all from my roommates

taken a Mediterranean cooking class at a place called the Chopping Block and got to sample everything we made

gone to the beach along Lake Michigan and if not for the tiny waves, one might think it's the ocean with the beautiful sand, endless horizon, and (imported) palm trees

explored the Field Museum for the first time all year, the last museum on my list to visit, which apparently I saved the best for last because it's my favorite

seen the 6th Harry Potter movie with a group of 8 and spent forever talking about it afterward
walked through the Green City Market (Chicago's largest farmers market, but doesn't hold a candle to Pike Place) most Saturdays

ridden the Metra train (like an L that goes to the suburbs) to Palatine to babysit 4th grade teacher from school's 6-month-old daughter

gone through Millennium Park whenever I'm downtown: to see the Bean, listen to whatever free concert is playing each summer night at Pritzker Pavilion (designed by Frank Gehry, of EMP fame), sit on the boardwalk bordering the stream at Lurie Garden, watch the kids run around in the giant fountains, walk up the skybridge that connects the park to the new modern wing of the Art Institute (which is free Thursday and Friday nights in the summer!)

chaperoned my school's Summer Camp field trip to the Chicago History Museum

changed up the house dynamics when roommate Kate got married and moved out...now I cook dinner on Wednesdays, some chores are combined, and there is one less person around to hang out with

watched the fireworks show at Navy Pier (it's free every Wed and Sat!)

come across a different festival every week, since there are about half a dozen to choose from on any given weekend

decided that on our LVC budget, the best brunch (including cinnamon rolls) can be found at Ann Sather's, the best dessert (pie) at Hoosier Mama's Pie Co, the best dinner (falafel and hummus) at Sultan's

started going to book club through church and simultaneously realized I've aquired dozens of books here even though I only arrived with three...

walked by Wrigley Field on a game day so many times that I wish it were "walk by 10 times, get one game free", but unfortunately the ticket prices are exorbitant. OH and they base the price on which team they're playing, as in, the better the team, the higher the price. ridiculous!

provided my Costco card privileges to whoever wants to go, and sometimes just for the food court

have had lengthy discussions over such topics as "should pizza be cut in wedges or squares?", "is it pop or soda?", "what states are in the midwest? the west?", "who's friendlier, people in the midwest or west?", etc. based our opinions depending on where we're from

never ceased to be in awe of the grandeur that is the Chicago skyline, as seen from my bus 82 window looking east each morning as the sun rises behind the buildings, silhouetting them as we pass over the Eisenhower expressway (see I've learned to no longer say "freeway")

admired the immense variety of clouds we get, and how fast they move, when thunderstorms pass through

enjoyed the laid back atmosphere of working this summer at school without the children--but some days it's too quiet and I finish my to-do list too fast

been spoiled by Katie's guitar-playing skills, Nora's french-braiding skills and Abby's herb-growing skills

witnessed Obama's helicopter (well ok, there were three so I don't actually know which one he was in) fly just past our apartment window while I was eating my oatmeal one morning

decided that if I could transplant the entire L system, the Chicago Tribune and its sibling the Redeye (the free mini version), and Millennium Park to Seattle, that would be just dandy

been challenged to live simply (on a budget, consuming less, thinking about what to spend my money on), sustainably (environmentally friendly, taking public transportation, eating less meat, reusing practically everything we can), spiritually (lots of conversations, going to church), social justice-y (even more conversations and of course, my job), and in community (with roommates who I am truly going to miss)

I think returning home to the Northwest has been a little like coming up from an underground L station...a little disorienting at first, but eventually I am finding my way!

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1244952000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1244952000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1244952000/tpod.html Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:26:13 -0400 Lutheran Volunteer Corps--A Year on the Third Coast

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Chicago, Illinois, United States

 Today was our first blue skies, sunshine, and over 70 degree day in about 2 weeks.  The rest of the time, we've had rain, thunder and lightening, humidity, overcast skies, and wind, wind, wind.  According to the Chicago Tribune, the last 18 months--from January 2008 to June 2009--have been the wettest ever of that period in Chicago.  This June alone has been the coldest in the last 50 years.  I'm managing fine since I am of course used to who-knows-what-the-weather-will-be-like Junes, but it's funny to hear the Chicagoans complain...they feel entitled to hot weather as soon as the calendar says June.  The one big difference here though is the humidity that comes along with the rain...it could be 75 or 80 degrees but pouring rain.  Also we have storms about every other day, with more thunder and lightening that I've experienced in the past month than in my entire life!  Another difference is that I carry an umbrella here, whereas I have never done that in all my rainy life in the northwest.  First of all, everyone does it.  They look at you funny if you don't have one.  Second of all, it's really quite useful when I have my purse and a bag and I'm waiting at a bus stop or doing all the walking I do.  If I had a car, it would be a different story.  Plus it's often so hot and humid that I don't want to be wearing any jacket, much less a rain jacket.  And third of all, the rain often comes out of nowhere, so I've discovered it's good to bring it to just be prepared.  But you should hear the reactions I get when people compliment me on my recycled-plastic blue umbrella (thanks dad!) and I tell them I got it for living in Chicago. 

 As soon as the weather is nice, it seem the whole city comes out to celebrate.  Every single restaurant and bar in town, even including places like Panera and Starbucks, put as many tables and chairs on their sidewalks as the ordinances will allow.  This morning at the church I go to, they had a blessing of their garden.  We spent the last part of the service outside among the flowers and grass and being warmed by the morning sun.  This church is in Wrigleyville, four blocks west of the stadium, and today was a Cubs home game, so fans were streaming by, on their way to have brunch at one of the sidewalk cafes/bars before the game started.  I love how Wrigley Field is just stuck in the middle of a city block...you can't even tell it's there until you get up to it, for all the apartments and restaurants around it.  There's a scoreboard on the outside of the front entrance, so even when I'm just walking or riding by, I can check who's winning.  I did get to go to one game, back in April, but it was a school field trip so I spent so much time taking the students to the concessions/bathrooms/souvenir stand that I barely saw the game.  So I would like to go back!  I will say this though: it is a very compact stadium, and I don't think there's a bad seat in the house it's so small.  Also, absolutely everyone wears some form of Cubs gear.  I'm not even kidding, I don't think I saw anyone without a shirt, jersey, hat, some even had Cubs shoes.  This Tuesday is the cross-town rival game between the Cubs and the Sox.  And what a rivalry it is!  It kind of follows north/south city lines.  I've gotten an earful from both sides, but remain attached to both.  I've been to two Sox games, and they have a bigger, more commercial stadium on the south side, where there's more room for that sort of thing I guess.  They do fireworks before the game, after home runs, and if the Sox win, which they did not at the game I went to when the M's were in town.  That was fairly awkward to be the only people cheering for the visiting team, but fun!

 After getting lunch today, we went on a boat ride on Lake Michigan, something I've been wanting to do my whole time here.  It's just such a different experience to see the city from the water!  Today was half price day at the Tall Ship Windy (think pirate ship style boat), which sets sail from Navy Pier.  We happened to catch the Sea Shanty Sing, so we had fun bumbling along with the tunes.  Afterward we walked along the Magnificent Mile and tried bao at a place we've had our eye on for a while.

 Yesterday I woke up to the sound of a tile cutter and the scraping of grout.  Our landlord, Julio,  is in the process of putting in a new tiled kitchen floor.  In Chicago (or maybe the whole MidWest) parlance, he is "rehabbing"--what I would call "redoing" or "remodeling" or "renovating."  I had honestly never heard rehabbed used in this sense before...it catches me every time, because I think of rehab like for drugs or alcohol.  But that is what I'm always reading in the Homes section of the Chicago Tribune, and that's what everyone says: that apartment for sale was rehabbed, or we're rehabbing our bathroom this weekend.  So Julio has been rehabbing all week, starting on tuesday.  Did I mention we found out about this monday night?  So basically all week we've been without our stove/oven (unplugged in the middle of the room), our kitchen sink (doing dishes in the bathroom is challenging), and our fridge, which is in the middle of the dining room.  Fortunately LVC gave us some money to eat out since we couldn't exactly make dinner beyond PB&Js!  I did have a nice chat with Julio though, despite that he lives in Guatemala (his two sons manage our building in his absence) and speaks minimal English to my non-existent Spanish.  He told me he has 6 grandchildren, 1 great grandchild, that he lives in Guatemala because it's apparently better for his psoriasis (at least I think that's what he said he has), and that the best Guatemalan food can be found at a restaurant on Foster & Paulina.  I mentioned the rain we've been having, and he goes "Oh no problem, I like the rain, it is rainy season in my home country" and I thought to myself, hey I like the rain too, and it is rainy season in my "home country" of Seattle.  He also gave me a lesson in laying tiles: you put the grout on the back of the tile, let it dry a bit while you put the grout on the floor, then make sure the lines go different ways on each, then place the tile on the floor.  He said that the workers here in America try to skimp and only put the grout on the floor, skipping the back of the tile step.  So an interesting morning with Julio!

 Then for the rest of Saturday, once the rain cleared up a bit, I took one of my adventures around the city.  I do these every saturday, and they usually involve errands I have to run along with other random things going on, such as farmers markets, a store I heard about, free samples somewhere, the zoo, a festival, or whatever is in the neighborhood I'm going to.  I try to ride a new bus route or get off from a different L stop and walk.  I've been off every L stop on the Brown line now except 2, and from walking places I have a really good sense of the city.  And of course I love how Chicago is on the grid system so I know exactly how far it is to get somewhere!  One exciting thing that happened is they have now put every bus route on Bus Tracker, where you can go online and check to see when the next bus will be pulling up to your exact stop.  I absolutely love doing this in the morning so I know when to leave the apartment.  It has definitely cut back on my sprinting-for-the-bus routine!  The best kind of bus to catch is one that is across the street, halted by a red light, so you know you have time to make it to the stop.  One of the most disheartening feelings is watching the bus or L pull away right as you round the corner or go through the turnstile.  Overall though I've had positive experiences and still feel that the L is like some Disneyland ride, being above the rooftops and streets.

 Let me tell you about the last two weeks, and then you can multiply that by the last few months and you will understand how full my life is here in Chicago.  Every Monday is my cooking night and watching the Bachelorette with my housemates, pretty much the only thing these days getting us to spend time together, since our schedules have gotten so busy.  Last Wednesday was graduation at my school, for the Kindergarten and 8th graders, and it lasted into the evening for nearly three hours!  It was a wonderful way to wrap up the school year though, as was the all-school bowling field trip the next day and the last day of school picnic on Friday.  On Thursday I helped my roommate Katie, whose placement is the Aids Foundation of Chicago, post flyers and give brochures about their upcoming run/walk fundraiser.  We went around Boystown and Wrigleyville, two neighborhoods with plenty of bars and restaurants to post in.

