Orientation Week 2

Of course we could not finish orientation with just one week, but the second week has been considerably shorter. Some of the teachers have already had to go in and they wanted everyone to have a chance to find their workplaces. Mine is only two blocks away from my house, so it was pretty easy. I have run/walked past it a number of times. On Monday we talked about Social Justice at Roosevelt University. We had two speakers, one who talked more generally and one who talked about public housing. Then he took us to the potential future site of the National Public Housing museum (they are still looking for funding). It is in Little Italy and in the last remaining building of the Jane Addams housing project. We got to walk around inside and look out on the roof. It is pretty rundown right now but that is because no one has lived in it for several years. That night some people that lived in our house last year came over for dinner, which was awesome. We got to ask them lots of questions about the house and the neighborhood (any tips about the coffeepot? Cars? Gang colors we shouldn’t wear?). They went around our rooms to see who was in their old rooms and such. A former inhabitant of my room explained the ceiling damage (apparently it used to also rain inside, the problem seems fixed right now and I want to paint soon).
Tuesday we went to the Cardinal Meyer Center (offices and conference rooms for the Archdiocese) and talked about the faith tenet of Amate House. We got really deep and I think it was really good for our community to bond. After that, Jessie and I made black-bean burgers, which were delicious. Wednesday we had most of the day off so some of us went with Elissa to help her set up her classroom. We had community night at South House and talked about communication and conflict, which was good. We’ve kind of made fun of the approach a little bit (we keep asking people what their needs are and telling them to make requests) but I think it will be really helpful to help us resolve any conflicts that will inevitably happen when nine strangers live together. Thursday we did not have to start until noon. We went over to South House to have our pictures taken for the website. Then we had lunch (tuna sandwiches, it’s been a while since I have had anything meat-like). Afterwards we had our covenant signing ceremony. It was really nice but super hot, so after a quick picture with all of the Amate volunteers we headed home with a quick stop at Walgreens so Elissa could print up copies of our first family photos, from Millennium Park last weekend. Ann K has Part 1 of Season 1 of Glee on dvd, so we watched a few of those in the Oasis (what we have named the hammock room with air conditioning). Elissa and I slept there that night because it was so hot in the house.
On Friday a few people had errands to run or had to go to work so I figured that it was my best chance to paint my ceiling. There was a lot of water damage to the ceiling because the roof used to leak. They have fixed the problem as far as I can tell (we have had a couple of hard rains already and I have not seen any damage) but the ceiling was still unattractive. Now it is very attractive, because I painted it sky blue, which makes the room more bright and cheery. I only needed one coat (plus a few touchups) and the damaged part is mostly camouflaged. While I was waiting for the paint to dry before I did the touch-ups, I watched a few more episodes of Glee in the Oasis. I mean, how else would I wait for paint to dry? I was in my paint clothes so it is not like I was going anywhere. After I cleaned up my room and finally took a shower (I believe there was another episode of Glee involved, I had to finish the disc) I had some leftovers for dinner. A Time Out Chicago had been delivered earlier and Carlos and Ann P saw that there were some art galleries in Pilsen with free wine and cheese receptions. We went and it was so much fun. Some of the ‘galleries’ were just the artist’s loft studios or even apartments…Jessie and I really wanted apartments in that building, they had great views and the building had lots of character. We got caught in the rain but rather than reacting like normal people, we put our stuff in our car and then played in it. Carlos got really excited and yelled in a crosswalk “This is Chicago!” He got people across the street to join in too and then they tried to get us to say “Stop raining Chicago!” After we were through puddle jumping, we piled into the car and Carlos had a brainwave: going to Huck Finns (near South House) for Donut Delights. These are donuts with a scoop of ice cream on them and are delicious yet ridiculous. I shared one with Michelle (plain donut with spumoni ice cream) and we had a lot of fun, even though it was cold in the air conditioning.
Saturday was pretty chill, I went for a walk, did some yoga with Jillian Michaels (and a couple of my roommates) and rearranged some furniture (moving a couch to the Oasis upstairs). The rest of the day I basically just lounged around because the heat made me so tired. Two-thirds of my house went to this happy hour in Lincoln Park for some free beer but I was feeling pretty tired when they went so I just hung out with Michelle and Elissa at our house. We watched more episodes of glee and listened to the mariachi band playing outside our window. I’m really not kidding about that, school starts this week in Catholic schools so there were block parties all over Little Village celebrating the end of summer. People blocked off the roads with their cars so kids could ride bikes all over the street and they could have bands playing. We were not invited, though. I do have to say that the combination of the mariachi band, the ice cream truck jingles, the popsicle cart bells, the music from other food carts, and the soundtrack of glee made a very strange listening combination. And our windows were closed, too, because we had the A/C on in the Oasis. Such is life in Lil Vil (as we like to call it).
Work starts tomorrow! Wish me luck!