Second City, First Impressions

Picked-up pieces from my first days in Chicago, aka the site of the summer fellowship:

After a day of kicking myself that I hadn't packed my basketball shoes (at least not for this trip), I borrowed my friend Anna's younger brother's sneaks to join a dozen future Derrick Roses honing their hoop game across the alley from my Anna's apartment.  Never seen a court that got nonstop play from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm.  But then, this is Chicago.

Since the last time I'd visited, I'd forgotten just how ... character the El has.  Taking the Blue Line into the city from O'Hare, when the train enters denser neighborhoods the tracks pass through a veritable canopy of apartment rooftops, so close you could reach out and touch them.  The platform at the station I got off at was wooden and clearly past its prime.  Such touches have their own kind of charm; then again, the accessibility is mediocre.

View from the kitchen table of my friend Anna's apartment, where I crashed till I could move into my own sublet: row of potted herbs on a windowsill, in front of power lines, in front of a grey rooftop with its ducts and vents, in front of a main drag of Mexican eateries, in front of ... the spectacular downtown skyline.  So much about urban living captured in a single vista.


Whoever Naty is, she's the Mayor of Anna's stretch of the Ukrainian Village.  Dona Naty's Tacos one block, Naty's Pizza the next.


I now know what a Pedal Pub is, and I'll leave it at that.

I remember the days when Megabus was just getting started in the Midwest, you could only take it to a few cities, and it seemed you could get a $5 ride even at the last minute.  How times change.

It's nice being back in a city served by The Onion's A.V. Club--for my money, still the most efficient, coherent, and informative entertainment listings available in the cities I've lived in.

Can anyone tell me where and when the good open-mic poetry slams are here?

Trying to find an affordable yet quality grocery store in Hyde Park has proven quite the challenge.

This is a city with a lot of good coffee.  And here I am, trying to transition back to tea.  Sigh.

Kudos to the UChicago Marketplace for connecting the lampless man with students giving away lamps.  I am awash in light!

I consider myself somewhat aesthetically challenged, but even I can appreciate how awful a color of pink my new room is painted.  And with all the new lamps, it's hard to avoid.