 Last saturday, as in a week from yesterday, was my turn to go grocery shopping for the apartment.  After that I wandered around the Printers Row Lit Fest, a giant book extravaganza that took up three city blocks downtown.  Booths were plopped in the middle of Dearborn and Congress, which were closed to traffic, an odd feeling in a normally car-crowded part of town.  There were old books and new books and used books and lots more.  I limited myself to buying one book because I keep thinking about everything I'm going to have to ship back to Seattle come August!  That night I went over to the other LVC apartment and watched Slumdog Millionaire (my third time and I still love it--if you haven't seen it, rent it!), ate avocado tacos, and spent the night.  Sundays are always church in the morning then some form of going out to coffee/brunch/lunch after that.  I enjoy reading the paper too, provided it hasn't been stolen off our front walk.  Last sunday I helped my roommate Kate move into her new apartment in Bucktown.  We then measured all her windows and went to Jo-Anns to pick out fabric so I could help her sew some curtains.  She's getting married the Fourth of July in Cincinnati, and we're going to take a road trip out there to attend.

 Monday was the first day without students—very bittersweet!  We had an end of the year staff barbeque, complete with a round of Taboo and homemade banana pudding (one of my new favorite foods) for dessert.  On Tuesday I went to visit my friend Juliana, one of the other LVCers, at her work.  We walked to the library and then met her roommates for dinner at a cheap Vietnamese sandwich place in Bucktown, near their apartment.  I had the pork char siu with carrots and ginger.  That night I tried to bake chocolate chip cookies, but found I couldn't use the oven because the gas was off for the kitchen tiling project!  The cookies were supposed to be for a picnic we had Wednesday with our small group leaders.  The night was a little breezy, but we sat on the lawn across from the Sears Tower and ate our hummus, bread, coleslaw, and fruit salad.  Then we warmed up with hot chocolate at Ghirardelli Café, a great place for a treat.  Thursday was a free day at the Planetarium for National Astronomy Week, and they have a new exhibit showcasing early star-gazing tools, like astrolabes and sundials.  After that I volunteered at a benefit dinner for an organization called Growing Home.  They employ homeless people at their farm in Wisconsin, then bring the produce to Chicagoland farmers markets and sell it through CSAs.  The other LVC apartment subscribes to one of their CSAs, which is how we found out about the benefit.  It was a $125 a head dinner and auction, but we got to enjoy it all for free because we helped clean up at the end!  This is the third such benefit dinner we’ve done that at, an excellent deal in my opinion for a little extra volunteering.  We like to joke that we’re professionals.  My favorite food from that dinner was the cherry chocolate sourdough bread served with our goat cheese mixed greens salad.  The wildflower honey ricotta cheesecake for dessert was delicious too.

 I got my haircut with Juliana and Emily on Friday, which will be nice to have shorter hair once we actually start getting hot summer weather.  We got $5 Friday pizzas at a restaurant called 160 Blue, which is west of the Loop.  We then walked into the Loop to check out the Blues Festival going on in Grant Park.  I am telling you, there are at least a half a dozen festivals every weekend.  Besides the Blues Fest this weekend, there were 2 arts festivals, a MidSommarFest, a RibFest, and probably one or two I’m forgetting.  Upcoming ones on our calendar include Pride Fest at the end of June and the famous Taste of Chicago the first week of July.

 So that is just the first couple of weeks of June, but that is the pace I’ve been going at since like the middle of March. Other highlights from the spring: my family came to visit at the end of March; I saw the plays Chicago, Jersey Boys, The Arab-Israeli Cookbook, and an improv show; I went home for Spring Break; my school had a spring concert; I switched rooms and now have a single; my friend Lindsay came at the end of April; we hosted a barbeque at our apartment; I went to San Francisco to scatter my great-great-aunt’s ashes on a boat ride on the bay; and I have eaten and walked my way around this city.  Look at my photos for more from this spring…sorry I have not posted more often, but there is just always something going on around here!

 Tomorrow is the first day of summer school and summer camp.  So in case you are wondering what I’m going to be doing all summer now that school is out, helping with those is the answer!  I’ll also be ordering supplies and books for next year, helping some teachers move classrooms, getting paperwork ready for new students, sending home summer reading lists, and probably more that I’ll find out when I have my weekly meeting with my principal to get my marching orders.  The secretary at my school, Mrs. Hawkins, is a dear lady who has kept me sane and smiling this year, and she has been working at Holy Family since in started in the 80s.  She just found out her husband has cancer and has 2-3 months to live (he’s in his early 80s I believe), so please keep Ted and Marilyn Hawkins in your thoughts and prayers.

Ps, in case you are also wondering what my plans are for after my LVC year, I don’t really know but I’ll keep you posted.  One thing I do know is that we get a free week at Holden Village for doing LVC, so I am going there with a group of 6 after we’re done in August.  Then I will unpack and look for a job!  If you have any ideas for me, let me know  :)  Hope life is good for everyone!
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Chicago, Illinois, United States

I fixed the Peanuts comic strip link
I have received several inquiries as of late along the lines of, Heather are you still alive over there in Chicago?! And the answer is, yes I am, I just haven't updated this blog in a while! You could say that I have fallen into the abyss that is a Chicago winter, but not in the way that most Chicagoans apparently just go into hibernation until spring. Around here, people talk about the winter like it's going out of style, but the more they complain about it, the more I enjoy it. They say that winters are supposed to be so horrid--both weather-wise and activity-wise--that you can hardly stand to leave your house except to go to work and the grocery store. I've found that not only is the weather not nearly as dire as people make it out to be, but also there seems to be even more to do than in the nicer months. Or perhaps I've just gotten better at finding it. Either way, suffice it to say that ever since getting back from Christmas break, I have kept quite busy.

First a word on the weather: to the chagrin of all I announce this to around here, I LOVE the snow. I simply cannot get over how daily life continues to go on with piles and piles of snow. That being said, there is not snow all the time. I thought it would be a constant cover of the white stuff, from like November to March. But in reality, we have a snow storm, it stays around for a couple days, and then it melts and we start over. The one constant is the wind, which does make it pretty ridiculously cold. We had a stretch of negative-degree days back in January, which I believe was my first time ever walking around in negative weather. Add in the wind chill factor, and it was "bitterly cold" (the weathermen's favorite phrase) around here for a while. In general, it has been in the teens, sometimes colder sometimes warmer, for January and February. But one weekend, it got up to 59 degrees, which felt like a spring thaw! Even when it gets above freezing, like in the 30s, it feels so warm and it's a treat to be able to take off a layer. So far, this winter has been in the top 10 snowiest ever for Chicago, and it's the coldest winter since 1996.

The only other people who seem to share my love of snow are the kids at my school. They are even so lucky as to go out and play in it at recess. Oh did you know they have cold-day recesses here? I grew up with rainy-day recess, where you have to stay inside when it rains, and I assumed they'd have snowy-day recess. But the only time the kids must stay in is if it's below 20 degrees, regardless of the snow. That reminds me, they had an article in the paper about a snow in Washington DC that shut down the Obama girls' school, and they were making fun of the people in DC for being such snow wimps. Well now I understand where they're coming from...when it snows in Chicago, life just keeps on moving along. I love being the first to crunch through it in the morning on my way to the bus stop, before the shopkeepers have shoveled their sidewalks and the pedestrians have turned it to slush. I love being at school or riding the bus and looking out the window and watching it float down. I love the way when a light dusting barely covers the ground, the wind can swirl it around like fairy dust or sand dunes. I love riding the L way up high and seeing the snow covering all the rooftops and watching it blow in when the train doors open at stations. I love bundling up with some combo of my scarf, hat, gloves, earmuffs, long underwear, jacket and boots. I have gotten used to throwing a pair of shoes in my bag to change into once I get to school. This is a Peanuts comic strip that pretty much sums up my feelings on snow.

I have officially seen five down coats around Chicago that are a color other than black, brown, or white. Two of those people had my exact same blue LLBean down coat, one was yellow, and the other two shades of red/pink. I am glad for my color though because I think cars can spot me better. That reminds me that Juliana, one of the other LVC girls, got hit by a car a few weeks ago. Long story and she's fine now, but she ended up breaking her nose, getting stitches where she bit through her bottom lip, and getting several bad bruises. Needless to say, we have all been slightly more cautious when crossing streets and generally dealing with cars. When you are a pedestrian 100% of the time (well at least when not on the bus or L), you become very aware of cars and how traffic works.

I have gone to see two plays in the last few weeks. Juliana is my play buddy, and we went to see Dirty Dancing in January and Jersey Boys one random Friday night with last-minute cheap seats. Dirty Dancing was fun, just like the movie, and Jersey Boys is the energetic, rags to riches story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. We also have tickets to see Chicago (in Chicago!) this Thursday. And speaking of tickets, I spent nearly half an hour on the phone one morning at school trying to get reservations to see a taping of Oprah. Two phones actually, my cell phone and my desk phone, one on each ear, and redialing as fast as I could. I finally got through, which was a glorious moment, and got reservations for me, my mom, and my sister. (My family is coming to visit the last weekend of March!). And thinking about visitors reminds me that I had a mini-reunion with the girls I studied abroad with in France. My two roommates from France go to college in northern Indiana and were in Chicago doing auditions for theater grad schools. So we went out for coffee to catch up on the last two and a half years, which I cannot believe it's been that long since I was in France.

Lots has been going on at school as of late, ever since my principal had a ruptured appendix at the end of January. She was in the hospital for 10 days and is now recuperating at home for 4-6 weeks, which means the pace has picked up around the office as we all try to fill big principal-sized shoes. The programs director has sort of stepped in as an acting principal, and I've shared all I know with her. I've sort of surprised myself with really how much of the school operations I've picked up on--between discipline and paperwork, scheduling and dealing with students, parents, and community members, it takes a lot to keep a school organized. The school secretary who has been around for over 20 years pulls us all together. Aside from that, I watched the inauguration together with the whole school, endured the changing over of semesters, and chaperoned a middle school dance and choir field trip. We also had a Black History month assembly, soul food feast, and many guests from other schools at our weekly chapel. And a milestone: I'm pretty sure I know every kid in the school now, and it's really gratifying to be able to call them all by name.


I would be remiss if I didn't mention the crazy state of Illinois politics. Between Blago and now Roland Burris, there is no shortage of topics to shake your head over. Everyone can agree on one thing though: the entire city is proud of the Obamas. The banners still hang from lampposts all around the Loop, and when the family came to visit over President's Day weekend, it was the talk of the town. Michelle and Barack went out to dinner at a restaurant called Table Fifty-Two for Valentine's Day, and I read an article in the paper that said that restaurant has now become so popular that you can't get a weekend reservation there til early April. The article also said Barack had time to play basketball with his buddies and get a haircut. I also enjoyed my three day weekends for both MLK and President's days.

