Wednesday, March 15

One week after Wicked already! Wow. Time goes fast.

Today we had class. I was going to wake up super early so that I'd be able to type one more thing out and email it to myself before class started....well, I set my alarm for 6:30 and it didn't go off...so I woke up at 7:15, pretty much right before the girls left for class. Whoops. So I typed something fierce and was finished and got ready in time to be only half an hour late for class. Not too bad. I didn't miss much. Again today, because of neighborhood visits we didn't have practicum group, so I went home for my 33 cent lunch of mac and cheese and went on the computer again to check stuff (you know, Oprah tickets, weather updates [crazy snow storm coming through], etc.) and then went to the CBF to volunteer my afternoon away. I know I've said this before, but the people that work there are always so friendly! It's a good place to work! And Pam will be coming with me next time to help too. yay!
We ate a super early supper at 4:30 before a poetry reading at 6:30. It was at the a school location of the art institute of Chicago on Michigan Ave. I wasn't expecting it to be all that great--yah yah poetry reading. They'll sit there and read their stuff, what's new--but this guy was really really good! His name is Ted Kooser, the Poet Lauriette of the United States Library of Congress in Washington DC. What a title. To give you a little bit of an idea of what he looks like, he looks like Gollom from the Lord of the Rings...kinda skinny, cute, kind of bald, with glasses and ears that stick out a little bit. Cute for an old man. He reminded me of a prof, for sure.
Here are some notes for my arts journal entry:

-I wonder what was happening in this very ballroom 100 years ago?
-It reminds me of Mary Poppins--the drapes, line of lights, small balconies, there should be a huge staircase like in the Sound of Music.
-Ted is late, the audience is restless.
-There is an auction at the back of the paintings that were inspired by a few of Ted's poems. The money from the silent auction sales go towards the poetry center and keeping poetry alive.
-Ted's voice is calming, like a grandfathers
-his poems are about things in life
-short poems, descriptive
-gesture poem: the figure skater (we received that one in class today)
-poems about: the weatherman, spiral notebook, urine sample, sharing the sandwich, anecdotal poem (tell me what you want to tell me)
-many of the poems are followed by "hmmm" from the audience.
-His descriptions were so vivid and true that I would close my eyes and picture the scene in my head--especially the two elderly people sharing a sandwich at a deli.
-Ted also explained why he wrote the poems and his inspiration behind them. Very cool to know if one owns the book already...kind of like the soundtrack to wicked--owning and knowing it beforehand and the performance explained it all for me.
I really enjoyed this poetry reading. It was just the right length and he was captivating us as an audience with his amazing reading skills, thoughtfulness in the poems, his wisdom, and his appearance. I'd go to another of his poetry readings. Thank you Ted!

We also had another poet, Chicago's greatest, in class today. I'll have to get his name and update this tomorrow, but he was hilarious! The first thing I heard him say was a comment on how the coffee in the office was way too weak...now that's a comment I can agree with...we bonded. hah. One of chicago's finest. He is a Jewish Puerto Rican and came to Chicago when he was 9, had just finished 4th grade in PR. He had to start over in English here...but his poems were funny and cute and had a beat and some rhyme and his inspiration came straight from this city. I would have loved to have a video of him in class today...probably in his element in front of us. Hilarious.

Tuesday, March 14

Yesterday I had my midpoint evaluation at work. Lately I've been feeling so much more job satisfaction and feeling like I'm actually helping out a lot more than before..it comes with time and more responsibility though, for sure. I met with Kristen early in the morning just to go over a little bit about what we would mention in the meeting. I have more than just one person that I do work for around the office, so I've been doing more than just work for her, but work for about 4 other people, too! I get to see a lot of how the office works in its individual teams but also how it all fits together, too. I have a very cool place in the hierarchy of things...doing administrative stuff, but also PR reports and stuff with Kristen.

I'd love to keep in touch with Easter Seals while I'm back at Dordt next year and see if they would be able to formulate a job possibility...if their budget allows...for when I graduate. That would be completely IDEAL! Then I'd be able to work in Chicago after graduation!!!!! AAAAAH exciting.
okay, back to reality now. After the midpoint evaluation (which was excellent) we had our final neighborhood/neighbourhood visit to Chinatown. Without our leader, we just walked around, took random pictures, ate at the chinese bakery, and walked around in the wind and cold for about an hour. We have to squeeze all of our information into a short 8-minute presentation in a few weeks, so we'll have to meet a few times for that later on.

