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!!