35 days until graduation…

This is both cause of panic and excitement. I have a lot left to do before graduation, but I have an apartment in Chicago. We are still waiting for the final confirmation, but it is pretty much a done deal. Jobs are in the works; I am not too worried about that either. I am worried about the 60+ pages of papers that I need to turn in between now and then. I am trying to take things systematically and not worry, but my body tends to worry for me and I have not been feeling quite up to snuff, although I went to bed early the last two nights and feel much better. Tonight is the spring formal, it is on a boat on Lake Michigan, I am rather excited. I am going with a group of girl friends and I will know a lot of people going. I think it will be fun.

If you were not sure yet, you maybe have figured that I am planning on staying in Chicago. My plan is to nanny this next year as it will be a simple, fun way to pay for rent and paints. I am planning on applying to get my Masters in Fine Arts. I believe I will mostly look in the Chicago area, but I will probably also look around at other schools outside of Chicago. My friend who will be my roommate this coming year believes I should stay in Chicago, but I am not making any promises. I do love the Chicago area. The art scenes here are fantastic and the only thing that I do not like is the weather. I will keep you all up-to-date as my search progresses.

The apartment that my friend and I found is in a nice area. It is very close to an El stop that is on one of the 24-hour lines and it is also near stores, but it is not downtown. I had wanted to look for somewhere closer, but this is affordable and serves all of our needs for now. I am growing more and more happy with it the more I look into the neighborhood.

My Spring Break in Mississippi – recounted for YOU!

I am not alone in thinking that there should be a week break after spring break so that we can all recover. I had a wonderful time with nine other students from my school and a staff person in Mississippi. We were joined up with another group of older people when we were down there.

We spend the week in Long Beach, Mississippi working at the South Mississippi Regional Center in the mornings, providing a VBS-type camp in the morning for the residents. (This is a center for people with disabilities.) In the afternoon we did various rebuilding projects. A group did a lot of redoing of the interior of a house, I only spent Thursday at this project and my job was to stain and varnish stuff. It was fun. They cooked us dinner that night and we had what I now call “Gus’ Magical Mississippi Burgers” because they were delightful. I had three of them. Another group did landscaping at a church. I did not go there, but from what I understand that will start rebuilding the church in a month or so. Monday and Tuesday I helped paint the outside of a house. This was fun and we got a lot done. The rest of the group finished it on Wednesday, but they did not need everyone, so the rest of us helped out around the camp we were staying out. Friday was my favorite day because the whole group from my school went together to Pass Christian and cleaned up a section of the street that was over grown and still had loads of trash. We picked up shingles, children’s shoes, a bag of stuffed animals, the usual cans, Christmas ornaments and a bunch of sticks. It looked so much better after we were done and people driving by often stopped to thank us. Saturday we went to New Orleans, but I think I would have rather stayed at the camp.

All of the things that we DID were interesting, but it was the people we MEET that made the experience. The camp we were staying at was right across the street from the beach and we often went over there. There were also many really diverse groups staying there. There was a group of young Russians who now live in PA. There was a family of Canadians, a large group of Mennonites and a few Amish men (a larger group came mid-week). Being able to hang out with these people around the campfire was amazing. Wednesday night we all sat around and sang hymns in the main meeting room. Listening to the harmonies and accents was wonderful.

When we first arrived in Mississippi we did not really know what it was we were looking at. Wind swept trees along the beach looked pretty and the town appeared small, but most of us are used to small towns. It was not until we started looking closer that we began seeing the bare spots on the ground where houses and stores used to stand and looking at the road along the beach and seeing where the boardwalk is missing whole sections. There were also several signs, like the McDonald’s sign with the M missing the front and back pieces so you can see through it and the Kmart sign, that stood next to big empty lots. Tuesday night we watched a video showing the area before the storm, during the storm and after the storm. There was a museum right on the beach that was destroyed. An entire floating casino was lifted up across the highway. After realizing how much had been in this town before the storm and how much used to be right on the beach, the empty fields and the wind swept trees began to look eerie and unsettling. Friday in Pass Christian the whole town down area is still housed in makeshift trailers. There is a huge trailer that has a sign marking it as the City Hall, another smaller trailer marked “Library” and where the softball field and tennis courts used to be is now several rows wide and deep of green army tents housing supplies for clean up and bunks for volunteers. And then to see the block and blocks of houses in New Orleans that are still left as was, water marks still on the side and items still to be seen inside, as though the hurricane hit yesterday. It was weird. There is a lot of work that still needs to be done.

YES! Spring Break is here!

I am away. Away from school, my dorm, homework, cold weather. It will be wonderful.

I am going on a service trip. More information once I return.

Ps. Today my friend and I played hooky and spent almost three hours in the cultural center downtown and then another hour and half at a café of sorts just talking. We heard live Indian music, saw amazing pieces of art, beautiful old buildings all the while snow was dancing around us. It was a wonderful day. We wrote lots of poetry and I drew.

I needed this break between school and the spring break trip. I think I am ready now.