In other Chicago news, the city is trying out for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Chicago is up against Madrid, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro. The committee just released their mega-plan for where all the events would be located throughout the city, showing what infrastructure is already available and what would have to be constructed. There are also plans detailing where the Athletes' Village would be located and how they would beef up public transportation to accommodate the influx of visitors. I have my fingers crossed, because I know people here now that I could stay with during the Olympics :)

In honor of the Academy Awards from last night, here is a bit of trivia for you: Where are the Oscars made? That is, the little Oscar statuettes? The answer is...Chicago! According to the Tribune, "The statuettes have been made at the R.S. Owens factory, a nondescript building on North Lynch Avenue, since 1983." They're made out of britannia, which is a high-grade pewter alloy that is heated to 780 degrees and then poured into one of two molds ever made. I have seen four of the movies that were nominated for something: Wall-E, Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, and Slumdog Millionaire, which I've actually seen twice and have the fantastic soundtrack. If you haven't seen it yet, please make it the next movie you go to! It is super well done, a great story, and opens your eyes to some of India's culture. Yes I know there has been some backlash surrounding it, but go see it and decide for yourself what you think.

Speaking of movies, Saturday I went to see a documentary at the Chicago Cultural Center. I think every city needs a place like the Chicago Cultural Center--it acts as both a welcome center for visitors/tourists and a gathering place with a cafe, tables, and couches for locals, and it also has a programming schedule that encompasses plays, music, art, film, and literature from cultures both near and afar. And the best part? Like 90% of what they offer is free! A quick side note: you might not think of Chicago as a very cultural place, but in fact it has so many different minority populations and neighborhoods it's incredible. Off the top of my head, I've visited the Greek, Ukrainian, Indian, Peurto Rican, Polish, Italian, and Korean neighborhoods, and of course where I live, which is mostly Mexican with other Central American countries thrown in the mix. And Chicago is actually the city in the world with the second biggest population of Polish people outside of Warsaw.

The documentary I saw introduced me to another apparently fairly large population in Chicago: Iranians. This was part of PBS' series of community films called Independent Lens, which shows documentaries in communities around the country and then airs them on PBS the next month. The film I saw was called Arusi Persian Wedding, and it's about a man who was born in Iran, but immigrated to the United States with his family when he was little. He married an American, and they had a regular American wedding, and then they decided to go to Iran to see his family and have a traditional Persian wedding. So it is a wonderful introduction to Iranian traditions, but also an interesting point of view from both the man, who said he feels kind of out of place in both countries, and also his wife, who has a completely European-American background and is experiencing her husband's home country for the first time. Juxtaposed with the couple's story was a brief overview of the history of relations between the United States and Iran, which is way too long of an ordeal to even begin to summarize here. But you should really just watch this on PBS! Go here to find out when it's playing where you live. After the showing, they had a panel of several different perspectives, and people in the audience could ask questions. The basic themes discussed were: listen to people's stories, travel, and educate yourself... all good goals in life!

And for the rest of what I've been up to recently, just look at my pictures :)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1229824800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1229824800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1229824800/tpod.html Sat, 20 Dec 2008 22:38:15 -0500 Lutheran Volunteer Corps--A Year on the Third Coast

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Chicago, Illinois, United States

So you've heard of being snowed-in?  Where you can't leave wherever you are due to snow?  Well I am experiencing a new phenomenon I'm calling "snowed-out".  That is to say, it's not that I can't leave where I'm at, because the snow situation in Chicago is under control; rather, it's that I can't arrive where I'm supposed to go.  My flight got cancelled earlier today due to the giant winter storm that's hitting Puget Sound right now.  Fortunately the people at American Airlines were quite accomodating and put me on a flight that's supposed to leave at 8:30 tomorrow morning, Chicago time.  So we'll see if that one flies!  In the meantime, I've done laundry, packed, listened to Christmas music, cleaned my room, baked with Kate and Nora (my roommates who are still here), and gone out to dinner.  Now Kate and Nora are knitting while I type, and we're all watching Elf, which just gets funnier every time I see it.

This past week at school was challenging because the kids' energy and excitement for break was contagious.  On Tuesday it started snowing before lunchtime, and by the time I left work at 4:20 we had a good four inches.  I didn't end up getting home til 6:30, but my double commute time didn't seem all that bad once I found out it took Nora an hour and half to drive her normal 20 minute route.  So at least I was sitting on a bus and not dealing with the traffic myself!  It was hard to stay at school that afternoon with that much snow...I kept trying to explain to people that in Seattle, that amount of snow would have been early dismissal so fast.  Then people would ask me why does a little snow shut down the city?  So I have tried my best to explain what a hill is :).  But really, I have decided that the one major difference between snow in Seattle and Chicago is that it is so flat here that it's not a problem.  People just brake a little sooner and the car or bus doesn't slide because there are no hills.  The public transportation all runs because they plow and salt here like crazy.  I had no idea there were so many different kinds of salt and chemicals to melt snow.  At school we use Urea, which is supposed to not harm the new concrete sidewalks.

Wednesday was Christmas Chapel at school, which was quite the production.  The theme was Christmas Around the World, and the classes from preschool to 5th grade sang songs or did a skit from different cultures.  They were all adorable and it was fun to see how excited they were to perform.  The entire gym was packed with students, parents, and the people who support our school like the board and donors and volunteers.  The other big thing going on at school earlier this week was the very first book fair.  I got to help the librarian set up for it and stayed later one evening when it was open for parents.

Last weekend was our LVC Christmas party.  Part of that involved a Polar Bear Plunge into Lake Michigan...something I did not take part in!  I have enough problems with the temperature outside the water, much less in it.  So I stood on the shore to be photographer and blanket holder.  There was a pretty good sized group though who participated, and Emily, who volunteers at Holy Family with me, was the one who stayed in the longest and went in the deepest, up to her neck.  Maybe it has something to do with her being from Minnesota.  Afterward we did a white elephant gift exchange, and considering that the five of us brought basically inherited junk from around our apartment, we left with some good things: shampoo, a pound of coffee, two chocolate bars, a cd, and 8 cans of beer.  That night I went to go see the movie Nothing Like the Holidays with Emily and Juliana.  It's set in Humboldt Park, which is the neighborhood that Emily and Juliana's LVC apartment is in.  And while some movies are vaguely set in a city, like they pan the skyline or something, this movie was completely 100% filmed in Humboldt Park.  It's a predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhood, and in the movie they show the giant Puerto Rican flag along Division Ave.  I recognized street signs, bus stops, the RedEye (free daily newspaper) bins, and the ice skating rink in Millennium Park.  There was the requisite skyline too.  Aside from the excitement of seeing Chicago on film, it was an excellent holiday movie too; I highly recommend it.

Friday night we did end up going caroling at the Bean, complete with candles and free hot chocolate from Caribou Coffee.  After an hour-plus of standing out in the cold though, we were all frozen, so we went into the big Macy's downtown to warm up.  That place is huge!  It has ten stories, too many escalators to count, tall ceilings, fountains, columns, even a food court on one floor and a restaurant on another.  The best part was a Tiffany stained glass domed ceiling in the middle of the store.  Other highlights of the past couple weeks include another visit to the German Christmas market for bratwurst and gingerbread, window shopping along the Magnificent Mile, making graham cracker gingerbread houses, watching the snow fall, and going to the Art Institute of Chicago.

So to everyone who is experiencing the winter weather, enjoy and stay safe!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1229050380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1229050380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1229050380/tpod.html Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:05:35 -0500 Lutheran Volunteer Corps--A Year on the Third Coast

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Chicago, Illinois, United States

  Greetings from Chicago...the city that has  produced some of the best and worst of the current political scene!  The last time I updated this blog was on election night, and we all know how that turned out.  Being in Chicago has been simply exhilarating, both on Nov. 4 and in the weeks after.  Chicago is definitely feeling a little full of itself, evidenced in part by big banners around downtown congratulating Obama.  Chicago has been kind of brought back down to earth this past week though, as all anyone is talking about now is Governor Blagojevich's arrest and its repercussions.  As one mother put it on Tuesday when she came to pick up her student: "We live in the most corrupt state in the country."  And it certainly seems that way, as the governor before Blagojevich just landed in jail as well, and there are way more examples from the past.  So now Blagojevich, whose name I could not pronounce for the longest time (it's bluh-GOY-uh-vitch), has taken the limelight from Obama, but probably not for long.

  Back to election night, which actually ended up being quite the adventure.  So while I was sitting at a cafe called Argo Tea taking advantage of their free wireless and typing my previous entry, somebody was taking advantage of me by pickpocketing the entire contents of my wallet.  And I say the contents because this person didn't take the actual wallet...or anything else from my purse (which was on the arm of my chair)...but just my cards and cash.  Of course since then I have thought of a million things I could have done differently, like sit in another spot (my table was in a weird corner backed up to a booth that people had to squeeze by my chair to get to the booth bench), or pay more attention to noises around me, or not have gone to that particular cafe.  But it happened, and now I'm super-sensitive, more like I was when I was in France and constantly in the mindset of being "out of place" and on guard.  My co-workers did tell me the theatre district (where I was, to go see Wicked) is notorious for pickpockets since people are out on the town, usually with money, and usually from the suburbs.  So the two lessons are: photocopy everything in your wallet, or at least make a list of it, in case it's ever stolen or lost.  I am so glad I had photocopies of my debit and credit cards at home so my parents could cancel them while I enjoyed Wicked.  And the other lesson: stealing is wrong.  It's been over a month now and the whole ordeal has been pretty much wrapped up, after getting new cards, filing fraud claims, and ordering a new driver's license.  Since that takes a while, I ended up buying an Illinois state ID as well.  So even when I get a new Washington driver's license, I'll just use my Illinois ID in Chicago.

  So that was the not so enjoyable part of the evening, but then I went to go see Wicked.  And it was awesome.  I had heard it was good, and I had heard some of the songs, but I had no idea it would be so hilarious.  I loved the costumes and the set and the amazing fake rain and especially the Emerald City scene, where the whole stage is bathed in green.  As soon as it was over and the crowd started leaving, I heard cheering and hollering.  They had the tv's in the lobby set to CNN, which was announcing that Obama had been elected.  As I made my way out to the streets, there were people everywhere and car horns honking and more screaming.  Since I was downtown, I wanted to walk over to Grant Park, but I also needed to get back to the apartment and file a police report, etc.  So for a while I stood in front of the giant ABC Chicago studio on State Street, which has floor to ceiling windows where people on the sidewalk can watch the newscasts.  Then my roommate Kate called to say she was at a bar off Belmont, so I hopped on the L to meet her there and watch Obama's speech.  Our other three roommates were in Grant Park, so we vicariously heard from them that it was fun to be there, but super crowded and they were too far back to see Obama.

