I'm Coming Home, Via Chicago

(Note -- Just in general, there is so much to say and so little time and energy for blogging. I may be skipping a city or combining some of them here and there to save time and devote more effort to cities where I feel i have valuable things to write about. We are all trying to keep up, but after packing our days with as many experiences as we can to take advantage of the amazing opportunities this trip offers, it’s hard to find the energy to put all the many thoughts we want to convey to readers into a concise piece of writing- I apologize for being so very behind. I recently figured out the whole picture-adding thing, and have updated many past posts with pictures, if you care to take a look. I will continue to do so as I have available time and add pics to new posts as well when I can. Thanks for reading.)

Day 1

The Windy City…too much heat, not enough wind, at least while we were there. We began our first day with a much-needed shower from the University of Chicago, and then headed to Taste of Chicago, the food festival that features all kinds of local vendors in Grant Park. A little over-priced in my opinion, but I did get to sample a great variety of Chicago cuisine, including a gyro, fresh garlic shrimp, and Ellie's strawberry cheesecake. We were all dazzled by the Art Institute of Chicago and at nightfall, visited one of Chicago’s (and America’s) most famous landmarks- the Sears Tower. This building stands as a monument to American ingenuity and power, our ability to be the biggest and brightest. As you ride up in the elevator, you can watch on a television screen the mounting number of feet in the air you are climbing and which other height landmarks of the world you are surpassing…. there you go past the Eiffel Tower…the Pyramids…. the Statue of Liberty, etc. It does offer one heck of a view from the top, though. A few of us hung out afterwards with some of Heather’s friends that came to town to visit her and had a lovely time seeing a glimpse of Chicago nightlife (and maneuvering our way through Chicago’s late night public transportation).

Day 2

Our second day of Chicago introduced us to the many diverse communities of Chicago, past the tourist hotspots and onto the real life of the city. We started off in Chinatown, where we saw the neighborhood school painted with murals encouraging community and an appreciation for diversity, alongside a very homogenous shopping district of Chinese stores. We made our way to Wicker Park, which is an area of Chicago that has been simultaneously “revitalized” and gentrified in the past few years. We walked through this neighborhood and saw posh boutiques, specialty bead shops, fancy organic cafes, even trendy dental clinics…everything was very “bo-bo” (both bourgeoisie and bohemian- the idea that now wealthier classes of people think it’s trendy to be earthy, natural and organic all the while paying exorbitant prices for the status that comes with living your life in such a manner, etc.). It was so very interesting to see this because, according to Dr. Spring, this area just a few years ago was a rough part of town, a place you wouldn’t really want to walk around alone for long. And in fact, if you venture too far from the Wicker Park area, you do find a very abrupt shift into impoverished and desolate neighborhoods.

From Wicker Park, a few of us ventured off towards the Ukrainian part of town and stopped in to see a beautiful Russian Orthodox Church. Again, one of my favorite parts of this trip is the enormously diverse group of people we have the pleasure of encountering and hearing so many viewpoints about America, from people that I wouldn’t necessarily take time to speak with back home in my everyday life. We spoke with a member of the congregation of this church for quite awhile and then eventually one of the priests joined our conversation as well. They had some fascinating things to say about their religion, the history of it in Chicago and what it means to them to be American.

Then we came across one of my favorite scenes of the entire trip, because it was like finding home in a place that up until that point had seemed strange and different from what I was used to. We were wandering around neighborhood streets near Wicker Park and stumbled across a block party in full swing. Kids were playing in sprinklers and adults were lounging in lawn chairs in the blocked-off streets. A band composed of cute 12 year olds were rocking out, with one of the dads as the lead singer; they had a crowd full of adoring family and friends who danced along to their goofy covers, including a pretty impressive version of a Talking Heads tune. This was true community in a big city, which I had not expected to find. I felt a pang of homesickness for my own neighborhood, family (including MY cute 12 year olds- I miss my brothers!) and friends (some of whom often play their own version of the Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer"). We stood around and talked to some of the neighbors, who were very friendly and welcoming. I noticed on the fliers for this party that we had missed out earlier on the visit from the canine unit of the local police department and a fire truck tour from the fire department for the kids…I thought it was so neat that even in a city as seemingly big and somewhat intimidating as Chicago, there are still places where even the “bureaucracy” is involved in the everyday lives of its citizens in such a personal way. However, Andi, as socially-aware as ever, brought us back to reality when she pointed out that in the neighborhood just a few short blocks away, where it is still the rough part of town that Wicker Park used to be, there are so many kids that are not able to grow up in such a warm and nurturing community.

We ended our day with a delicious dinner at one of Chicago’s famous deep-dish pizza places, Giordano’s. I was only able to manage one piece of the giant pie, but it was delicious. Something the Russian Orthodox priest said to us about why he loves Chicago more than New York, where he is originally from, really stuck with me. He says that Chicago is like a bunch of little neighborhoods all sharing one larger space, whereas you get that “big city” feel from almost all parts of New York. I did get the sense in Chicago of clearly defined neighborhood identities, so it will be interesting to compare that with New York, I think. From Chinatown to the neighborhoods around the University of Chicago to Michigan Avenue to Wicker Park, I feel like we were able to see a lot of what this city has to offer. I really enjoyed our Chicago adventures and can’t wait to visit again to see even more.