the first few days

We arrived in Chicago the day before yesterday. Everyone had told us again and again that it was going to be sooooo cold in Chicago this winter, that it never occurred to me that the temp just might be in the 90s with high humidity when we arrived.

My first real impression of Chicago is that it seems like any other city. There's buildings, many run-down. There's smog. There's people. But you know, it just keeps going. I mean, really. This place just goes on and on. There is so much city.

Right now, we're living in the "little house", which is quite possibly the biggest house I've ever lived in, when you count in the basement, which I do. We're probably going to stay here, but may have to move to the "big house", which is like a maze. Michael and I and Phil and Valerie all want to stay here, though. I don't know if we actually have any choice or sway in the matter, but that's what we all want.

The big house is in Pilsen (sp?), which is what John had referred to as Little Italy. It more often goes by Back of the Yards. It used to have large Italian and German populations, but now it is mainly Mexican. Valerie and I are going to be working at Holy Cross there. It's a really awesom neighborhood. I say this from having driven through it. We made no stops. But there is this overwhelming sense of community there. Even through moving steel and glass you can feel how much that place is loved.

The little house is in, um, South Chicago. Also a large Mexican population. Very nice atmosphere. We're about a block from Our Lady of Guadalupe. I may be also working with their art program. The house structure itself is nicer, we think. And we just got really comfortable here over the past couple of days.

Michael had his interview with 8th Day Justice Center yesterday. It went really well. He said afterwords that he had been kind of weary about it because the description of what they did was "works for peace and social justice issues." He thought, "Wow. That's really vague." But after the interview, he said that was exactly how he would describe what they did.

I was there for about the last half-hour of the interview. They had given me the option of hanging around with them, or bumming around Chicago. So I walked around the Loop- which is downtown Chicago- for about an hour. Then I got bored of walking around alone, so I went back. We talked about what they did and had done, what all of our goals and ideas were. 8th Day is run by a group of nuns and a couple of hired staff, and a lot of volunteers. I think all of the nuns had been arrested at protests. One of them had just got back from a three-month stint in lock-up the day before. They're a really cool group of women, and (between you and me) they love Michael and are going to dote on him like a long-lost son.

After the interview, we met Maria, who is a volunteer in Atlanta. She's going to be working with refugee women and with women in jail. This is her second year, so she had some insight to offer us about life with the Claretians. We talked with her for about an hour and a half before John showed up with Phil and Valerie. Phil is a retired businessman. He's going to be working in the legal clinic, which advocates the poor and immigrants and other people who are disinfranchised and cannot get legal help for one reason or another. Valerie had created a program in Tacoma, Washington called (I think) My Sister's Pantry. But she fed hundreds of immigrants and homeless people every week. She cooked them a healthy and inexpensive meal, gave them recipes, and got them all groceries for a week. She's going to be working in the pantry at Holy Cross.

We spent a long time yesterday getting to know each other- from personal backgrounds, to eating habits, to hobbies, to political leanings. We found that we have a lot of similar interests and ideas, even though we don't necessarily have a lot in common as far as where we're coming from. I think this is going to be a good living arrangement.

We also found last night, that apparently most things in the downstairs part of the house are wired to the same breaker. Which means that you can get a few things going, but after that, if you do anything, the circuit breaks and everything shuts down. For instance, you can have the lights on and the window box air conditioner going, but if you then try to turn on the TV, or the box fan, or open the refridgerator, it's all off. We haven't figured out what to do with this just yet, but it did at least make for an interesting evening.

Yeah, this is going to be an interesting year.