God bless ya !!!

Sunday 29 June 2008

Today we visited an African American church to attend the mass. This visit is part of " Religion in American 2: African Evengalical Tradition" . The church is huge and modern . The mass was also modern! with music and dancing !! it is Afrecanized Christianity!!! we also had the chance to see the baptism of new Christians on a high stage.

Later we went to Michigan Avenue for window shopping and came back to the dorm empty handed!!!

Celebrating the 4th July before the beginning of July!!

Saturday 28June 2008

Today we went to Homer Glen, a village in the suburb of Chicago to participate in the Parade. The residence of this village started this celebration few years ago for kids.

The landscape is magnificent . All you can see is the endless farms , lakes and big country houses.We rode on a wagon pulled by a tractor , just like cattle!!! with a big poster of " Teachers of the World". It was a great experience!! It was nice to see all these happy kids waving to us and greeting us and waiting for their share of candies which were distributed by participants.

Fancy old cars and floats marched in the parade on the main street. Children and their parents stand on both sides waving with their flags and bags receiving candy from participants . It is like "Gergaoon" in Bahrain.
After the parade we visited Lockport Township High School in the same village. It is a big school with well-equipped classrooms , big gym, swimming pool, running court and a golf court!! It looked like a sports club !!
Later we were invited by the Vogelsanger( Dale & Kim) to have lunch in their beautiful house. We had the lunch in their lovely garden and some of the participants swam in the swimming pool. we had a great time with these nice hospitable people and their friends. The weather was sunny , but this didn't last long, a storm started and heavy rain poured! we all hid under the polythene cover that was put in the garden, as they know their weather well!!!! Few minutes later everything was normal.
Later we had a tour of the house ( a lovely cozy house) and took a group picture in the garden.

Racism & feminenism

Friday 27 June 2008

Today 's morning session was about racism " U.S Supreme Court , Race & Equality" presented by Stan.
The afternoon session was about " American woman's History: A survey to 1980" by Shultheiss. It was about American women liberation movements.

After the session , Nasser, our Jordanian colleague took us with his American Palestinian friend Ali to AlAqsa Supermarket in Bridgeview, one hour drive from the dorm, and we bought many Arab food there and had a delicious Shawarma for the first time since I arrived in Chicago!!!!!

In the evening most of the participants went to the Blues Tour in " Buddy Guys Restaurant" because Chicago was the birthplace of the Blues music. As for me I didn't go and went to bed early. I had a nice sleep!!

Literature, Teaching, Books & Art

Thursday 26 June 2008

Today we did many things. In the morning we studied "Twentieth Century Literature of Urban Life" presented by Messenger. The topic was examined in two novels: "Sisiter Carrie" by Dreiser and "Ragtime" by Doctrow.

In the afternoon we had an optional seminar on " Teaching Methodologies" presented by Marine Ramlen from The Tutorium in Intensive English Department. Participants were provided with useful websites snd free text books and teaching resources. The seminar was mainly groups discussion of questions related to teaching methodologies and then a whole class discussion.

At 4.p.m we went to the " Book Tour", Neil was our guide. We could manage to go to one bookshop which was huge and had thousands of interesting books. I could find 3 interesting books. Later. the group was divided into two smaller groups: one went to another bookshop and another went to Chicago Institue of Art.I was among the one who went to the Art Institue. It is a 3 level huge building with hundreds of showrooms hosting hundreds of pieces of Arts. I left at 9 .p.m alone because in this huge place it was impossible to meet anyone from the group.

Boat Tour

Wednesday 25 June 2008

The morning session was about " The American Constitution" by Capers. the discussion was very interesting !!! What was more interesting was the Architecture Boat Tour. While waiting for the tour, we explored the area..it is a jungle of high buildings. One of them was the Chicago Tribune !! lovely architecture!! We had a nice tour in the boat of all the buildings on the banks of Chicago River.
After the tour , some of the participants went with Neil to an old traditional restaurant & bar " The Belly Goats" . The rest, including me, went to Michigan Avenue for shopping!!!

Great Woman

Tuesday 24 June 2008

Today we had a tour of Jane Adams Hull House Museum. A film was played about the establishment of the Hull House as a settlement in 1889. She is the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel peace Prize( for more information you can visit this site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Addams). The tour was followed with a discussion and a nice organic soup festival!!!! After the green cold soup we had our main course " The American Revolution" by Capers !!! a big dish that was very hard to digest !!

colonization and slavery in USA

Mon 23 June 2008

Our morning session was about Columbus " History of Intersections contact: The First Encounter" presented by Stan and Peter. The document written by Columbus to the queen of Spain describing the American content and Indians was really interesting!
The afternoon was about " Literature of Slavery & Freedom" presented by messenger and Stan with the focus on Fredrick Douglas( African American) novel " Narrative"

Today we received our allowances. All were happily rushed to the bank to deposit the checks.

