Wednesday-Classes!

So Wednesday morning at 6:15 I woke up to do the spinning class that I mentioned before. I think I was a little bit scared to challenge myself because I was afraid that while biking super-fast I would somehow lock my knees and hurt something. I was also worried about being sore all day and having jelly-like legs all day, which happened anyway.
So basically it was biking to different speeds as the music changed. Different mixes of music, too. I was impressed how the leader kept a good range of hip hop, alternative, top 10 stuff, etc. Not bad. I'd do that class again. I didn't even feel out of place at all. Although there were the hard-core people in front of me to shield me from the instructor. I didn't want to go up front and make a spectical of myself. So maybe biking shoes would make me bike faster....hmm..
I found that my hips can't stay in place when I bike fast. As much as I tried to keep them in one spot, they just had to move.

My first class was at 8, so I had only 10-15 minutes to get ready after the class. I walked over to the train station and met up with Bain, Dusty and a few others. The train was right there and I was wondering why they didn't get on...then Bain showed us his cell phone down in the tracks! It was in his pocket and slipped between the cracks when he tried to get into the train the first time. He had to quickly get someone before the next train. The security guy hopped down and got Bain's cell phone and everything was good again. The world was saved...I don't know what we would do without our cell phones...it's very sad actually. Another best friend of technology.

My first class was Values and Vocations. We're going through a book called "9 ways of working." It'll be about the best ways in which people work themselves and the best combinations of working styles to get things completed the best, etc. Psychological stuff like that. I'm very interested in it. We found out in the class that everyone has a completely different learning style in the class. Not many were the same or emphasized the same things in each category.
I was a type 1. The Achiever. Yep, I already knew that, but I thought there might be a slight chance I was something else this time. Oh well, it fits. I'm the only #1 in the class which is too bad.
Our next class was Arts in the City. Since there are so many of us, we have to split into groups to actually get something done. So we split into three groups: Improv, Puppets, and Dance. I'm glad I wasn't in improv because there was no way that I could be creative that early in the morning. Dance would have been fun..but I was in the puppet group. We saw and learned a little bit about puppets from a woman named Cynthia Vol Orthal, Artistic Director. She has her own puppet company and everything. She has also been on a few episodes of RoseAnne, the TV show. yah, pretty cool. She played DJ's teacher. The puppets were really interesting to work with. They were a japanese type of puppet, Bunraku/Hand/Rod Puppets and when there is a show, the ones "running" the puppets are right there beside them moving and speaking for them. The people wear black so that they don't take any attention from the colorful puppet.

Here's Cynthia's website: http://www.vonorthalpuppets.com/

We played with one of the puppets right there on the first page...the green old man in the black robe. Really neat.
After puppets we had a lunch break and then met in our practicum groups to give our autobiographies and talk more about our internships.
I volunteered at the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation making some phone calls in the afternoon. I helped update their database of volunteers a bit. Felt much more productive than just sitting through a class, so I enjoyed the change of pace from class to the informal CBF office. Awesome people there too.
Supper was deep dish pizza at the CS office and then we came back to our apartment to change for our arts event at night. It was held at the Victory Gardens Theater a bit north of us.
The play is called I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a
Young Lady from Rwanda by Sonja Linden. This will be my journal entry for this arts event:

I remember hearing a lot about the wars in Rwanda and Bosnia a while ago. Years ago. They happened in 1994, when I was in grade 4. Class differences caused the massacre between the Tutsis, the upper class and minorty, and Hutus, lowe class and majority. Most of the Tutsis were driven out or killed. For such a political issure, the play was not focused on that at all. I was also surprised that they had so much humor in a play of this sort. I expected to hear horrible stories, horrible endings and gruesome details. I guess a way for people to get through their memories of Rwanda would be to focus on the positives...they humorous things they remember. We don't do that with the Jews and Nazis...
"Art is a lie that tells the truth is prominent in this play. I can tell that Simon was trying to really get the personal stories out of Juliette and all those little details that make her story personal and memorable. Writing was Juliette's way of coping, getting those memories/thoughts out of her head and only paper and getting rid of those horrible nightmares she had. Simon wanted to make hre factual writing into Art and challenged Juliette to remember the color in the scenery, the flowers waving at her, the personality within her.
The one things I found very interesting when reading about the play beforehand is that the long title of the play is a challenge to our short attention span where Rwanda is concerned. It's true. We seem to only focus on other countries and other wars for such a short time. Whereas, if something difficult happens in US or Canada, it's around in the media for weeks and months!
During the play I also made a few notes to myself. I was very intrigued by the dance the two actors played in their lines and their stories and thoughts. They were very awkward together at first, and still were towards the end, but the script is ingenious first of all that there are only two actors, but also that they didn'y really talk to each other much. We still knew what was goin gon because of their aside comments and monologues. There was also only one stage with different sections. The lights go on only where the scene takes place...ic, her bedroom, or only the office, or both if he's talking from his shed and she's talking from her bedroom. There is excellent descriptive dialogue in the play and an amazing story of Juliette's recovery. The moments where Simon and Juliette begin to see each other differently are beautiful a well. Under the lilac tree, the poetry reading, their initial impressions of each other, and then their father/daughter-like relationship at the end. Amazing. I was expecting a sad ending, but our American culture enjoys a happy ending so I'm glad it was a happy ending. I'm glad to hear that Art therapy worked for Juliette.
I liked this play better than Shakespeare just because it was a lot craftier with just the two actrs and no set changes, no costume changes. It kepy me the whole time. It wasn't emotional for me, but I did hear a few people crying it he audience. Some day I'll get to that point where I can be completely taken in by the play.

After the play I stayed for a discussion and then went back with Shaha, Dave, and Abby.

Tuesday-get the homework finished!

So tomorrow we have classes, and I'm supposed to have homework done already. Sheesh. The week goes by so quickly! I decided to put some Corey Hart I just died in your arms tonight pump up homework music on so that I can start it now.
I've decided to go to a spinning class tomorrow morning and see how it goes. I've never been to one before, and I've heard they're torturous but an amazing workout. I'm looking forward to the challenge. Kind of like a marathon. Speaking of marathons, I might do a half marathon while I'm here in Chicago..called the Shamrock Shuffle.
Today at work was uneventful. I worked on some database stuff again and continued internet research and kept the communication flowing between my teammates. I was able to go for a little walk over my lunch break and check out the area a bit more. I love the city, once again. I know I say that every day but I do feel blessed to be here and seeing a different kind of beauty than the nature back home. I see a beauty in the buildings, the busy people, the personality of the city that I've never experienced in my life. You have to look deeper to see the beauty, deeper than simply gazing upon the mountains or a colourful sunset..this is an inspired by God but Man-made beauty. Kind of like the general vs. special revelation. So anyway, these blog entries will now count towards my journal entries for my Practicum course, since all the juicy little details are here in writing. No extra work for me.
Tomorrow we have another Arts event already! I'm looking forward to it. It's at a Theatre and it's called A Young Lady from Rwanda. I'll have to read up more about it before watching it.
Tonight after a supper of tacos in a shell-bowl graciously provided by God and prepared by Ang, we all visited the Gold Coast Multiplex once again and had ourselves a heartrate-raising time. I ran a bit, played some volleyball, and relaxed in the steam room. That place is like the Rec Center at Dordt, and it's amazing because it's right here in the middle of the city. I think only rich people go there, honestly. It seems like quite an upper class place...
I got hit on my an old man one of the first few times I was there. He sells Mercedes cars. Yikes.
Okay, homework time. More tomorrow after classes, volunteering, and the arts event!