  The rest of November was full of activity--going on a retreat, my friend Robbie visiting from home, and Thanksgiving festivities.  The retreat, sponsored by LVC, took us to Wisconsin for five days with all the volunteers from Chicago, Milwaukee, and the Twin Cities.  It was fun to hear other people's stories about work and living situations, and it was great to hang out with my roommates outside of our busy daily lives here in Chicago.  We had an anti-racism workshop, which was very powerful.  We also talked about what poverty in neighborhoods looks like.  It was a wonderful time to relax, read, eat good food, and take walks around the Wisconsin countryside.  Oh and I saw the Mississippi River out the car window on our way there!  Then it was such a treat to come back and have a visitor, especially after meeting so many of my roommates' friends and family.  While Robbie was here, we went to the Adler Planetarium, the Shedd Aquarium, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the John Hancock Tower.  While I was at school during the day, Robbie went to other museums that are now on my to-see-in-Chicago list, which is always growing.  We also tried Chicago-style hot dogs (they have very specific toppings like NO ketchup) and Chicago-style deep dish pizza.  The crust is super rich, like pie crust, and delicious, but I definitely still prefer Italian-style thin crust pizza.

  Quick story about our time at the top of the John Hancock tower: while looking out the window of the 97th floor observation area, I spotted a police car far below with its lights flashing.  What caught my eye was how it was turned sideways, blocking traffice on Lake Shore Drive, but there was no car accident around that necessitated such a move.  As I was mentioning this to Robbie, and we were watching the traffice pile up behind the blockade, out from this side street comes another police car followed by many black cars, all traveling with a purpose onto the open Lake Shore Drive, not bothering to stop for any traffic signals.  When the motorcade had all passed, the police car blocking traffic drove off.  Come to find out, as I read in the paper later, the Obamas were in one of those cars traveling from a birthday party on the Gold Coast down to their home in Hyde Park.  Crazy!  

  Then for Thanksgiving, one of my roommates who didn't go home and I joined the other LVCs who stayed in Chicago for a potluck dinner.  It was a beautiful sunny day, and we took a walk to Humboldt Park for some fresh air.  We had a wonderful dinner and went around the table to take turns saying what we're thankful for.  Afterwards we had dessert and played board games.  It was a luxury to have the next few days off school...at that point I really needed a break.  Overnight, Chicago was transformed into a sparkle of lights and holiday decorations, so that weekend we met up to wander around downtown.  Now that it gets dark by the time I commute to my apartment after school, I also enjoy looking at the Christmas lights along my bus route.

  It really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas, as it has officially snowed here three times (there have been many more days with snow flurries that didn't stick), and I absolutely love it.  While the locals are already grumbling, it is such a novelty to me to see so much snow stay so long on the ground.  Granted, they put enough salt on the streets to sink a ship, and it melts into slush on the sidewalks pretty quickly, but there's enough snow left on buildings and trees and grass to keep me happy.  I don't know where the kids play around here, because it is so flat I can't imagine there's a decent sledding hill anywhere in the city.  The snow is so pretty though, and our apartment is so high that we can see the rooftops all around us covered in white.  When the wind gets going, it whips the snow into a swirling mass, and it reminds me of sand blowing around on sanddunes.

  The only thing about the snow that I absolutely cannot reconcile is the feeling that I should be staying home from school.  All my life, waking up in the morning to a blanket of white has only meant one thing: no school!  Time to play and drink hot chocolate and have a day off.  But no, here I still go to work, and I'm told nothing short of a blizzard cancels school in this city.  I mentioned how it feels odd for me to go to school with "this much" snow, and the secretary at school told me "Oh honey, you ain't seen nothin' yet!"  Let me tell you, it is a piece of work to deal with snow at school: to make sure the kids don't throw snowballs at each other, to remind them to stomp their boots before going inside, and to help the younger ones stick every finger properly in their gloves.  Some of the littlest ones are so bundled up, their arms can't even hang properly at their sides and you can't see their faces.  It is such an endeavor to get off and on all the snow gear.  They do this in the morning, then before recess, then after recess, then when it's time to go home.  The craziest part is they all bring a pair of shoes to change into and leave their boots in their locker.  I have learned that it takes me like an extra five minutes in the morning to get all my things on before braving the cold: fleece, jacket, hat, scarf, gloves, etc.  My parents got me a down jacket from LL Bean for my birthday, which pretty much saves me from freezing on a daily basis.  Like I've said before, it's the standing still that will get you--waiting for the bus or monitoring the playground.  Moving is better, but then of course you have to watch out for the ice and slippery slush!  Every morning though it is the wind that continues to amaze me with its strength.  I can be walking along, feeling relatively warm and comfortable, when all of a sudden a giant blast nearly knocks me over.  The air temperature means nothing in Chicago--here the number to watch is the wind chill factor.

  Earlier this week we had our staff Christmas party at school.  They served us wine and hors d'oeuvres, dinner, and dessert.  We sang Christmas carols, and I enjoyed hanging out with the other teachers outside of the little snippets of conversation here and there in the hallways.  I really do work with a fun bunch of people.  I decorated the main office the other day, and all day long Mrs. Hawkins the secretary has her radio set to the local all-Christmas song station, which is all well and good until the songs like "there's no place like home for the holidays" come on!  I have been counting down the days on my chocolate Advent calendar til my flight leaves O'Hare on the 20th.  For one of our weekly community nights, my roommates and I made an old-school-style paper chain.  We didn't have any construction paper, so we cut strips out of white printer paper and decorated them for the countdown to Christmas (red and green) and then the countdown to the inauguration (red, white, and blue).  For our next community night, we're going to make old-school-style gingerbread houses out of milk cartons and graham crackers (also my idea) since I go through so many milk cartons at school.

  In other house news, we moved our microwave and toaster oven to a new location, away from the kitchen, because we've been blowing fuses at least twice a week for about a month.  Our sockets are ridiculously touchy...we can't have the hot water pot and toaster oven going at the same time, for example.  So to cut back on the phone calls to our poor landlords on the first floor, we switched up what we had plugged in where.  And speaking of switches, next week our first room rotation is happening, with Katie moving in with me in the double and Kate moving into the single.  Then in April, I will move into the single, and Kate and Katie will room together in the double.  This is what we figured out in the beginning to be the most fair, but it's hard to think about moving our stuff around, because somehow it has grown.

  I have been spending a lot of time in the Holy Family Lutheran School library lately.  Last week I was the librarian for a day, since our regular librarian is a volunteer and she needed the day off.  So she taught me how to check in and out books and print up overdue notes.  It was fun to help the kids look for books and to see how surprised they were to see Miss Dunning in the library instead of the office.  Then today I helped set up for the book fair that starts tomorrow.  It brought back all the good memories of my own elementary school book fairs.  It's going to be hard for me to stay away from it and not buy the books right under my nose!

  Tomorrow I am meeting up with other LVCers after work to go caroling at the Bean downtown.  Every Friday there's a different choir singing at the Bean and the audience can sing along if they want.  After that we're going to walk over to the Christkindlmarkt for dinner, which is a giant German Christmas market in a plaza in the Loop.  They apparently have bratwurst, pretzels, waffles, and spiced hot wine, which reminds me of the Christmas markets when I studied abroad in France.  Also this weekend is our LVC Christmas party, and at some point we're going to Zoo Lights at the Lincoln Park Zoo.  There is plenty to do around here for the holidays.  Then I leave for Kirkland on the 20th and I'll be home until January 1st.  I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1225841100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1225841100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1225841100/tpod.html Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:15:11 -0500 Lutheran Volunteer Corps--A Year on the Third Coast

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Chicago, Illinois, United States

I am currently sitting in a cafe in downtown Chicago, taking advantage of the free wireless before I go next door to the Ford Center for the Performing Arts to see Wicked.  They're having a special tonight, any seat in the house for $44 since we're electing our 44th president, which is a deal I couldn't pass up.  Especially because I couldn't get a ticket for the Obama rally, so I figured I'd go see a play and then head over to Grant Park after (just a few blocks southeast) to see what I can see from behind the fences and security perimeter.  Three of my roommates got tickets (from co-workers and friends from college), so I will hear from them later how it went inside the park.   The entire city of Chicago is abuzz.  Even the kids at school were asking me if I'd voted yet, so I got to explain to them what an absentee ballot is and how I sent mine in last week to Seattle.  I got off the train downtown earlier and walked right by the tall glass windows that showcase ABC Chicago and saw several of their reporters getting ready for the long night of coverage.  In Illinois, people can vote early, which is something I've never experienced before.  These past two weeks, up until Thursday the 30th, people cast more than three quarters of a million votes, according to this morning's Chicago Tribune.  Last week I dropped by our local library to pick up "It's a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" and the line for voting was out the library door and halfway down the block!  On my way in, I overheard a lady on her cell phone say she'd been standing there for nearly an hour.

This has been a full week because of celebrating Halloween and my 22nd birthday too.  Actually it's been a full month of October...which is why it's taken me til November to write this entry!  Overnight it seems (ok well maybe over the month :), the leaves have changed colors and fallen to the ground and the wind has picked up.  Let me tell you, this city truly earns its Windy City nickname...every time I walk outside it's like I stepped out on the upper deck of a ferry.  My hair goes all over the place and it's all I can do to get a decent breath that's not icy cold.  And it's not even that far into November.  At least I am outfitted with scarves, which I have taken to wrapping around my head/neck, a down jacket, waterproof boots, and long underwear.  According to my roommate from Minnesota, her trick is to wear her long underwear every day under whatever outfit she has on!  The last couple of days we've had a warm spell though, with today reaching a balmy 70 degrees and us having to turn off the heat in our apartment over the weekend.  It's not supposed to last of course, as Friday calls for a high of 39 degrees and a wind chill factor of who knows what.

Each weekend this month I've taken an adventure around the city.  I usually start out needing to run errands of some sort...going to the bank or Target or the library...then it just sort of evolves from there.  On my birthday last Saturday I went to Lincoln Park, walking by the ponds, a farmer's market, the zoo, the conservatory, and ending up at the Chicago History Museum at the south end.  I got in free because Bank of America has a promotion where the first weekend of every month is free at several museums around the country, so I just walked in and showed them my debit card and they printed me up a free ticket.  Next I went to the Newberry Library where they had an exhibit on children's literature through the ages, and all the books on display are from their extensive collection.  It was very well curated and featured books from as far back as the fifteenth century, including the first illustrated edition of Aesop's fables, the first edition of Alice in Wonderland, and several books in French.  Those of you who remember my PLU Capstone paper and topic can probably guess I spent a lot of time looking at that exhibit!  The only disappointing part was not being able to pick up the books and flip through them, as only one two-page spread was displayed under the plexiglass.  I got spoiled being able to do that with old books in my PLU publishing and printing classes.

