This past week we have been given various challenges to complete in order to familiarize ourselves with Chicago. These challenges served the dual purpose of helping us to bond with our fellow participants.
On Wednesday, we were split up into “Neighbourhood Groups” we were split up and given the name of one of Chicago's 70 odd neighbourhoods. My group was called Austin.
The first time we had to go to various locations around the Downtown area, and complete various tasks such as getting library cards (quite easy), and figuring out what happened at a particular site (a ferry tipped over killing over 800 people, and resulting in a rethinking of the safety requirements for ferries). My group was the first group to the end location, and therefore got a prize. The second time we went out, it was more observational this time. We went to Little Village, one of the spanish areas, and had to find various things such as where people hang out, and what parks are near bye. Then we had to find something to eat on a dollar per person. Because we were short on time, we found a restaurant, and we split 2 tacos between four people. This taught me the importance of not rushing decisions, because when we got back, we found out that other had had pitas and peanut butter.
The third time we went out we were in different groups. This time we just had to follow directions, and end up at the conservatory where we would meet and go to a center for green technology, unfortunately all the other groups didn't follow the directions, and they went straight to the center.
On Saturday, we were split into our country groups (the people on our team for the immersion part of radical journey). We were blindfolded and driven to random locations around the city. My group was able to find an a train stop 2 blocks from where we were, and were home within an hour and a half from the beginning of the excursion. Then since it was our turn to clean, we cleaned the house.
Once the cleaning was done, Gabriella and I decided we need to do laundry, so we went to the laundromat. Unfortunately we didn't realise that there were actual laundry machines availible and so we used the SIX DOLLAR industrial machines. Once we got the machines going, we walked a little bit farther, and found regular use machines 2 rows down, which was dissappointing and reminded me that you need to be more observational and to look before you leap.
The first time we had to go to various locations around the Downtown area, and complete various tasks such as getting library cards (quite easy), and figuring out what happened at a particular site (a ferry tipped over killing over 800 people, and resulting in a rethinking of the safety requirements for ferries). My group was the first group to the end location, and therefore got a prize. The second time we went out, it was more observational this time. We went to Little Village, one of the spanish areas, and had to find various things such as where people hang out, and what parks are near bye. Then we had to find something to eat on a dollar per person. Because we were short on time, we found a restaurant, and we split 2 tacos between four people. This taught me the importance of not rushing decisions, because when we got back, we found out that other had had pitas and peanut butter.
The third time we went out we were in different groups. This time we just had to follow directions, and end up at the conservatory where we would meet and go to a center for green technology, unfortunately all the other groups didn't follow the directions, and they went straight to the center.
On Saturday, we were split into our country groups (the people on our team for the immersion part of radical journey). We were blindfolded and driven to random locations around the city. My group was able to find an a train stop 2 blocks from where we were, and were home within an hour and a half from the beginning of the excursion. Then since it was our turn to clean, we cleaned the house.
Once the cleaning was done, Gabriella and I decided we need to do laundry, so we went to the laundromat. Unfortunately we didn't realise that there were actual laundry machines availible and so we used the SIX DOLLAR industrial machines. Once we got the machines going, we walked a little bit farther, and found regular use machines 2 rows down, which was dissappointing and reminded me that you need to be more observational and to look before you leap.
