Look How They Shine For You

So, this week has been hard…the dreaded Midterms. Yes, with a capital M. As in, My classes are slowly chipping away at My sanity, the Monotony is Mind-numbing, and snow in March is driving me Mad. That being said, I’m trying to take a more grounded, reflective approach to my stressful week. I’ve been telling myself that even though I feel stressed, my problems are only temporary, and all of my problems have a solution; I should keep in mind that on Friday evening, this panic-attack-inducing week will be a distant memory, and for that I should be grateful. Let’s call it my Midterm Mantra (my sister is so going to make fun of me for saying that).

I feel like I’ve reached a personal and academic resolution to stop freaking out about life, and my first attempt at that is to stop posting about how stressed out I am. So this is the last one, the last you will hear about my schoolwork; from now on it’s thoughtful and happy posts about life and love and cute animals.

Wait…no…even I don’t think I have it in me to go that far. But less negativity! It’s going to happen.

So, no picture today, but I did find this really cool video that I thought I would share. To continue with my theme of self-reflection and keeping perspective, let’s try to remember that we are all star dust:

Pressure Valve

I need to find one. Maybe I’ll take up running or something (although the consistency of me running in the past has basically been like the consistency of me updating this blog, so I don’t have my hopes set very high). I just need to find a way to get out of my own head, or at least take a little time to release all of my antsy-ness, so I can actually be productive.

This is what I’m talking about. Last semester the ACM instructors realized how irritable we were becoming and hosted a craft-making/origami/free food party. While I don’t know if I’ll have the motivation to get origami paper and sit still and make cranes for two hours, this is the kind of thing I need most in my life right now. An escape from the crapshoot of homework and responsibility.

In other news, I’ve started volunteering at the community hospice. It’s going well so far, I’ve been basically delegated to office work right now, but I’ll take what I can get. One of my supervisors told me that there’s a pottery place downtown that gives customers a chance to paint and fire their own pottery, ceramic figurines, what have you. Maybe that could jump start my de-stressing. Besides, I could use a piggy bank…

Back in the Saddle Again

So, I basically fell off the face of the Earth sometime in late October, and haven’t shown my ashamed blogging face until now. I realize this whole writing and updating regularly has been hit or miss, but believe it or not, I still want to post pictures from the rest of my semester in Chicago, as well as continuing with photography and blogging now that I’m back at Whitman. But I need to be more realistic, and I apologize for dropping the ball last semester and not updating more frequently. This time around I’ll just try to post once a week and see how it goes from there.

It’s been a rocky start to the semester, and I feel like I still haven’t found my footing. I’m missing Chicago desperately, as well as the people I met and the friends I made. I’m becoming a hermit and the stress is starting to drive me crazy, and I need to snap out of it so I can actually enjoy being back in beautiful Walla Walla. It’s going to be a gradual adjustment, but I’m getting antsy. I have many virtues; patience isn’t one of them.

Anyways, I snapped this photo from my window a few days ago, and really cheers me up when I look at it. Walla Walla is a tiny town with a gorgeous view.

Fall Friday

I love the fall. I can’t really say it enough. I love the fantastic colors displayed on trees, bringing out my warm coats, scarves and boots to wear, sipping on cider and hot chocolate, everything just gives me chills of excitement (although, that might also be the wind…). I’m currently an intern at the Stroger Memorial Hospital, so during my lunch break I decided to walk around the hospital campus and the campus of the University of Illinois. I stumbled upon a random residential street, and decided it was a perfect time to whip out my camera:

Another thing I love about fall: Halloween, a thoroughly awesome holiday. Some folks are celebrating a little early.

Farmer In The City

You can tell that I’m catching up to the present when it comes to my posts, because I no longer have to start my post along the lines of “we did this a really long time ago, and I’m just posting this now.” This trip was actually last week, so pretty recent. The Urban Studies Program visited Growing Power as part of our seminar on Food Justice. Growing Power is a nonprofit organization advocating healthy and sustainable living through building Community Food Systems, and has set up urban farms in multiple locations in Chicago and Milwaukee. The Growing Power urban farm we visited is in the Bridgeport neighborhood (you can learn more about it here). This urban farm successfully creates compost with scraps it receives from restaurants in the community, and farms with hoop houses so they can produce food throughout the winter as well.

The farm also has beehives, which produce honey and other wax-based products. The hives are located on the rooftop of the warehouse, and are pictured below:

Viva Puerto Rico

A visit to Humboldt Park, an area known for its deep-rooted Puerto Rican culture, influences, and pride. For the conclusion of our unit on neighborhoods, the Chicago Program decided to send students to explore two neighborhoods with strong cultural identity. I was with the group going to Humboldt Park, while the other group went to Bronzeville. Humboldt Park is the only neighborhood in the country that is recognized as an official Puerto Rican neighborhood, and its cultural identity is definitely evident, from murals on buildings to a giant metal sculpture of the Puerto Rican flag. We met with a Humboldt Park community leader at the Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture. Here are some pictures showcasing the Institute and its phenomenal artwork:

All That Jazz

We attended the Hyde Park Jazz Festival a few weeks ago, and saw Melvin Butler perform at the Smart Museum. I’ve never listened to jazz much, but I have to say this was pretty cool. The place was packed, it was hard enough finding a place to sit or stand, let alone take pictures, but I was able to snag a few anyways, as well as a video so you can listen too:

The next day, we also went to the Logan Square Farmer’s Market, to learn about the market, vendors and the community in how it helps sustain and help local growers.

Maxwell Street

We went to the Maxwell Street Market a while back, which is a large multicultural market that sells just about anything you can imagine. It seemed like over a hundred vendors lined Maxwell Street, and the street is closed down every week to make way for the market. The goods and prices vary, but the experience was phenomenal

On our way there, we saw the Chicago Memorial Police Motorcycle Run, which was just shocking seeing crowds of motorcycles zooming past and blocking the entire intersection. By the time I got over the shock of what exactly was happening, most of them had passed, and this was the only decent picture I managed to get.