Tales from the Second City. Episode 1: Getting my bearings.

Welcome back from the dead, blog. It's nice to see you after another healthy and fun summer break full of baseball (more played than watched), bikes, working, the outdoors, friends, and a trip back to Victoria (which was much needed). I'll not bore you with the details, but merely dive headlong into the next chapter of my life: Graduate School in Chicago.

I have been here for a little over a week, so we're going to keep things basic.

1. I live and study in Hyde Park, an older area in town which is quite charming and quiet, but generally slandered as a bad neighborhood by outsiders, most likely because minus the students it's a black neighborhood. That took some getting used to at first, but within a few days it felt perfectly normal. Another slow death for the suburbanite in me. My apartment is near the corner of Hyde Park Boulevard and Dorchester Ave. It's a 6-storey building, probably 60 or more years old and situated between a set of row houses. I live in a studio at the back corner of the fifth floor, which gives me (and my recently purchased basil plant) a good chunk of afternoon sun. I have a skinny kitchen and a full bath. It's overall a very quiet little home except for on days like this morning when the garbage trucks come by at 6 am to empty the dumpsters that are situated beneath my 5th-floor window.

2. The University of Chicago campus is, as I described to Abbe, as if they tried to build an ivy-league school so that the midwesterners didn't feel left out. I mean, this is more old-style collegy than anything else I've ever seen. Neo-gothic is the prevailing architectural style, though the odd post-war modern buildings and more recent constructions can be found (there's also a Frank Lloyd Wright house on campus).

3. The neighborhood has plenty of amenities as far as I have been able to discover. There is a surprisingly good farmer's market a block from my house where I was able to procure some very good bread, the aforementioned basil plant, various veggies and my much coveted honey crisp apples. There is no shortage of cafes and coffee shops, two rather dive-ish (but in a pleasant way) bars, a co-op that is unlike any other food co-op i've seen (in that they sell many brands that would be labeled unethical in some circles), a beach, the Museum of Science and Industry, and a bike shop that teaches the local youths how to service and build bikes. There is also a blues club down the street from my house which I've yet to check out, but will soon.

4. I cannot say much for my classes as they have not started yet. I am in three this quarter: Social Science Analysis (a core course for our program), Historical Methods (a re-hash and expansion of my history honours course from UVic), and a seminar in Soviet history (read: Stalinism) which is being taught by the professor with whom I would like to do my thesis. Comments on classes will be forthcoming.

5. I have met some very nice people in the week or so that I've been here. Met a guy from Staples, MN; another historian/musician from Austin, TX; two gals from the Sioux Falls, SD region; a Madisonite; and a couple west-coasters. All in all a pretty unique mix of historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and psychologists. Not that they would all necessarily use those specific titles. I met a gal from near Philly (a Phillie from Philly...oh dear) who said she wasn't even sure if she wanted to do social sciences after this program. It's all pretty fluid here.

6. I have been listening to the Cubs radio broadcasts on WGN and that has been really great to transition from a once-great, but now floundering ballclub to a chronically inept, but now thriving ballclub. Hooray cubbies! Hooray Jacque Jones!

Anyway, I should go do some reading before my first class. I've already subjected myself to the intellectual hammer over the head that is Karl Marx. Yeesh. It's gonna be a looooong 9 months. See you all next week...with pictures!!!