[Orientation] Where I'm From

 Hello There!

    This is a blog for GCE Lab school, and I will post all future action projects here. Let's start with the elephant in the room, Covid 19. School is very different now as it's online. I'm feeling pretty ready for this as I've been preparing all summer.

    This first blog is about where I am from. I think that is pretty self explanatory. I am from Avondale, which is a neighborhood in Chicago. I often see houses that look like they have been here a long time. They are often made out of pale, faded brick, which is one of the ways you can tell that it has been here a long time. A downside of growing up in the city is that it's never completely quiet, especially when you need it to be. Often, a car alarm or some other loud noise will just go off at the exact wrong moment. I have nine pets total: six chickens, two cats, and a rabbit. This means that my house always smells like animals. They are also often very loud. There is also a lot of construction around. Unfortunately, they always seem to focus on the wrong things. For example, when you feel the sidewalk beneath your feet, it always feels out of place and as if it hasn't been repaired for decades. But then, they do the same section of street for the nth time. 

    The neighborhood, at least from what I have seen, is predominantly Hispanic/Latino, so there are a lot of really good places to get tacos, so we often eat them. They always taste really good. My favorite is al pastor, which is a really nicely seasoned pork. I moved here almost eight years ago, and this is really the first place that felt like home because before I was here, I moved around a lot. One really important thing that happened all over Chicago was the Chicago Teacher's Union striking. When I was at home because of the strike, I remember a lot of protesters around and in my neighborhood. 

    A funny thing is, I am my own map twin. A map twin is a person on the opposite side of the city as you. My mom's house, which I have chosen to talk about in this post is at (Fake address for privacy) 3800 N, and my dad's is (again fake address) 3800 S. This means that I know a lot about my map twin's house, because I've been going there all my life. The Emerald Palace, as we call it, is a really fun place because they have a huge garden and it used to be a school uniform store. This means that it wasn’t created for living, and there are a bunch of features that are really interesting. 

Looking back, it seems I've named a lot of negatives, but below is a poem that really represents how I feel about Chicago and my neighborhood

by Carl Sandburg. It is called, simply, "Chicago."

Hog Butcher for the World,

   Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,

   Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;

   Stormy, husky, brawling,

   City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.

And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.

And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.

And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:

Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.

Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;

Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness,

   Bareheaded,

   Shoveling,

   Wrecking,

   Planning,

   Building, breaking, rebuilding,

Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,

Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,

Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,

Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people,

                   Laughing!

Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

This has been my first blog about Where I'm From.

Bye