It was a while before Pam came home, so I went running at the Solheim Center (Moody Bible Institute gave us a good deal on passes to their rec center). I can't believe HOW BORING it is to run on a treadmill by this time of year! my goodness. I could only stand a mile on the blasted thing before I HAD to get off and run around their afterthough of a "track" around the gym. It's pretty sad, but the air moves around me so I don't sweat a lot and the scenery changes more than a treadmill...plus I had a soccer player to chase the whole time, which kept me motivated :) :)

Pammikins made spagetti for supper-- tres bien, and then I dinked around on the computer all night doing homework and various forms of communication and filing music. My song of the day today was a good one to dance to. I'm truly trying to get the wave thing I can do with my arms to go throughout my whole body. It's quite a task for a dutch white girl like me...but since I'm apparently so goal oriented (according to Values and Vocations class) I will achieve this goal!

Monday, March 13

Today was another fulfilling day at work! I found myself very thirsty and, as a result, visiting the bathroom more than I wanted. It's kind of annoying to have to go to the front desk and pick up a bathroom key everytime. I also always have to go through the front entrance to go back to my little cubicle, too. So everyone knows I'm either wandering around or I've just peed again. Swallow my pride. I'm just the little student intern.
I was able to join in the all staff meeting this morning, and I enjoyed that a lot. I got to see everyone from the office in one place and hear about how each little team around the office works together to realize the goals of Easter Seals. Very good stuff to note for my mid-point evaluation tomorrow with my practicum group leader and supervisor. I'm getting quite a bit of positive feedback from people so far, which is good to hear. The more I hear the harder I work. It's really neat how that works out...I've read it in HR textbooks before, but now I know it's true for many people!
I wore a stinkin wool sweater in the 63 degree weather today. I'm stupid. I tried to find some work-worthy short sleeved shirts after work, but Forever 21 is just not my style when it comes to work clothes, or any casual clothes either. Hmm..maybe I should rethink that as one of my favorite stores. H&M will have something for sure.
Eight of us went to Gino's East for deep dish Chicago style pizza for supper tonight. I must say, I wasn't impressed. The crust was horrible, and the toppings reminded me of lasagna. We also waited about an hour and 15 minutes for the pizzas, too. I will make a strong statement (and if anyone would like to challenge it, bring it on) that Panago is the best pizza I've ever tasted. Pizza hut, Pizza ranch, Giordanni's, Tucci Benuch, Digiorno...even my own pizza can't compare to Panago. Okay, Boston Pizza definitely gives it a run for its money sometimes. But bacon double cheeseburger panago pizza would stomp all over the weak sauce I had tonight at Gino's.
What was cool about the place was that so may celebs had been there before...their pictures were proudly displayed on the wall right outside the bathrooms. Lucky folks. It was cool to see exactly what David Spade ordered and how much he tipped the pizza guy. Useless information. But OPRAH and Patrick Swayze, Dennis Rodman, Steve Urkel, oldies, were up there! I wanted/should have taken pictures of the pictures and signatures on the wall. I can always go back!
I did some talking on the phone, homework, tidying, combing my hair, folding my socks, smelling candles, eating a tiny spoonful of peanut butter, before bed tonight. I'll be in bed before midnight!!!!! What a celebration!

Sunday, March 12

This morning we went to Park Community Church again. I really really like it there. It's really energetic, the music is perfect, but the message is also captivating as well. The people are friendly, the coffeetime after is great. The community there is just what I'd want in a church. It's a "daughter church" of Willow Creek church, which is a mega church around here somewhere. I'll get there sometime this semester. I hear they have church for members during the week and then their weekend services are purely outreach to visitors. Interesting concept. I guess with a church that huge, you'd have to somehow work with service times and the masses of people that attend the church. The age range of people at Park Community church is pretty young. A good place to meet new people if you're new to the city as well. We thought it was skirt weather today...after all, yesterday was a tiny glimpse of summer, but we were brought upon the reality that it is still March and we do need to keep our socks on for a few more weeks at least. We got back to the apartment and changed into our sweatshirts and comfy jeans.

On the bus ride home, I met a guy from the UK (Wales!) who was here for a conference. He was friendly and liked Canadians. We both agreed that Vancouver would be a beautiful place to live someday. I love the accent. I wish I caught his name!

