A busy week? More like a busy month.

And I don't have time for editing pictures, so what you see is what you get. Straight off my phone camera, my little camera, my big camera, or stolen off of Amanda's Facebook page. I have no shame. These first pictures are in a randome order and of random things...big events are clumped together towards the end.

My roommate Alyse with the stray cat we wanted to keep. He was so sweet, and would cry outside our window all day long. We think his owner must have found him, because he hasn't been around for a few days.
The view down the highway from the 47th Street Red Line Station. We don't generally take the train from Hyde Park to other parts of the city, but when we do, it's this station. It's easier to access Hyde Park by bus, but some places are very convenient to get to by train.

This is the kind of weather we've been having. Sunny, but cold. Jackets are necessary, closed toed shoes are not. Yet.

This morning after my interviews, all dressed up.

We attended a peace rally here. You may have heard of Derrion Albert, he was an honor roll student who was dragged into a fight and beated to death on his walk home from school last year. They held this rally on the anniversary of his death to try to stop youth violence.

The view down the Chicago River from the top of the giant Whole Foods in Lincoln Park.

Didn't someone say they wanted a picture of my hair blowing in the wind? Here you go. Believe me, it happens every day.

One of the last buildings left of Cabrini-Green, a notorious public housing development in Chicago.

The buildings going up right next door. Selling from the low 300s, the signs say. It's an ideal location close to downtown, and no one is talking about the tens of thousands of people in public housing displaced by this. Chicago is eliminating all of its high rise public housing, and replacing it with basically nothing.

A building in the process of destruction.

My birthday! A very cool lunch box I got from Trudy and her family.

A homemade friendship bracelet in my choice of colors by Amanda, another girl in the program who lives above me, planned my birthday, and was the director of a summer camp this past year.

My surprise from Robert.

Sooooo delicious! Everyone enjoyed them. I tried both flavors, but loved the spice cake the best.

Cupcakes and champagne before we went out to dinner, and everyone sang happy birthday.

Dinner at Dick's Last Resort. My hat kept falling off, and it almost caught fire when the waitress lit an entire book of matches in my sundae.

Meagan's birthday! She also lives above me, and turned 20 on the 27th. I made funfetti cupcakes with rainbow chip frosting.

I left frosting off of two because she doesn't like most frosting, but she liked this kind so I later frosted those two naked ones.

We had Giordano's deep dish cheese pizza for dinner. They're a big name in Chicago, and we demolished the pizza. Meagan enjoyed her cupcake.

She even meditated with it.

Alyse is interning for a new non-profit organization called Barrio Bonito, which is basically a career building group for at risk youth with artistic talents. They were having a fundraiser at the Crimson Lounge, with all kinds of spoken word poets and rap and hip-hop artists, including some youth artists. Some of us girls volunteered to help Alyse out, and it was a good thing we did, because we were basically the only people working the entire event. It was crazy and long and a ton of fun.

Me, Meagan, and Amanda.

Maureen, me, and Meagan, and some creepy guy in the back.

A youth artist who is part of the program working on a piece in the silent auction room.

As you can tell, it's crazy busy here right now, and it doesn't seem like it's going to let up, especially since I'm starting my internship next week. I interviewed at two places today, and have decided on a position working in a school health clinic. I'm excited to get started.

Scandals, politics, and film.

For those of you who seem to think all I’m doing in the Windy City is having fun…well, you’re right! But I do actually have classes, even if we do fun/interesting things during them, like go on a boat tour, go to a town hall meeting, etc. I have readings for each class session, and we have a lot of writing, as well. After every seminar (usually twice a week) we write a 3-5 page reflection. This is in addition to any other writing homework assignments, like the 4-6 page paper I had to write for tomorrow (which actually ended up being 8 pages). It’s a lot of work, and a lot of fun and I feel like we always have something to do. It’s stressful and a lot more difficult than the block plan is at CC, because we’re doing everything all at once. The work isn’t necessarily hard, it’s just that there is a lot of it and not a lot of time to do it in.

This past week in Precept we met with John Keller, campaign manager for Toni Preckwinkle, the Alderwoman of our ward. She’s running for the Cook County Board, which is evidently really important. We’re going to meet with her directly soon (maybe this week?). In our other Precept session we met with one of the founders of the Urban Studies Program, Jody Kretzmann, and he talked to us about Asset Based Community Development.

We only had one seminar session last week because Miss Dorothy, who teaches it, was recruiting at CC. Funny, huh? That class was at Northwestern University Law School, where we attended the Human Rights Forum about the Jon Burge/police torture scandal going on now. Earlier in the day (Thursday) we went to a protest rally put on by victims of police brutality and their families.
Friday was our fun day, our core course day. Core course goes from 9:30 am until 4 pm, and all the students from all three programs meet up. This is the only class we do this for. This past Friday we spent the morning talking about Chicago politics. We met with an alderman, and he showed us around the mayor’s office, his press conference room, the city council’s chambers, and other cool places.

Then in the afternoon we went on the Chicago Film Tour. This is a bus trip with a film critic tour guide. We traveled around the city looking at all the places that had been featured in films, and then we’d get to see the film clips on little TVs. It was really cool at first, but then it got a little repetitive, since it was 2 hours long.

Me on the film tour with some cool sunflare...

We have lots of big plans for this week (including my birthday!) and I know it will be a lot of fun. But at the same time, we have four seminar meetings this week, which means four 3-5 page reflections, plus two assignments due for core course, plus readings for every class, PLUS a new big project for precept. And I haven't even started my internship yet. It's fun, but it's school too, and a lot of work.

A trip to Wrigleyville, and the beginning of a new week...

On Friday all the programs (Urban Studies, Business, and Arts) gathered together for our first core course. We'll meet each Friday, and spend the whole day together. In the morning session, we discussed various things, went over the syllabus, etc, but in the afternoon session we went to Wrigley Field! We spoke with a professor from Lake Forest College who is an expert on the Chicago Cubs about what the ballpark means to the neighborhood, and the interaction between community and place/space. Wrigley Field is in the middle of a neighborhood, and apartment buildings line the sides. Many of these buildings have built rooftop bleacher seats that they sell for outrageous prices. We had our "class" on one of these rooftops.

I had a very restful and relaxing weekend, and this morning we headed out to the Chicago History Museum. Along the way, while standing at a bus stop, I noticed this 7-Eleven. It's tiny, but can you see it? For some reason it really made me laugh.

This is the fountain outside of the museum. The wind was blowing water all over us as we sat next to it, waiting for the museum to open.

The museum itself was very cool, but we were sort of rushed through it, and I know I missed a lot. I would love to go back and take my time exploring the exhibits.

This week has slowed down a little from last week, and we're starting to get into our regular routine. I still haven't nailed down an internship, but it's more in the hands of the internship coordinators now. Hopefully that will get settled soon.

Busy days, Part 2 (you know, the pictures!)

The outside of our apartment building. We're the middle and right set of windows on the first floor with windows.
This is inside the Rockefeller Church on the UNiversity of Chicago campus. It was gorgeous.

Here are some flowers for Mom and Ella!

The boat we rode on...

A lighthouse just for Mom.