Chicago and so forth

Wow, the semester's really flying by. Now it gets to be busy time. Next weekend we're going to Chicago to learn about urban social justice issues from a different city's perspective. Actually, last we were supposed to go last weekend, but we had a miscommunication and didn't have anything planned. So we had to postpone the trip. The Nicaragua students had already planned to stay at our apartment that weekend for their pre-semester retreat, so we had to leave. We stayed at this former convent nearby, and then we did service Saturday morning with OTRCH, the low-income housing cooperative that we rent our apartment from. Then we went to an environmental film festival at the Museum Center. It was really good! Then we had dinner back at the former convent and came back to go to a musical at a theatre in OTR. It was Reefer Madness, and it was based on the really old documentary. It was really funny and really good. Sunday we went to a farm. It's actually surrounded by neighborhoods, and it's a working farm. They do educational stuff and also raise crops and livestock. We got to clean out sheep pens. We did two, and it took us a lot less time than Farmer Tom (who's working on his Ph.D. in something related to farmwork) said it would have taken his staff. Then we came back and chilled and did homework.

We're still working on the itinerary for Chicago, but we're making progress. It helps to know that we're supposed to be planning it. We're probably going to talk to a guy with Chicago Public Housing and some students/a professor from Loyola Chicago. We might be able to meet up for dinner or something with Rebecca, depending on how things work out. (She doesn't want to ride the El into the city all by herself, but we might meet her and a friend at Greektown.)

As for school, it's getting really busy. We have a presentation for class tomorrow and I have, I think, seven papers due before the end of the semester. Some people have more or less because two of them are for my class that's not a part of the program. Then, after we turn in our service learning paper, we have to start preparing for our presentation. Luckily we'll have Thanksgiving break to work on it all since at least most of us are staying here. I'm trying to stay productive but not stressed. I worked most of the day yesterday but didn't feel like I accomplished that much. Of course, most of it was reading, so that might have to do with it. So I'm going to keep trying to be productive.

Yesterday they (kind of) surprised me, and we celebrated my unbirthday. I had figured out that Erin was planning unbirthday celebrations for those whose birthdays aren't during the semester, and I figured out some parts of it. But they surprised me that they got me two books. It was a surprise because we didn't get Graham a present on her actual birthday (but they said they had fun in the bookstore picking them out). Graham wrapped them in newspaper, which she got from me (although she told me I wouldn't get it back). One's on theology relating to poverty (which is my unit in my Jesuit theology class right now) and one's on organic foods. So I'll add them to my incredibly long reading list. Then Graham, Austin, and I went to part of a concert that was a fundraiser for a local non-profit cafe. They were high school bands, and we saw parts of two of them. But they were pretty good. I had fun.

That's about it. Those are our plans.