For lunch we celebrated Kate's birthday by going out for a light lunch to the Corner Bakery just down the street. She was getting calls to her phone off and on all day so she was on the phone for a little while before, during and after the meal, but it was nice to go out as roommates and talk abotu life and our horribly long names...hah. Poor Kate's name is going to be Katheryn Elizabeth VanWyngarden when she gets married this summer. She's always made fun of dutch people with 'Van' in their names..and now she'll be one! I told her she should keep the Le from her last name right now (LeSage) and just have LeWyngarden as her last name. That would be so uber european, but she decides to just take on Adam's last name. She's needing a lot of practice at her new signature!
All that food made me tired, so I took a nap. It was only supposed to be an hour...but I stretched it to 3 hours. Yah, I'm stupid. But I woke up, went for a run by the lake again :) and then started the productivity of my day at around 6pm.
Ang slaved over a cake all afternoon (it was a two layer cake easter basket with little eggs in it and a handle and everything!) So we ate it with the guys upstairs and needed two tries to get the happy birthday song right when she came in. Chris was back in Michigan to DJ a wedding so he wasn't there, but Dave's friend Bob, Dave, and Jeff were there to enjoy our lovely easter birthday cake.
I don't like spending $1.25 everytime to wash something in the laundry room downstairs, so I handwashed my socks and underwear tonight. Now hopefully I can go a few more weeks without the washer and dryer :) (sigh...it might be the dutch in me *shakes head*)
I'm up way too late. Want to sleep!

Songs of the moment: "Toy Soldiers" by Martika. "World on Fire" Sarah McLaughlin.

Pictures from the Weekend :)

Saturday, March 11

The day of the Michael Buble concert down at Rosevelt University. If I had time that day, I was going to try to get to the concert hall early in the afternoon to see if I could peek into the windows or maybe sneak in and hear Michael Buble rehearse for the show.
Only dreaming though. I didn't even have time that day. We were in the area though, but we only saw one limo...it could have been him!

Saturday I made sure I got at least 8 hours of sleep at night, so I slept in until nearly 11..a good 10 hours :) The sun was shining through the windows of the apartment (a rare occurance) and it was amazingly warm outside, so I HAD to go for a run by the lake!! I ran up and down the lakeshore for a few miles and then had to get ready to meet the girls who had left for the parade already. I met them down at the parade under a TV crane thing and we watched the Chicago St. Patrick's Day parade for over an hour before we got sick of watching the same looking floats, same sounding marching bands, and dancing celtic women. We tried as hard as we could to get some candy or beads from the parade people walking by, but we weren't cute enough.
We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping and window shopping. Some of our favorite stores include: H&M, Forever 21, NY and C, Sears and Payless :) We lost a couple of the girls quite early so Kate, Pam and I met up and went back to the apartment together around supper time. We were all quite hungry. I picked up a frozen pizza for supper (also ended up dropping it face down on the floor) and then we hung around the apartment all night. I also managed to fit in a 3 hour nap after supper. Wow. I'm finding that I can always go for naps now.

"How has your sense of the city changed over time?" At first, I approached Chicago with wide eyes, like I'd never get used to the busyness of the people. I never though I'd get used to seeing that homeless person shaking coins in a cup. I never though I'd get used to the smells from underground, the honking of horns, not looking people in the eyes as you walk down the street. I still haven't gotten used to everything, but I find myself challenging the "game face" thing. As I walk to the Red line from work, I try to see how many people will look me in the face as I walk past them. And on the train, it's awkward to see someone looking at you and you look right back at them. They look away right away, usually. Sometimes they may smile.
I sat next to a young african american child and her mother on the train a few days ago. It was interesting to hear how they interacted. The child was not shy. She spoke to me and referred to me as a "him" when talking to her mom about me. It was funny because clearly I'm not a man..but I do have short hair. Maybe it's different from what the girl knew of the women in her life...women with longer, braided? dark hair. It must be tough to take care of such an inquisitive child sometimes. It takes a lot of patience, and I could tell that mother's patience was running dry.

Friday, the weekend!