Another weekend I went thrift store shopping, because we needed some things for our apartment like a wall clock, a butter dish, some measuring cups, etc.  I ended up going to two Salvation Armys, one of which was two stories tall, a Brown Elephant, our local Village Discount (about five blocks from our apartment), a Plato's Closet, and three dollar stores.  After much shelf-scouring I found everything we needed and my roommates were quite impressed!  I take the bus or train or walk everywhere, and my record for one day is four different buses, two train rides, and a lot of walking.  It's fun to take new bus routes through neighborhoods I haven't been in, and I spend the whole time looking out the windows on both sides to see what is there.  This is how I discovered the Trader Joe's near our house, one of the Salvation Armys, my favorite coffee shop, and much more.  I'm getting so my roommates know to ask me where the closest whatever is, and I can tell them how to get there because I saw it out the window at some point during my adventures.

As much as I love public transportation, the occasional car ride I get is a treat.  Last weekend I rode with a couple other folks from my school out to Arlington Heights, northwest of the city, for a baby shower for the 4th grade teacher.  This was my first time "out in the suburbs," as they like to say here, and it was kind of a shock after spending the last two plus months in dense, urban Chicago.  I had forgotten what space looks like, how houses can have huge yards and big box stores can sprawl across strip malls and there is just so much emptiness.  I am used to tall buildings that cramp next to each other with barely a strip of alley in between.  My other car ride came on Halloween, when the tech support guy from school gave me a ride home.  I was packing up my stuff for the day, and I had a huge bunch of balloons, a bag full of candy, and a box full of rolls leftover from the cafeteria (I've made friends with the lunch ladies and they give me the extra food at the end of the week to share with my roommates).  Our tech support guy took one look at me and was like, you aren't riding the bus like that!  Well I certainly wasn't looking forward to the looks from the person next to me on the bus as balloons bumped their head and a cardboard box overlapped onto their space.  So I took him up on the offer and it took less than half the time to get home than it does on the bus, and we even hig traffic on the freeway!  Which reminds me, they don't call them freeways around here.  I have gotten more blank stares, as people figure out that what I'm really talking about when I say freeway is an "expressway" according to them.  Although most of the time, Chicagoans don't even say expressway, they call it by its name.  That's right, they name freeways around here.  There's the Dan Ryan, the Kennedy, the Eisenhower.  That one runs right by my school, and one time I got a phone call from someone trying to figure out how to get to school.  "You're just south of the Eisenhower, right?" this person asks me.  I'm sitting there on the phone, wracking my brain, trying to remember where I saw a statue or a monument of Ike, or even just a road named after him, considering along my commute we cross roads named Franklin, Washington, Madison, Monroe, Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, Congress, Harrison, and Polk, and Roosevelt two blocks south of school.  But no, Eisenhower is the name of their freeway.  Oh another reason they don't call them freeways is because most aren't free.  There are tolls all over the place.

In addition to fixing my interstate language, I am getting used to the phrase "I stay" for "I live."  People I run into at school or that I meet around the city always ask me "Where do you stay?"  And I'm thinking, stay?  I'm not in a hotel, and I'm not on vacation.  But I live in Albany Park.  And then they'll say something like, "oh yeah, I used to stay [live] over on Pulaski and Montrose [which is close to us]."  The students at school have also been teaching me all kinds of slang.  I can't figure out if these words are unique to Chicago, or if they're just commonplace for a generation of youth that I'm no longer a part of.  There's "raw", which I think is the new "cool."  It's used like "Miss Dunning, did you see me?  I was so raw!" which Arianna asked me after I watched her make a freethrow in the 5th & 6th grade basketball game.  Or it can be like "that's so raw" in regards to a product or event.  "Tweakin" is kind of like "freakin," as in, "it's ok, don't be tweakin' out."  And there's the classic, which I hear at least a dozen times a day: "Miss Dunning, I gotta USE it!" which the first time a student asked me that, I replied, use what?!  Come to find out, it's their way of saying I have to go to the bathroom.  It's nice and concise, for example I'll announce to my kindergartners, "ok you better go use it before we go out to the playground" and they totally understand what I mean.

Kindergartners simultaneously provide the most joy and the most challenges in my day.  I spend an hour with them every morning, doing activities with different groups the teacher gives me.  Sometimes it's the smarter kids, who whip through a matching upper-case and lower-case letters game, and sometimes it's the kids who need extra help, who spend nearly our entire time together trying to decipher the difference between the b, d, p, and q.  I then see them all at lunch in the cafeteria, where I spend my time opening lots of milk and ketchup packets, which are hard for little fingers.  And then three days a week I get to hang out with seven of them in the After School Program for an hour helping them with homework.  Well the homework part doesn't last too long, considering it usually consists of writing the letter of the week about a dozen times, and sometimes another sheet on patterns or numbers or shapes.  So they finish in about 10 minutes and we have the rest of the time to color, use play dough, do a puzzle, or go out to the playground.  The student who has given me the most behavioral trouble over the past couple of weeks also provided me with the ingenious solution to his antics.  One afternoon when I was thoroughly exasperated, I just sat down and said, Marcellous, how can we make this behavior change?  Do you have any ideas?  These were just rhetorical questions, but lo and behold he told me, "Miss Dunning, if anyone is being bad, you just write their name on the board, and then if they're bad some more, you put a check mark, and then another one, and if you have two checkmarks then you have to sit in the office while we go out to the playground."  Well this system is working wonderfully, and I really can't take any credit for it.  It's great to just say "oh Marcellous, I sure hope you're using your indoor voice so I don't have to write your name on the board" or "Kaliyah please show me how we sit in our chairs so I don't have to add a checkmark to your name."

Life in our apartment is going well too.  I am so fortunate to have such down to earth roommates.  We have a lot of fun together and can spend entire evenings having discussions on everything under the sun.  More often than not we sit around the dinner table long after dinner is over.  Last night I made pumpkin soup for my meal, and it turned out great.  I love pumpkin anything though, so I thought it would be fun to try soup.  So far this season I've had a pumpkin latte at Starbucks, pumpkin chai tea at Argo Tea (only in Chicago), pumpkin ice cream at Coldstone, a pumpkin donut at Dunkin' Donuts, and pumpkin seeds, which I buy at the Mexican produce shop across the street from our apartment in bags labeled "pepitas."  I read in the Chicago Tribune that Illinois actually ranks first among pumpkin-producing states, and further south in Morton, IL they call themselves the pumpkin capital of the world.  Most of the canned pumpkin consumed in the US is processed there.  So I'm just doing my adopted-state duty.

Speaking of states, the electoral map is being colored in and Wicked is going to start soon so I better add photos to this entry and head out.  Hope everyone is doing well and please know that I think of you all often!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1222896840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1222896840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1222896840/tpod.html Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:04:43 -0400 Lutheran Volunteer Corps--A Year on the Third Coast

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Chicago, Illinois, United States

Wednesdays are my favorite day of the week. Well let me qualify that with...the work week. First of all, I get to arrive at 8:20 instead of 8 (hey, 20 extra minutes really makes a big difference, especially now that it's dark when I get up in the mornings). The next great thing is Wednesdays are chapel day, which means my whole schedule (and that of the rest of the school) is different and therefore a novelty to everyone involved. It's hard to describe the energy and enthusiasm rockin' the gym during chapel, except to say that this is not your ordinary chapel session. The leader is a man named Mr. Hunter, who is hands-down one of the best story-tellers I've ever heard. You could hear a pin drop during one of his stories, which is saying something considering I'm always stationed to sit amongst the kindergarteners, who are notorious for having the shortest attention spans. Every pair of eyes in the school is riveted to Mr. Hunter, hanging on his every sound effect and antic. The stories always have a message or a moral, and the kids always talk about them the rest of the week, which impresses me. This might be because each student writes a chapel reflection, and each week the principal chooses a half dozen or so from the week before to come down and read theirs in front of the school. I personally would be mortified in their shoes, but no matter their age, they're always good sports about it, and the rest of the student body cheers them on like they've just won an Oscar or something. It really is a very supportive environment, this whole having K-8 in one school thing, and one I'd really not been all that familiar with before this experience. The best moment always comes in the beginning during "roll call," when Mr. Hunter stands in front of the bleachers and calls out grade by grade "Where my 8th grade An-GELS?!!" (Angels are their mascot) and the entire class in question responds with a fist-pumping and seat-vacating "WHAT-WHAT!" He goes all the way down to the kindergartners, who, now that we're a couple weeks into school, are finally getting the effort up to be as loud as possible, which granted still comes out like an adorable little squeak. There is also a lot of singing, and the majority of songs are ones I can join in on because they're from my Sunday School days, but with some new-to-me movements and rhythms. We also do the school stomp, which is a series of claps and stomping and knee slapping that I am still trying to get the hang of while the kindergartners next to me, who are blessed with perfect rhythm, have had down pat since day one.

The coolest part of my Wednesdays though, or rather when I feel the coolest, is after chapel when we convert the gym into the cafeteria. This involves pulling down the tables from the wall, ushering the students to get in line for hot lunch, and putting away the bleachers. That last job is mine, and it is one that every kid in the school covets. The bleachers are electric though, involving plugging in a cord and pushing the "in" arrow, which is why I'm the one who does it and not the students. While they're walking to their benches, lunches in hand, a great many students plead "Can I do that Miss Dunning?" but I can only direct them to start eating. It really is cool to watch though, because these are not your ordinary bleachers: they have back rests that fold down as they're being pushed in, which is a sight to behold.

On Wednesdays I also do my regular duties of helping in the cafeteria, holding detention for K-3 (there's not too many of them at that age), gathering up the kids who ride the bus, and helping the kindergartners with Homework Hour during the after school program. Except their homework usually consists of writing the letter of the day for a couple of lines, and then we go out to the playground to get their energy out.

My other favorite part of Wednesdays is getting to spend an hour in the library. So far I've been cataloguing boxes of books. This is the first year Holy Family has had a library (since this is a new building for them, there's actually room for one), and its librarian is retired from the Chicago Public Schools and now volunteers her time and experience at Holy Family. She has so many connections that she hasn't bought a single book: the boxes and bags overflowing with books have all been entirely donated. So for one hour, I take a stack of books and type in their ISBN, place barcodes on the covers, scan the barcodes into the system, and stick a pocket on the inside cover for the "date due" card. Most of the time I get incredibly sidetracked because it's too tempting to read whatever books I'm scanning!

Speaking of books, this past week was Banned Books Week, to spread awareness of books that people have tried to ban over the years and generally celebrate the fact that we live in a country that supports free speech. Last Saturday I went to a read-aloud downtown on the Chicago Tribune plaza, sponsored by that newspaper and the ALA. They had a couple dozen authors lined up to read throughout the afternoon, but I went to see three of my favorites from childhood: Judy Blume, Lois Lowry, and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Each read selections from their books that have caused controversy as well as letters or emails from concerned parents, mostly. I was just thrilled to see these incredible women in person, and a big surprise was that they were not only signing books, but also giving them away. So I now have a copy of The Giver signed by Lois Lowry, which I really need to reread since I first read it in 5th grade.

