An evening in Pilsen

Last semester I wrote a paper about Pilsen, but ashamedly I admit that last week I realized how little I knew about Pilsen then.  Most of the stuff I got from websites, books and what other people said.  I had been to Pilsen, a number of times, but I never really immersed myself in it.  I never really knew the place.  How did I realize that?  Well last friday I got a real immersion, and it was better than expected.

So let’s start from the beginning.  Pilsen is a neighbourhood in Chicago, which was first settled by Czech immigrants, hence the Slavic name.  Throughout the years however the neighbourhood has developed into the quintessential Latino neighbourhood.  A trip to this place results in a trip to a community which is Mexican in spirit.  Here the main language is Spanish, and even the decorations have a Mexican style. 

My first trip to Pilsen was soon after I arrived, when I had to meet one of the local leaders, who happened to know someone back in Malta.  It was a dark winter evening and someone had been shot in the area in the previous days.  Learning all this, made me feel obviously very uncomfortable in the area, so in my return visits to the area, I always kept my guard on. 

In my latest trip however, a friend of mine invited me to go over with him to the Art walk -  a visit to a number of artist’s studios/galleries in the neighbourhood.  In recent years the area has experienced gentrification too, and a number of artists have set shop here.  Even though most of the artists are not ‘latinos’, the opening up of these spaces suddenly gave a new dimension to my perception of the area.

Suddenly I realized that after all it wasn’t that dangerous to walk in this neighborhood.  The art was interesting, but most of all what I found interesting was the new world which opened infront of my eyes.  Perhaps one of the best discoveries was a bakery, which bakes delicious pastries including empanadas and pan dulce.  The stuff is so good, fresh and much less expensive than the food in the area where I live.

The people are also very friendly, and welcoming.  Obviously there are the usual shady characters, but these you can find all over the city.  Indeed sometimes labels and public perception do have an effect on the way we see communities.  Definitely this has been a positive experience and I intend visiting this area more often. 

An unexpected ski trip

I didn’t plan anything for my spring break, namely because I had no money, and I also decided it would be an ideal time for me to relax and clean up my apartment.  So when my friend Kim, called asking if I was interested in going for a ski-trip, I was very excited.   Spring break this year was in the first week of March, and it really wasn’t spring at all.  It was very cold and grey and it snowed all throughout the week.  Thus it was also ideal for a skiing trip, because the snow on the mountains was fresh and soft.

We went to Wilmot mountain, which is not far from Chicago. It took us about 2 hours to drive there.  Wilmot is more of a hill than a mountain, but it was good enough for my needs.  Afterall it was my first time skiing.  Booking for a lesson, was a very good idea, since I had no idea how to do anything with those large skies, in that snow.  I was also lucky because there weren’t a lot of people at the resort, and I had a one on one lesson.  The instructor was very patient with me, and very helpful.  His wife happens to work at Loyola.  I had never met her though, Loyola being such a big school.

I did quite well and the instructor was happy with my progress.  Both he and my friend remarked, that for a first timer I was doing quite well.  This encouraged me to be ambitious and try the real hill, not just the bunny hills.  Here I started quite well, although I must admit that I never mastered really the turning technique, so instead of criss-crossing slowly down the hill, as one is supposed to do, I just went down straight.  This obviously makes you go down faster, and the incline is steeper.  It was quite fun, and up to this point my skiing technique was described as ‘pro’ by my friend.

Halfway through my descent, though, when I started accelerating a bit too much, I realized that another thing I hadn’t mastered so well, was slowing down.  I tried to position my feet in the way I was told, but it didn’t really work and I started panicking.  The next thing I know is that I’m flying in mid-air.  To be fair the whole experience was quite exhilarating.  In my life I flew a number of times, and most of the times I fell on hard surfaces.  Falling on the fresh and soft snow was quite comforting. 

Obviously I’m not saying that one should fall as much as possible on snow.  I was lucky that there was a heavy snowfall, and that the snow hadn’t been tread upon that much.  Otherwise the story would have been completely different.  I might have needed to use my medical insurance for the first time here in the US.  So although the falling bit was also very nice, it is not advisable in most circumstances.

This did not dishearten me, and I did try to go down the hill a number of times more.  I was improving, but I did fall a good number of times too.  The worst thing about falling was that every time I fell, my boots would snap out of the skis.  This in itself is a good thing, and is a safety precaution, because ifd it doesn’t snap out, your ankle might snap.  The bad thing is, that if this happens to you in the middle of the slope, putting your boot back into the ski is not that easy.  You have to battle with the slope to avoid sliding down, and you have to make sure that there is no snow in the place where your boot needs to clip on, and trust me there’s snow everywhere.  At one point in time it took me and my friend about half an hour to get my boots back into the ski.

Anyway all in all, it was a great adventure.  I had fun, and now I can cross it off from my bucket list.  Although I intend to attempt skiing other times in the future too.  One thing I didn’t realize whilst on the mountain is how much exercise it involves.  In fact I spent the whole week after I came back sore.  Definitely though, I repeat it was worth it!!

Photos: My friend took a number of photos/video but I haven't seen them yet.

Loyola Blog Post

By the way, did you see this other post for my university blog:
http://blogs.luc.edu/globalambassadors/2013/03/21/746/

Back to writing

Hi everyone!!

Yes, I have totally abandoned my blog, again.  I can’t believe that we’re already in the fourth month of this year.  In a month’s time I will be finishing my penultimate semester here at Loyola.  So now I’m realizing, how close I am to concluding this experience.  Well I’ve still got about 8 months left, but when considering the rate at which I’ve been writing on my blog recently, this might be very close to the last of the Chicago diaries.  Well I hope not, and now that the days are becoming longer I will make it a point to at least drop a line or two, every now and then.  I haven’t been good at keeping my promises in the past, will see what happens…..  

Anyway, I haven’t been writing much, but that doesn’t mean that I stopped doing interesting stuff.  Actually so many things happened that I don’t even know where to start from.  I think one of the most interesting happenings was the election of the new pope, but everyone knows about that.  Back home a new government has been elected too.  We will however have to wait for a few more months to better understand what effect these two new governments will have. 

But, to more recent news.  North Korea it seems, is threatening to attack South Korea and the US.  For the first time in my life, I’m living in a country which has been seriously threatened with not only war but a nuclear war.  Here people are going on, as if nothing happened.  Its business usual, probably because the North Korean missiles can’t fly all the way to the American mainland.  The biggest threat is for the American islands in the Pacific.  Still, this is another first for me, a first which is not that much to be proud of.   Let’s hope that all the issues get resolved peacefully as soon as possible.

In the meantime, this week I shall be posting some other posts to get you up to speed to what I’ve been doing lately.