Weekend continued

Sunday

We started our morning off with chaos...Kate's fiance', Adam, stayed the weekend on our couch so we had 5 people getting ready on Sunday morning for church. We decided to go to the LaSalle Street Church just a few blocks away. One of the Chicago Semester employees goes to that church and we knew it was a nice church, nice people. We went as a group of about8 at first, but then met a bunch more Chicago Semester people there so the number grew to about 15-20 or so. We did look like visitors because we were 10 minutes early for church and just sat in the pews...but the people were really nice.
After church there was a potluck in the building next door and way more people. (People from the first service at 9:15) and kids from Sunday School and teen groups and adult discussion groups. There were at least a hundred people in the potluck room and the food was a wonderful change from the peanut butter and jelly I would have had for lunch. I spent the afternoon on the couch reading, doing homework, finances, organizing my stuff from the boxes that came on Saturday morning. I tried to go the Superbowl party upstairs in Dave, Chris and Jeff's room, but I had too much other stuff to do, so I had to leave. I don't like football anyway...and it was boring because no one was really talking. The commercials were okay, for what I saw.
I went back to the room and watched Full House and read some more, got ready for a busy day today, and gathered all of my workout stuff for the morning. Chad also called me. He seemed like he was doing better than Friday night when I had talked to him last. His past 10 months has been depressing for him and our break-up definitely doesn't add happiness to his life! It'll take some time for him to heal, but I hope he finds God as his consistency and not someone else. It's so hard to depend on people and wear your heart on your sleeve sometimes because things change in relationships. We had a great talk though.
Early to bed at 11:30...after some "pillow talk" with Pam and Ang about italian guys.

My Weekend

Sorry, mom and dad and others who may read this every day...it was a busy weekend and I didn't find the time to update my life as you know it!

Friday
Work was great! I had a few meetings, projects to do, new people to meet, papers to hand in, e-mails to write, and a wonderful lunch of leftover stirfry to eat. I got off work right at 5 and still had a bounce in my high heeled shoes as I walked back home. I relaxed on the couch and watched some TV...and then Chad called.
I won't say much, but that we're taking a break for a while. It was about 2 years ago that we first started dating and with our busy and very different lives, it's best for us right now not to be together, I guess. So that started my friday afternoon. I hooked up my printer and ate popcorn for supper :)
The evening consisted of hanging out with the guys upstairs and watching a weird movie. We couldn't go out because two of us are not yet 21...(movies may be our friend while everyone else goes out later in the semester.) I fell asleep beside Ang on the couch during the movie and then after it we capped our night off with some sleep.

Saturday
Early (10am) a friend of our dropped off some boxes that Pam and I sent to her over Christmas. She lives in a shadier area of the city and thought it best to just drive our boxes over instead of us taking the train and bus over to her house. That was great....early, but awesome. Pam and I unloaded our boxes and then realized that we could both use more sleep, so we went back to bed for a few more hours. Woke up at 1, worked out, came back, ate, then Pam and I went to find the nearest Plato's Closet consignment store to drop off some clothes. We took the train and walked through the snow and wind to find the place. It was busy...and only took 2 of my shirts! picky picky. I can still get money for a lot of that stuff in Sioux Falls! Maybe I'll send the bags back to Dordt. By the time we got out of Plato's closet it was around 5 so we looked for a cheap place to grab some supper. We both saw a sign on the train for $3.49 sandwiches at a place called White Hen. Hey, sounds good, so we found a white hen along the way back to the train station. Now, we both though it would be a Subway-type restaurant where we could sit inside and get out of the cold. We walked in, and it was a convenience store with no tables or chairs...just racks of convenience food. Well, we didn't want to eat on the red line so we asked if there was a place in the store where we could sit and eat our food. The girl/guys at the counter said we could pretty much sit anywhere...and the manager suggested the beer boxes right at the front of the store :) So we maneuvered the boxes around to make two seats for Pam and I. She did get a picture with her phone, so maybe that will get passed on to me sometime. It was another little adventure (and the store employees thought we were nuts.) Oh yah, that's when I bought a coffee in those disposable paper cups with the white plastic lids...like Tim Hortons extra large to go cups, but way better quality..anyway, I managed to slip (steal?) a few (10) of them in my bags. So I scored that day. I paid more than 6 bucks for my meal AND Walgreens charges almost 5 dollars for medium sized cups, so maybe that justifies it?? The store had piles of cups. and I'm a needy student.
Pam and I got back around 6 or so. We got settled a bit and then went upstairs to the guys' room to play a game with a bunch of us. Catch Phrase, Pit and another one. Very fun, and extremely intense!
We were in bed a little earlier that night.