Work went really fast on Friday. Apparently there was a demonstration that many people could hear from their high rise offices, but I didn't know a thing about it until I got home and heard more about it. It was a protest/demonstration by immagrants to the US because president Bush was passing a law about immagrants that day. There were protests in DC and New York as well. There were many signs in the garbage cans and also many trash bins turned over and garbage all over Monroe and Dearborn streets.
Friday was also the beginning of many St. Patricks Day celebrations...you're probably thinking, This Friday? It was only the 10th! Yes, I know! These people like to celebrate! We'll have more next weekend! Pam and I celebrated the celebration by going shoe shopping up on north clark street. We also found Ulta, a big makeup/beauty store with potential good deals! (and I can find 'em!) We stopped for a chat at Cariboo Coffee and then took the bus back to the apartment.
Ang had some friends over from Michigan and Indiana, and they stayed in to watch Goonies, but Pam and Kate and I wanted to do something. We wanted to get out and go somewhere. So I borrowed one of Ang's friend's drivers licence (hey, I don't want to drink, I just want to get in!) and we went to check out some of these fabulous irish pubs we hear so much about. The street was packed full of people milling from bar to bar. There were cops all over and there were loud and excited people all over too. People were talking all over. Kate and Pam didn't want to fork out a couple bucks cover charge so we found a bar that we could get into for free. We found Rebecca and Monica there so we danced with/around them for a while. Us three girls walked down state street a bit, stopped in and listened to some karaoke, chatted with some people on the streets before heading back to the apartment.
One thing we realized immediately was how we smelled like smoke. In BC, it depends on the bar, but many places have banned smoking in the bars. Many in Ontario have done the same thing so it was different for me to smell so bad after being there for less than an hour. The place we went to was packed! There were fans going full blast everywhere and the windows to the street were wide open and people were joyously celebrating the remembrance of St. Patrick. And with all the ventilation, we still smelled bad.
It was a fun night.

WICKED

I had a count down going on our door for days until we got to go to the FABULOUS musical that is WICKED. Ohmygoodness. Here is the background for my love for this musical. My rommate sophomore year, Stephenie, had the soundtrack on her computer and we listened to it all the time before she went to the show in New York over Christmas that year. She LOVED it. And that got me listening to the soundtrack non-stop hoping I'd be able to catch it in Toronto over spring break sophomore year. Nope, no luck with that one, but I still loved the story line and the music, so I continued to listen to the songs--as I drove, as I painted rooms in my house, as I did homework, etc. I memorized the songs word for word. I didn't know it, but soon I'd find out that the musical we'd go to in Chicago would be WICKED!
Joel, the recruiter for the Chicago Semester held a questions/answers session at Dordt this past fall semester, and descretely mentioned something about seeing the play if I was enrolled in the Arts class this semester. Imagine my eyes light up and my face brighten, let out a gasp and whoop of excitement, and later jump and scream for joy as I thought of me finally seeing this play that I only knew the songs for. I didn't really even know the storyline of the play or really how the characters connected. I just loved the songs.
Elated as I was, it took a while before my broadway dream was realized, but the day of realization was Wednesday, March 8, 2006. I took no more than a pen and paper to wrote down my emotions and thoughts as the play progressed...but it was so overwhelming!
As we walked into the Oriental Theatre on Randolph street, you immediately notice the architecture, designs on the walls, and sculptures and carvings around the rooms. It's a classy place and we get our tickets and take our seats right away. As we walk into the theatre, we are up in a balcony, but these seats are probably still around $100 each. There is a dragon machine thing overtop of the stage. The detail of the theatre mask my excitement for just a few minutes. It calms me, awes me when all I want to do is jump around and scream for excitement.l The detail of the inside of the building is amazing. A more gothic style than the Joffrey theatre where we saw the ballet. Mystical creatures, heads, faces watching us from above, dragons, seahorses?, magical, old, height, dark, are some of the words that come to mind. No pictures are allowed to be taken because of the paint in the theatre and the integrity of the show. WICKED starts, and seriously, for some reason I can't stop crying. This is the most emotional I've been in a while...and it's for a play! Hearing the music played live, the actors portraying exactly what I've pictured, the humor, the beauty, the story of love and friendship are amazing and I can't stop the flow of tears. I'm finally here at this show I've only heard about for a year and a half. The songs are word for word and I'm able to finally piece the play together form the music I know and from what I see on stage. The musicians play the pieces so beautifully. I can hear every instrument perfectly even up where we are sitting. The acoustics are amazing. The lighting is undoubtedly the best we've seen this year. Spotlighting, using green as representative of Elphaba, stage lighting underneath characters, etc. Awesome. Everything together is what gets to me.
There are humorous parts, and the audience laughs, and then there are surprising parts and romantic parts and the audience responds well. The surprise at the end is totally unexpected, and it makes me shake my head because there is no leading up to it from the soundtrack at all. But it's such an amazing love story, too. I want to watch it again. And not be crying the entire time. This was by far the most touching and emotional experience I've had here in Chicago. I love musicals and I love the excitement leading up to this one in particular because of my background with it. I am so blessed to have even seen this show, tickets sell so fast, and with the small amount we paid to go to all the arts events this semester, it's basically the price of one ticket to Wicked. We were so blessed to have seen this musical and to have been touched by it, as I was. Amazing. There is no one word that can adequately describe this musical! Again!