God bless you!!

Sunday 22 June 2008

Today we visited a white American Church as part of " Religion in America1: American Protestaism" session- another visit to an African American church will take place later-( as if the only religion in America is Christianity!!!!)

The church was in Michigan Avenue ( The main Shopping area). The only thing that was good was the building ! The mass was dull-the preacher was repeating herself ( God loves children, we must love children because God loves children) !!!!! anyways I left earlier than the others and had a look at the architecture of the church from outside.

Later we visited Hankock Tower, a high skyscraper with an observatory on the 96 floor!!!! In the elevator you feel dizzy and your ears closes because of the pressure !! What if something happens to the elevator!!!?? we all will be Kabab!! However the scene from the observatory was breath taking!!! A great panorama of Chicago , the roads and cars looked tiny and the gigantic surrounding gigantic buildings looked small!!! the lovely blue Michigan Lake surface with white sails of hundreds of boats !!! lovely scene!!! We took some pictures and left.

Well, we went to the main street to explore the area. There were many big shops , we stayed there for a while window shopping and later left to the dorm.

No weekend!!!

Saturday 21 June 2008

Today we went on a guided tour titled" Chicago's labor Trail" . Our guide was Jeff Helgeson, a historian of race and labor in 20th century Chicago.. He took us to the labor neighborhood to understand Chicago's history as an Urban-industrial center for the US.The visit included "The Electric Labor Union". The inside walls of the building were richly painted with scenery of labor and their movements in forming unions. we also stopped at gigantic Murals ( Large pictures of labor ) that were painted on the walls of the neighborhood. They were really fascinating . After that we visited the AMY ( The American Christian youth ) building and later the " South Side community Art Center" which is a center for African American artists. There was an art gallery and photos gallery. The visit ended with a visit of the "Hay Market" monument, which
commemorates the protest of the labor against the government. We couldn't get off the bus because of the rain!!
Chicago is a strange city!The weather is unexpected. It pours with rain then the sun shines and then it rains !!!

The Americans are getting crazy about the Election

Friday 20 June2008

Today the topics of the sessions are not so interesting to me!!! The morning one was about " American Economy, American Business" presented by Eric and the afternoon one was about " The 2008 Election: Institutions, Ideology, Interest Groups" presented by Stan!!! To my bad luck, I am here at the period of the election with all this fuss about it!! I am not at all interested in any election anywhere in the world!! because to me all presidents are the same, the only difference is their appearances and names!!! will the results make any difference to us Arabs and Muslims??? the answer is NO!! nothing new!!

After these two long sessions the participants decided to have dinner in an Italian restaurant. I was exhausted and didn't want to go because of the food ( you know the meat is not Halal) instead I took a novel and went to a nearby park and read few chapters. When it got dark I came back to the dorm, prayed and had dinner and slept at 9.30. I had a nice sleep because since arriving to Chicago I couldn't get enough sleep!!

Group dinner

Thursday 19 June

The morning session as usual started at 9.a.m and the topic was " American Literature and the Ideas of America" presented by Messenger. It was a nice one because it has a link with the previous sessions.

We usually have a lunch break which last for one hour ( from 12.30-1.30) I tried to have lunch in the the restaurant which is below our class building but the food was terrible !! I wonder how Americans enjoy eating such food!!!

The afternoon one (which started at 1.30 p.m ) dealt with the topic " American Dream as Symbol, myth and Historical Event" ,presented by both Messenger & Peter . The topic was interesting but all the participants were dozing ( I am one of them because I am used to take a nap in the afternoon) the afternoon!!!

In the evening all the participants had dinner in the reading room that was locked for the SUSI course only. Everyone brought his/her dinner and some of them offered stuff from their countries and had dinner and of course took photos!! We had fun eating and talking about our countries!!

I wish you a nice summer Vacation

At last teachers !! summer vacation is tomorrow.
I wish you have fun and enjoy it after this long academic year. You did well and worked hard so you really deserve it!!!

My favourite topic : Politics!!!!

Wednesday 18 June

In the morning , at 9.30 a.m. all participants went downtown Chicago to meet an attorney: Gary Isaac, at Mayer Brown Office in a very high skyscraper. The conference room was on the 32 floor in Hyatt Building. Gary and two of his colleagues has been working on a campaign to give the Guantanamo Bay detainee the right for trial. The talk was followed by a discussion. I was the first to talk about the negative influence of this prison on the reputation of the US in our region. The discussion went on and it was mostly from Arab participants who were questioning the US government's foreign policy towards the Arab-Israeli conflict and some other related issues. It was a great discussion!! I wish it lasted longer! there were many issues to be raised......Others should hear our voice ..right !