The Tribune Plaza is on Michigan Avenue, in the middle of what's known as the Magnificent Mile. This is definitely the more touristy spot in town, as well as more high end, with every store imaginable begging you to shop til you drop. Which is something that's easy to resist when your monthly budget is less than a pair of jeans at some of those places! It's fun to be among the crowds though, and the sidewalks are wide and the buildings are beautiful. The weekend before last I also had my first experience on Navy Pier, another tourist hot spot, when I met up with another LVCer for a concert at the end of the pier. This is the place with Chicago's famous Ferris wheel, and plenty of arcade games and places to get food and good people watching.

Last Sunday I took part in a Where's Waldo photo scavenger hunt around the Loop and general vicinity. This event was the brilliant idea of Helen, the kindergarten teacher at my school, who went to the Minnesota equivalent of PLU, and her husband Matt. Their inspiration was their 10 month old son Matias, who they dressed up as Waldo (Helen painted red stripes on a white onesie) and were wheeling around Millennium Park (we found this out later) in his stroller. I didn't know anybody, but I fit in because I met Helen's sisters, whose names are Heather and Hannah, so we bonded over the "H" sisters things. They also have a brother names Hans (Michael, are you glad we aren't Heather, Holly, and Hans?). Anyway, I was on a team with Matt's parents and two others, and the five of us had a great time trying to get as many points in one photo as possible. The premise is each team is given the same list of items to potentially find, with each assigned a point level according to difficulty (finding Waldo was the highest at 10). The catch is that each team is only allowed 10 photos, so you really had to connive to get as many things in one photo as possible, to make that photo "worth it." For example, some things were a pay phone, a trolley, a Bears jersey, someone high-fiving a bus driver, but also harder to find things like a wedding party or a wild animal. We had three hours and could only use public transportation. It was a whirlwind afternoon and lots of fun, and I definitely learned new parts of Chicago from these four natives.

Speaking of public transportation, it's kind of been a love/hate relationship lately. This is because they are doing construction on our Brown El line each weekend for three months. I found this out because two weekends ago it took me nearly double the time it usually does to get downtown into the Loop, and the same thing happened this past weekend, so I asked a friendly CTA worker in a fluorescent vest and he told me very cheerfully that I should expect these kind of delays every weekend until Christmas. I was doing ok with the "we're down to one track so we're waiting for another train to pass" situation, since that's for safety, and even backing up on the same track we just traversed was an interesting experience, but if it averts running into an oncoming train, that's fine too. But when they make everyone get off at Belmont, a station about halfway to downtown, and make you get on another train? That is a little annoying. And then the driver comes on to announce that oh, by the way, the entire east and north side of the Loop is closed to Elevated trains for more construction, so if you need to get over there, you must get on a Red line train which goes underground. It just takes a lot of planning, and thank goodness I know the system!

I don't mean to dis the El too much, because it's still super fun to ride and really a much better option than walking or even bussing most times. And as much as I love the El, there's nothing like an unpredictable bus ride in Chicagoland for a little entertainment. Who needs Six Flags out in the suburbs when you can take a ride on the craziness that is Route 82 Kimball/Homan?! Oh and the way the bus deals with stop signs. You've heard of a California Stop? Where you kind of just roll through? Well let me introduce you to the Chicago Stop, which is to say, non-existent. I've seen more people blow through stop signs in the past month than in the rest of my life! And maybe I have a small sample, and it's just this one corridor of the city, but it's so prevalent. And we're talking not just quiet little neighborhood intersections, but the main arterial my bus goes on. Cars do it, buses do it, I've even seen police cars do it. Buses think they adhere to a separate, parallel set of traffic laws to the ordinary ones. For example, even though it's technically a two-lane road, buses drive on the shoulder, pull up to traffic signals, etc, all while creating their own right lane. Pretty soon, the cars are following suit and the marked-two-lane street becomes an unofficial four-lane.

You also have to be careful which bus driver you get. Some of them drive like they're trying to beat their own personal best times between stops. Which wouldn't be so bad if the stops weren't every other block! I mean, these very bouncy, jerky bus rides provide my neck with quite a workout, especially when I'm reading, or napping. Depending on the driver, my commute has taken anywhere from 43 minutes to an hour and 3 minutes. Each bus stop is actually a street name, and I have the big ones almost memorized between my apartment and school. The next stop is flashed on a reader board at the front of the bus above the windshield, and a recorded voice announces it each time. This comes in handy because all I have to do is listen or glance up and I can instantly tell how far I have to go.

And the people I meet on the bus are just characters! I could write a book conjecturing on each one's life--the teens, the young parents with their strollers, the different cultures. There was the lady who showed me her rosary, the man who told me about his car detailing business (sorry, I won't be using that), the students who are on their way to school in uniform, which I always use as a conversation starter. Some people are talkers and some just stare out the window. Some people are courteous and some take up all the room. Like I say though, never a dull moment.

In other news, I am posting this entry from school because our wireless internet has been out for nearly two weeks at home. To make a long, long story short, AT&T is not on my list of favorite companies right now. If we were paid a nickel for every minute me or one of my housemates spends on the phone with them, we'd probably exceed our joint food budget. This whole saga has made for some interesting dinner conversations though, as we try to remember what life was like before the internet was such an integral part of it. If you ever want to try an experiment of No Internet for a Long Time, just have one of your housemates accidentally push the reset button on the modem. Just sayin'. And it's not like we're totally attached (ok maybe a little), but we just want to read and respond to emails, check the bus schedules (which they don't have paper copies of, by the way), and maybe get an update on news on the days we don't get a newspaper. We all have internet at work, but at least for me I definitely don't have time to use it during the day, so I've taken to staying longer after school. The most recent time we talked to AT&T, they mentioned October 8 as a possible day that service might be restored, so we'll see.

Tomorrow I'm taking the MegaBus (similar to Greyhound, but Midwest-centric) to Milwaukee with my co-LVCer Emily for a conference. It will be nice to have a change of pace, not just being a different city but also having a couple days off of school. I'm hoping to look out the window the whole time and see some changing colors on the leaves.

I will post more photos once we ever get our home internet back or I feel inspired to track down some free Wi-Fi. Happy October!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1220404560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1220404560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1220404560/tpod.html Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:02:46 -0400 Lutheran Volunteer Corps--A Year on the Third Coast

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Chicago, Illinois, United States

It has been nearly three weeks since I arrived in this city that is so big, the locals call it Chicagoland. I have come to appreciate this term, as it takes us almost an hour by train to get from our apartment to downtown. I feel as far away from downtown as Kirkland is from Seattle, except there's all city in between. Also this place is so flat, it's crazy. One of the first days we were here, one of our Support Committee folks (a group of people around Chicago made up of LVC alums and friends...they also brought us food so we like them a lot) took us on a tour of the city and a tour of our different organizations. We drove by Lake Michigan and that day it was as crystal blue as the Caribbean! I officially understand now why people think it looks like an ocean and call Chicago the "third coast." The only problem, and it's kind of a big one, is that unless you're pretty much on top of it, you don't really know there's a lake nearby. As in, you can't see it from any part of the city except the shoreline (well and maybe the skyscrapers but I don't go up those much). I guess I'm just realizing that Seattle is endowed with many hills, and they are to be revered and appreciated because you can usually see some water somehow. In flatland over here, you know the lake is out to the east somewhere, but you don't ever see it. That's something else I've had to adjust to...all my life in Kirkland, the city and the water has been to the west of me, whereas here the downtown city and the water is to the east.

Though the city may feel big as a whole, there are lots of little neighborhoods that each have their own character. Our neighborhood, Albany Park, is mostly Hispanic with some Korean influence further west of us. We live about 200 yards from a laundromat, a Mexican bakery, a produce shop, many Mexican restaurants, and a dollar store. I knew I was going to like this place when I saw the ice cream carts on every corner! These are manned by friendly people who mostly speak Spanish, but three of my roommates do so that's good. Living here makes me want to learn Spanish...so far I can say "I want ice cream," which is a start.

The apartment I live in with my four housemates is surprisingly large. We're on the top floor of our building with a view of our street and surrounding rooftops. The bedrooms are on the smaller side but the rest of the place makes up for it, with a giant living room/desk area/sun room, a dining room/sitting area, a kitchen, and even a back porch (see photos). My housemates continue to be wonderful...so far it's been really simple to just talk things over and they're quite easy to get along with. We all have our own stories and life histories, so our conversations include a fair amount of "well where I'm from, we..." or "in my family we've always..." so there is always lots to talk about and plenty of opinions/perspectives to share. We divvied up our responsibilities and have a chore chart that rotates each week, and we each have a different week night to cook. If anyone has any good recipe ideas for five people that are cheap, send them my way! But yeah, overall we have a lot of fun together...we've made chocolate chip cookies and hummus, we've bonded over watching the DNC every night and embracing the Obama love that is so prevalent in Chicago, and we've done some things around the city together.

One of those was the other night we met up after work at the giant downtown Millennium Park for a free concert by Andrew Bird. There are two other groups of LVCers in Chicago, for a total of 13 of us, and we coordinated a picnic dinner and brought blankets to sit on the lawn. I've also been to two outdoor movies in the park (An Affair to Remember and Grease), walked along the lake, went out to dinner downtown, got my library card at the Harold Washington Library (it's 9 stories tall), and been on a couple grocery shopping adventures. A couple weeks ago I babysat for a family who lives two blocks from another huge park called Lincoln Park, which among other things houses the free Lincoln Park Zoo. So the kids and I walked over and watched the polar bear feeding for a long time, and then we played on the lawn and in a fountain.

It is so easy to get around this city! I have a Chicago Card Plus, which is an unlimited transportation pass, so between the bus system and the rail system (the "L") I can always figure out how to get somewhere. Not to mention the whole grid system...they devised the streets so that the majority run either north/south or east/west. In downtown at Madison & State there is a zero/zero point, and each 800 address numbers is a mile in whatever direction. So we live at 4734 N. Drake, which means we're almost six miles north of Madison in downtown. The buses mostly run on a single street back and forth, so there's no need to deal with complicated routes. No matter where you are, there's for sure a bus close by and usually an L stop.

I take a bus to work every morning, and my commute is a little under one hour door to door. That gives me lots of time to read Time magazine or a book! I've been working at Holy Family Lutheran School now for a little over two weeks, and I love it. It is a private school, so the kids are getting a really good education, but it's heavily subsidized for the families by the church that oversees it and massive amounts of donations and volunteer effort. Before the kids arrived, I had some time to get to know the teachers and staff and they are all amazing people. Especially the principal, Cheryl Collins, who does an inspiring job of balancing all her relationships with the students and the staff, and also her roles as disciplinarian and all-around motivational coach. There is one teacher per grade, and I've also made friends with the lunch lady and the janitor.

