The first three days of orientation have been fairly exhausting. On Monday we all moved into our aparment, which is huge. There are 7 of us living in a building called the Boulevard which is in Hyde Park. After getting mostly settled into the apartment we headed to the Chicago Center for a brief orientation and introduction to the staff, then supper at a great pizza place and the we went Ice Skating.
Yesterday we did walking excursions with a partner which helped us to get more acquainted with certain portions of Hyde Park. It was really interesting to get a chance to interact with some of the people and the organizations and businesses of the area. Last night we had our first seminar with Arvis which is something I am really looking forward to. Arvis has an incredibly amount of life history to share and he is not afraid to address a situation as it really is while still having a sense of humor. Today we did a walking tour of some of the downtown district and went to the Chicago Board of Trade this morning. For those of you have played the card came of Pit, it makes much more sense after seeing the opening of the market and watching an actually trading Pit. I wish I could share pictures with you but unfortunately cameras were not allowed. After the Chicago Board of Trade we wandered around with Scott, one of the Chicago Center staff, to look at the architure of the downtown district. After living in a semi-rural area for most of my life, being around all of the tall buildings was a bit overwhelming and at the same time really impressive. The attention to detail and decoration that went into the outside of some the older buildings is impressive. After downtown we went to the Chicago Art Institute. We only had a short time so I mostly wandered around aimlessly looking at things.
It was interesting to look at some of the older displays of things that were never intended to be in a case in a musuem but rather were made to be used in some way. Living in a era when everything is seemingly disposable, it is thought-provoking to see the attention to detail that people once payed when making simple things like plates and water jugs. Even the items that were made for a variety of religious practices had meaning or served a puropse. I also had a chance to wander through the Indian and African art display. This was intriguing because once again these were things that were never intended to be on display but rather served a purpose, practical or ceremonial, and yet much of the purpose and meaning behind the things that we now call "art" is more or less lost. There is part of me that wonders in a couple of centuries, when future generations look back, what they will look at as these things in musuem. What are the things in our world today that have these meaning and purposes? Is it cell phones and iPods or will there be something that holds a deeper meaning that will be left behind by my generation?
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