Chicago, Chicago my (new) hometown

Faith House in East Garfield Park - First Church is the other building you can see
(the people in the mural are people from the church)

Rough timeline of the first half of this week's events (Aug. 28-Aug. 31):

Sunday: Say goodbye to my family and board a plane to Chicago with a final total of 3 suitcases and the carry-on. Arrive in Chicago in the early afternoon, maneuver said suitcases in baggage claim, wander around (just missing...twice...) in search of my ride, meet Stephanie (current Dweller) and Jim (our director Krista's husband) over lunch, arrive at Faith House, regroup and go downtown with Steph.

Monday: Walk through Garfield Park with Steph to go see the Conservatory (which has a labyrinth, lots of exotic plants, gardens, and places to sit down), meet Krista over lunch at a coffee/sandwich shop called Letizia's, pick up the YAV contingent of our Dwell group at the airport, meet Sarah, Erin, and "Potts" (Nathaniel) over dinner at Lou Malnati's and Chicago-style deep dish pizza, one more grand tour of the apartment and call it a day.

Tuesday: Morning devotional with Krista at First Church of the Brethren (next door, which owns our house), introduction to First Church's history and our neighborhood, East Garfield Park, a tour of PAWS (pets are worth saving) - Sarah's placement, lunch at Potbelly's (another Chicago sandwich place), our first group grocery shopping adventure at Save-A-Lot, a trip to the movie theater in Lawndale to see The Interrupters (a documentary about CeaseFire), and after riding back on the bus, calling it a day.

Wednesday: Sarah, Erin, and I set out on a scavenger hunt to find things in East Garfield Park (wherein we had a good conversation with a neighborhood parent sending his children to Providence St. Mel's, a K-12 school a few blocks from our house, got drenched by an errant sprinkler at the Conservatory, found Aldi, White Castle, the library, and experienced a range of safety levels and challenges to comfort zones on foot in our neighborhood), toured Little Brothers (non-profit befriending isolated elderly clients) - Potts's placement, toured Sarah's Inn (my placement! I get my own desk!), had our first house dinner, as baked for us by Potts, attended an evening event at First Church hearing two members' life stories (one of whom is a director of CPT and Larry, who lives in the church as our neighbor and grew up in this neighborhood), and picked up our last housemate, Denis, at the airport!


The challenges I have faced so far are learning (still with the group) how to navigate the CTA trains and buses, adjusting to being a minority in my neighborhood, negotiating shared space and personalities in my new community of housemates, and trying to process all the newness while being forced to jump into a situation I still feel unprepared to be undertaking.

I have learned a lot in these first few days, and I'm looking forward to the next few weeks when I'll start to get the hang of things and feel more grounded in my new world.