People ask me what it is that I do, and really the answer, I've discovered, is what don't I do? My official position is Assistant to the Principal, but some days I hardly ever even see Cheryl and I feel more like Assistant to the School. Especially the first week when the students arrived, I helped with a lot of paperwork from the parents, answering the phone, greeting people in the office, doing projects for teachers, etc. My daily duties vary, but at some point every week I help supervise the playground in the morning before school, run the library, monitor the cafeteria during lunch, hold detention, dole out band-aids, photocopy a lot, assist with the After School Program, monitor the hallways and help kids open their lockers, make sure the bus kids get on the bus, and plenty of other tasks that Cheryl comes up with. At dinner when we check in with each other about our days, my housemates talk about how they can get bored at their jobs sometimes. I don't really foresee that happening at my school! There's even two of us LVCers at Holy Family, and the other girl Emily works more with the teachers specifically, going around to each class to grade papers or whatever the teachers need help with. I must say, both of us feel very appreciated, because everyday everyone tells us how much help we are and how wonderful it is what we are doing.

Once it gets less awkward I'll start taking photos of the school and the students, who are all adorable and so full of energy and call me Miss Dunning. But until then you can look at this YouTube video that was put together when they moved into their new building last June: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUlpNeW0cdQ

Well I am off to go for a walk with one of my roommates to our local library. It's sunny and around 70 degrees today, which is a welcome change from the storm we've been having the last couple of days. Hurricane Gustav, or rather what was left of it, came up the Mississippi River valley and drenched Chicago in rain. There were puddles everywhere and the drains were clogged so that you couldn't tell where the road ended and the sidewalk began. We've discovered that the temperature can change fairly quickly around here...last weekend on Labor Day they announced it was one of the hottest days of the summer, in the mid-90s with humidity. When it started raining we were running around the apartment, closing all our windows. This morning I got to open them all back up again!

Hope everyone is having a good end of the summer.

PS, a big thank you to everyone who has sent me mail! Not only do I love opening mail, but it's become kind of a joke around here that when my housemates get home, they ask if there was any mail today, and Abby (who always gets home first and checks the mail) says "only if you're Heather." Seriously I've been getting something like every other day, so thanks! However my housemates definitely have the market on the visitors...so far I've met a set of grandparents, a dad, two boyfriends, and many college friends (however those colleges are in Minnesota, Iowa, and Ohio so it's not fair to compare :)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1219296360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1219296360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/2/1219296360/tpod.html Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:44:06 -0400 Lutheran Volunteer Corps--A Year on the Third Coast

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Washington DC, District of Columbia, United States

Note: I wrote this entry about Washington DC while I was on the train from DC to Chicago, and I'm just now getting the chance to post it online...because the last couple of days since arriving in Chicago have been busy! But more about Chicago later. Just a warning, I had a lot of time on the train so this is kinda long...feel free to just look at the photos :)

My nonstop flight on Alaska from Seattle to DC turned out to be quite enjoyable after a brief delay. We took off to the south and turned east, which is something I don't experience too often since I fly to California most of the time. We passed the Cascades, which were absolutely beautiful from up above. I could see alpine lakes and snow capped peaks and I thought about how some of the places I was looking at have more than likely never seen humans. The landscape abruptly changed to eastern Washington flatness and farmland, and then came the Columbia. Scattered along the route were lots of wind turbines, which look like toothpicks or birthday candles stuck into the ground. Aside from looking out the window, I also tackled the packet of articles entitled Summer Reading that LVC mailed me earlier this summer, but for some reason I didn't have time to read until the actual flight to orientation. I got through most of them though...very interesting and all centered around the three LVC tenets of social justice, community, and simplicity/sustainability. As we headed further east, the sun started to set behind us and the colors were gorgeous. At one point, I think we passed the Mississippi, or maybe the Missouri, I don't know...I wish our pilot would've announced the rivers as we passed. But I definitely saw Chicago, even though it was pitch black by then, because it was the only big city all lit up like that. I saw Lake Michigan too, which was like a black hole.

My great uncle George picked me up from Reagan and we took the scenic route home, passing some monuments lit up at night. The last time I was in DC was for a 9th grade spring break trip with about 10 other students from my junior high (shout out to Ashley :) That was a whirlwind tour of all the monuments, Williamsburg, Jamestown, Mt. Vernon, Arlington National Cemetery, and the Smithsonian museums. Come to find out, there is life beyond the Smithsonian, as impressive as those all are. This time, I decided to go to focus on what I hadn't done last time.

My great uncles George and Michael were wonderful hosts, and I got to stay in their guest suite at their beautiful house in Arlington, which is just across the Potomac from DC. Every morning I made a peanut butter bagel to take with some grapes and string cheese for lunch, so I could do nonstop touring till dinnertime. I had everything kinda planned out beforehand, but what I found out is once you start talking to the uncles, they have all kinds of great suggestions! At one point, I asked if there is anything they don't recommend...but nope, they were stumped.

I am officially a huge fan of this city. I love how you can just be walking along, and turn the corner, and there's a fantastic view of like the Capitol. I love how you meet all kinds of people, especially traveling alone I ended up talking to pretty much everyone I met, from the volunteers at the zoo to the family from Texas I waited in line with at the National Monument. I love the diversity and the rich culture and the acute sense of history and pride you feel just walking along a street, much less in front of a grand monument. I love that everywhere you turn there's something new to learn or experience. It seems like people come to DC because they have a passion for something, whether that is politics on Capitol Hill or museum hopping or working at one of the many non-profits. I think that being in this city is kind of like being in college, but exponentially cooler. What I liked a lot about PLU-meeting people, learning, going to lectures and plays and concerts, having fun-you can do in DC a thousand times over. Museum exhibits are continually changing, and just walking around this place challenges you to think. I thought about our country, our history, our culture.

Even though I was only in DC for a little over a week, I managed to do a lot. And it's incredible, but nearly everything is free. I learned a lot too from hanging out with my uncles...for example, most people don't know that there's a canyon just outside of downtown, with a lovely park and trails and Rock Creek running through it. It was great to have a personal tour guide when we were driving through downtown...my Unc described nearly everything that we saw. A rather nondescript building turned out to be the Federal Reserve, and other places I randomly walked by included the American Dental Association (you know, they certify toothpaste?) and the McGraw Hill Publishing company.

A huge surprise of my time being a tourist in DC has been the amazing weather. I only experienced a tiny bit of the humidity this city is known for in August. The rest of the time, it's been sunny, hot-but-not-too-hot, glorious blue skies and puffy clouds weather. I can only attribute this to the forces that collide when I visit one Washington and am from the other Washington. Because that can get confusing...it seems that people in DC have not heard that there is another Washington besides "their" Washington. Meaning, I have learned to say I'm from Seattle.

I have also learned how to be a natural on the metro. When they say "underground subway," they really mean underground. Like super long escalators, and sometimes up to three sets of them...down, down, down. I figured out pretty quickly that there is an unwritten escalator code: if you want to stand still, stand on the right, so that people who want to walk up (or down) the escalator can do so on the left. I just love how the metro makes it so easy to get around the city, and fairly quickly too.

While wandering around, I have met the absolute nicest people so far. The best conversations come from everyone who I ask to take my picture, and everyone who I ask if I can take their picture, because I try to reciprocate. Or sometimes, if it looks like people are struggling, or one member of the family is clearly not in the picture, I just walk up to them and say "oh let me take that for you" and these people look at me like I just offered them a hundred dollar bill. For example there were four girls in front of the Capitol, trying to do the arm held out in front thing, and I relieved them of that. Turns out they were all from various places along the West Coast on a volleyball tour, and we chatted for a while about why the "West Coast is the best coast," as one of them put it.

The people that I go out of my way to meet are the ones I overhear speaking French. First I eavesdrop for a little while so I can get up the courage to finally ask "Vous êtes d'où?" which means Where are you from? which is a good conversation starter. There was a family at the zoo, two ladies while waiting for the Metro, a group of young people who randomly sat behind me while I was on the lawn in front of the Capitol, taking a break from walking. So I have had about a half dozen conversations in French, which is pretty good for not even having left the country! Apparently I've been missing out all these years living on the West Coast, because there are plenty of people from Quebec who vacation on the East Coast and are willing to parler français with une americaine.
Not to drag out the French thing too long, but there is one more thing I must note: Washington DC kinda feels European. I think it's the big boulevards, the random statues of historical people, the attention to detail, the huge roundabouts scattered throughout the city, and the stately old buildings. Whatever it is, I feel right at home and I think I could get used to living in this city. Except I'll be living in Chicago, but minor detail.

In addition to taking the Metro as much as possible, I did a LOT of walking. I am telling you, it doesn't look that far from the Capitol to the Lincoln, but it is a HIKE! Each morning Unc dropped me off at the Metro station, and I'd take the orange line to wherever I needed to go. Friday I went to the National Zoo, which seemed like a regular old park because it's free and you just wander right in. In fact, I saw several people on the main trail who were jogging by with their iPods, clearly just out for a run through the neighborhood. First I saw the pandas, which were sleeping in their exhibit, except for one who is pregnant so she was on "panda watch." You could go inside the research building and see the scientists monitoring her on their cameras, recording data. The zoo is actually under the Smithsonian umbrella, hence the scientists. The other animals I saw were more active, but that was also because I had the patience to stay at their exhibits until they started moving. I outlasted many a family who would just walk by, see the leopard or whatever just sitting there, and move on. But I saw the leopards climb a tree, the gorillas walk around and eat, the elephants play, and the hippo swim. I also went into the small mammals house, where I spent a lot of time in front of the meerkats and the golden lion tamarin monkeys, which had two babies. I was very impressed with the zoo...really good signage and beautiful landscaping, and there was a volunteer at each exhibit who was more than happy to answer questions and tell you all the animals' names. I made friends with quite a few of these nice people. One lady told me there's a free zoo in Chicago too.

After the zoo, I had some gelato to get enough energy to walk the half hour to the National Cathedral. I came up to the Cathedral on the backside, so I saw the sprawling grounds with green lawns and small brick buildings that house schools and a seminary of some kind I think. When I got around to the front side, I couldn't believe how beautiful it was, with the blue skies and puffy white clouds in the background. I went inside and took a group tour. There are over 200 stained glass windows throughout the Cathedral, and it took 300 million pounds of Indiana limestone to construct it. Absolutely everything decorative inside was done by hand-the woodwork, the ironwork, even the embroidered kneelers. Besides the rose windows, of which there are three, I liked the stained glass windows that portrayed Jesus' parables and miracles. At 5:30 they had an evening prayer service, which I went to with about half a dozen other people in a chapel on the side. My favorite chapel is the smallest one, called Good Shepard Chapel, and I stumbled onto it by accident. I wasn't paying attention when we went downstairs with the group, so when the tour ended and I tried to get back upstairs, I got kinda lost because the lower level is pretty intricate. So I went out this one door and found a tiny room tucked away, with four single seats, a small bench for an altar, and mini stained glass windows. Out on the grounds, I discovered the Bishop's Garden. I think that's where I got the first of my dozen bug bites over the course of the week. It was a lovely garden though, with stone paths and brick planters and a water fountain and lawn and lots of good smelling herbs.