In the afternoon, we had a session at 2.15 p.m on " Industrialism, Capitalism and Expansion" by Eric. It was mainly a political discussion with the focus on the American election and American policy. I didn't participate although many of what had been discussed was motivating and I had a lot to say but I decided to be a listener this time and wanted to hear from others !!! This was followed by a presentation by Eric about WW2 and the role of the US in that war!!!

Getting serious!!!

Tuesday 17 June

Today is the first day of the course. We had two sessions. The morning one started at 9 a.m and ended at 12.30p.m. The topic was about " Values, beliefs,Artifacts & Acts" presented by Peter. The afternoon session started at 1.30 p.m and ended at 3.30.a.m. The topic was "Fundamentals of American Political philosophy " presented by Stan. The two sessions were very interesting and raised many critical ideas to reflect on!!!

At 4.p.m Neil took us to the University library . Two librarians showed us around and explained to us how to use the computer and library Resources . Here I am after the tour posting on my blog before I go to my room and have a nice shower, pray and sleep.

University ID, Bank account, Instructors introduction & Group photo

Monday 16

I slept well last night alhamdullelah. Today morning, we all went to the University to issue an Id with Neil and Emmy. Then, when the cards were ready, we went to the bank to open an account. This process took longer than I expected!! Later we all met at 1.30 p.m. for a meeting with the instructors who will be leading the sessions for the next coming days. Peter, Eric and Stan, talked about the syllabus and what is expected from the participants. We were showered with more reading materials and a book to add to the pile of books and materials that were nicely put on my bed when I arrived!!! I hope I could read them all!!

In the afternoon, all participants and instructors took a group photo.

University of Illinois Neighborhood Tour

Sunday 15

I couldn’t sleep at night because the resident in the room on top was having a party (loud music and banging on the floor) until 2 a.m. I hardly could sleep then I woke up for Fajer prayer at 4 a.m. and couldn’t go to sleep again! I was awake until 7.a.m when finally I slept, I heard a strong sound! It was heavy rain and hailstones!!! It lasted for more than two hours and I thought today’s tour to the University of Illinois neighborhood will be canceled because of this bad weather! Surprisingly, when I got ready at 9.30 a.m. and went downstairs to the lobby where we should all meet, participants started to gather. Later, Eric and Neil arrived! Peter started with a talk about the history of the city of Chicago until the rain stopped and then we headed to the tour which lasted for about 3 hours.

The university is too big (the size of Hamad Town)! It also contains ethnic villages like the Italian, polish, Greek and Mexican!!!

After that we went to Downtown Chicago (The Center) and Peter talked about the history of the development of the area where the first American skyscraper was built!!

In the afternoon, we were free to have lunch and go to the lake of Michigan and the Millennium Park. The lake was magnificent with the view of the nearby skyscrapers and the boats. I saw this lovely view from the plane when we reached Chicago!!! I will try to post the photos when I have time.

End of Torture... Beginning of Fun

At last the torture of being locked in a small seat in a flying box is over!!! It took me 22 hours to reach Chicago! I was in Bahrain Airport on Thursday at 10.30p.m. The plane departed at 1.20 a.m. It arrived at Frankfurt Airport on Friday morning at 7.45 a.m. I had to wait for two hours to board the plane to Chicago. It departed at 10.45 a.m and arrived at 6.45 p.m Bahrain time ( 13.45 Chicago time)...... so I left Bahrain on Thursday and arrived to the US on Friday !!! Today is my second day and I still feel exhausted because I didn't get enough sleep. Guess what? I had a very nice company on the plane, the passenger next to me on the plane slept immediately when the plane departed and started his symphony of snoring!! imagine the situation , to be locked in a place that you can't leave for 8 hours and forced to listen to this live concert ! it was a real torture!!! I am sure God will reward me for being very patient !!

Today morning we had an orientation session at 9 a.m. Eric and Neil gave the participants a detailed information about the whole programme. Particients introduced themselves and then we had to fill in some forms ( we also had a nice breakfast). It ended at 13 p.m ! I immediately headed to my room, prayed and went to bed. I had a nice nap !!!

In the afternoon the participants had a dinner at Chicago Fire House Restaurant . The food was great and we had a great time chatting and listening to talks by University of Illinois instructors who will lead the coming sessions ! the programme seems very interesting , I wish you were all here !!

Salam

Dear Friends and colleagues....

It will be nice to keep in touch with you on my blog so don't hesitste to drop me a line