Sunday March 15 2009

Today was our relaxing day after 13 HOURS in the car yesterday. We did a lot of sight-seeing. A favorite was the big bean, where multiple people hit their heads due to reflection confusion. Last night we went to Giordano's for deep dish pizza and it was delicious. I think we all gained about five pounds--but it's ok; we walked it off today. After we saw the big bean we walked to Navy Pier. A few brave souls conquered the huge ferris wheel. The rest enjoyed walking along the pier, people watching, eating our home-made lunches, and admiring the stain glass window exhibit. We'll post pictures later.

   After Navy Pier, we walked to the "Magnificent Mile," which is a stretch of Michigan Ave filled with stores too expensive for our empty college pockets (we'll need to factor that into the budget next year). If you're in for a head rush, Saks Fifth Avenue has an express elevator that travels at like 100 miles an hour (yes we're exaggerating, but it was really fast). And if you love chocolate, there's a Hershey's store right across from a Ghirardelli store. If you don't get overwhelmed easily, most of the stores have multiple floors and excess of everything. There's even an apple store with multiple floors AND a built-in theater on the second floor.

   While we were walking back to our hostel (Hosteling International if you want to look it up), we passed by several homeless people begging for spare change. It felt really awkward walking past these people, in the midst of all the glamorous shops, and not helping them--especially when we came here to help the hungry. Hopefully by the end of this week we will learn more about the issue of hunger and the work we do this week will have some impact on the community. We hope to take what we do here and apply it in a greater context both at home and wherever we end up in the future.