Friday night we watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, which were spectacular. Beijing pretty much outdid themselves, is all I have to say. I haven't seen much of the actual games, except one night at our hotel (for LVC orientation), my roommates and I caught Michael Phelps' 7th gold medal race where he basically won by his fingertips. Or at least that's how it looked in NBC's frame-by-frame replay.

Saturday morning Unc took me to a newly-opened and refurbished cottage that Abraham Lincoln spent his summers at. It's up on the hill north of downtown, which before the days of air conditioning kept the Lincolns a little cooler than they would have been down in swampville. Because DC is actually built on a swamp. The cottage had an exhibit about his presidency, the Civil War, and his life, and then we took an hour-long tour, stopping in each room to hear about parts of Lincoln's life. It was very thorough and painted a good picture of his life beyond what he's really known for.

Next Unc dropped me off at the Library of Congress. I am already starting to think of things I "need" to research so that I can just go sit in that Grand Reading Room and touch one of their old books. I was very impressed by the library, not just the grandeur and the decorations, but also the exhibits, which were very well done. The upper level of the Grand Atrium has these interactive screens that explained everything in great detail. You just touched on the object or painting that you wanted to learn more about, and information popped up. I went to an exhibit on the founding fathers and the founding documents, explaining how the Constitution, Bill of Rights and more came about. Next was my favorite part, which was a recreation of Jefferson's original library. The Library of Congress was actually started when Jefferson offered his personal library for sale to the government. After much debate, they bought it, only to have two thirds of it burn in a fire a few years later. So over the last decades, the Library has been slowly trying to recreate the original library, and they've gotten pretty far. I couldn't take any pictures, and I also couldn't actually touch any of the books, which was really frustrating! I might have tried, but they were all behind Plexiglas, probably to ward off book geeks like me. It was still cool to read all the spines and see books like Plato's dialogues and tons of French books. I also watched a short video talking about all the different kinds of material the Library contains, aside from just books. It also talked about the conservation efforts they're taking, as well as the fact that there are now three buildings to contain everything, plus a storage area out in a suburb. But if you're researching and request a book that's out in the storage area, they'll have it trucked to you by the afternoon.

I could have spent all day there, but I peeled myself away. Next door the Supreme Court was undergoing construction of some kind, so I couldn't go in there. The Capitol, across the street, was also having some construction, so I went to the US Botanic Garden and Conservatory. There is a giant inside portion as well as gardens outside. It was like walking into a jungle...plants everywhere! And each area had a different theme...there were desert plants, and ancient plants like from the dinosaurs' era, and herb/medicinal plants, and a children's garden, and more. I also walked along the catwalk at the top of the grand atrium, which gives you a birds' eye view of the jungle below.

Sunday morning I stood in line at 8:30am to get a ticket for the National Monument. It's free to go up it, but you have to get a timed entry ticket. After that I walked over to the World War II monument, which I hadn't seen last time because it was just recently built. They did a wonderful job, with everything being very symbolic and meaningful. It was nice to sit and just listen to the fountains splash and look at the different elements-each state is represented, plus all the battles, and my favorite part were bronze relief panels that depicted various scenes from all different perspectives of the war. From there I walked along the reflecting pond (of MLK, Jr. "I have a Dream" speech fame) to the Lincoln Memorial. I climbed those steps to find Abe still sitting proudly and surveying the lay of the land. He probably has a good view of his old cottage up on the hill. Let me tell you, there is a lot of granite in Washington DC.
I was going to walk over to the Jefferson Memorial, but it looked a little too far away, plus I had a timed ticket for the Holocaust Memorial Museum at 11am. First I looked at their temporary exhibit on the Berlin 1936 Olympics. Did you know it was Hitler who came up with the idea to do a torch relay from Athens to Berlin? Apparently he was fond of hosting torchlight parades for propaganda purposes and extended that same torch aspect to the Olympics. Well needless to say it caught on. It was interesting though to see how countries thought about boycotting the Olympics back then, because word was definitely getting around that Hitler didn't like Jews and other groups and was excluding them from the German team. The US still ended up going, but individual athletes from around the world abstained from the games. That kinda parallels the more recent discussions about boycotting the Chinese games. After that I went through the permanent exhibit, which starts you on the fourth floor and takes you down through the whole story of the Holocaust. That time period has always fascinated me and I've read tons of books from all different perspectives, but I loved putting it all together by walking through the stages, from Hitler's insidious rise to power all the way through the Nuremberg trials. The parts that really got me were a boxcar that transported people to the concentration camps, the heaps of personal items like scissors, hairbrushes, and shoes, and the wall of stories of people who helped others in some way. I ended up spending over four hours there and could have stayed longer.

After that I needed some sunshine so I rode the metro to the Eastern Market, which is an open-air antiques/farmers market. I was just walking along an aisle, when I randomly spotted my friend Kristen, who has spent this past year in DC doing Lutheran Volunteer Corps. She told me it's not uncommon to run into people you know around the city. We wandered around and chatted, catching up on LVC and life at PLU. It's a small world! Sunday evening I went up the National Monument, which was fantastic. I love seeing a city from up above (such as the Space Needle or Eiffel Tower) and I could definitely see very clearly the design for the city that George Washington and Pierre L'Enfant laid out many years ago. There was a quick thunderstorm while I was up there, but fortunately no lightening or we would have had to evacuate.

Monday I devoted to the Newseum, which was the only place I had to pay, but for communication major me, it was so worth it. Plus I got a AAA discount. I knew I was going to like the place when I walked up to see a giant slab of granite on the side of the building, stretching up all six stories, with the first amendment engraved into it. Then I got closer and saw that along the sidewalk out front, they had the front page from a newspaper in every state in the country. Inside they had more from other cities and countries around the world. I spent most of my time on the level with the history of media, which started with a printing press from Gutenberg's time and ended with a recap of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies. Note that those happened Friday, August 8, and I was visiting the Newseum on Monday, August 11, and the display looked like it had always been there. This place is so technologically rigged, it's crazy. They have screens everywhere, and projections, and giant theaters, and windows to the control room where they program it all. Back to the history part, they had drawers with important newspaper headlines from over the years, and I opened nearly every one of them. It was like getting a lesson in pop culture and the creation of media as we know it today all at once. There was also a very well done section on 9-11, Hurricane Katrina, and other events similar to those that impacted how those events are covered. I could have stayed there all day too, but I had to get to the place where I was supposed to check in for Lutheran Volunteer Corps orientation.

So later in the afternoon, I arrived to LVC orientation, which immediately kicked off a wonderful but overwhelming next few days. Everything was held at Luther Place Church, which is the Lutheran church that started LVC back in the day (LVC is affiliated with the ELCA, but it's kinda it's own organization too). We also had meals and did a few things across the street at the giant National Christian City Church. One of the first things I remember is meeting my four housemates, and I think it's going to be a great year. We all come from different places (Abby from Missouri, Nora from Minnesota, Kate from Ohio, Katie from California, and me from Washington), but they're all very down to earth and fun to be around. For orientation, we all stayed in a hotel room together in downtown DC, walking up to Luther Place each morning. Orientation consisted of some workshops and lots of good conversations, and meeting lots and lots of people. I spent the most time with the other LVC'ers who I will be seeing more in Chicago, because besides my apartment of five girls, there are two other apartments in other parts of the city with four people each. There are also nine people from PLU doing LVC (we're placed across the country though), so it was fun to see some familiar faces.

By the end of each day, we were all grateful for free time in the evenings. We also had one afternoon off, so I took the Metro down to the American Indian Museum because I had heard so many good things about it. It's fairly new, as far as museums on the Mall go, and very well done. It was different than I expected-I thought there would be like different sections for the various tribes, but actually it was grouped more by themes of Indian life. Tribes from all over the Americas were represented, from South America up to Alaska. After that I went to the American Portrait Gallery, which simply blew me away. You might think a bunch of portraits of people would be boring, but each painting had a very well-written story to go along with it, explaining more about the person's life or the artist and why he/she painted it. Some people were famous, some I'd never heard of, and they were from all different time periods. There's just something about a painting of a person that is so compelling, as compared to a photograph. Also interesting was the president's wing, with portraits of every president and some first ladies.

Training ended on Saturday with a commissioning service, and then everyone departed DC for his or her respective cities. I'm taking the train to Chicago and writing this as we go. We left at 4:00pm Saturday and will arrive in Chicago at 8:30am Sunday morning.

PS, sorry this entry is so long! If you got this far, you deserve some sort of prize.

PPS, more on Chicago later. Tomorrow is my first official day of work, so I need to get some sleep.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/cannes2006/1167013620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/cannes2006/1167013620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/cestlavie/cannes2006/1167013620/tpod.html Sun, 24 Dec 2006 22:14:14 -0500 A la Cote d'Azur--my study abroad trip in Cannes, France

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Kirkland, Washington, United States

First of all, Merry Christmas! I am just now getting a chance to update because it was a busy final week in Cannes, then packing and traveling home, then arriving to an electricity-less house. Apparently there was a giant windstorm two days before I got back, which knocked out the power in hundreds of thousands of homes throughout the area. That meant no heat, no lights, no internet, and no laundry, which I had a lot of after unpacking. We spent the week stoking the fireplace and eating oatmeal made on a little camping burner. Quite the contrast to the nearly-70-degree weather and French food I left in Cannes! The power finally came back on Thursday.

My final week in Cannes was spent doing things for the last time. A trip to Monoprix and Champion, local grocery stores, to get goodies to bring home. A stop at Paul's, my favorite boulangerie, for a raisin and hazelnut mini-baguette. A dinner out with the group on the winding little old town street at a restaurant we've been eyeing all semester. And a walk along the beach at sunset.

The day before I left found us all frantically packing, organizing stuff into suitcases, and hoping they wouldn't go over the weight limit. Both my flights, from Nice to London then London to Seattle, went smoothly. I even accidentally took my full water bottle through security at Heathrow and they didn't notice. Movies I recommend that I watched on my 9+ hour flight: The Queen, Cars, Little Miss Sunshine, and Pirates 2.

It has been wonderful to be home, power-outage and all, seeing friends, decorating the tree with family, and listening to Christmas music. The foods I missed the most were peanut butter of course, since it is my favorite, but also chai tea, popcorn, nonfat milk, and regular pancakes, so I've been eating them all again.

French word du jour: Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année, which means Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Or to wrap it all up, Joyeuses Fêtes, which means Happy Celebrating.
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