Chicagoland Shenanigans

After leaving the Indianapolis area at about 10am, I took a leisurely pace to get to Chicago. I had called ahead and let Reba Place Fellowship, the people I’m staying with, that I was coming. I got there a little later then I had expected because there was some confusion about whether to go left or right off the entrance ramp and I hadn’t written down any directions, who needs to do that really? ;) I went the wrong so far the wrong direction I ended up in a town by the name of Park Ridge, that is just west of Skokie, for anyone reading this who knows Chicagoland. Getting situated in the right direction I then headed to Evanston, where I was a little later then I had said but it didn’t matter. The house I’m staying at takes a siesta at about the time I arrived so there was no one about. I had called and talked to them and they had assured me that I should just come right in and make myself at home. I did just that, and situated myself in one of the two guest rooms in the basement, where I have been sleeping for the duration of my stay.

The first afternoon here, I spent it just walking around and running into people I had not seen for at least three years. Apparently I was the only summer intern from 2005, that had not maintained some contact with people. It was cool bumping into folks and seeing how they had changed and what was up with them. For example two of the people I had spent that summer with had gotten married to one another. I’ve seen them and they look good together, but that totally took me by surprise as that all developed well after I had left. Lives have a way progressing as time goes on I suppose. It was good to catch up with people, though it surprised me how much at the Clearing, the house that I stayed and are staying, has remained the same. What I mean is the rhythm of life is the same, early morning breakfast 7am, and dinner always at the same time.

That same afternoon of my arrival, after playing catch up, I headed out for a bike ride just around the neighborhood and beyond. The thing that sucked was I had tried to go down to Rogers Park, to see the other Church, Living Water, the Reba community has down there, but I started the wrong way and headed farther into Evanston instead. It was a good time and I really enjoyed the excursion that I had, even if wasn’t the way I had intended to go. Evanston, appears to have gotten a little more affluent looking then it was before, more condos going in where rentals had been before, that kind of thing. I then headed back and managed to bump into Roselyn Wilson out riding her bike as well. She is the woman I had contacted about staying at Reba again and she had set it up with the Clearing for me to stay there.

She was headed to her garden plot, so I invited myself along and followed along, to do some weeding and watering. It was cool just to commiserate about things and where we were at with things in our lives. I can’t say I have any plans, past what I think I might want to do in September, but I still like hearing from someone who had stuck around Reba, like I could have after graduation.

I then grabbed dinner at the Patch, which is the community house of which Roselyn, Jesse and Annie are apart, all of whom I know from my summer here. I bumped into both new and familiar faces and all seem to be doing well. Reba has gotten a lot younger since the summer I spent here. Apparently, the internship has gotten so popular that they have started turning people away and suggesting they apply for other communities. It has been cool to see people my own age around here, and if I ever came back here to live it would feel more like a group of my peers rather then me showing up as the sole junior statesman, which I got some feeling of when I was here during my summer. I spent my evening playing a funky board game with the aforementioned 3 people and it was a good time; I really do enjoy just chilling with people.

I headed down to Chicago the next morning to go see The Art Institute of Chicago. It was a really cool museum and I didn’t know how many really great paintings they had. The one that came as the most surprising to me was American Gothic, it’s so cool. It like Hopper’s Nighthawks, which was also there and it too has been so often parodied it really is part of the American lexicon and pop culture. The really lame thing about that museum was it is mostly under constructions until half way though July, so there was a good portion of the general collection I didn’t get to see, guess I’ll have to come back. ;) I did get to go to a hotdog stand which gave me a stereotypical Chicago hotdog. I have to say the pickles, the onions, and the peppers really do add something; I really like Chicago style.

The next day after that worked out where I didn’t really do anything other then jump on my bike and go north for lunch and play my guitar. I did help a couple I knew from my summer here move their stuff out of their apartment, that morning, but otherwise I just lounged around and it was a good time. The next day being Sunday, I went to church in the morning. I always forget how original a lot of the songs are. Back in the 70s there was a group of musicians here that did a great job writing some great songs. Granted they do the classic evangelical fare here as well, but it is interspersed with some songs that are unique to Reba as far as I’m aware. I then spent the afternoon playing Frisbee in the rain for about 2 hours. It was a great deal of fun I just needed clean dry everything by the time we were done.

That brings me to today, I got up in time for breakfast and managed to get out the house at a decent hour so I got the express “L” train to the loop. I checked out both the Sears tower and the Field Museum in the same day as well as just wondered around the city generally eating too much. The view from the Sears tower was amazing, I swear I thought I could see to the other side of Lake Michigan, since it was such a clear day. I also go to see how completely massive Chicago is by comparison with Boston. It illustrated to me how well planned out Chicago is then Boston, which has been making it really easy to navigate the last few days.

Following some lunch I then headed to the Field Museum, that has a really interesting collection of stuffed stuff. Their collection consists of a lot of taxidermal animals and things that were collected around the turn of the century. For example they have an amazing collection American Indian garb and utensils. The Field has way more then the supposed museum of the American Indian, on the Mall in DC. They have loads of amazing West Coast Indian art works like totem polls and handmade blankets. There is also a reconstructed lodge that illustrates Maori carving, though I know that is not American Indian. My only complaint with the museum is it really does cater more to kids then adults which made me feel kind of out of place. It was a good day though I hope I didn’t get a sunburn from walking around too much.

Chicago is a pretty big place and I have enjoyed my time here. I’m probably going to be here another day before I head out to Minnesota, but I don’t plan to see much more then I have already. I do want to make a note that I think if I do follow my current plan of going to Spain in the fall, I would like to move to Chicago when I head back to the States. It’s just somewhere I’ve always wanted to live, having grown up on parental nostalgia, and it feels way more free then Boston does for some reason. I could see myself spending a few years here, riding the “L” it just feels familiar, but still unknown at the same time.