ASB Chicago!

Apparently I am the only member of CAT that chooses to update R on my life.
Here in Ann Arbor, the semester is half over! This is crazy, but also good because I am really struggling to care about homework/exams right now.
Last week, I got to go to Chi-town for spring break. It was amazing. We stayed in a neighborhood called "Little Village," which is a super Hispanic community, and we got to go all around the city to different service sites. Since I've only really ever been to downtown Chicago, this was really cool. It's actually a giant city, and I felt kind of overwhelmed, but by the end of the week I was more comfortable driving around and finding places.

My group had 12 people in it, including me. There were 5 freshmen, 3 sophomores, 3 juniors, and 1 senior. I love them, they're all great. Our service sites were mostly different YMCAs where we helped out in Headstart classrooms with 3-5 year olds. Headstart is a really cool idea, since it provides pre-school for children whose parents couldn't afford it otherwise. Monday, we went to a Hispanic headstart, and the teachers didn't really seem to need us or want to talk to us. It was still fun though, because the kids were adorable. I played with a little boy Giovanni most of the time, and we helped them learn about the food pyramid, which is now apparently just a plate. Headstart is really into healthy eating, which is funny because the meals they provide the kids are super processed, pre-packaged, made in bulk and shipped to the different YMCAs. Also they throw away all the leftovers after each meal/snack.
Wednesday we played with kids at an all black YMCA/Headstart. Apparently Chicago is super racially and ethnically segregated, and we definitely saw that. Thursday and Friday we went to more Hispanic programs, and they let us take pictures, which was exciting.

They all wanted super hero face paintings. This is Sonic (Jeffrey) and Spiderman (Brian)

I played a lot of tag and got really tired. This is Emmanuel, Emilie, Brenda, and Samantha.

On Monday, we also helped sort food for this organization called Food Circle. They believe that even poor people deserve to eat healthy, so we passed out bags of veggies and eggs and breads from Trader Joe's to whoever wanted them. It was sweet.

Tuesday, we worked at the greater food depository of Chicago and sorted 9000 pounds of potatoes. Then, we went to Su Casa and helped clean. They are a Catholic Worker house that takes in displaced Hispanic families, even if they're illegal immigrants. I loved their art/murals.

They even have their own chapel. That's Jesus in the gold box!

After work Thursday, we went to dinner at Uno's Pizzeria. Apparently they invented deep dish pizza. I still think Pizza Papalis is better. Mark and I decided we could use our extra money (what we didn't need for gas) to chip in for dinner. Then I forgot to get a receipt, which we are supposed to do for St. Mary's records. One of many instances where I failed as site leader (I also got my car lost a few times on Friday, and hit another car while parking on Monday. Oops). Then we walked down Michigan Mile to Millenium Park and watched ice skaters. Mark and Helene decided to go up to one couple and tell them they were the cutest couple on the ice. Adam gave our left over pizza to a woman asking for food/money, and Becky tipped a saxophone player who was actually really terrible. We were really nice on Thursday night, I felt like a proud mom.

Friday, we took a tour of a homeless shelter run by Franciscan Outreach Association. It did not look like a fun place to live, and it made me sad for homeless people. Then we helped them serve food at a soup kitchen. One of the workers was a guy from Germany spending a year of service in Chicago. He gave his number to two of my girls, and I guess he is planning on visiting Ann Arbor...creepy.

This is how close together the beds were in the shelter. Yuck.

Basically, my week was great. I really want to do a year of service now, but I think I want to go to another country, because I have never traveled and should probably try that. I really liked the house we stayed at, though, so I would also love to do the Amate program.

In other news, today I spent 3 hours in the Bentley Library looking at old newspapers. I feel like such a researcher! Then I rode the bus with Evan Smotrycz.