But...we are not completely carless anymore! It is still our intention to keep driving to a minimum, but we have been gifted a car! Our new friend, Steve, who went to high school with the fabulous retired clergy-woman, Karen Slotta (who lives in good ol' Woodburn--but will soon move to Portland!), has been so great since we arrived in the Windy City. He has had us over for dinner, introduced us to another young couple new to Chicago, and made tons of job recommendations (he's very connected) and when his wife, Daryl, bought a new car, they hoped the we'd give their old one a loving home. So, we are the proud new owners of a turquoisish '94 Ford Escort, which we plan to share with other carless Chicago friends--it would be like a small-scale "I-GO" system.
Speaking of shared transportation, I visited the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art on Tuesday (free admission day) while Eric worked, and they had a fabulous exhibition called Massive Change: The Future of Global Design. One of the neatest parts of the exhibit was a room dedicated to one of People Powered's pilot programs--a bike share for Chicago! They plan to implement the program by spring of next year, which would be so great. I've heard about bike-shares in Europe and I'm surprised it's taken so long to catch on--sometimes we're a bit slow here in the U.S.
Here's a picture of some of the "blue bikes" that would be locked up outside of "el" stations (a pic from the People Powered website).
Eric has been making some more connections in the documentary film world. He wants to enroll in a class at a studio in Evanston, but because we are not Evanston residents, he is exploring the possibility of doing some volunteer film work for one of the institutes at Garrett so he will be eligible (non-residents who are affiliated with an Evanston organization are sometimes eligible). It would also be a great opportunity to work with Dr. Murphy and other Garrett all-stars. Dr. Murphy also directed Eric to a filmmaker he knows, and the two have already talked over the phone. And of course, we have been watching documentaries!On Saturday, I will be volunteering at a citizenship workshop, where I will help permanent legal residents fill out the N-400 Application for Naturalization (a 10-page document). The New Americans Initiative (a branch of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights), though a huge grant, is able to offer these workshops all over the city on a very regular basis at no cost to the clients. Because the process is so complicated and can be quite daunting, it's such a great service to offer not only assistance with the application itself, but also legal guidance, picture taking, and educational resources (like where they can find ESL, GED, and citizenship classes). I'm excited to meet people and to help in some small way--plus there will be donuts there!
I'd like to ask for positive thoughts and prayers for a good friend of ours, Jean Rose, who is in the hospital and not doing well. Now 93-years-old, I think, she was my most faithful student in the Spanish class I taught at the Woodburn church and has a fabulous laugh and a witty tongue. Several months before we left Oregon, she moved across the country to live with her nephew, Eric, and his family, in Toledo because her health was beginning to fail. She had become much stronger, had joined a church and a senior center, but has in and out of the hospital fairly regularly. And now the doctors say that the problems with her kidneys could work themselves out, but she might also have a very short time to live. She is such an amazing person--a concert pianist, a handwriting analyst, and a loving friend. Please keep Jean and her family in your thoughts and prayers.
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